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OOPS! A couple of corrections have been made to last poem if you get it on Google reader. Thank you to my loyal readers for helping me catch mistakes and making my writing better. A comment from the man himslef, Mr. Baca, via email: “thank you for kind words…and i like your poem very much…” Call me darling and slap the gloat out of my face tomorrow; today I bask (Texas, ya’ll, Texas.) Did you know Sandra Cisneros, Maria Palacios and Ed Sanders have been among the few famous visitors to this blog? Famous bloggers also include tisha, latimer, tonnet, mailart, Ronald, Jonathan, Marty, villager and you. (Marty, I am so not techy savvy but I promise I will do some more updating to my site and getting a feeder button.) It’s about the art form and the connection and I appreciate everyone’s feed back; thank you for reading.

Around town: My mentor will be presenting her original craft on the life of Frida at TBH this weekend.

Poetry News: The joy of being in the blogosphere have brought me these wonderful sites starting with Lederer’s “have tongue will travel” site, Kurt’s rules on writing poetry from gotpoetry.com, and the wonderful wordorigins.com. The website I gravitate the most still continues to be poets.org now with a find a place where you shout the poetry that quivers in your little soul: the poetry map. BTW, I have to thank MyBlogLog.com for the amount of exposure and connections to my site. The Blogosphere will observe a day of silence for the victims of the Virginia Tech incident, pass it on.

I’ll end with the following: “When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, even our virtues.” given by L. Rivera from Ry’s and Flaco’s version of “Girl’s from Texas.” Because the wrong man can drive a woman to insanity and the right one can bring her back in motion.

Okay, so I almost fell over laughing on this one when I saw it on my feed from poets.org. What, there is an actual vein for poetry about toilet experiences? LOL!!! I am sure many of us can give descriptive detail about our last visceral yoga, however, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of poetry? Seriously, this is a short poem of 8 lines with only two rhymes in which one line is repeated 2-3 times to give it rhythm and flow. You gotta love it!

National poetry month rocks! I’ve gone through 4 pens and not even a fever that makes me speak in tongues can keep me from posting. On the poetry news: Check out Education World, Poetry Teachers, and Funny Poetry for Children. Also check out The Tao of Pooh (darn, the bear is more emotionally evolved than I am!).

In the local scene: It took this man 40 years and a tremendous amount of money to make this a breath taking exhibition. Absolutely all his work is printed on rice paper (no, not like the spring rolls, like the tree, I had to ask) and not one of them was from an aerial view. A picture of frozen grass at a point where thousands of men died making the wall, the docent explains, “My house in India was 200 years old. People die all over the world without even a headstone. That’s universal and of no significance.” Check it out at MFAH going on through August. Also into the Spanish poetry scene with the lyrical poetas of the trova, April 25th at Bohemios, (see bottom blogroll) sponsored by KPFT, 90.1. Support the historical documentation and preservation of Houston by HAM on 4/26 at St. Arnold’s. Check out the Dali Lama, at Rice, May 1st. Wow.

Did you know Pablo Neruda’s name was Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto? LOL, that is so hispanic!! Much props go out to the Tisha for including me in her blog roll. I know you’ve heard me complain about the state of hip hop, well here is a chance to do something about it or check out Villager. I don’t believe in ads on my blog, specially when I can’t control one that says talk to teens (or any of the more lewd ads aimed towards minors), so when I endorse an organization, it’s because I believe in them. So please don’t forget to donate to my student’s scholarship fund. If you have trouble with the website, let me know.

I’ll end with a question that Andre asked me, “How successful you have been with your poetry?” Success in poetry doesn’t necessarily mean money (although it is welcomed but have you seen the poetry section at B&N?), but perhaps a communication or a connection. How successful am I on that? I’ll let you the audience decide.

Okay, a little diversion from the creative writing I usually place up. It’s national poetry month and I really dig the way, the following people are contributing to it:

Shel Silverstein is giving poems on his website. Also try your visual poetry with dumpr.net. It’s even inspiring me to get a flicker account and be on the web more hours than I should. Hey that’s the plight of being single, huh? Yep, pink snowboard guy thinks so. If you are into great writing, check out and hear the fabulous audio of Brooks and Hughes. Just because a poet can’t read their work, don’t write them off, check out “Bolshevescent,” a poem about everything to loose and gain at the same time. I am a big fan of Milton’s blog bringing me topics related to education and identity. I love the words of Frank Bidart, “What you love is your fate.” So in code, action, and thought, inspire people with the poetry that is you.

However, there’s gotta be some standard to poetry and the author has to be accountable for the words in more ways than the thing just sounded pretty on paper. There has to be honesty, a sincere want to communicate, systematic art form, a reason for diction and adequate variation. That’s it. Easy but not when you try it. The rest is instinct like when dogs recognize themselves by smell. So let me show you what I mean:

“Hey, you’re doing it, like I didn’t tell you to, my sinking laundry boat, point of departure, my white pomegranate, my swizzle stick.” –J. Ashbury (and that costs $23.95) It’s like the state of hip hop today. Get some common sense people! Seriously guys, I am not “playa hating” and will gladly endorse worthwhile writing like the people mentioned above. Granted some styles you may not be able to vibe with or because you haven’t had that experience it may not speak to you, but, PLEASE, tell me when my poetry is this stinky.