13 Lines Not for Fishing
1. Seeing poets Bruce Weigl and Claudia Emerson together at the VMI Poetry Symposium last weekend was as cool as seeing James Taylor and Carole King together in concert back in the 70’s.
2. Over the two-day symposium weekend there was a humorous discussion between Mara and me about the difference between pulpit and podium. The subject of punctuation and poetry also surfaced and took the form of a heated debate after Claudia Emerson spoke of the importance of it in her keynote address.
3. But William Carlos Williams, who Claudia mentioned in her address, often didn’t use punctuation, and Emily Dickinson, who Claudia named as one of her poet heroes, used liberal dashes of various sizes dashes, some of which editors took out after she died when they were adding punctuation. 
4. As one who doesn’t use much punctuation in my poetry I’m a minority in the crowd, riding in the back of the bus: And in the end I’m like Rosa Parks … I don’t want to get up and go where I’m told … I work just as hard as any other poet … and I write from where I sit. More HERE.
5. How gullible are you? A test guaranteed to make you laugh HERE.
6. After Bruce Weigl’s and (Pulitzer Prize winning poet) Claudia Emerson’s readings and during the question and answer period, a student referred to Bruce as famous, to which Bruce quickly responded, saying that he was not famous, expect for high school, where he was famous for some things he did in sports.
7. I’ve been having a hard time reading the notes I took at the symposium, but I was able to make out this, said by Weigl about the Iraq War: “Sacrifice and slaughter are not the same thing.” He also said this about his Vietnam War service: “The war made me stupid and only good enough to clean windows.”
8. I love that Claudia openly admits that she was a hippie living out the country with woodstove heating and no electricity. Her current husband is a long haired musician who reminds me of David Crosby and looks like he’d fit well in Floyd, which is Mara’s and my latest fantasy (after the one about Sy Safransky, editor of The Sun Magazine, falling in love with Mara).
9. Last year at Floyd Fest, we drove to and from THIS poetry performance in what we were calling the poetry bus (see above photo).
10. The one driving the poetry bus gets to decide if poetry should be punctuated or not.
11. Most interesting keyword search at Loose Leaf Notes this week that made me wonder what the searcher was thinking and which of the two words they really meant when they misspelled: “how to get a “viginia” loose.”
12. A poem I wrote about fishing, posted here just so the title makes sense: Poems so short … I throw them back … but they nibble again … to break my heart … “There’s other fish in the sea” I tell them.
13. Someone once asked me to write a poem about a button. This is my button poem, always a good poem to close a reading or a 13 Thursday list with: I should know by now … how to button my lip … just go zip … and close it.
Thirteen Thursday headquarters is here. My other 13’s are here. View more 13 Thursday’s here.
April 10th, 2008 12:25 am
Great post, seeing as it’s Poetry Month. I posted a few poems on last week’s T13. Drop by if you want to take a look. Happy T13!
April 10th, 2008 1:56 am
The most entertaining TT this week!
April 10th, 2008 7:49 am
My gullibility rating re hand-Solo = pretty good…I didn’t think it an actual product (yet) for very long. It had me shaking my head at where we’ve gotten to and where we might be going.
April 10th, 2008 8:52 am
I love that button poem! Me too! Can’t shut my trap!
April 10th, 2008 9:02 am
Love the new phone! I cannot believe they took out Emily’s dashes posthumously. It sounds like y’all had a great time at the poetry gig, great 13!
April 10th, 2008 10:00 am
They put some of them back later, the article I linked to said. But I don’t know how much punctuation they added. I would love to see some of her original handwritten poems in her hand sewn booklets.
April 10th, 2008 10:16 am
You must of had the best time at the poetry fest……..every day there is a new post. I wish I could have gone with you. xo
April 10th, 2008 10:38 am
But YOU got to hear James Taylor and Carole King with me, didn’t you?
April 10th, 2008 11:24 am
I think there was a poem by William Carlos Williams in Yankee Magazine that I LOVED…something about a wind blowing in a bedroom window, white curtains…
April 10th, 2008 12:12 pm
You have an amazing mind….I loved the snippets of the fishing poem and the button. Truly classic….with punctions or dashes.
April 10th, 2008 3:07 pm
Yes I did hear James Taylor and Carol King with you. It was a great concert as all the concerts we went to. xo
April 10th, 2008 6:38 pm
What an intriguing and ecclectic TT! Love the button poem.
April 10th, 2008 7:28 pm
When I grow up, I want to be a poet in Floyd. But I don’t plan on growing up. Perhaps I’ll just write a doublet and stay two nights.
April 10th, 2008 8:17 pm
miss poet… a fun 13! and search terms crack me up…. i’v had such interesting ones, and some that i KNOW didn’t find what they were looking for. one that happens almost daily is ‘dirty country girls’.
and i have to say, when my sis and i were sitting in cafe del so, ooohing and ahhhing over your poetry book, i couldn’t help but feel a little proud that i KNEW you! 🙂
April 10th, 2008 8:18 pm
haha! i saw that you left a comment on my blog as i was just leaving one.
April 10th, 2008 8:21 pm
And Joe was in the other room studying and asked, Is that “Sufjan Stevens singing?”
April 11th, 2008 1:48 am
I try to be as clear as I can. If that means extra dashes, then I’ll use extra dashes.
April 12th, 2008 2:12 pm
It can be hard to get ones head around all the learnings from a symposium right away. It perks thru slowly.
April 16th, 2008 2:00 pm
Hand Solo! Funny!
Sounds like the symposium was a hoot.
~S