Write a poem for National Poetry Month! Just let your mind wander and write a poem of any kind in the comments area for this post.
Get your poem done by 12:00 am PST Friday April 24, 2009.
Your poem can be any length. It can rhyme or not. Just make a poem and let me read it.
I’ll pick my 3 favorites and do audio versions of them to post right here in the blog.
This painting is of a poor old poet trying to come up with his next poem. Be exactly like him.
Don’t forget the Kids Mystery Contest for April. Write your story entry and if it wins it’ll be posted for all to read right here on the blog.
In what appears to be one of the worst cases of literary censorship in modern United States history, Amazon.com has listed a wide range of books as what the company calls ‘adult material.’ It would appear that they have included any title that contains any material related in any way to homosexuality. By being placed on this ‘adult material list’, the books were essentially stripped away from any search results and made very difficult to find by browsing.
The following is from Amazon:
In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.
Candlelight Stories thinks that this represents one of the single most moronic statements ever delivered to the public by a prominent book seller.
The company has announced that this was due to a ‘technical glitch’ but there are very few bloggers who seem to believe that explanation. It would seem that plenty of ‘adult material’ was left available and that this effort was focused largely on non-heterosexual material. This is a terrible thing for a major bookseller to do. It’s a form of book banning. It reeks of ultra-conservative fear of ideas or differing lifestyles. Amazon says it was engaged in an initiative to protect its wide customer base by listing certain books as ‘adult material’ so that they would not appear at the top of search results and possibly offend someone. The complaints of someone who is offended by a book for adults showing up in a list of search results should not be listened to for even a moment. It is a very short step from this kind of censorship to a book burning. This is truly indicative of the danger in primarily relying upon a single online source for books.
It would be advisable to immediately move away from Amazon as a source for books. This kind of behavior, though given a flimsy explanation by the company, tends to indicate a general direction or pattern of behavior in a company. Candlelight Stories is looking into fully disengaging from our relationship with Amazon and will not be offering their products through our site. This blog stands fully opposed to discrimination, censorship or book banning of any kind whatsoever.
Once again, we cannot over-emphasize the importance of moving away from Amazon for book purchases. This is a very serious problem and the company’s explanation is insultingly false.
Here are links to several of the best book sellers on the internet:
By Joshua Ingram
In the deepest jungle of Africa, there lived a family of monkeys. There was a Mama Monkey, and a Papa Monkey, and they had a young daughter named Hannah.
The monkey family lived very happily swinging and playing in the trees and vines. But unfortunately, it wasn’t all play. Papa Monkey had to make sure their home in the canopy was warm and protected.
Mama was responsible for the sewing and cooking of the family’s meals. Hannah helped with the cleaning, but her main chore was to collect all the bananas and other fruit for the monkey family’s meals.
by Kristen Collier (USA)
illustration by Kevin Scott Collier
There is also a Joy the Jellyfish web site.
Gentian the Great White Shark was grumpy. Nobody wanted to approach him today! Fish fled from his path. Joy the Jellyfish saw the commotion. She gulped and then approached the out of sorts shark.
This is an epic fairy tale that reworks the classic Grimm’s story, ‘The Water of Life,’ into a grand Nordic tale of magic, goddesses, fairies and heroes. Go on an epic quest with the young son of an emperor to find the magic of the Fairy of the Dawn.
Fairy of the Dawn
By John Brookes
There was once an emperor, very great and mighty, and he ruled over an empire so large that no one knew where it began and where it ended. But if nobody could tell the exact extent of his Sovereignty everybody was aware that the emperor’s right eye laughed, while his left eye wept. One or two men of valour had the courage to go and ask him the reason of this strange fact, but he only laughed and said nothing; and the reason of the deadly enmity between his two eyes was a secret only known to the Monarch himself.
Here’s an ebook version of a children’s story we released in 2000. It’s by David Lawrence Parker and is about a determined little girl with an inventive mind and her kitten, Ho Ho. They take off on a great balloon adventure.
Mature Content
The Pothole is the latest offering from Well Told Tales, a blog specializing in the production of pulp fiction podcasts. They have recently transitioned from offering only their own audio productions to allowing users to upload their own audio stories, films and written stories. It’s an excellent idea.
I had a blast listening to The Pothole a few evenings ago. It’s genuinely disturbing and offers a unique perspective on its genre. I won’t tell you which genre it is because I don’t want to spoil the suspense for you. The writing by Kris Ashton hooks you immediately. His characters are vivid. The story is pulp fiction at its best. The narrator is John Wooley, actor, author, film teacher and columnist. His reading is superb, with a relaxed and gravelly voice that lets the story unwind with just the right touch of dread.
These guys are very accomplished and are making some of the best audio stories I’ve heard anywhere. Give Well Told Tales a visit.
On Thursday, April 9, 2009, The Los Angeles Times newspaper placed an advertisement disguised as a column of news on its front page! A major American newspaper cannot do this. It is totally unacceptable. The cheapening of the LA Times over the past year due to financial problems and poor management has gradually gutted the paper. It’s once high-quality book review section on Sundays is now part of another section and has become a smattering of generalized culture articles.
As soon as I found out about the disguised ad on Thursday I ran to the phone and cancelled my 12-year subscription to the paper. The woman on the phone asked what my reason was and I told her I was disgusted by the ad placement. Perhaps someone in the paper’s management will realize that the end has arrived and save us all some trees by shutting down the presses and letting the reporters go work for an internet news organization.
Newspapers are in trouble. It’s imbeciles like the ones running the LA Times that make a recovery impossible for them.
Rest in peace, Los Angeles Times.
Our roll of poetry for National Poetry Month continues with an animated poem by Maurice Kilwein Guevara. His poem has two Spanish-speaking women planning to speak only English as they enter a Sears store. It’s funny on the surface but it’s also a serious look at how people try to avoid being themselves in order to convince others that they are not stereotypes to be feared.
Here’s another animated poem. This one is by Kwame Dawes who grew up in Jamaica and now lives in South Carolina. I like the way the poet is unafraid to show pleasure in the language of the poem. This seems to be a happy poet.
For National Poetry Month, here’s an Emily Dickinson poem rendered as a beautiful animation with a reading by actress Blair Brown. This is part of the Poetry Foundation’s series of videos known as Poetry Everywhere.
Here is the complete poem for you to read:
I started Early – Took my Dog –
And visited the Sea –
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me –And Frigates – in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands –
Presuming Me to be a Mouse –
Aground – upon the Sands –But no Man moved Me – till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe –
And past my Apron – and my Belt
And past my Bodice – too –And made as He would eat me up –
As wholly as a Dew
Upon a Dandelion’s Sleeve –
And then – I started – too –And He – He followed – close behind –
I felt His Silver Heel
Upon my Ankle – Then my Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl –Until We met the Solid Town –
No One He seemed to know
And bowing – with a Mighty look –
At me – The Sea withdrew –
This is the first John Carter of Mars novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan books. It was his first novel, published in 1917 and it’s a work of rip-roaring science fiction that has inspired many of the great writers in the genre.
Chapter 2: John Carter tells how he awoke inside the cave in danger of losing his life to his pursuers or possibly to the thing making strange noises behind him. Our pulp sci-fi novel makes its first reach for the stars in this chapter.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
Duration: 00:10:32
Read by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Poet John Ashbery sat down to answer questions on a program called Open Book. He’s fascinating. I’m not sure why he is not running away from the questions, but whatever his infirmity might be, he is interesting in spite of the interviewers.
One thing in particular caught my attention: I don’t have any hidden meanings in my poems.
I think that’s an astounding thing to hear from one of the most difficult and impenetrable poets I have ever read.
Vetiver
by John AshberyAges passed slowly, like a load of hay,
As the flowers recited their lines
And pike stirred at the bottom of the pond.
The pen was cool to the touch.
Set to open on April 21, 2009, the World Digital Library will make freely available in multilingual format, significant materials from different cultures, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and others. The library promises to promote cross-cultural understanding and provide resources to educators. The Library of Congress is involved in the project along with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library and Archives of Egypt, and the National Library of Russia.
There are a couple of videos that claim to show prototypes of the library. These look to me like quickly produced mock-ups of very little substance. If you were really building such a library online, you would not have only four or five paragraphs of text and two videos on your web site to show for your efforts. You’d be trying to show off how great your project is and how well it works.
I could be wrong, but this kind of mystery project that sits for years in ‘development’ and includes such enormous claims from such an international cast of characters always makes me suspicious. I take an ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ attitude. Sort of the like the absolutely transparent $100 laptop con job otherwise known as One Laptop Per Child, which has received a Fiasco Award.
After all, we already have The Internet Archive. It actually works. It has material from all over the world. It’s free. It’s easy to use. Why don’t these great libraries just use that?
