writing

Great Pond State Forest

/ boz bozeman / 1 Comment

The cover of my poetry book Self of Steam is a picture I took at Great Pond State Forest. The pond was iced over, and the reflection of the forest was ghostly. I thought the picture evoked the title of the book, and the spirit of the poem that it is named after.

Click the cover to purchase my book from Amazon.

I call the tall tree in the upper center of the picture “Great Tree”. I came up with this name to reflect its location by Great Pond, but also because I believe it is the tallest tree in the forest. I like to stand underneath it, appreciating its thick bole and impressive height.

Anna and I went to see our friends today. The above video gives a sense of how towering Great Tree is.

This is Brain Rock. Another of my friends in the woods. I like to stop and visit with both of them. They remind me to slow down, clear my thoughts, and appreciate what is around me.

Winter Tanka

/ boz bozeman / 15 Comments

Tankatuesday.com is really helping me embrace winter imagery, along with the challenge of writing unfamiliar forms of poetry. And the counting syllables on the fingers. Multiple times, making sure. This time it’s 57577 – and you gotta give me “covers” as two syllables while “warmth” is just one.

Winter cloud covers
The thin warmth of the low sun
Light in the darkness
Clouds open and the frost shines
Holly branches sparkling

The third line is the pivot, meaning it should shift the movement of the poem in a different direction, but still relate to the first two lines. This invited the contrast between winter’s hard to love side with its great and sudden beauty.

My new poetry book Self of Steam is available now! I hope you will check it out.

“Great Pond” from my book Self of Steam

/ boz bozeman / Leave a comment

This is the beginning of my poem “Great Pond”. I visit Great Pond State Park frequently, as it is a five minute drive from my house. So when Anna and I took a rain hike there today, I felt like I should post from the poem I wrote about an epic hike we took there one time.

Great Pond  

I am dressed for a hike
In the sunlight.
My gear is made for a crisp 
November 52 degrees. 
Long sleeve dry weave, 
Solid hiking pants. 

5 minutes in it’s raining. 
Sure the shirt is wicking water, 
But it’s not made for the heavy stuff. 
And 52 in the rain is different, 
Than 52 in the sun. 

The rain stops. 
I step along and look up. 
Contrasting cloud greys: 
Dense scudders looming dark 
Against 
The eggshell white background. 

5 minutes later 
More rain, heavy at times. 
I laugh as the dog and I  
Are getting soaked. 
I laugh because I believe we should laugh 
Humans should laugh 
When we’re getting soaked, 
Especially if it’s 
On a relatively warm day 
And a car not far away. 

Even if it’s 2020. 
Especially if it’s 2020 

5 minutes later it’s hail: 
Small pellets,  
Hat bill clickers, 
Rock tickers, 
Ricocheting off trees onto me. 
Not big enough to hurt the dog. 

Again I grin,  
A little more fiercely, 
Since unannounced winter is here.

Want more? The adventure continues in my book Self of Steam available from Amazon!

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

/ boz bozeman / Leave a comment

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 →