Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Life Stories

A SACI student's Life Stories project.

Course of Digital Multimedia, SACI Florence

This is their facebook forum page: "a place for sharing ideas and presenting work in progress, notes, written assignments, class material, as well as final projects. Students are using it to exchange ideas and receive feedback. You are all welcome to participate by posting your views and comments," says instructor Dejan Atanackovic.

Res Artis

Res Artis, Worldwide Network of Artist Residencies on Facebook.

hi!

how many streetlights

staring at the ugly ceiling
I map the way my body feels.
step outward, like it's not mine.
you let me smoke weed on your floor;
I tilt my head back and blow the blue
smoke upwards.

we drive for hours. it could be less.
the dark, flat land and black
sky makes it feel like
we're underwater. did you know
this used to be the ocean floor?
I say. I think someone told me that once.
rolling down the window, I soak
in the coldness of the rich black
dirt fields, flailing out around us,
away from the snaking highway.

in the parking lot a white car inches past
us. I don't know what time it
is. your lights flick off.
inside the shadows a set of watery eyes
catches mine, shifting beneath a slick
of silver hair. the passenger seat is
empty; voices on the radio murmur as the
car disappears. you turn the key and the
engine hums.

cherry red from the traffic light shines
on your cheeks. I knead my
fingertips into your scalp; the car feels like
a submarine.
pulling up your hair from the
base, like roots, your head eases
toward me like I want it to.
the stores on main street are
empty, and I follow the car's
reflection in every frosted window
as we pass them.

i've heard that my eyes are
green sometimes. stretching my legs
onto the gravel, I wonder what color
they are now, underneath the only streetlight
in our development.
the curb is cold in my palms; my small white
house sits quietly at the end of the street,
blue shutters. I say,
can you believe some people
define their whole town by
how many streetlights it has?

Monday, November 29, 2010

At Via Castellani #14

i'm living in dirty socks
listening to the metronome drops
of my soaking wet laundry
hit the wooden floor
paint cracks
on the ceiling below
the loft above
my clothes haven't been clean
in months
only wetly drenched
by a frenetic washer
hidden beside the stove

i'm sitting at the kitchen table
eating from the same fork
in some variation
(recycled through
soapless piles of
dishes and pots
remains of spaghetti sauce
and canned corn)
wearing worn slippers
reading,
writing reaction
as nights and days
blur
in an unfamiliar time zone
rain comes quickly and stays long

finding passion
worth challenge
love lost
surrender found
a pale moon
seen through
open shutters
three stories high
where songs repeat
keeping pace with
friends: the beginning
of what comes next.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

i am

Hello!
Here is a poem.

--

i am
when i feel the
sun set
when my dripping
sap freezes
only
when i bear
the common bullet
when our
teeth grind
tongues clench
antlers lock

--

and I really liked the spoken word link you posted, Lee.
That man's voice is haunting.

An Update

Hello everyone,

As we patiently await the first student posting, I just wanted to say that I've now sent out an official invitation to join this blog as authors to all of the SACI CW students with whom I am still in contact through facebook in the form of an email. Any class alumni who find this blog on their own are more than invited to join up as authors. You will need to send me your email address and I will officially invite you and then you can begin posting right away. My email is leefoust@gmail.com. In the coming weeks I will go back over my old enrollment sheets--20 classes! 10 years of Creative Writing!--and see if I can't find and invite even more students to participate. Help me if you can. Who do you remember from your class and/or with whom are you still in contact? Most importantly, let's get this going! I'm dying to hear what you've been up to and to read some poetry and fiction. Accept your invitation and join the group, be sure and put yourself down also as a follower, read and comment upon whatever texts are posted. Let's get this going.

Thanks, Lee

PS Nice use of the double dash, eh?

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Welcome letter and mission statement

Hello and welcome to the SACI creative writing course blog! I want to officially invite all of the current and former students of this course to join this community and to post your work here either as a finished piece for all to see or as a work-in-progress upon which you would like to get some feedback for revision. Please also feel free to post personal notes, records of writing achievements, or links to anything of interest to your fellow writing students, i.e. notices of writing contests, journals, residencies and the like. let's turn this piece of cyberspace into an extended classroom, support group, and record of our writing achievements.

Lee Foust