Posts
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Moving my Blog
Well guys in a few weeks this blog will be no more...I am moving it to the link above. Check it out! Also vist my site www.poeticentanglement.com for more news.
Peace,
Ivy
Peace,
Ivy
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Beat Generation, and life as a Gen X-er
This weekend my family and I met some friends at the New Hampshire sea-coast to enjoy our yearly pilgrimage to the ocean and eat overpriced seafood. Fun was had by all and sunburns were on the menu for my husband and me. After a few hours of reading and writing on the beach, and combing it for treasure with our youngest girl we had dinner with our friends and visited a little second hand bookstore in Rye, New Hampshire. This is where I found some treasures. While combing through the ninety-nine cent table, thumbing through V.C. Andrews and worn out copies of the best seller lists, I managed to find a book called, Beat Spirit by Mel Ash.
Beat Spirit seems to be a self help book for the aspiring beat within us all. It serves as a guide for those who are interested in the experience of being beat, as well as giving some information on the foundation of the beat movement, all of which interests me. I am working on a thesis for graduate school right now centered on the idea of the performance of self in poetry. This book and my thesis topic has made me start thinking about the cycle of humanity in the generations.
At lunch today while sitting with my kids, husband, and brother-in-law over a sub we discussed the expectations and assumptions made about the generations. My husband and I are both Gen X-er's and between the two of us very nearly bridge the later decade of the generation. My brother-in-law is a generation Y-er, but feels he is closer to the X-er's. After doing a little research, it turns out that my children are considered part of the y-ers and the z-er's (also known as the silent generation). I wonder who comes up with these definitions and why? It's not like people look at the generation you come from in a job interview or when considering dating options. What is the point? But, I digress...I guess what started all of this was the idea that Beat Spirit talks about how every generation has its own set of people who think it can be done better. We aren't talking about the typical concept of the American Dream, what I am referring to is a better quality of life. Doesn't everone want that?
Some people are perfectly happy with a 9-5 job that pays the bills and keeps them in enough money to have a family and go on annual vacations to another section of the country or world. While I am quite the home-body, I still dream of something more. Having enough to live on is great, but I strive to find a way to effect some positive change in my own little section of the world. Even if for no one other than my children, and myself.
So many people are down about the economy and oil prices right now that we all are just searching for a way to make a few extra dollars to heat our house this winter, and I have decided that while heat is important, I can't lose track of my goal to find a way to live and feed my children while making our quality of life just a little better. To find a way to be able to spend time with my husband and get him out of a graveyard shift factory job that he hates, and show my children that sometimes sacrifice of things means a better life and more time to enjoy it.
All of this is to say, life is short ( to sound cheesy) and I don't want to look back and think I missed the point...do you?
Until next time,
Ivy
Beat Spirit seems to be a self help book for the aspiring beat within us all. It serves as a guide for those who are interested in the experience of being beat, as well as giving some information on the foundation of the beat movement, all of which interests me. I am working on a thesis for graduate school right now centered on the idea of the performance of self in poetry. This book and my thesis topic has made me start thinking about the cycle of humanity in the generations.
At lunch today while sitting with my kids, husband, and brother-in-law over a sub we discussed the expectations and assumptions made about the generations. My husband and I are both Gen X-er's and between the two of us very nearly bridge the later decade of the generation. My brother-in-law is a generation Y-er, but feels he is closer to the X-er's. After doing a little research, it turns out that my children are considered part of the y-ers and the z-er's (also known as the silent generation). I wonder who comes up with these definitions and why? It's not like people look at the generation you come from in a job interview or when considering dating options. What is the point? But, I digress...I guess what started all of this was the idea that Beat Spirit talks about how every generation has its own set of people who think it can be done better. We aren't talking about the typical concept of the American Dream, what I am referring to is a better quality of life. Doesn't everone want that?
Some people are perfectly happy with a 9-5 job that pays the bills and keeps them in enough money to have a family and go on annual vacations to another section of the country or world. While I am quite the home-body, I still dream of something more. Having enough to live on is great, but I strive to find a way to effect some positive change in my own little section of the world. Even if for no one other than my children, and myself.
So many people are down about the economy and oil prices right now that we all are just searching for a way to make a few extra dollars to heat our house this winter, and I have decided that while heat is important, I can't lose track of my goal to find a way to live and feed my children while making our quality of life just a little better. To find a way to be able to spend time with my husband and get him out of a graveyard shift factory job that he hates, and show my children that sometimes sacrifice of things means a better life and more time to enjoy it.
All of this is to say, life is short ( to sound cheesy) and I don't want to look back and think I missed the point...do you?
Until next time,
Ivy
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Crawling out of the cave...
I have been remiss in my postings, and here I am trying to climb out of the cave.
News in the world of Ivy, I landed a job and therefore don't have to stress out too much :) It's pretty cool, I am working at a wide format print shop. The work environs are great, and everyone there has been super nice.
I have received rejections from Underground Voices, Poetry Magazine, and elimae but that is the way of the publishing/poetry world I am told.
As far as my graduate school, the work is rolling right along and I hope to have some new work to put up on my web site by mid-September. I am currently reading Kevin Young's "Jelly Roll", Joseoh Legaspi's "Imago", Louis Gluck's "Meadowland", John Berryman's "The Dream Songs", and last but not least, Olena Kalytiak Davis's "Shattered Sonnets."
Finally, thank you Mike and Stephen of TinCan Web Works for continuing to make my site what I want it to be...as I think of it!
Until next time ( hopefully Sunday next)
Ivy
News in the world of Ivy, I landed a job and therefore don't have to stress out too much :) It's pretty cool, I am working at a wide format print shop. The work environs are great, and everyone there has been super nice.
I have received rejections from Underground Voices, Poetry Magazine, and elimae but that is the way of the publishing/poetry world I am told.
As far as my graduate school, the work is rolling right along and I hope to have some new work to put up on my web site by mid-September. I am currently reading Kevin Young's "Jelly Roll", Joseoh Legaspi's "Imago", Louis Gluck's "Meadowland", John Berryman's "The Dream Songs", and last but not least, Olena Kalytiak Davis's "Shattered Sonnets."
Finally, thank you Mike and Stephen of TinCan Web Works for continuing to make my site what I want it to be...as I think of it!
Until next time ( hopefully Sunday next)
Ivy
Monday, July 21, 2008
A Day Late...
Hi everyone! I am writing a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short. Still on the job hunt, and enjoying it for the most part. Every time I put myself back out in the job market I am reminded of the first time I lived on my own. I worked two to three jobs, and lived in a small apartment in Athens, GA. I remember receiving my first light bill and thinking, "Wow! I can't believe this is it! I work and all of the money I make just goes right back out." How depressing! After a while it seems you just get used to it, and the bills always get paid somehow. It's really not about the job and the bills though, it's about living life and enjoying it, right?
My remedy for the "work, come home, and pay the bills blues" is to write. Just like I am writing now. Just getting something down on paper seems to help, whether it's creative or otherwise. I spoke with a Dr. friend of mine today and he told me that he doesn't know why, but it is helpful for people to write things down, whether it's for diet and exercise or just to keep your head on straight. So, I suppose I am reminding myself as much as my readers to get it out, write it down and never let the humdrum of the daily grind kill your creativity.
Until next week.
Ivy
My remedy for the "work, come home, and pay the bills blues" is to write. Just like I am writing now. Just getting something down on paper seems to help, whether it's creative or otherwise. I spoke with a Dr. friend of mine today and he told me that he doesn't know why, but it is helpful for people to write things down, whether it's for diet and exercise or just to keep your head on straight. So, I suppose I am reminding myself as much as my readers to get it out, write it down and never let the humdrum of the daily grind kill your creativity.
Until next week.
Ivy
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Publishing
I always thought getting published was like being inducted into a mysterious cult. It seems like such a daunting task to put your work out there for others to judge. This is to say, I have been submitting my work to journals. And BIG NEWS!!!! I am getting published in January in Cantaraville Five. It is an online Lit. Journal! While this is not my first publication, it is the first literary journal, outside of my alma mater's literary journal, that I will have my work in. It's funny how sometimes that outside vote of confidence is just what you need.
On the other hand I also submitted poems to the BoxCar Poetry Review, and I am submitting a couple of poems to the New Yorker. I fully expect to get rejection letters from both. I tend to think that way when submitting my work for publication. I guess my reasoning is that if I don't expect to get in to the journal and I don't then I'm not disappointed. Some would consider this a fatalistic attitude, but I believe that it is simply honest.
I just got back from GA two days ago, where I spent a day with my family. I decided it would be a good idea to share my poems that are being published with my mother. And in response to my poems my mother said, "Where are your happy poems? Aren't you ever happy?" It made me laugh. Not an hour later my grandmother (Mema) asked to see my poems, and her response to my mother's comment was "Poems are rarely happy." And the moral to this story is: Trust your voice, and the emotions you put into your work."
Until next week,
Ivy
On the other hand I also submitted poems to the BoxCar Poetry Review, and I am submitting a couple of poems to the New Yorker. I fully expect to get rejection letters from both. I tend to think that way when submitting my work for publication. I guess my reasoning is that if I don't expect to get in to the journal and I don't then I'm not disappointed. Some would consider this a fatalistic attitude, but I believe that it is simply honest.
I just got back from GA two days ago, where I spent a day with my family. I decided it would be a good idea to share my poems that are being published with my mother. And in response to my poems my mother said, "Where are your happy poems? Aren't you ever happy?" It made me laugh. Not an hour later my grandmother (Mema) asked to see my poems, and her response to my mother's comment was "Poems are rarely happy." And the moral to this story is: Trust your voice, and the emotions you put into your work."
Until next week,
Ivy
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