<![CDATA[Michael Allyn Wells - Poet Home Website

<![CDATA[Michael Allyn Wells - Poet Home Website - Poet Notes]]>Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:19:29 -0600Weebly<![CDATA[AWP24 - KCMO - As I Experienced It]]>Mon, 12 Feb 2024 18:12:25 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/awp24-kcmo-as-i-experienced-it

2024 AWP Conference review
Tie for best thrown together display on Bookfair tables,
Homemade sign for a Lit Journal table that read, “Most of our poets are not dead.”
Another was a table in which the cloth covering was anchored down by two 5 lbs bags of C&H Sugar, primpting me to ask, “Why graze from table to table on the free candy, when you can just infuse 5 lbs of sugar here?”
Other fun stuff- a metal box with window, random word magnets -complete your best poem in 6 to 8 words. They you have them framed in a little framed window box.
Keynote address by poet Jericho Brown was awesome. He was funny, charming, and raged against the danger and stupidity of book banning.
Biggest downfall of conference - no bags at registration, no program books. Signage about the convention center was poor/lacking which was exacerbated by not having the program books this year.
Persons I missed seeing Mary Biddinger, who was in attendance but elusive, Susan Rich, also present but I missed. Kelli Russell Agodon, who cancelled at last minute, Katie Manning, who I missed to see a competing poetry reading and now wish I had gone to the one she was having. Amy Leigh Davis, who I heard was coming but I did not see, and a host of others that I often get to see only at conference.
It was especilly nice run into Erin Schaaf Robertson, another alumnus if the Spring 2017 Writer to Writter Session and catch up on her work.
A mammoth thank you to Peace Keenen for all her work on the Writer 2 Writer Conference reading.
New poet’s work I was introduced to: Elise Paschen. Her words rang with a cadence that not only touches you, but clings with you long afterwords. I hope to see much more of her in the future.
Overall, the conference was positive, though it did feel a lot different than in the past. Maybe some of that was that I was in my home turf. Hard to put my finger on it for sure.
#AWP24. #AWPKC]]><![CDATA[Submissions - January 2024]]>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:57:14 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/submissions-january-2024Today got a rejection letter. Ho-hum. I turned around and sent 3 more pieces out. I think that's how this is supposed to work.

In other news, the weather has sucked here the past three days. Cold and Snow. Supposed to get colder tonight.

#submissions #poetry
]]><![CDATA[IF YOU ARE COMING TO KC FOR AWP24]]>Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:37:54 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/if-you-are-coming-to-kc-for-awp24

The main branch of the Kansas City Public Library might be a place to stop by. This is the Parking garage. The library itself is a gorgeous building. This is in the Down Town area and not far from the Convention center.

I will be posting other attractions over the next few days.

#AWP24 #KansasCity #ComeSeeUs

]]><![CDATA[Be Kind to Those Who Are Down— SAD (Blue Days Are For Real)]]>Tue, 07 Nov 2023 21:07:05 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/-be-kind-to-those-who-are-down-sad-blue-days-are-for-realThis is the autumn that forebodes the winter which will surely bring cold nights and days of treacherous winter driving.

The multi colors in yards and hanging preciously from trees will give way and at some point, snow will fully usher in winter. Already the mornings are lighter, and dark become my journey home.

This is the time of introversion — not just being alone, but solace.

By winter the quiet will remind me just how along I am most of the time. Snow can be so beautiful but so stark at the same time.

I like quiet time, but I can get lost in too much of it. My heart and my soul ache at such times. The quiet I sometimes enjoys turns on me and I feel quite small and inconsequential.

]]><![CDATA[With Some Degree of Lazy Hiatis I'm Back...]]>Sun, 05 Nov 2023 22:48:16 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/with-some-degree-of-lazy-hiatis-im-backSubmitted work today after a bit of a pause. I've still been writing, but I did take a break from The Grind for November. Mostly because I have been working the 9-5 slave of late, new semester in school, and having an over abundance of migraine headaches.

Reading has not helped, the headaches I mean. I am one away from my annual goal of books read and I will update those titles at the end of the year. The big change this year has been more non-poetry titles. Even though my favorite reads are still poetry, memoir, and biography. Go figure.

We've lost too many significant people this year. Poets Louise Gluck, Charles Simic, Milan Kundera. Matthew Perry from friends was a really hard one. David Crosby, Tony Bennett, Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Suzanne Summers, Diane Feinstein Daniel Ellsberg, Bert Bacharach, Raquel Welch, Cindy Williams, and Lisa Marie Presley, Sir Michael Gambon, Brooks Robinson, Vida Blue, Gordon Lightfoot, Wayne Shorter, Traute Lafrenz, and Bobby Hull. Poets, politicians, baseball stars, actors, actresses, musicians, individuals who stood out in times great human strife. I'm sure nor all, and we've got till the end of the year, yet. Perhaps the good Lord above will spare us more losses.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

The only journey is the one within.
Rainer Maria Rilke
#2023 Deaths. #RikeQuote #Update

]]><![CDATA[10 Minute Stream of Consciousness]]>Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:09:58 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/10-minute-stream-of-consciousnessStarted taking the dog out. The rabbits came close to rifeling through the trash. Post man delivered more waste and It will soon be filling up the can. I can't see how this helps the economy. Oh wait, you were talking about the environment. The cones on the street are back. More highway work. More traffic backup. God, I'm hungry for a stake. Did they finally get that old vampire? Drive a stake through the heart.

I'm sure that the baseball season ending will be cause for massive depression. I can't see a way out of it till next spring. I'll have two dips of blackwalnut please. She called me sunshine. That hasn't happened in a while. I mean it's been pretty cloudy since she left.

I'm hopeful that the nation gets itself back together. That will mean we have to get over you know who. I'm so ready to be over him, I can't fathom how much peace we could have if people would let lose of him. His day will come. Not any too soon either. Iit was light out when I last looked outside, Hope it is whne I leave. I'm ready to get out of this place anytime..... The birds, it's all about the birds. They are going places this fall. More cars whitewashed as we drive about]]><![CDATA[New work out...]]>Mon, 21 Aug 2023 21:08:45 GMThttp://michaelwells.ink/poet-notes/new-work-outArt is a documentation of the human experience–of the many moments, mundane and profound, that shape our identity. At the Seraphic Review, we seek to trace back our journey through life and revisit the ethereal.

Two new poems at Seraphic Review

#NewPoems #SeraphicReview

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