Who wrote the first modern English poem? When – and, indeed, where – was it written? There are numerous candidates, but one could do worse than propose the answer ‘T. E. Hulme, in 1908, on the back of a hotel bill.’
This poem, ‘A City Sunset’, would, along with a handful of others by Hulme, set the blueprint for modern poetry. If we most readily associate ‘modern poetry’ with brevity, precision of language, understatement, unrhymed verse, written about everyday and often very ordinary things, then we owe many of those associations to T. E. Hulme.
Hulme was a larger-than-life figure in virtually every way. Standing at over six feet tall, with a ruddy complexion, a willingness to argue with anyone (or, indeed, to fight them: he once famously boxed with Wyndham Lewis in Soho Square), he hailed from Staffordshire, the county that nearly two centuries before had given the world…
Whether you are a visual artist or a visual artist wannabe or just someone who enjoys “filling space in a beautiful way,” journey over to this Silk – Interactive Generative Art (http://weavesilk.com/). Credit goes to Yuri Vishnevsky for Silk and Mat Jarvis for the accompanying music. The art you created is licensed under Creative Commons. Click this link for a glimpse of my artistic prowess: http://r.weavesilk.com/?v=4&id=ngtarsjse3
So far I have not been able to save my images to my desktop (all I get from saving is a blank document), but hopefully Mr. Vishnevsky will help me sort that out. In the meantime, what are your favorite diversions?
I’d love to read your mini memoirs, and I’m sure my readers would too! If you would like to be a part of the Mini Memoir Monday series, please submit a memoir that’s 500-1500 words. This memoir can be goofy, sad, or just odd. The key to a mini memoir is that you pick a specific moment in time – in other words I don’t want a brief recap of your entire life. I prefer short glimpses into people’s lives; stories that raise more questions than answers.
Forward this to any of your friends who might have good tales :)
If you’d like to submit, fill out this contact form, and in the comment section you can include the attachment.
I’m writing to let all authors, poets, musicians, painters, and any artist types that I forgot!
The Community Storyboard is a new and exciting blog where you can submit your work and have it showcased. You can get important feedback and make friends with other artists. Aside from submissions, we are going to be doing a few prompts and weekly themes that you can use for some spontaneous creations.
We’re all friendly people there and want this to become a blog where all artists can come for support and fun. Being an artist is a tough road, so let’s try to unite and travel down it as a community
Here is the seventh installment of Ten Top Lists of What Not To Do by John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites at http://johnwhowell.com and Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay at http://1writeway.com. These lists are simu-published on our blogs each Monday. We hope you enjoy.
10. If you bring a host or hostess gift, do not take it home with you even though the evening stunk.
9. If you are seated next to someone you don’t know, do not start the conversation with “so how’s your sex life going?” even if you really want to know.
8. If the host or hostess seats you next to someone clearly older or younger than you, do not ask any questions that have the word “age” in them.
7. If you are asked a question while eating and you don’t have a ready answer, do not continue to stuff mashed potatoes into your mouth even if it is the only way you can think to stall.
6. If you are asked what you would like to drink, do not say “whatever you got,” since you might end up with tap water or worse.
5. If your host or hostess tells you to make yourself at home, do not sit down on the couch and put your feet up on the coffee table.
4. If you need to use the bathroom, do not take the occasion to open any drawers, cabinets or closets even if you are dying to check out the medication and birth control being used.
3. If you are asked to choose either red or white wine, do not say both even if you normally mix the two.
2. If you see that there aren’t enough chairs for everyone at the table do not bump the oldest person to secure one for you.
1. If you find that you have somehow been over served, do not offer to fistfight the host or hostess if they ask for your keys.
2. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
If you don’t already know Patty at http://petitemagique.wordpress.com/, then visit her blog right now. She is a truly gifted artist, blending song lyrics, her own poetry, and photography/artwork into her blog posts. Patty is a woman of tremendous feeling and she has experienced too many tragedies in her young life. Her poetry reflects her struggles … perhaps I should say, “our” struggles, for I believe Patty speaks for many of us who have suffered great loss. I find her poetry to be always beautiful and often cathartic. I am always in awe of her creativity. In spite of all she has gone through, her generosity and love know no bounds.
3. Nominate as many bloggers as you like.
If you are a follower of my blog, then you will know that I tend to “cheat” at this part. I hate to say “this blogger will get this award and this blogger will get the other award.” So at this end of this email, I will list as many bloggers as I can. I have at least several dozen favorites so I will try to pick those who may not have already received any or some of these awards.
4. Let your nominees know via a comment on their post.
Will do ;)
Second, I’ve been nominated by three amazing bloggers for the WordPress Family Award! The rules are the same as above, except that the list of nominees is limited to 10.
Running to Her Dreams is about much more than training for a marathon. She’s also a mother, a dreamer, and a doer. She finds hearts in nature, takes photos of them and posts them to her blog. In her own words, she is a “smartassic woman running to her dreams, who follows her heart and occasionally drops the f-bomb.” Her motto: “always be true to yourself and think like a boss!”
Gwen is a wonderful blogger, sharing her insights, her writing, and lots of great marketing tips on her blog. Hers is the kind of blog that you could spend days on, clicking from one informative tab to another, drinking up her knowledge, suggestions, and encouragement. She is a writer’s writer: someone who lives and breathes writing and who shares everything she learns.
S.K. Nicholls is a woman of many talents: she is an author, poet, lover of history, a Registered Nurse with a 30-year career spanning “everything from ER and CCU, pediatrics, geriatrics, hospice to psychiatry.” She grew up on a farm but now lives in a big city. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She most recently published Red Clay and Roses, a fictional account of a true story about life in the deep South during Jim Crow and before Roe vs. Wade. I reviewed her book here, and highly recommend it. It is an important work, a story that needed to be told and that needs to be read.
3. & 4. OK, when it’s awards time, it’s cheatin’ time for me. I’m combining my nominees and invite them to choose any (or none) of the awards here.
Without further ado, let me just share the love among:
Check out the new header for The Community Storyboard where our rowdy band of editors have been immortalized as superheroes by the very talented Dean at Dean’z Doodlez!
This poem, ‘A City Sunset’, would, along with a handful of others by Hulme, set the blueprint for modern poetry. If we most readily associate ‘modern poetry’ with brevity, precision of language, understatement, unrhymed verse, written about everyday and often very ordinary things, then we owe many of those associations to T. E. Hulme.
Marie at 1 Write Way 