play by play

so while watching the stanely cup (go blackhawks!) the annoucer used the word tutteling. and i just loved it! when do you hear the word tutteling in hockey?! it was amazing. and i just had to share my excitement.

there's an app for that

want to have poetry at the tip of your fingers? if you have an iphone, the poetry foundation has come up with an app for the iphone so that you can have hundreds of poetry at the tip of your fingers. my only problem is that i don't have an iphone. so i can't have poetry at the tip of my fingers (did i say 'tip of my fingers' enough for you?). but it would be so cool if i could. good old apple, always knows what i want. like poetry at all times.

shakespearean insulter

so you want to insult someone like shakespeare did in the good old days? look no futher then here. Thou weedy swag-bellied codpiece!

quoteables 2

so i know i did this already for this month, but i feel like doing it again. my blog i'll do what i want.

-"you can close your eyes to things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to things you don't want to feel." - ?

-"come to my window. crawl inside, wait by the light of the moon." - melissa etheridge

-"she's a melody that i've tried to forget, but i can't. it still follows me." - jamie cullum

-"is there time to follow just one desire?" - dashboard confessional

-"the animal does not question life. it lives. its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes it." - ray bradbury from the martian chronicles

-"i wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it. collapse into me, tired with joy." - snow patrol

the language of conservation

poets house has designed a program to make zoo goers more aware of the evironmental impact that people have on this world. with the help of the american library association the outcome of the project will be shared in libraries across the country. the program is in 5 different cities: new orleans, milwaukee, little rock, jacksonville, and chicago and features poets-in-residence that collaborate with wildlife biologists and exhibit designers to curate exhibitions in zoos that feature poems celebrating the natural world and the connection between species. 

i think is very exciting; for both the zoos and for the poets. i hope the installations will last all summer long at the zoos. thankfully i live where i can go to both milwaukee's and chicago's. i won't get to go to the opening day's, but i for sure will be going to see them. i love the zoo and i love poetry. there's no better combination. i have a mini update - the milwukee installation is a permanent addition to the zoo.

part of the installation in new orleans.

russia wants you... to read books.

so russia was alarmed at the tendency for people to read less these days so they have decided to create an ad campaign to have people read more. the moscow writers union have place 100 thematic billboards saying 'read books', 'discover new things', 'be guided by knowledge' and 'fill in the gaps!' on the city streets. young people are the target of the campaign for they are the ones more likely to read the internet but not a book. Alexander Gerasimov, a spokesman for the moscow writers union said, "Such indifference can lead to erosion of entire cultural layers, to depletion of knowledge about literature, to the loss of national self-identification." gerasimov and the writers union plan to make this a russian wide campaign and not just in moscow.

i find this funny but awesome at the same time. good for russia to create an add campaign to get people to read. whatever gets people to read more, do it!  i found an old communist poster to get people to read and i just had to share that. the poster is from the 1920's.

the poster says: Literacy is the road to communism.

free books for kids!

so borders is doing this cool summer reading thing for kids that i'm very excited about;even though i'm much too old to participate in it. it's for kids of 12 years old or under. borders is double-dog daring kids to read 10 books and then they get a free one. and the 10 books can be any 10 books, but the free book is from a certain group of books. but there are some good ones that they are giving away. just some of the free ones are: Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (a personal favorite) and The River by Gary Paulsen. 10 books seems like a bunch of books, but the kids have all summer to read them. so i think that kids should be able to do it. i think this is a great thing for borders to do and hope that many kids complete it and get the free book.

a lighted carousel - the final frontier

so today at work i brought my friend who took the carousel picture - i brought him the poem i had written to go with the picture. he said that he liked the poem. and he said he really liked the first line "safe in the dark" for that's not a normal thing. people don't normally say they are safe in the dark. i'm so glad that he liked the poem. and i'm so glad that he liked that line. it's one of my personal favorites of the poem and i think it's perfect for the beginning of it. so i gave him the poem since it was his picture that inspired me to write it. i just love that photo! all of his photo's were great but that one i just can't stop loving. just amazing! and just because i can't get over the picture i'm going to share it again.

jeremy also read the poem and he said he liked it. he didn't want to judge the photo yet for it was a picture taken of a picture. but he said that the poem made him think of a person who had died and their spouse is waiting for them on the other side and then at the end the couple are together. and even though that's not the thought i had behind the poem, i still like to hear what he thinks. it's always fun to hear what a person thinks a poem means. for you never know until the poet actually says what it means. i'm going to be stingy and not share. but hey that's ok. that's just how i roll (i can't believe i just wrote that).

ok i'm going to stop gushing about the photo. i just love it so much! and just so amazing that it inspired me. so my thanks go to my dear friend for letting me have the photo that has inspired me so much.