L'aura del Campo

Poet's Market is out! Qadr, a poem.

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███████          L'aura del campo           ███████

SUMMER: 6 Kamal (6 August)

'é a lua,  é a lua,  na quintana dos mortos'
♣    Federico García Lorca    ♣

'07 Poet's Market is out!

Went to Borders in the evening to read the new '07 Poet's Market. I made a list of websites to check out. Didn't quite make it through the As but going through methodically is probably best.

Good advice on how submit. How to do a cover letter: what to put in, what to leave out, format. It shows how to compose electronic submissions too! With visual examples. The visual side of my brin appreciates that.

Great article on simultaneous submissions. The responses from the four publishers being interviewed are priceless. On one hand it can be a pain for the publisher ... it means they are getting more stuff to go through ... but more to choose from! And if it has been submitted to others and it is GOOD, then the publisher had better respond quickly or lose out. This reduces the '20 year wait' that author's groan about as the turn into Rip van Winkle.

But it is more work for the writer too. More to keep track of. It is necessary to inform everyone once a poem has been accepted. This keeps publishers semi-happy and if you want to be published, that is a good thing to keep in mind.

Putting any writing here at WDC makes it copywritten and 'published' (I guess if it were on private setting it would still be under copyright but not published). Some places would need convincing to accept it, others no problem. This is an issue that has been addressed by others here on-line. My policy is just going to be: inform the publisher and give credit where credit is due.

████████ Sizzling? Think cool !
████████ Weather where I am: 103º, not quite bearable.
████████ Weather in Buffalo, NY: 85º.
████████ Weather in Zimbabwe: 48º in Mount Darwin tonight.

IMAGES

Along the alley from Henry Street north to the stop sign:

Virginia creeper green on the beige brick walls; knotweed along a westside crack; purslane; asphalt patches; a white Vespa parked; graffitti at the back of the Bottleneck; boxes across the way; silver paint at the Sacred Sword; abandoned red winter coat; trash and a bike tire in the 'carboard only' dumpster; oil on the lid of the oil bin; elm 'trees'; water from a drain from a roof; the stapled poles; posters plastered to the stop sign under the oak.

MY LIFE

The heat has been brutal. Didn't go to water the garden because it was 90º long before noon and my body just isn't as strong as it used to be. Hub suggested I use his bicycle! Not!!

Spent the morning at Henry's drinking coffee and was able to get on-line at the library (Sundays are extremely busy). Dropped in at my friend's to eat and drink. Went to Borders.

Another friend, AJ, has bicycled back to town. 29 miles on Saturday ... that's alot in this heat. Kansas highways are not friendly to bicyclists either. Not enough shoulder.

So, what can I tell you? At dusk the storm was gathering in the north. And there was a wonderful breeze and the temp fell about 20 degrees. It hit 105º for a new record high for the date!

And of course I called my mother and aunt. If I don't I'll find out how hot hell really is .

POETRY? YOU CALL THIS POETRY?

Al-Qadr is one of my favorite chapters of the Qur'an. I have put it in my blog as my 'Quote of the Day' below. More info can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laylat_al-Qadr Unfortunately, it is a bit tricky to write poetry based on Scripture without offending someone, but this is what I was inspired to write. It is a Lament, begging for the Night ... a bit of a whiney prayer, but still ...

Qadr

You claim it has rained before,
promised that by Your Grace it will rain again.
But this weed in the sidewalk crack
withers in the noon day sun.

You claim you are All-Sustaining,
promise that you will feed our souls once more,
but I am starving, bereft of honey,
perishing in the midst of war.

You claim you have come before,
promise always to come back again.
but I am baking in the hot dry wind,
awaiting the Night of Power. [163.289]

BLOGVILLE

Well, I sent a whine to andrew that some of us worry about him when he isn't on line for a few days! He wrote back . Seems that he goes through these cycles ... hmmm ... you mean there's life outside of the World of WDC? There be monsters ... I heard ...

So, is someone going to have to go to Orlando and spank that young man? Line forms at the left. Behind me .

And will Nada ever learn her lesson? It is lists of 5 ... not 55 or 555, just 5. scarlett_o_h says so! Nada, dearest, got pummeled with folks asking questions and making comments ... and ... well ... hopefully she has learned.

Oh look, a chicken!

Vacation? partyof5dj must be having fun! We expected pictures from gypsy4evermore . But alas ... go to "Invalid Entry"  to learn the 'gruesome' details of 'THE MILKSHAKE'. But we have Gypsy's word that at least Party doesn't look like Ethel.

And zwisis is hopefully doing well in her beloved Zimbabwe. Temps have been 40s at night 70s during the day, depending on location, but I haven't heard of any snow like they had in Johannesburg to the south.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Certainly, We revealed it on the Night of Power,
And what will make you understand what the Night of Power is?
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months,
The angels and the Spirit descend in it by the permission of their Lord for every affair,
Peace, it is, until the break of the dawn."



Surih 97, alQadr from the Qur'an