Author: kineticprose

Ideas2 Comments

i want you to want to…

kineticprose

make art and poetry with me. I also want you to do it with each other…on my blog. I’ve realized lately that I’m a big meddler, artswise, and if I catch a hint that you wish you were writing/painting/taking photographs more…I’m gonna latch on, and try to make it so. I just can’t help myself. It’s part of who I am, as recently proved by an online personality test my co-workers and I took. So, there. This is a roundabout way of telling you that I hope you’ll submit something to The Light Ekphrastic, my quarterly online journal. If you … Continue reading i want you to want to…

Growing & Eating, IdeasLeave a comment

borschty-borscht borscht…

kineticprose

There’s something you should know: I love beets. Which means, of course, that I also love beet-y, beefy, vinegar-y borscht. Here’s the borscht I made this morning: Beets remind me of so many things I love…many of them literary. Tom Robbins, for one, and his Bohemian King Alobar, in Jitterbug Perfume. Diane Ackerman’s lucious A Natural History of the Senses. There’s even a wonderful point in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (the book!!) where borscht plays an important role for Norah’s character development. Beets add an earthy insistence to life; they feel like blood, like dirt, they make you think. … Continue reading borschty-borscht borscht…

IdeasLeave a comment

good guy with gun…

kineticprose

One of the things I most love about vacation is having time to read. Over the last few years, my tastes in reading material have expanded to include crime thrillers — the sort you might find on a dime store rack. And you know what? This English major isn’t ashamed at all. Give me a Michael Connelly thriller, or a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child, and I’m happy. Just recently I picked up “Pronto” by Elmore Leonard because I love how Timothy Olyphant portrays his cowboy hat-wearing marshal Raylan Givens on FX’s “Justified.” I have to say, it’s all … Continue reading good guy with gun…

BooksLeave a comment

with cat, without cat…

kineticprose

So, last April, my friend Meredith ran a wonderful “Poetry Out of Nothing” contest in honor of National Poetry Month, and I promised to make a blank book for one of the winners. The winner in question happens to be another friend of mine, and as her poem concerned the mischievous adventures of a cat (pouncing on stink bugs, running through cilantro), I wanted to reflect the poem in the book somehow. Sadly, I’m terrible at drawing, so a literal interpretation was out of the question. Happily, the idea of a cat book inspired me in another direction… I was … Continue reading with cat, without cat…

IdeasLeave a comment

a muse and some discipline…

kineticprose

I just read Patti Smith’s autobiography, Just Kids, an amazing account of her early years in 1970s New York City just starting out with lover, lifetime friend and muse Robert Mapplethorpe. It’s about being an artist above all else. Reading this book makes me realize several things: Patti Smith is a genius. She’s incredibly well-read, completely enamored of the context and history of every moment, and has a terrific command of language. I am ridiculously jealous. Also, I love her hair. It’s very, very important to write all the time. Patti Smith kept a journal every day of her life, … Continue reading a muse and some discipline…

Books4 Comments

i made a little book…

kineticprose

Actually, 50 little books. They’re “magic books,” the kind of one-sheet-of-paper-plus-one-strategic-cut-equals-six-pages book I absolutely love because they’re fun and easy to make, easy to copy, and full of fold-y secrets. This one, “Window Washer,” contains a poem about a guy washing a very significant window, and a little girl looking at him from the parking lot outside. That’s all I’ll say about the poem, but I will mention there’s a secret in this book. A secret in its construction and its entirety. And a secret instruction for the reader, which I hope will result in something cool down the line. … Continue reading i made a little book…

IdeasLeave a comment

Poetically stumped…

kineticprose

That is not to say I have given up, but I must say this: the ocean does not want me to write about it. I spent a week there. I didn’t think I’d like it nearly as much as I did. And once it began to grow on me, I started having ideas. So many ideas, changing slightly each day. So many ideas, I thought I’d put them away for later, right? Let them simmer? Now, of course, they all seem silly, and I think I know why. What can I possibly say to describe the ocean, or a moment … Continue reading Poetically stumped…

Growing & Eating2 Comments

Scape landscape…

kineticprose

Today was the first day of our CSA, the third year we’ve participated, and by now, I know the inaugural CSA week is even more special than the others because I usually come home with a swirling mass of garlic scapes. Mmm…garlic scapes. Aren’t they pretty? I know I probably shouldn’t get too excited about a vegetable, but the scapes are so fleeting and so very delicious and fun. I want to curl them around my fingers and my wrist…and then toss them into the food processor, mash them to bits and eat them in a fine, spicy mush on … Continue reading Scape landscape…