Notes

What Really Matters

1/12/2025

Relaxing in the garden loch.
Landlocked between the porcelain.
I sing the songs I know so well.
I rip and discard the sheet music
and splash and stretch my calves,
their contour pleases me so.
and it is me who matters most.

You may look at the symmetry,
the sensuality, may even enjoy the view.
Just remember Sylvia Plath once said,
"Opinions are like orgasms,
everybody has them,
mine matters most,
and I don't really care
if you have one."

Michael Allyn Wells © 2025

0 Comments

In Praise of Safe

12/11/2024

0 Comments

Safety pins, a safety belt, a safety talk you don't want to have. Safety lights, safety rules, safety shoes, walking a safety line. Safe habits, safe zone, safe sex, safe sex in a safe zone. Safer internet, safety cap, and safety vest. Safety first, safe poems that don't make you cry or sad.

0 Comments

Social Media - BlueSky preferred

11/22/2024

0 Comments

You may have noticed ment on the opening page a statement about my new prefered social media destination. - I have decided not to be a part of the toxic Elon Musk site which shall remain nameless. He ran Twitter into the ground after he acquired it and has continued week after week to promote his own self-sentered adjenda therein.

He is losing people to BlueSky like a milk carton with a whole in it. Pretty soon there will be nothing but caustic material and lies there.

I can tell you that many in the arts commuity and poets in particular have made the switch creating a thriving community and growing community. If you haven't tried it I recommend it. And look me up too. @stickpoet.bsky.social

#bluesky

0 Comments

Has A Poem Changed Your Life?

8/24/2024

0 Comments

Not everyone is keen on poetry and I realized that almost as far back as I became aware of poetry. I guess when I first learned of it realizing what it was, I would hear people from time to time dismissing it as boring, or irrelevant, or too hard to understand was maybe the most common.

Obviously over the years none of this dissuaded me. I crossed over the bridge from being a reader to being a poet as well as a reader myself. So this weekend I was sitting here with things flowing through my head as the tend to do on weekends, and I wondered how many could say that they have read a poem that truly changed their life. If that is the case for you, I'd love to hear about it. What the the poem and how did it change your life?

Since most of my readers are poets themselves, My second question is, have any of you written a poem that changed your life? This could be changing your attitude of life in such a way to modify your life in some way. I suppose it could be a poem you wrote that won a prize and how that might have impacted you.

Anyway, don't be shy. Le's give it up for poetry-- What's the poem that made a difference to you. Even if it was one of your own poems.

#poemschangelives #lifechangingpoems #poetry

0 Comments

Simplicity & Depth

6/23/2024

0 Comments

How can anyone NOT be inspired by Neruda? I am always astounded by the simplicity of his language and the depth of feeling his images convey.

Are there other poets who do the same for you? Tell me about them. Let's start a dialogue,

0 Comments

New Poem This Issue of Hellbender Magazine

6/5/2024

0 Comments

My poem “Ode to the How” appears in the latest issue of Hellbender Magazine - a big Thank You to Poetry editors: Pilar Randolph, Winner Olubunmi, Ella Wisniewski as well Editors-in-Chief Kelly Ward and Elise Zukowski. This issue is filled with exceptional curated work.
Page 158 Ode to the How

HELLBENDER MAGAZINE <== Magazine linked just click

0 Comments

AWP24 - KCMO - As I Experienced It

2/12/2024

0 Comments

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

0 Comments

<<Previous

poet notes

What Really Matters

In Praise of Safe

Social Media - BlueSky preferred

Has A Poem Changed Your Life?

Simplicity & Depth

New Poem This Issue of Hellbender Magazine

AWP24 - KCMO - As I Experienced It

Author

Archives