Last week, we asked our Facebook friends to submit their own writing prompts. This is one from Mary Stone Dockery:

Find a poem written by another person. One you love. Erase every other line and fill in the blanks, finishing the sentences. When you finish, go through and erase the rest of the original lines, and fill in the rest of the blanks to fit with your words. You will have a whole new poem!

Mary’s chapbook Aching Buttons (dancing girl press) was published in January 2012. She is the co-founding editor of Stone Highway Review, and co-edits Blue Island Review, in addition to reading for Gemini Magazine and writing mini reviews for Portal del Sol.

I’m doing things differently this week, because why not? Usually, I pick a book and read it and figure out what I have to say about it. Today, I’d like to talk about a book I bought because I want to get something very specific out of reading it.

We all have something in our lives from which we draw strength or comfort, depending on what we need. For a long time, I relied heavily on Letters to a Young Poet, a collection of ten letters from German poet Rainer Maria Rilke to aspiring poet and military academy student Franz Xaver Kappus. In his letters, Rilke advises Kappus on all aspects of his inner life, from resolving the need to be a writer to falling in love without losing his mind. Not all of the advice was useful when I was 16, but I’ve read the book at least a dozen times and always find some new little nugget to keep in mind.

I still love the book dearly, but lately have felt like I need something else. Another point of view or a something completely new to chew on. Rilke excels in navigating one’s inner life and now that I’m an adult, at least chronologically, I feel like I need help with the external world. I find other people incredibly frustrating because I don’t feel like we really understand one another. Sometimes, I wonder which one of us is the Martian in Earthling’s clothes.

After a particularly dispiriting week at work and a string of grad school rejection letters, I indulged in some retail therapy. Some girls go for sparkly things, others go for shoes, I go for books. Not that there’s anything wrong with sparkly things and shoes, because I’ll gladly buy those, too. But there’s something I find deeply comforting about bringing new books into my collection – each one is a chance to see the world from another perspective, and I am desperate need of some perspective.

The following is an approximation of what ran through my head during this last purchase.
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The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation announced the dates for the 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival at a press conference last Tuesday.  Poets and poetry-enthusiasts alike from across the continent flock to this largest poetry event in North America every two years.  This year’s festival, like 2010’s, is to go down at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark.  The festival will span four days:  October 11^th – 14^th.

I am indescribably excited for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: (more…)

Last week, I posted a “mini-contest” thing on the Cobalt Facebook page, asking for followers to submit stories in response to “Welcome Home Daddy.” This was a photograph of a woman – a #FAIL reported by the woman’s local news station – whose exposed belly read “Welcome Home Daddy” as she waited for her husband at the airport. He was returning from a 12-month tour in Iraq. You see the #FAIL, yes?

The idea was to have our followers write up a brief response from the “father.” (more…)

I had full intentions on writing a hard-core chick lit novel (if the terms ‘hard-core’ and ‘chick lit’ could even be put in the same sentence). I was unashamed, and felt completely okay with the fact that I would be spending the next two years of my life engrossed in a love story with a strong female character getting off her feet in a really, really nice pair of shoes.

I loved the genre. I had grown up with it from the early 90’s through my college years, and felt comfortable with it – Bridget Jones, Devil Wears Prada, Carrie from Sex in the City – all women I looked up to. Plus, I was in my mid-twenties and perfectly suited to write about this life I was currently living.

But I soon realized that the typical chick lit story just wouldn’t suffice. (more…)