2010 Poetry Resolutions

Over at ReadWritePoem, there's a compilation of members' 2010 poetry resolutions. If you find yourself with a few spare moments, check it out. You never know what you'll find.

Here's part 1, part 2, and part 3*.

*My resolution is featured in part 3.

goodbye, 2009.

For the past few days I've been wondering how to start -- or write -- this post. So much happened this year; I honestly have no idea where to begin.

In chronological order, the highlights of my 2009:

-Apologies to an Apple arrives
-getting to chat with Beth Kephart, who is incredible
-my half-birthday
-National Poetry Month and the poem-a-day challenge
-talking to the fun and fabulous Justina Chen Headley
-hosting Poetry Friday for the first time
-being a part of the Summer Blog Blast Tour at Miss Erin's
-my first acceptance, from Crab Creek Review
-joining Twitter (I was so excited)
-the American Idols Live! Tour 2009, which was so amazing
-my NYC/Niagara/DC trip
-attending Janet Lee Carey's book launch party
-my 12th birthday
-the ReadWritePoem virtual book tour
-the very first collaborative poem here
-my collaboration with Erin, titled "Carving"
-my 200th post

I'm excited and pumped for 2010. I think it's going to be another great year.

Merry Christmas

I hope that this year you and your family enjoy a Christmas filled with light, love, and joy.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you and your family a warm and safe holiday season.

Double Chocolate

My sister of awesomeness and I baked brownies yesterday.

(They're really, really, really, really, really good.)

(I also went outside and helped my dad put up more Christmas lights.)

(Winter break rocks.)

hot cocoa and marshmallows

"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."

Harlan Miller

 christmas lights

the 'merry christmas' sign I made and hung up in my room

on my wall

*

No snow...but a lot of spirit.

Free.

I'm officially on winter break. :)

(she brings the sunset)

trainwreck

sorry! the poem has been taken down for other purposes.

200th post!

Thank you for reading through the past year. I'm really proud to present the 200th post of allegro, which is full of a little bit of news from places I've been recently.

January of Poet Mom just received her copy of her brand-new book, Underlife, today! It's super exciting, so make sure you stop by her blog and congratulate her!

My mom brought home her awesome new car/crossover/SUV yesterday, and it's absolute heaven. The seats are heated, it's just the right size, and the sound system is just incredible. I love it.

I was able to resurrect my sister's 177-page story -- her take on Harry Potter -- titled "Dobby and Winky." She and I both wrote stories based on Harry Potter (but with our own original storylines, of course) a few years ago, and she's been posting chapters of hers on her blog.  It's filled with booing Slytherins, elves making banners, and an elf-run "Movee Club." We wrote these when she was eight and I was six. Mine's a little over 200 pages. (I still take pleasure in having written more than her.) 

Thank you to everyone who's ever read or commented on any of my 200 posts. It means a lot to me.

i've been dreaming of a white christmas

on our christmas tree:

Susan of Color Online interviewed me over at her blog. Please stop by! It was a blast answering her questions, so take a few minutes to visit Color Online and drop a comment. You can read the interview here. It's such an honor to be featured on the site.

(If you'd like to see a complete compilation of all the interviews, articles, and book reviews for Apologies to an Apple, click here.)

[danielle]

Swing by Danielle's blog today to wish her a very happy birthday! She's turning seventeen. She interviewed me at her former blog, Seeking Neverland, and she's an all-around fun person. I have to meet her in person.

I sent her an e-mail last night that encompassed everything I had to say with Taylor Swift song titles. She's a huge fan, and I honestly couldn't think of a more perfect way to write her a birthday greeting. So here it is. [Happy birthday, Danielle.]

Dear Danielle,

Happy birthday! I hope today turns out to be THE BEST DAY of your life. You are a SUPERSTAR who will continue to shine, FOREVER AND ALWAYS. You have A PLACE IN THIS WORLD that is very special, and you are a beautiful girl who is TIED TOGETHER WITH A SMILE and will never come undone. You are going to CHANGE the world -- and you'll never be left on THE OUTSIDE.

OH MY MY MY, you are so inspirational and fun! We'll meet someday and sing OUR SONG together. JUMP THEN FALL into a life that holds nothing but happiness on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, because you are so incredible that you are UNTOUCHABLE. LAST CHRISTMAS I met you online, and I'm so glad I did. YOU'RE NOT SORRY for who you are, and that's one of the most amazing and fun things about you. You have A PERFECTLY GOOD HEART, and your life will only get CRAZIER with success.

So happy birthday, FEARLESS girl. STAY BEAUTIFUL.

Maya

Believe

Macy's Believe campaign has teamed up with the Make-a-Wish Foundation this Christmas to help make wishes come true! Write a letter to Santa, stamp it, and bring it to any Macy's store to drop it off in Santa's letterbox. (They'll be delivered to the North Pole, guaranteed.)

Macy's will donate $1 (up to $1,000,000) to the Make-a-Wish Foundation for every letter received. For more information about the Make-a-Wish Foundation, visit http://www.wish.org/.

*

(ps) My sister is the newest addition to the readergirlz street team! It's very exciting. Please stop by her blog to congratulate her!

Lines*

sorry! the poem's on its way to another home. maybe next time you'll catch one before it leaves. :)

*I didn't submit this for Poetry Friday because I will be taking this one down soon. This piece is a culmination of a lot of things that have been sitting around in my mind and in my drafts for a while now, and all the fragments needed a place to go. I figured that maybe if I combined them I'd come up with something, and I guess it worked. (As always, please do not reprint without permission.)

Thankful

I have a lot to be thankful for today. I'm so lucky, and that's why I create a list every Thanksgiving of things I have to be thankful for:

• you! Thank you for visiting, commenting, subscribing -- every reader counts.
• my family, the most amazing group of people I'll ever meet
• life. I'm enjoying it so far.
• love
• books
• music. songs. tunes that get stuck in your head.
• rain and snow! I can't live without my precipitation.
• warmth and light
• my sister (Yes, she's family, but she's my biggest inspiration.)
• laughter
• holidays (especially Christmas!)
• winter
• Apologies to an Apple!
• people who believe(d) in me
• people who make me laugh
• a roof over my head and food on the table
  
• and everything else in my life that I can't remember right now.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

(p.s. Drive over to Notes from the Nerdette to read bookbutterfly's interview with my ever-entertaining sister. In fact, the interview is entertaining as well -- it involves algebraic equations for Golpalott's Third Law, mind reading skills, American Idol...oh yeah, and (awful) live performances from Taylor Swift.)

Home

winter candles burning.

it rains steadily outside,

darker and darker.

Stay

Stay.
But don't turn away
from the city, from the dragon-smoke
from the kind old folk
stay, just one more day.
Don't leave my heart, under,
don't leave me wondering
because I can't see why
you think it's over.

This is what happens when you all put your heads together. Beautiful, isn't it? Thank you to Debbie, Kelli, Kirthi, Q, Danielle, Erin, Priya, and Myrna for participating!

eta: There was a flurry of comments after the final date. Unfortunately, I will not be adding them in, as they don't fall within the span of four days I set aside for the poem. Thank you for participating, but they aren't part of the poem. (This applies to all entries after the deadline for every collaborative poem I do in the future as well.) 

Here we go again

Our last collaborative poem was amazing! I've never done anything like it before, but everyone responded wholeheartedly and it turned out to be an incredible poem!

Here we go again! The rules:

You don't have to be a poet to participate. In the comments for this post, add one line of poetry. Make sure it fits with the lines that others have added before you (and please don't copy and paste the lines before yours!). It doesn't have to be the most astounding, mind-blowing line ever created. It doesn't even have to be "good." Make today the day you start writing poetry, if you never have.


I'm leaving this poem open for four days. You have until 2 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Eastern) on November 18 to submit your line.

Here's my opening line:

Stay.

Go!

Last night

Streetlights on the highway

burn in the dark.

Three lanes stretch forward,

taking us somewhere, anywhere.

(Thanks to Holly Cupala for linking to "Carving" at Brimstone Soup!)

"Carving"

This is a collaboration between Erin and me. We decided to write a poem together on the first of June, and we alternated, one of us writing a stanza and then sending it back to the other person for them to add their new lines. We finished on October 24 and did some last-minute touch-ups and edits.

It was a very cool experience to team up with Erin and put together this piece. She has talent, and she's so dedicated that I have to admit she made my job pretty easy. It was so much fun, and I think I'd definitely be interested in doing a project like this again.

Carving

yesterday,
sitting in a plum tree,
I saw a strange miracle

under cold sweet sky,
empty dark air
a shawl around shaking shoulders.

stars spell my name
not the name
you used to call me
with your rough lips
and uncomfortable laugh

I leave behind
what I can't remember
in a sea of
broken
lost
praying

even so,
I wonder if you knew
if you knew what it meant
how each word
tore
scratched
clawed

do you remember
how much it hurt?
what did i leave
b
e
h
i
n
d
?

but I look at the name
the one I will never tell you
and something inside me
whispers,
I will be okay

my shirt smells
of you. are we in a new
world?

I wish the answer were simple,
a soft "yes" whispered by weary lips
on orange-tinted breath

I wish I knew, wish this life
was in the air like strands of cold
fog drifting away

but all I have in this moment
is dirt and tree bark
under my fingers,
rough but real
unfair but tangible
something to hold onto
when you're not here

the days washed away beside
us, winters and springs and summers
that we never cared about.
in those black-and-white minutes,
we belonged to ourselves and
nobody else.

it was like being a child,
sand castles and strawberry ice cream
and knees skinned on pavement.
together we defied time,
two Peter Pans hand-in-hand.
 
I wish it were still
postcard-perfect. Maybe I want
something else. I'm not sure.
It's called insecurity, isn't it?—

—this wishing for things not there
when all I have to hold
are five letters
and a tangled possibility

copyright Erin McIntosh and Maya Ganesan (2009)

(Poetry Friday roundup at Wild Rose Reader)

Play On

Carrie Underwood's third album, "Play On," was released at midnight today. It's an incredible album, and it's full of gold. If you haven't figured out yet that I'm an enormous Carrie Underwood fan, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for evidence.

I made sure I purchased the album as soon as it was available on iTunes last night. I'm currently listening to "Play On" and I can safely say it's my favorite CD ever.

Go get it. You won't regret it, I promise. It's amazing.

Collaboration rocks

We are alive.
We sift sand through each other's parted fingers,
grasping at imaginary thoughts that
sharpen
as we walk through the
shortening days
fearing nothing but
fearfulness, and
the growing nearness of when
the stars stop shining.
We do not fear, for we live
and dream of bursting through our sky blue shell
to drift, bleached logs set to shore,
our hands tipped skyward,
reaching for everything that could be.

Our readers' collaborative poem! Thank you to the 13 folks who participated! I LOVE the poem that came out of everyone's two cents, and I think I'm going to do this again because it was super-fun to see all the one-liners pouring in.

HUGE HUGE thanks to the participants: Dana, Danielle, Myrna, Erin, cuileann, Beth, Q, Debbie, Priya, Georgie, briarcat, Deb, and Emma!

1

It's November 1st. I'm celebrating one year of solid blogging today. I don't have a huge party planned, but I do write poetry.

(The idea is taken from ReadWritePoem. I thought it was a cool idea, so I'm stealing it. It's probably been done before, though.) You don't have to be a poet to participate. In the comments for this post, add one line of poetry. Make sure it fits with the lines that others have added before you (and please don't copy and paste the lines before yours!). It doesn't have to be the most astounding, mind-blowing line ever created. It doesn't even have to be "good." Make today the day you start writing poetry, if you never have.

You have until 9 a.m. Pacific Time (12 p.m. Eastern) on November 2nd to add your line to the readers' collaborative poem. Get your friends and family to participate. The more the merrier! The compiled poem will be posted sometime in the morning on the 2nd. (Please don't post as Anonymous -- at the end of the poem, I'll be adding credits, and it's frustrating to have multiple Anons.)

I'll kick it off with my line:

We are alive.

It's on!

(photo credit)

busy busy busy around the clock

It's been rainy/cloudy/gray lately, but it's a very pretty sky. On a happier note, the sunshine is back today -- it's gorgeous. The leaves are a beautiful orange-red color; the outdoors look so October-crisp and just right. I love weather like this, where it's not too cold and not too warm.

Another thing I love is that tomorrow is my blogging anniversary. I have a surprise planned, and of course it involves poetry. Later this week, Erin and I will be sharing another very special (and very cool) surprise, and it's going to be so much fun. You're going to love it, and I'm so excited to post it up.

Have a safe and happy Halloween.

{we create love}

places i visit:

FASHION + DESIGN
camilla engman
lena corwin
my little corner of the world
oh happy day
seesaw designs

LIFE
book crumbs
eating a tangerine
freefalling me
just me
miss erin
over the rainbow
seeking neverland
the curly q
the summermoon chronicles

WRITEWRITE
beth kephart books
carolee sherwood
first draft: leonardo likes gulls
i am maureen
my gorgeous somewhere
on point
poet mom

7:30 p.m.

Police. Crash. Hill.
Ambulance.

Spinning colors. Traffic.
Red light: we stop.

Smashed metal to the left,
the wreckage of two cars.
We shake our heads and
move on.

*****

Saw this mess of an accident on the way home. Praying for them.

(Poetry Friday roundup at laurasalas.)

the first happiness is the deepest.

I'm excited about reading my contributor's copy once it arrives in the mail. This is my very first acceptance -- the Summer 2009 edition of Crab Creek Review -- so it's very special to me.

The cover is beautiful and I know the pieces will be as well. This is so cool.

let's make music tonight.

This 5th grade elementary-school choir, the PS22 Chorus, is from Staten Island, NY. Their renditions of songs from mainstream radio have caught the attention of MTV, VH1, and big names in the music business (who have paid them a visit!) including Stevie Nicks, Beyonce, Rihanna, and Lady GaGa.

To view more of this incredible choir's performances (and for more information & celebrity endorsements), visit http://www.ps22chorus.blogspot.com/.

and you just might find who you're supposed to be.

My one-day-late birthday cake. It was heavenly anyway.

(Click on it to view it larger. It'll make your mouth water.)

*****

The third stop on the RWP tour is at Amulya Rajan's Piper in the Desert. Please stop by and leave a comment as she put so much time and effort into her review and it's an incredible review. You'll love it.

Kimberlee Titus Gerstmann hosted the fourth stop at her blog, Scraps & Sass. Another great review.

Thank you!

*****

My latest poem is titled 'Eliza.' It's the first one I've written in a few months, so it was nice to be able to get over that wall. Out of all the poems I've written in my life, this is my favorite. (In other words, this poem is pretty big news.) It's lonely and reflective and pretty and I'm head over heels in love with it. It has hints of regret and reminiscence and quiet things. It rocks.

*By the way, I have a new fascination with titling poems with girls' names. Don't ask.

*****

I came downstairs this afternoon to find a package from a blogging friend with the most brilliant accent ever. It has two CD's (one for my sister, one for me), a birthday card for the two of us, Vegemite, and other foodstuffs. Oh, and a little guide on "How to Eat Like an Australian."

That package made my day. Thank you to the corners of the world!

around the internet

Check out Donna Vorreyer's blog for the second stop on the ReadWritePoem virtual book tour for Apologies to an Apple. (Note: the stops have been changed on the tour; the stop at My Gorgeous Somewhere will now be at the end of the tour.)

The first stop on the book tour was at Book of Kells. Kelli reviewed Apologies earlier, and this is her second review. Stop by the link "book press" in the sidebar to find Kelli's initial review.

What I love the most about Twitter is getting incredible news from followers & fellow tweeters. This news is crazy. I'm so humbled. Thank you thank you thank you!

Make sure you read the review of Apologies to an Apple at Savvy Verse and Wit, by poet Serena Agusto-Cox. She's also hosting a giveaway for the book -- deadline is October 9, so hurry hurry!
(She also tweeted about the book and called it "some of the best contemporary poetry" (see the Twitter feed on the sidebar of her blog). In addition, she featured my poem "September" in the 14th Virtual Poetry Circle. Thank you!)
(Re-tweet here. Contest featured at "Win a Book" here.)

More Twitter goodness here. Even the littlest things make such a difference.

This is the cover of the anthology I previously mentioned I was featured in, titled Words Only I Can Speak. 6 of my poems are in the anthology; I now have my contributor's copy and it's incredible. It's a million times better than I thought it would be, and the quality of the work in here is just amazing. They're very, very talented teens. Do check it out -- it's a very lovely collection. You'll enjoy it.

i don't know where they'll take me.

Today is my twelfth birthday. I think it's incredible to be able to say that. I've learned so much in twelve years, and in between all the ups and downs I've had so many unbelievably amazing things happen -- and some disappointments and mega downers. But through it all I've been able to figure out who I really am, and I wouldn't trade these years of finding where I belong for anything.

I tweeted last night that it was bittersweet to see the sun fade on my last day of being eleven. Of course it is. My year of being eleven was so memorable. I'm definitely not the same person a year ago. I began to find my groove as a person with a lot of individuality and I had a lot of first-time opportunities this year. I started out this year without a clear sense of where I was going in life. I didn't find it for a long time. Turning twelve has seemed like an enormous deadline on my head, and yesterday I kept saying, "I'm doing ________ for the last time being eleven," and somehow it felt like I had to figure out where I was going. I did.

I don't know why I was created. I have no idea why God gave me this chance at life, but He did, and I'm not going to waste it. I don't know much about the future, but I do know that I have dreams I want to chase, and a purpose in life that I want to accomplish. I want to travel to places like Hollywood and L.A. I want to meet hopefully all of my idols. I want to grow up to be a reputed songwriter. The whole world is waiting for me. I want to do so much, and there is so much to be achieved out there. It's like I should be repeating something every night, some kind of promise to myself that I'll make my dreams happen. Maybe that promise is Carpe diem. Seize the day.

sarah

boots crunching on the first frost. it was cold, but you lay down on the ground anyway, under those bare drippy-branch trees stripping down for the winter.

the wind rustles your white skirt, pressing it up against your ankles. you are the frost on the ground, the stinging flakes falling on your eyelashes. do you learn from a stranger?

you asked, i answered.

http://icanbond.com/component/content/article/256-youngpoet.html

New interview. Thoughts?

frames from new york city

times square! life around the clock.

a funky, sweet little sculpture around town.

leaning up against the record machine.

it doesn't matter if you like country music or not: carrie underwood's new single from her nov. 3rd album, "play on," is the kind of song that makes you want to get up and dance. it's incredible.

niagara falls + washington, d.c. snapshots

captions below the photos.
(new york is coming up next.)

niagara falls, ontario

more snaps of the fallsies.
fyi, the mist from the falls alone is like
stepping into a shower.

the maid of the mist boats. this is the view from the
place in the hotel where we had breakfast.

this is the thingy we went on. it's called the
niagara skywheel, and the gondolas are closed,
climate-controlled, and air conditioned.
how's that for a luxurious view of the falls?

niagara falls lit up at night,
changing into the colors below.

niagara falls lit up at night. (view from skywheel.)
it was fun to come back around to the top and see
that the colors had changed again.

the canadian (horseshoe) falls. (view from our hotel room.)
(that steamy stuff is mist.)

the american & bridal veil (the little one off to the side) falls.
(again, view from our hotel room.)

aww. i love that little guy.

hershey's! the largest hershey store in the world ain't that large.

washington, d.c.

guess who?

lincoln memorial

the eternal flame at the kennedys' grave,
arlington national cemetery

the white house.

the capitol

the washington monument at night
(view from jefferson memorial)

the jefferson memorial

sunset at the jefferson memorial