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New poetry for #tankatuesday

/ boz bozeman / 14 Comments

This week’s challenge for #Tankatuesday is to create a dodoitsu. The syllabic scheme is 7-7-7-5, and we have to use these “kigo phrases”:

  • #1: “early winter dusk”
  • #2: “chilly north winds blow”
  • #3: “warmth around the hearth” 
Boots crunching the frosted grass
As I turn my face away
So only one side is cold
Chilly north winds blow

I wipe the crumbling leaves
Off of the neatly stacked wood
Barely visible in the
Early winter dusk

Left arm lifts wood to my right
Cradling against my chest
Holding the future fire 
Warmth around the hearth

If you like my poetry, I hope you’ll check out my book Self of Steam. <<that’s the link to the book 🙂

Excerpt from my new book!

/ boz bozeman / 2 Comments

This is from a poem called “The Spark”. I wrote it about an event in Hartford called “Other People’s Poetry”. Held outdoors at the host’s house, I imagined a young woman sitting in her apartment window next door and being inspired by the poems she heard. 

You lean in closer, tilt your head,  
So your ear is nearly pressed to the screen  
Like an elderly woman 
Leaning into her iPhone.  

Still, you only hear shards of words.  
“The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame.” 
They rear in front of you, these eyes,  
So monstrous that they are alight with fire.  
They will be with you for days  
Lighting your way with wild rage.   

More snapping. 
A woman sits, 
A man rises to the microphone. 
He reads: “There will be time, there will be time  
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;  
There will be time to murder and create.”  

Murder AND create?  
How can they be in the same line?

I’d love it if you bought a copy! Here’s the link to purchase it from Amazon!

Happy Thanksgiving

/ boz bozeman / 5 Comments

For this weeks #tankatuesday, I reflected on a flurry that was spinning in the air as I took Anna out for our little walk before bed. I love these small hints of winter, and snow’s crystal nature and dancing ways always fascinate me.

I don’t know about you, but I would take snow over cold rain any day. 

The brief snowflakes swirl
In a dance of becoming
That changes to rain

If you like my poems, I hope you’ll check out my new book Self of Steam. Many of the poems, such as the title verse, are based on mistakes my students made in their writing that suggested poetic images to me. I would love for you to give it a try.

Big Challenge from #tankatuesday

/ boz bozeman / 12 Comments

This week’s challenge asked us to write three tanka and use these “kigo phrases” at the beginning or middle-hinge line:

#1: “the first month with sleet”
#2: “late winter garden”
#3: “blanket by the fire”

Here is mine!

The first month with sleet
Hike leaning into the wind
Beard reducing sting
A mask from the intense cold
My head bows to Nature's strength

The seeds we have not planted
No growth drinks the waning sun
Late winter garden
A product of fantasy
No farms no food then no feast

Wind opens the door
Icicle beard melts in warmth
A blanket by the fire
Wine glasses reflecting flames
My warmth is doubled by her

Be the first to buy my new poetry book Self of Steam

First Frost

/ boz bozeman / 4 Comments

I’m back on #TankaTuesday. This week’s challenge is to write about the First Frost.

Frist frost glistening
In my headlights as I turn
Diamonds perch on grass

This actually happened this morning, so the timing is perfect. Although a sign of cold and winter, the beauty of crystals lit up in the dark warms the season.

Of Streaks, and their ending

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For a while there, I was all about streaks. I had a Step Streak on my Fitbit, Snap Streaks on my Snapchat, and a WordPress Streak on my Jetpack App because I posted on this site every day for a while. Yep, I was a streaker. 

The first to go was my WordPress streak. I have to say I was always split about daily posting. I felt like I was finding content that was good, but it was tough to keep up the pace.  

At one point I was talking to some friends, but when I mentioned posting every day, my boy Bobby was like “Whoa, that’s too much.” He followed up saying that it might be too much for the audience, but it was definitely too much for me to sustain. Bobby reminded me that even though writing is my passion, it isn’t my job. 

Last summer swallowed my Snapchat streak. It was over three years old, so this is a sad story. In early August I got to a spot where I was focusing on a landscaping project, and everything else was ancillary. The streak got lost in these weeks, but I felt bad about spacing it. The end of it got me thinking that streaks are important, but that maybe it’s fine to let them go because they aren’t always sustainable.

I learned the most from the Fitbit streak. Over 500 straight days I did at least 13,000 steps. Often it was a lot more.  

Continue reading →

Bravery

/ boz bozeman / 2 Comments

I held my mother’s hand tightly, and she grasped mine with all the strength of her 88-year-old muscles. We stood on the sidewalk right outside the hairdressing studio. We had been standing there for a while. 

Her grip conveyed her fear: it was the step she needed to make from the sidewalk, over the curb down to the parking lot. My car was parked two feet away, running, the passenger door open for her. 

I told my partially deaf, partially blind old mother that she’d “Done this a million times before.”  

“I know. But I’m scared this time.” 

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Autumn Glory

/ boz bozeman / 2 Comments 
Fall leaves!  
I celebrate your splash of color 
Your delicate yellows  
Citrus orange  
Majestic red 

I honor you, 
Because your changing hue 
Is the glory 
Of leaves dying.  

I will not forget your verdant green 
Your spring and summer   
Wind dances  
Hushing and shushing together. 
The brief glimpse of your  
Light underside.  

And to those trees  
That have already shed their leaves?  
I donʼt blame you.  
Iʼm tired too.

Editing as Microcosm

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I am hopefully getting near the end of the editing my first book of poetry titled Self of Steam. I am seeing this process as a microcosm of who I am creatively, and even in other parts of my life.

Each step mirrors how I work. Let’s go to a bulleted list to illustrate my point:

  • Hit with the enthusiasm for a project, I begin with full engagement, passion and energy. I will get a great deal done in a short amount of time.
  • Even when the fire cools a little, I am still caught by the glimmering possibility that is calling me from the still distant end. I work with determination, and look forward to building more.
  • The enthusiasm wears off, but my work ethic and ability to focus takes over.
  • I hit a major roadblock. Though I wrestle with it, it saps my energy and determination.
  • I begin to avoid the work.
  • I feel guilt for avoiding the work.
  • I return to the work, but the frustration is still there.
  • I finally get past the avoidance and frustration, and I get past the regret.
  • Project gets finished.
  • I wonder why I had to fight it so long, which somewhat mars the satisfaction of completing it.

This is the stage I am at with this website. I feel guilty about not posting, but I am a little overwhelmed by the prospect of keeping it going for a long time. Indeed, I am writing this more out internal pressure than any creative spark.

But this last part isn’t really so bad. I have learned about my capacity to create even if I don’t feel creative. This lesson may just take the place of some of the frustrations of my process.

Someday.