tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-303855572024-03-05T11:38:27.121-05:00EVERYTHING'S JAKESome words between friendsJohn Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-82381997071933029972019-12-15T19:33:00.001-05:002019-12-15T19:33:27.081-05:00Drinking TipsDrinking tip #1<br />
<br />
When you’re drunk you don’t need friends.<br />
<br />
Drinking tip #2<br />
<br />
When your friends are drunk and you’re sober, ditch them.<br />
<br />
Drinking Tip #3<br />
<br />
If you’re drinking too much, you better be standing because you’ll never get out of that seat.<br />
<br />
Drinking tip #4<br />
<br />
You know you’ve had too much when you wake up in a bedroom you’ve never see before.<br />
<br />
Drinking Tip #5<br />
<br />
If you’re drinking and can’t feel your jaw, it’s time to go home<br />
<br />
Drinking tip #6<br />
<br />
If you’ve had your morning coffee, it’s time for a drink.<br />
<br />
Drinking tip #7<br />
<br />
If you left your iPhone on a bar somewhere, it’s time to stop drinking or ask for a double. <br />
<br />
<br />John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-20309847607166213572018-03-01T14:20:00.003-05:002018-03-01T14:20:33.480-05:00WritingWriting<br />
<br />
I'm always writing. 24 hours a day I got my antenna up waiting to hear from the muse.<br />
<br />
Most of the time the signal is weak, creaky.<br />
<br />
But sometimes it's perfect.<br />
<br />
Either way, I write it down.<br />
<br />
And what happens is that I have a house full of little sheets of paper. Everywhere.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I find one, and I say that's it. That's right and I put it in the pile of stuff I'm working on.<br />
<br />
Sometimes I find one and wonder where it came from and where it's going. I put it back where I found it.<br />
<br />
Here's one of the poems I put back where I found it.<br />
<br />
Hurry Home -- It's getting late<br />
<br />
1.<br />
<br />
Black man came out of the dark woods<br />
singing a song<br />
<br />
2.<br />
<br />
White man came out of the dark woods<br />
singing the same song<br />
<br />
3.<br />
<br />
Here's what they sang:<br />
<br />
The graves of the dead<br />
are the graves of the dead<br />
<br />
4.<br />
<br />
In Jerusalem they do<br />
the hokey pokey<br />
and they turn it all aroundJohn Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-30341365177054033832017-12-11T14:34:00.000-05:002017-12-11T14:35:24.667-05:00The 60s <div class="StandardCxSpFirst">
<b>1960s<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I took acid 5 times, cocaine twice, meth too often to remember, pot about 5 times a week for
6 years, vodka/beer/tequila just about every day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I smoked too. A pack a day. A pack was about 25 cents when I
started. Sometimes when out of cigarettes I smoked a pipe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also drank about 10
cups of coffee a day. In the morning and in the evening and at 3 in the
morning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I don't think I ever slept. Maybe once or twice. I remember one
time being awake for 3 days and waking up behind a gas station in Moline, Illinois.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But most of the time I didn't sleep. At night I lay in bed,
drunk and stoned and coffeed up, listening to the Doors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">"This is the end, my friend. This is the end."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I believed it and didn't care.</span><br />
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<o:p></o:p>John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-78628142692408706062017-11-12T07:51:00.001-05:002017-11-12T08:55:01.852-05:00Milan Kundera Returns to America <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Milan_Kundera_redux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="791" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Milan_Kundera_redux.jpg" width="316" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Breaking News: Milan Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, returns to America<br />
<br />
Milan Kundera took the bus from Prague. It was a long way, but he knew he wanted to come back.<br />
<br />
There was something about the greyhound station in Chicago that called him back, reminded him of his childhood, his mother standing close to him as he waited for the light to change so that they could cross the street.<br />
<br />
All those long days and nights on the bus from Prague, he stared out the window, dreamed about a greyhound running through the light, past the darkness.<br />
<br />
There was one day when he almost asked the bus driver to stop the bus so that he could get off the bus and breathe in the light. He knew breathing was good for him and that he needed to do it, but he finally decided not to ask the driver to stop the bus.<br />
<br />
It was better to keep going.<br />
<br />
Maybe once he got to Chicago he would see his mother still standing on the corner there by the greyhound station, waiting for him to take her hand so they could cross when the light changed.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-17636575358596993272017-08-03T12:27:00.000-05:002018-10-26T13:26:24.677-05:00Sermon on God and Politics<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I went to a politicians forum here organized by the young democrats and young republicans and listened to 16 politicians, dems and repubs, men and women, for offices ranging from city councilmen to US representatives, and all of these people except one began and ended their debates/speeches with a statement about how God had told them to pursue this office for the greater good of mankind.</span><br />
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Two of these guys, in fact, were ministers. One was a democrat-episcopalian, and the other a republican-baptist. </div>
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<br />
'What they probably all are is bad readers. I can't see how you can read the New Testament and walk away thinking that Jesus wants you to go into politics, or for that matter, thinking that Jesus wants you to join a church.<br />
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I read a book called What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills--and his take on all of this (and he's a catholic) is that there is almost nothing in the NT (at least in the 4 gospels) that would have you honestly joining a church. And I've read bible scholars who have pretty much <chrome_find class="find_in_page">said</chrome_find> the <chrome_find class="find_in_page findysel">same </chrome_find>thing (Elaine Pagels/Karen Armstrong).<br />
<br />
If Jesus wants you to do anything, he wants you to be good and help people. See the Sermon on the Mount. You don't need a church for that. If anything, a church gets in the way, and also sets up a structure that is more about structure and power and politics and maintaining power than it is about anything that has to do with the soul.<br />
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I was brought up a catholic and I look back on the things I was taught and it's amazing how little of it came from the teachings of Jesus. If Jesus is point A, and the catholic church or any church is point Z, I don't think you can explain by either reason or faith how the one led to the other.<br />
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Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, as plain as plain can b<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">e: if they strike you in the face, turn the other cheek. </span><br />
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I don't think any of these preachers or politicians is advocating that. In fact, I think what all of them are advocating is a rejection of Jesus's teachings and an acceptance of a sort of vision of the marriage of politics and religion that you get in the old testament. America as a sort of israel, a warrior state with a god who's angry at other nations.<br />
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One of the preacher/politicans at this political forum <chrome_find class="find_in_page">said</chrome_find> something very interesting. He <chrome_find class="find_in_page">said</chrome_find> that where there is faith there is no need for fear. I thought: that's wisdom. I don't think Jesus ever teaches fear. And those politicians and preachers (what bruce springsteen in one song calls "those soul sucking preachers) who get you worked up with fear to be afraid of other people and other countries are probably doing the devil's work.<br />
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End of sermon.</div>
<style id="__gCrWeb.findInPageStyle" type="text/css">.find_in_page{background-color:#ffff00 !important;padding:0px;margin:0px;overflow:visible !important;}.findysel{background-color:#ff9632 !important;padding:0px;margin:0px;overflow:visible !important;}</style>John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-53387808999502623772017-06-28T05:43:00.000-05:002017-06-28T05:43:24.672-05:00Found PoemThe Found Book:<br />
<br />
You pick up a book of poetry on the floor of your study, and you wonder where it came from. <br />
<br />
There’s nothing you remember about it. The light tan cover? The title? The author’s name? Nothing. Was this author a friend whose name you’ve forgotten? Or did another friend give you the book, telling you to read it because it meant so much or so little to him. You don’t remember. <br />
<br />
You turn to the blurbs on the back and discover the book is 30 years old, and you realize it’s probably been sitting on your bookshelves for that long. <br />
<br />
You’ve moved it from one house to another through those 30 years and you never once opened it. It’s sat on those shelves through storms and deaths, through crises and miracles, and you never once opened it. <br />
<br />
And now you do.<br />
<br />
And the words are magic.<br />
<br />
But only for a second.<br />
<br />
You put it back on a shelf.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-80100057035427161842016-07-25T12:28:00.003-05:002016-07-25T12:28:18.848-05:00USELESS WRITING = ART + GENOCIDE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7415/16193174869_85d0ee83ec_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7415/16193174869_85d0ee83ec_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;">Junk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;">Junk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;">Junk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;">Junk</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;">JunkJunk</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;"><br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16.08px;"><br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br /><br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />Junk<br />JunkJunk<br />Junk<br /><br />Art</span>John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-88526826059267624892016-07-07T08:48:00.003-05:002016-07-07T08:48:31.000-05:00My Summer So Far<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiCFGNegkjWmwC1pnDQQ_5FwIdo7V2G1xPR1ZUr4zuEhljlFrXq6PCnIjrnAOQA6ReaZTSe1-dWjHHojjxaqeZZoO-ctVIoubonqLH5u4EykbkP4me4qihZuaCZXfwQajCzI7K-A/s1600/PICT0550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiCFGNegkjWmwC1pnDQQ_5FwIdo7V2G1xPR1ZUr4zuEhljlFrXq6PCnIjrnAOQA6ReaZTSe1-dWjHHojjxaqeZZoO-ctVIoubonqLH5u4EykbkP4me4qihZuaCZXfwQajCzI7K-A/s1600/PICT0550.JPG" /></a></div>
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There is heat and stillness.<br />
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A car's been parked in front of my house for 2 wks.<br />
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Not moving. Ever.<br />
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Something is killing the hedgehogs in Forest Hills.<br />
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I saw 4 dead ones in the streets this morning while driving my granddaughter to her summer camp.<br />
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Each one had its head cut off. You could see this plainly.<br />
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Who's doing this?<br />
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I never see hedgehogs and suddenly there they are in the street. <br />
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Have other people noticed the dead hedgehogs and the heat and the stillness and the car parked in front of my house?John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-44133555709478737352016-01-05T07:20:00.002-05:002016-01-05T07:21:47.673-05:00Making of a Murderer<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Linda and I finished watching the Netflix 10-part documentary about Steven Avery last night.<br /><br />Avery spent 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, was freed after DNA evidence was found proving him innocent, and then was arrested for another unrelated kidnapping, rape, and murder.<br /><br />The documentary is very troubling about the flawed nature of our justice system.<br /><br />We couldn't believe the way he and his nephew were mistreated and misrepresented by the courts.<br /><br />But the case against Steven Avery is much more complex than the documentary suggests.<br /><br />If you've finished watching The Making of a Murderer, take a look at this article about the evidence missing from the documentary.<br /><br />Here's a link to the article.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.avclub.com/article/read-damning-evidence-against-steven-avery-making--230224">http://www.avclub.com/article/read-damning-evidence-against-steven-avery-making--230224</a>John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-13570648600596476522015-11-29T19:46:00.003-05:002015-11-29T19:46:59.471-05:00Me and God<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.4667px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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Me and God</div>
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I tend not to see him as a person like you or me. In fact, <span style="line-height: 21.4667px;">I tend to think of god more as the universe.</span><span style="line-height: 21.4667px;"> </span></div>
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For me the problem of too many religions is that they try to "belittle" god by making him our size. You know what I mean. The dude's the be all and end all of everything under, over and in the sun, and too many of us want to see him as the buddy we never had or the man and dad we never failed.</div>
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That's not the god that makes sense to me. That buddy/mom/dad sense of god that religions try to foist off on us.</div>
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All that religion stuff -- to my way of thinking -- is mumbo jumbo, whistling in the dark.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 21.4667px;">The bible? Folk stories, myths.</span></div>
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Can you have a personal relation with god? Sure, stand outside in the snow and watch it fall.</div>
John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-29333685452730970172015-06-22T13:45:00.000-05:002015-06-24T11:19:41.651-05:00Breaking News: Milan Kundera, the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, returns to America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/archive/00059/Milan-KUNDERA-580_59642a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/archive/00059/Milan-KUNDERA-580_59642a.jpg" height="193" width="320" /></a></div>
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Milan Kundera took the bus from Prague. It was a long way, but he knew he wanted to come back.</div>
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There was something about the greyhound station in Chicago that called him back, reminded him of his childhood, his mother standing close to him as he waited for the light to change so that they could cross the street.</div>
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All those long days and nights on the bus from Prague, he stared out the window, dreamed about a greyhound running through the light, past the darkness.</div>
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There was one day when he almost asked the bus driver to stop the bus so that he could get off the bus and breathe in the light. He knew breathing was good for him and that he needed to do it, but he finally decided not to ask the driver to stop the bus.</div>
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It was better to keep going.</div>
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Maybe once he got to Chicago he would see his mother still standing on the corner there by the greyhound station, waiting for him to take her hand so they could cross when the light changed.</div>
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John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-58755762469902395212015-06-15T12:42:00.000-05:002015-06-15T12:42:08.722-05:00Writing Suitcase Charlie -- Writing is an Incremental Art<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMxPiLe0lGrmRZT2SlZrvamZ7_TrQII9wI6I-z2LalsaQSLQUkyCvjBhbLh4odVh-u36XwaLGr39pz5ITCIDOEBB_-ftlkFMcNGogGuZvglOVj7iSMFNq3Q-ggdt4uukb3cncig/s1600/chuck+close.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5508977296756516450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoMxPiLe0lGrmRZT2SlZrvamZ7_TrQII9wI6I-z2LalsaQSLQUkyCvjBhbLh4odVh-u36XwaLGr39pz5ITCIDOEBB_-ftlkFMcNGogGuZvglOVj7iSMFNq3Q-ggdt4uukb3cncig/s400/chuck+close.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 314px;" /></a><br />
When you’re a writer, there are bad days and good days. Some days, you sit and write, and the words feel like they’re in someone else’s head; and some days, you write and the writing is fast and right, and you think that each word is a gift from some muse that really and completely loves and cares for you and what you have to say.<br />
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That’s the way it is for all of us, I think, but one of the things that I've come to feel about writing on bad days as well as good ones is that the progress, the movement forward, the work, is all important. It doesn't matter finally if the writing I’m doing is going bad or going good, just so long as I keep writing. Putting one word after another, the bad days will give way to good days because writing is an incremental art. One word after another, and another word after that.<br />
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This word-by-word idea came to me from listening to the painter Chuck Close do an interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" a couple years ago. I was just starting to write my first novel <i>Suitcase Charlie</i> then; I had finished the first chapter, and I was looking at the tall hill of the second chapter, and the long row of hills and mountains beyond that. Finishing that novel seemed impossible. I had been writing poems for the last thirty-five years and was comfortable working with poems. Unlike novels, they live in little spaces, valleys and small plots of earth. I hadn't written fiction of any kind since I was in college 35 years ago, and I was sure I couldn't move beyond that first chapter.<br />
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Then I heard that Chuck Close interview.<br />
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I love his portraits, his giant canvases, 15 and 20 feet high and almost as wide. They're a human marvel. Terry asked him how he manages to create those mountains of paintings, and he said something that stopped me. He said that painting was an incremental art, one dot of paint and then another.<br />
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I had seen his paintings close up years ago at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and I knew just what he meant. If you look at those giant canvases what you see is that each one is made up of thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of little dabs of paint, each dab almost a perfect moment of painting in itself. A little Jackson Pollock dab of painting -- one right next to another and another and another.<br />
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And I started thinking of my novel that way, each word, each line, each paragraph. One dab of words after another.<br />
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I knew I could write a word--it wasn't daunting to do that. And I knew I could write a line. And I figured I could keep going and going, one word after another after another.<br />
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And I did.<br />
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I finished my first novel and it came to 98,643 words, and all of them are on a literary agent’s desk right now, and then I finished the second novel.<br />
And while I'm revising it, I'm starting work on my third . I’m on word 236 and climbing.<br />
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Like the poet Rilke says, “Patience is everything.”<br />
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Suitcase Charlie is available as a Kindle or a paperback from Amazon. Just click <a href="http://hyperurl.co/1q2s7t">HERE</a>.<br />
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You can hear a podcast of Terry Gross’s interview with Chuck Close: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1748083">podcast</a>.<br />
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Here’s a link to Chuck Close’s website: <a href="http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/life/index.html">click</a>.<br />
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The copyrighted painting of Close is from a site about his various <a href="http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/5aa/5aa294.htm">self-portraits</a>.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-45908467136525918702015-06-02T10:20:00.001-05:002015-06-02T10:21:58.803-05:00Losing Books<div style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
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I'm thinking about losing some books, cleaning out my bookshelves.</div>
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One time I moved, I had to package up 150 boxes of books that I had a massed. That was 35 years ago. I've been collecting books and picking up books and just getting books since then. I don't know how many books that is altogether that I have now but I feel it's a bundle.</div>
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I'm looking at books I've been living with for decades. Some I've read, and some are books I've always planned to read later.</div>
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We're thinking of moving again, or at least entertaining that possibility, so I'd like to get rid of about half of the books, but I want them to go to good homes. </div>
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Some of the books -- the mass market paperbacks that are easy to come by -- are going to Goodwill, but there are other books that are special. These are the unusual hardbound by authors no one has heard of in 30 or 40 or 50 years, but who meant a lot to me at one time, authors like Thomas Berger (Little Big Man), Harry Crews, and Rudolph Wurlitzer. And then there are books by writers I loved but will never reread: Norman Mailer and Joyce Carol Oates, for instance. I've got a lot of these books.</div>
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If I were still teaching, I would invite my best students in and ask them to take a book or two.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
But I'm not teaching and I'm afraid these books won't go where they should.</div>
<div style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Any suggestions?</div>
John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-51712479480685848622015-02-01T10:52:00.003-05:002015-02-01T10:52:46.225-05:00Super Bowl Sunday, 2015<img height="225" src="http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2013/02/20/football_620x350.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<b>Super Bowl Sunday </b><br />
<br />
I never watched football much when I was a kid. My dad, a Polish farm kid who grew up without electricty or football, didn't follow the game and neither did most of my friends. Their dads had also grown up without football.<br />
<br />
So I never learned the game. Can't tell the difference between a full back and a half back. A snap or a spread.<br />
<br />
I was invited to one Super Bowl game party about 35 years ago, and I asked so many questions I was never asked back to another. I guess the news about how ignorant I was about football got around.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm reaching out today just to tell everybody else in Ameica to enjoy the day, and I hope your team wins.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-81505216730418587292015-01-23T07:44:00.000-05:002015-01-23T07:44:23.930-05:00Deflated Poems<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<img height="213" src="https://fotosbyfiebs.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/day123smashedwords.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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Deflating Poems</div>
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I have never deflated a poem.</div>
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I will never deflate one.</div>
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When I pass a poem on to you, you can bet your air pump that it is fully inflated.</div>
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John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-66127574536571022362015-01-22T08:23:00.000-05:002015-01-22T08:23:06.768-05:00Sparrows<img height="214" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Tree_Sparrow_Japan_Flip.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<br />
I write poems about sparrows too often, I've been doing it for years. The first sparrow poem wasn't really about sparrows. It was about St. Francis and how his hands taught sparrows to fly. Since then sparrows are my go to bird. <br />
<br />
If I need a bird, I throw in a sparrow. <br />
<br />
Sparrows above cars, sparrows in black trees rising out of the rain, sparrows above the manger in Bethlehem, sparrows looking for a friend in a blizzard.<br />
<br />
But really I don't know a thing about sparrows. <br />
<br />
I don't even know what they look like. <br />
<br />
Are they black? Brown? Gray? <br />
<br />
Big or little?<br />
<br />
Claws? <br />
<br />
Really they are a mystery to me.<br />
<br />
From now on, I only write about pigeons. <br />
<br />
I know pigeons!<br />
<br />
______________<br />
<br />
Thanks to Wikipedia for providing me with a picture of a sparrow.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-66485963315357502712014-12-17T22:36:00.005-05:002016-10-13T11:39:32.372-05:00Me and Thoreau<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
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<img alt="" src="http://george.loper.org/interests/housing/thero/pictures/thoreau.gif" mce_src="http://george.loper.org/interests/housing/thero/pictures/thoreau.gif" /></div>
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<b>Thoreau is an author I love.</b> </div>
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When my daughter was a kid, I would reel out these Thoreau quotes on every occasion whether we were making vegetable soup or going to a funeral. I would have a quote, and I always acknowledged my quotes. "Like Thoreau used to say ..."</div>
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I thought I was giving her gospel that would help her in all circumstances. It would be the universal clock that Melville writes about somewhere--right in all longitudes and latitudes.</div>
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I was wrong--but have never learned how wrong.</div>
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I keep teaching Thoreau and expecting students to say, "Yeah, this makes sense."</div>
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They never say that.</div>
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For years I taught Thoreau's Walden. All of Walden. Whenever I could. Students hated him. Hated it.</div>
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He goes so much against their grain, and against the grain of any practical person. </div>
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I was reading a review in the New Yorker about some book from Oxford U Press about technology in the 19th century, and the reviewer points out that Thoreau was the anti-modern. The whole world wants to go forward into the 20 century and then the 21 century--except Thoreau. He wants to take us all back to the 18th century!</div>
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People don't want to be farmers--lead simple lives.</div>
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Let me tell you a story and then I'll stop. </div>
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My father grew up on a farm in Poland--my mother did too. My dad then spent 5 years in Germany as a Slave Laborer, and 6 years as a refugee. When he and my mom finally came to America, they were offered the opportunity to work on a farm in upstate New York, make a living and settle there. They stayed on the farm there long enough to pay off their passage over from Germany. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Then, they moved to Chicago (3 million people, coal dust in the air, not a cow in sight [they have some now at Lincoln Park Zoo]). My parents worked in factories, double shifts, never took vacations. There was nothing rural/bucolic about their lives there. I once asked them, "Why didn't you stay on the farm in Upstate New York? The trees the cows the quiet" My mother said, "Are you kidding?" </div>
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</div>
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Working a shift and a half everyday in a factory where melting plastic burnt your arms and chemicals scarred your lungs was better than working on a farm.</div>
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________________________</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 18px;">PS</span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 18px;">I know I could never live on a farm. Not now. It's no country for old men. I can barely keep track of the garden in my backyard, the leaves of grass in my front. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 18px;">But I know I can still read Thoreau, and dream about the forests beyond the garden in my backyard. </span> </div>
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John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-4595859299620060802014-12-12T15:36:00.002-05:002014-12-12T15:40:09.390-05:00Revision is Experimentation<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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I taught creative writing for 25 years and have been writing myself for a lot longer than that. In all that time, I've learned somethings about revision. What follows is a statement of what I've learned about what revision is.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Revision is Experimentation</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-48d22a84-4030-4675-f217-250b3459abbd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Artist’s Idea of Revision: Not Just Fixing</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a lot of people who are just starting out to write poetry or fiction, revision isn’t easy. It’s not something they look forward to. Part of the problem is that a lot of us are still carrying around the idea of revision that we picked up in high school or even grade school. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you got a paper back from a teacher back then and she asked for revisions, you figured, “There’s something wrong in this paper, and I have to fix it.” And sometimes you would look long and hard at that paper and didn’t know what to fix. Was there a comma that needed changing, a fused sentence, a paragraph that needed a thesis? And besides, you didn’t like to think of your paper as being broken and needing fixing. Most times when you figure something is broken and needs fixing, you figure that the thing is one step away from the trash heap. Also, we were taught in school to think of revision as merely correcting comma flaws or spelling, that kind of mechanical stuff.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revision in the arts isn’t really like that at all. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like to think of it as experimenting. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul Valery, a French poet, said that “No poem is ever finished; it’s only abandoned.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I think what Valery said is right about poetry and all the arts.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Story of My Father-in-Law Tony and his Yellow Car Painting</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me tell you a story about my father-in-law Tony, a graphic artist, a painter, and how he works with a painting.</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He literarily never finishes one of his paintings. He is always experimenting with them, trying to see if he can do something </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">different</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with them, trying to see them in a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">different</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> perspective, in a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">different</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> way—in the hope that that different way will be a final way of seeing the painting. But like I said, “He never finishes one of his paintings.” </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When my wife and I got married 37 years ago, Tony gave us a painting. It was a cityscape, a picture of a street that was slightly wet from a rain shower, and you could see a gray car across the street in front of a brick 3 story brownstone building (this was in Brooklyn). And on the side of the street nearest the person looking at the painting there was a yellow car. But you could only see the front half of a yellow car because the rest of the yellow car was out of the picture frame.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay. That was the painting then in 1975.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The summer after we got married, Tony came to visit and brought his paints in one of those wooden boxes with a handle that painters carry around. I thought that he was going to be working on something new, maybe the patio I was building in the backyard, but he wasn’t. He had thought about that yellow car and thought about it, and decided that he wanted to move it back a little so that it wouldn’t be so big and yellow in the painting. And that’s just what he did. He moved it so far back that all you could see of the yellow car was the bumper and a little bit of its yellow nose. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimenting</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You might call it revising but the painting wasn’t broken, didn’t need fixing. But he did want to see it in a different way. This was his </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiment</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When artists </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiment</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, they try to get a fresh view of their painting or their novel or their jazz symphony or their movie.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And Tony wasn’t finished there. When he came to visit the following year, he moved the car back even further, so that you couldn’t see the yellow car at all. No hood. No bumper. He thought that he wanted to focus on the wetness of the street and the yellowness of the car was interfering with the wetness. Maybe he should have painted the car a less explosive color. Maybe he should have </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimented</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with a blue car! He talked about doing that</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You get the picture. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the years, Tony moved the car forward and he moved it back. He changed the shade of the yellow. He made the bricks on the buildings across the street slightly redder to balance the brightness of the yellow. He made the street less wet. He put a person in one of the windows across the street. (When my daughter Lillian was growing up, she always thought that she was the girl in the window and that her poppy had put her there, so she would always be in our home looking down on my wife and me.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And this </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimenting</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> never stopped. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He’s 82 years old now and every time he comes to visit he sets to work on the paintings. His current project is a picture of a rowboat in a stream. There were 3 trees in the painting. One on the extreme right, one on the extreme left, and one in the middle. He’s moving the trees around. Currently, the left tree is still in the picture, but the right tree is gone. And the tree in the middle? It’s a stump. But you see more and more of the rowboat. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the way artists and poets and film makers and musicians work. If you’ve ever known any musicians, you know they spend endless hours practicing—but that practicing is really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimenting</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. They’re listening to the sounds in their head and trying to get the sounds in their instruments to sound the same way. And they do this through </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me tell you one more story: Yesterday I was listening to an interview with David O. Russell, a film director who’s up for an Academy Award for his film American Hustle. If you don’t know that film you might now one of his other films, The Three Kings or Silver Lining Playbook. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was talking about shooting a scene in American Hustle with Christian Bale. In his heart and in his brain, he knew exactly what he wanted. He shot that scene 100 different ways. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You and Your Poems</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A lot of poetry is this sort of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimentation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You write a poem, it takes you 5 minutes, but it’s not right for some reason. Or you write a couple pages for a story, and it’s not right for some reason. What’s on the page doesn’t match up with what’s in your head or your heart, so you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiment</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. And the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimentation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> takes an hour or two; or if you are a sometimes obsessive compulsive like me, it takes 5 or 10 years.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you do a first draft of a poem or a story, it’s just that: a first draft. It’s your first attempt at that piece. You look at it, and you see it, and maybe you think, this looks pretty good, but you also know that you don’t know what the poem will eventually look like. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are a million thing you can change in any poem or short story. A million different </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> you can run. And what most writers and most artists will do is try to consider how some of these </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> will change a piece of writing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Story of My Experiments with “Lovers”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let me give you an example. I wrote a poem called “Lovers.” It was a long skinny poem. It had short lines, 6 syllables each, and it was about 70 lines long without any stanzas. I looked at this poem and thought, “This poem looks pretty good but how would it look with a longer line.” So I put it in 12 syllable lines—but then it looked too much like a short story or long prose poem, so I put it in 10 syllable lines and 6 line stanzas. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I tried it with 4 line stanzas. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I tried it with 3 line stanzas. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to make the first 3 stanzas the last three stanzas. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to drop the middle 2 stanzas. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to make all the lines skinny with 6 syllables each. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to change the title.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to flip around the last 2 lines.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then I decided to….</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you want to see the finished poem, it’s online at </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/guzlowski.html">http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/guzlowski.html</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(just click on the above)</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a pretty typical process. It happens in poetry and it happens in fiction. Things change between the moment of writing and the moment of publication, and even beyond that.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My recent poem Brief History of Sorrow started out as a sestina called What is Sorrow: 39 lines long, 6 6 line stanzas and a three line stanza. The end words in the 6 line stanzas get repeated according to a particular order, and these 6 words then appear in a certain order in the last three lines. And if that’s not enough, the sestina had 10 syllables in each line.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where did it end up? When it was published it was called brief history of sorrow and it was a free verse poem (no form) –</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">first stanza – 7 lines</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">second stanza – 2 lines</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">third—4 lines</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fourth—5 lines</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fifth—3 lines </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sixth –5 lines. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The longest line is 7 syllables, the shortest is 3. There are no repeated words or rhymes.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I was doing with my poem was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimenting</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I didn’t know what it would finally look like, but I needed to see it in a variety of “poses” so that I could decide which pose (which look) I liked the best. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the more you know about poetry and the more poems you’ve written and read, the more ways of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimenting</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are going to be available to you. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s the same thing with fiction. I wrote a novel about a German soldier in World War II. The novel focused on his trying to get back to his lines after getting lost behind enemy lines. There was a lot of action in the novel, lot of shooting and killing and running and fighting. When I revised the novel, I ended up with a novel about a german soldier separated from the woman he loved. The novel alternates between a chapter about him in the war, and a chapter about the woman he loves living in Berlin during the same time period. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a much better novel and it wouldn’t have been written without my experiments with the book. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Summary</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No work of art is ever finished, and that's true of poems. There are a million things you could change in any poem or any story. </span></div>
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<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poems without stanzas can have stanzas put in them. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poems with short lines can be made poems with long lines.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poems with long lines can be given short lines.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Poems with 6 line stanzas can be converted to poems with 2 line stanzas.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stories without a sound track can be given a sound track – just add a CD player</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stories without a sense of the past can be given a sense of the past</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stories with one major character can be given a second</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stories filled with paragraphs and paragraphs of descriptions can be broken up with dialogue.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There really are a lot of possibilities.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, when you start doing revisions for this unit, try thinking of them as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. What writers do is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiment</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with their own poems. They try it one way and then they try it another way--just to see if they can do it differently. And maybe doing it differently will spark some kind of idea! And that idea will help the poet create the poem that will stop the world or make someone love someone a little better.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 3-Step Process of Experimentation</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Step One: the actual experiments:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I do revisions, I usually do them in 2-steps. The first step is the actual experiment step. I do a lot of different things to the poem to see what kind of things are possible with that poem. I change so many of the things in the poem just to see if I can spark something that will help me see the poem clearer, help me see what my poem is capable of.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is a list of some of the things I do. Other poets do other things, and as you keep writing and growing and changing as poets you will find your own list of things you do when you revise.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guzlowski’s 22 Commandments of Poetry Revision</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember: Revision is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimentation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You don’t know what the poem will look like until you’ve looked at what the poem can look like.)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Try the poem in 2 different forms (If it’s got 4 syllable lines, try it as 10 syllables or 6 or 8)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change the position of a stanza (For example, make the third stanza the last stanza)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out three lines</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take out all the adjectives</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out 10 % of the words.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out 10 % more</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Try the poem in a different tense (if it’s present tense, try it in past, for example)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Try it in a different pronoun (if it’s all in first person singular “I,” try it in second person singular “you.” Or if it’s all “she,” try it as “he.”)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turn a free verse poem into a formed poem</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turn a formed poem into a free verse poem</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write the poem backwards (I’m not kidding—start with the last stanza and end with the first.)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take stuff from one poem and stick it in another (Got some great stanza in a weak poem? Try it in another poem)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a stanza with lots of particulars and double it</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make 1 line break change</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Make 1 stanza break change</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add 1 particular</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add 1 metaphor or simile or comparison</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add 1 near rhyme</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add 1 disconnected detail (a lot of times you can get something interesting going in a poem by just throwing in something that is completely unexpected.)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add 1 internal rhyme</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do 1 crazy thing to the poem </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guzlowski’s 18 Commandments of Fiction Revision</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Recopy your story — open a new word doc file and start retyping your story. you’ll immediately realize that you are changing stuff as you go. </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">re-write the first sentence – most important sentence try it a different way.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a paragraph of description and change it into dialogu</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pause the story – have the main character think about something that happened long ago that has some relevance to the story.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out the first paragraph of the story</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out the transition paragraphs that get you from one place to another</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add a description of some object that doesn’t seem important to the story—make it important </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Add a paragraph at the end</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Summarize a dialogue scene into a single paragraph or Take a longish description from your story and present it entirely in dialogue</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Introduce a new character</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BOUNCE—description of action, description of place, characters thoughts, dialogue—are the 4 elements you usually see in a story—too often one will go on for too long—bounce it. Introduce dialogue into a block of description, thoughts into a action etc. </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cut out a scene</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change the title of the story</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Re-write the story from a different point of view—my World War II novel was written in the third person. After I finished the first chapter, I re-wrote it in 2</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">nd</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> person and third. Went back to the first.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rearrange the action. Try out the story starting it in the middle. Or starting with the ending and working your way back. drop the first paragraph</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Re-write the first sentence – the most important sentence.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Choose a character from your story who is the least developed right now. Write a list of everything your character resents or is ashamed of in the entire world.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 29.3pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write in the voice of this character twenty years later, describing the events in the story that’s being told in the present. How does the character feel about these events now? How important was this day in the context of his or her life?</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Step-two: Looking at what you have</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once you do a bunch of the sorts of experiments that I describe above, take a look at what you have and see if it works.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Normally, what I will do is take all my versions of a poem or story and spread them out in front of me. Sometimes I’ll have 10 sheets of paper, sometimes 15 sheets with variations of the same piece of writing. Sometimes, only 2 or 3.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I do then is decide which is the versions that works best for me. Different poets do this differently. What I look for is the sound of the poem. So I read each version out loud, and determine in that way which is the version I’ll go with. If I’m comfortable reading it out loud, if it sounds like something that comes easy to my lips and throat and speech rhythms, then it’s the one I take.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I also do sometimes is go through the various drafts and circle what seems to be working best in a draft, and then I work up a super-draft, that is, I work up a draft that tries to bring together the best things from all the drafts.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Sharing your Experiments:</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of this experimenting happens when you’re sitting at your desk. Writing alone. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But there’s a part of the revision process that’s public. And should be public. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t know if Barry Koplen mentioned it but every writer needs a writers’ group to run things by. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes getting involved with writing and revising is so overwhelming that you really can’t tell what’s working and what’s not. I’ve written and rewritten poems and have come up with 15 different versions. My head’s spinning by that time. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I need somebody to look at the stuff and let me know if it’s working.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s where a writers’ group is essential.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve never known a writer who didn’t share early drafts of his or her work with friends, other readers. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Different ways of doing this: you give the friend a draft and wait for comments or you read the thing and get comments. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Either way – it helps. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conclusion: Here’s an important thing to remember</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: don’t think of any draft as your final draft. I’ve never met a writer who didn’t change something in a draft even if that draft was already published. Sometimes we make decisions about a poem and realize later that that decision was the wrong one—and we go back to an earlier draft or even try something new. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our writings are fluid, they are a thing in flux, alive and growing and changing as we think about them and work our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on them. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fact, I think poems and stories like to be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experimented</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on. It’s like when you take your dog out for an unleashed run or a walk: it loves being out in the free air and moving across the countryside like a furry bolt of happiness, seeing what it can do—seeing what miracles of movement it’s got in it.</span></div>
<br />John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-30414938998627812572014-12-10T16:23:00.000-05:002017-09-22T07:31:10.730-05:00I like William Faulkner<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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<a href="http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/Constant-Traveler-William-Faulkner-Oxford-Mississippi-520.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="421" height="320" src="https://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/Constant-Traveler-William-Faulkner-Oxford-Mississippi-520.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
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I hear a lot of complaining about one of my favorite writers, William Faulkner, and I think 95% of it is undeserved.</div>
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I've read all of Faulkner--some books more than 4 times. Most of the books are straight forward reads. There are probably 3 that are difficult: <b>Sound and the Fury</b>, <b>Absalom, Absalom</b>, and<b> Light in August</b>. The others are rewarding but not that difficult. I taught <b>As I Lay Dying</b> to non-English major Freshman for years. They may not have liked it, but they could read and understand it.</div>
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The more I taught <b>As I Lay Dying</b>, the more I liked it, til there was nothing better in the world than reading that book and smacking my lips over its hard scrabble wisdom, wisdom like “It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That's how the world is going to end.”</div>
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Sure some people will say a quote like that doesn't make any sense, but from what I've known of loneliness and love I can guarantee there's the kind of smartness there that will get you over the river when its flooding, and the snow when it's falling hard and quick as angels in the fields of the lord.</div>
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John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-56843251316154946462014-11-29T13:29:00.001-05:002014-11-29T17:56:04.024-05:00Mark Strand Passes Away<img src="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/strand/m-strand.jpg" height="320" width="278" /><br />
<br />
<br />
Mark Strand, a former poet laureate, was one of my favorite poets. <br />
<br />
Here's one of the first poems I read by him.<br />
<br />
<b>Eating Poetry</b><br />
<br />
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.<br />
There is no happiness like mine.<br />
I have been eating poetry.<br />
<br />
The librarian does not believe what she sees.<br />
Her eyes are sad<br />
and she walks with her hands in her dress.<br />
<br />
The poems are gone.<br />
The light is dim.<br />
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.<br />
<br />
Their eyeballs roll,<br />
their blond legs burn like brush.<br />
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.<br />
<br />
She does not understand.<br />
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,<br />
she screams.<br />
<br />
I am a new man,<br />
I snarl at her and bark,<br />
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.<br />
<br />
____________________________-<br />
<br />
Here's a link to an obituary. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/nyregion/mark-strand-80-dies-pulitzer-winning-poet-laureate.html?_r=2John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-48016767825375499222014-11-26T17:03:00.001-05:002016-11-27T08:17:17.683-05:00Transcribing Notes while Waiting for Fedex<div class="MsoNormal">
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So I'm staring out the window waiting for the Fedex guy to show up and pick up this case of wine we never ordered and didn't want, and I'm wondering what can I do while waiting. I don't want to do anything where I have to focus too much because then I might miss the Fedex guy. But I don't want to be wasting my time, so I decided to finally get together all the notes for poems
that I’ve been collecting for the last 6 months. </div>
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Here’s what I mean:</div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m always writing down stuff that pops
into my head, lines for poems, words for poems, topics for poems. I write this stuff down on a piece of paper,
or rather many many pieces of paper. I
have legal pads and scratch pads scattered around the house and when something
interesting hits me, I write it down on one of these pads. I do this all the time, write stuff down,
because I know that if I don’t then I’ll just forget the line or the
phrase. </div>
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Trust me, it happens all the
time. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Just this morning while I was
exercising on my stationary bike two lines, a couplet, came into my head. I went to write it down but couldn’t find a
pen that worked, and before I got to the bedroom where we store dozens of pens,
the lines were gone. You know what
that’s like. Even if they were dreck,
you’ll never know because they’re lost.
And what if they were the lost chord that Leonard Cohen always sings
about?!</div>
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So while waiting for the Fedex guy, I figured I would gather all these notes together and type
them into my computer, and while I’m doing this I can start shifting these
lines and trying to see if they come together as poems or possible parts of
poems. My long poem "Third Winter of War:
Buchenwald" that's included in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Tattered-Tongues-Memory-Unfolded/dp/1607720213/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8">Echoes of Tattered Tongues</a> came together this way. I
spent about a year just jotting stuff down and finally when I sat down and
typed it all into the computer there was the book. A good poem in fact. then it appeared as a chapbook The publisher nominated it for a Pulitzer
Prize!</div>
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So I’m sitting at the desk, looking out the window for the
Fedex guy, and typing. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Typing slow.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Typing slow because I can’t easily read my writing for the
most part. When I dash these lines and
phrases down, I usually write as fast as I can so that I don’t forget what I
want to write. This results in about 40%
of the writing being a blur—is it “a land time egg” or “a long time ago”? “Felt the brown stuff” or “Feel the torn
skin”? </div>
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So I’m doing this and keeping an eye on the window and
typing and pretty soon I realize that most of everything I’m transcribing from
the notes I’ve taken in the last 6 months is shit.</div>
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Holy smokes.</div>
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Really.</div>
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I’m not being coy and looking for praise, I’m not looking for you to tell me, really
this stuff is great. I can see it on the
pages I’ve typed. It’s all junk.</div>
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Let me give you a few of the pages I’ve transcribed:</div>
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">In the dark there is fear and fantasy, dreams
and nightmares</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">when we breathe our last we breathe still—all is
well all is well all is well</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">thank you for listening</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If a man has legs he should walk.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">a man walks into a kitchen looking for a knife</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">the knife is looking for him</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Polish word for hand is <span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; color: #141823; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px; text-indent: 0px;">ręka</span>.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">In German it is shovel, rake, fork, and
knife.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Spring—I watch the earth as if feeds its
dead.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I don’t know what to say.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">A man will drink water if there’s no beer, no
liquor, no love of a woman he knew as a boy.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">No god waiting for his mother and father at the
door of the home he knew as a child</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">For a second just then before dawn the sky is
red.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">All babies are born left-handed.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Some men turn to sorrow, others to anger</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">There is death before birth and birth before
death</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The last man on earth asks for a drink of water</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">there is no one to give it to him</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">There’s no pain like loneliness</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Love isn’t love when it doesn’t exist</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">It came back like the devil and his son</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Man was not built for staying put,</span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">that’s why god gave him two feet</span><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">and a soul that itches.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Self defense is the law of nature not the law of
Jesus</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">forgiveness is indifference</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">in July the grass is dry, the leaves in the
trees as green as they’ll get.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">if a man stands still for a moment, what he’ll
hear is the silence</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Winter is ahead, waiting for the world to catch
up</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The trees of heaven have roots that go deeper
than sorrow.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Love is a kind of literature</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Anything but the wire.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">His voice a violin at a funeral</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; text-indent: -0.25in;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Hell is the place where they keep the cigarettes</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I’m typing this kind of stuff up and getting tired and
taking breaks to look for more notepads and slips of paper with lines written
on them, and it’s getting later and later, and I’m getting disgusted with the
stuff I’m typing up on my computer and wondering where all of it leads, and how
come I don’t just stop typing and do something else, and I’m looking at the
street through the window, and wondering where the Fedex guy is, and suddenly I
see him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There he is. A big
fedex ground truck. My truck. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I’m ecstatic because I can stop worrying about the case
of wine, and the money it’s going to cost me if I don’t get it picked up, and I
can stop worrying about the shit I’m transcribing that refuses to cohere, to
come together in some kind of shape that I can work into a poem. All of the world is suddenly golden because
the Fedex guy is here, and I’m happy at last, and then suddenly the truck
starts up and the truck is over the hill and out of sight in a couple of
seconds. He’s gone. Him and his truck. And he never even got out of the truck, to
walk up the sidewalk to the house and ring the bell or knock on the door to
pick up the case of wine that was waiting just inside the door.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He’s gone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I’ve got to go back to transcribing all of this rotten
poetry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of it—that I can’t read and
that doesn’t make any kind of sense. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I type from the sheets of note
pads:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>I just want to say to the world,
hold me.</li>
<li>And here’s what’s God say, “Not
now.” </li>
<li>He keeps me waiting like a cow.</li>
</ul>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-53401925894518958632014-11-16T14:32:00.001-05:002014-11-16T14:32:43.885-05:00End of Summer, 2014<img src="http://msue.anr.msu.edu/uploads/images/Plant%20Ag/1-24MulchLeaves1REBECCA.jpg" /><br />
<br />
End of Summer:<br />
<br />
Summer comes early to southside Virginia. I start mowing usually around the start of March. For me that's the official start of Summer. The calendars tell you it's sometime in late June, but don't believe them. Calendars are created by people who don't mow. <br />
<br />
Summer starts when you gas up the lawn mower and start the work of keeping the lawn as short as a buzz cut.<br />
<br />
And Summer doesn't end toward the end of September. <br />
<br />
It ends when you do the last mow and sit down and have the last post mow beer.<br />
<br />
Summer ended today about 10 minutes ago.John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-33942644921264994162014-11-15T14:56:00.002-05:002014-11-15T14:56:26.526-05:00Jack Kerouac -- King of the Beats<img height="400" src="http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/CoverArtUnverified/7457.jpg" width="280" /><br />
<br />
I watched Kerouac: the King of the Beats, a documentary on Kerouac and 10 minutes of a movie based on K's novel Big Sur this morning, on Netflix. In the 60s I was a big Kerouac fan, read my first Kerouac novel as I was walking home from finding it in a second hand store. Got hooked instantly.<br />
<br />
Loved the sense of the road--endless driving, looking for kicks. Drinking, smoking, talking beat, jazz, lonely geniuses looking to connect with lonely genuises. <br />
<br />
This stayed with me for a long time. All the way to grad school until I got interested in Postmodernism and that put the nail to Kerouac's coffin.<br />
<br />
But I loved Kerouac -- so after watching the film I went looking for my Kerouac novels and books. I had the full boat of books, but I couldn't find them. Not a one. Not On the Road. Not Subterraneans. Not Mexico City Blues. Nothing. <br />
<br />
I even lookded through a bunch of boxes in the basement and found nothing. <br />
<br />
Weird. <br />
<br />
I'm especially surprised by the disappearance of On the Road.<br />
<br />
I taught it a bunch of times in the late 90s and early 00s, and it wasn't on the shelves with all the other books I've taught out of.<br />
<br />
Weird.<br />
<br />
Teaching Kerouac was an interesting experience. It gave me a different sort of sense of him. When I was just reading him for kicks, I was taken with all the wild ride of Kerouac. <br />
<br />
But teaching him I had to slow that down and think analytically/critically about him and what I found was that he appeared more troubled and more complex. His sense of the blues and jazz and connections with black and brown people came to seem more patronizing. And his sense of Dean Moriarty less accepting, more complex. Moriarty came across as more of an asshole. A guy you couldn't trust. I left the novel On the Road with a sense that Kerouac was hoping he was done with all of that beat stuff, that bohemian stuff.<br />
<br />
By the way, most of the students didn't much go for Kerouac. A couple of guys in each class would like him but that was it. The whole possibility of the road didn't speak to most of the folks. <br />
<br />
And that was true pretty much of the 60s as a whole. I thought a course on the rebellious lit of the 60s a couple of times, and the students kept saying that the rebellion felt flat, old, unimportant. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I'm still looking for the Kerouac books. <br />
<br />
They have to be hear somewhere.<br />
<br />
I wouldn't mind reading On the Road again and seeing what a 66 year old would make of it that a 16 year old didn't. John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-35261241762502390992014-08-22T12:51:00.004-05:002016-05-17T12:41:24.563-05:0038 Easy Steps to Carlyle's Everlasting Yeah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoj9DzE9DMYB12z1P72C2H7HyJyPFFWwWxMjyTjbYwwNuOb05ZwJ7qU_v_jIbdsL6QrYnwFVCtz_rMwkXl-uMxRhVJRH8Sx3Upj5gjjLLpYyuI_UBwzFyPTKessyUc3xIXyFyfBA/s1600/john+tom.jpg" /></div>
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The poem below, like the picture above, is me, around 1968.</div>
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<b>38 Easy Steps to Carlyle’s Everlasting Yea</b><br />
<br />
After living with Rod Mckuen in the horse-filled streets of Sandusky<br />
Arise and sing naked<br />
And dance naked<br />
And visit your mother naked<br />
And be nervous and tragic and plugged in<br />
<br />
And pay the waiter in kisses<br />
And pay the beggar in silver<br />
And embrace the silent and scream for them<br />
And grab watches and ask them for directions<br />
And be a carpenter and redeem all the sins of the University of Illinois<br />
And look for Walt Whitman beneath the concrete in the street<br />
And put your thumbs in your ears and ask somebody to dance<br />
The bossa nova and hear him or her say<br />
Sorry I left my carrots at home<br />
<br />
And eat/write/cry/drink/smoke/laugh and keep holy the Lord’s Day all in the same breath<br />
And ride in subways, whistling at every stop for no reason whatsoever<br />
And stroll along Michigan Avenue with your arms around your comrade, the sky<br />
<br />
And be a blue angelic tricycle<br />
And be any martyr’s unused coffin<br />
And be you or me – it doesn’t matter which<br />
And write poems like Pablo Neruda does<br />
And throw them into the street/into the wind<br />
<br />
And be Christ waiting at the bus stop for a passing crucifixion<br />
and not having enough exact change to mount the cross<br />
And be a mail-order clerk at Sears and send free TV sets to all the charity wards<br />
at Cook County Hospital<br />
And free the masses and free yourself from the masses<br />
And march on Moscow, searching with burnt-out eyes for Zhivago<br />
And be afoot with your vision and be afoot with my vision<br />
And be underfoot and underground<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
And sell magic sparrows at the Maxwell Street Flea market<br />
And carry flowers to the poets’ corner and water them with enormous Byronic tears<br />
And wander through midday downtown Chicago humming “the St. Louis blues”<br />
And wear your best strawberry hat all night long<br />
And know the meaning of nothing<br />
And guess the meaning of everything<br />
And be a mind-blistered astronaut with nothing to say to the sun but<br />
Honey I’m yours.<br />
<br />
_____________________________-<br />
<br />
The above poem was written in 1968 and published in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/City-Big-Shoulders-Anthology-Chicago/dp/1609380908">City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry</a> (2012).<br />
<br />
To read "1968: A True Confession", my other 1968 piece, just click <a href="http://open.salon.com/blog/john_guzlowski/2008/11/26/1968_a_true_confession">here</a>. <br />
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John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30385557.post-5107963212679292682014-08-12T07:24:00.001-05:002014-08-12T07:24:41.690-05:00Every Suicide Hurts<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin-bottom: 4.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.1pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every
suicide hurts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin-bottom: 4.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.1pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
think about the sorrow that must have brought it about, and the sorrow that
spreads from it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin-bottom: 4.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.1pt;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here's
a link to Lucinda Williams singing her great anti suicide song "sweet old
world."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 4.1pt 0in;">
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.46666717529297px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qWJCu3d6EX0" width="420"></iframe></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin-bottom: 4.1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.1pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sweet Old World</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The breath from your
own lips, the touch of fingertips</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A sweet and tender
kiss</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The sound of a
midnight train, wearing someone's ring</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Someone calling your
name</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Somebody so warm
cradled in your arm</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Didn't you think you
were worth anything</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Millions of us in love,
promises made good</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your own flesh and
blood</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Looking for some
truth, dancing with no shoes</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The beat, the rhythm,
the blues</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The pounding of your
heart's drum together with another one</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Didn't you think
anyone loved you</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See what you lost when
you left this world, this sweet old world</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
John Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.com0