Congratulations!

Congratulations to Mr. Lally and his wife on their newborn daughter, Sophia Eileen Lally! (and thank you Mrs. Ford for sending out that email!)

Best wishes!

-Poetic Ramblings

Our Grand Prize Winner...

Stephanie Chin

For her poem, "Michelangelo's Captives"

The turnout was great for this contest - it was more difficult to judge than either of the first two Collab competitions. Lots of very good entries. We look forward to workshopping more of these in our Friday meetings.

Stephanie's poem has been sent to Poetry Magazine, and she will receive a one-year subscription to the magazine as well, which was sponsored by Poetry itself. Congratulations Stephanie!

New opportunity for publication

I just caught wind of this new site:

http://www.themarblecollection.org/

It is available for any high school student in Massachusetts, and any time you can limit the number of possible competitors, you should jump on the opportunity. And I know the quality of your poetry - this should be easy to break into. Let's do this!

SUBMIT!

PS - let me know if and when you submit to this magazine.

And the lottery winner is...

Sarina Gerardi

Congratulations to Sarina for winning a free one-year subscription to Poetry Magazine. Her name was chosen out of the forty-two (HOW MANY??) lottery entries that were in the running. The contest's prize winner will be announced as soon as the poems have finished being read.

New writing website AND Collab extension

Here's a new website that was just brought to my attention:

http://writerslifeline.webs.com

I can't check it out from work, because the school computer keeps crashing when I try, so I hope that it is good. A better endorsement later...

Also, the deadline for Collab's first annual Final Thoughts contest has been extended to Tuesday, December 9th. The winning entry will also be published in the Burlington Union. See the following link:

http://www.burlington.mec.edu/~BhsCollab/?OpenItemURL=S00B752CF

Finally, this is the final day to turn in poems to our contest, sponsored by Poetry Magazine. The best poem will receive a one-year subscription ($35 value) and will be mailed to their editors. A second subscription (still $35) will go to any poet, chosen at random, based on how many poems have been submitted. This second prize is available to ALL POETIC RAMBLERS, past and present. Submit your poems here by midnight. The winner of the raffle drawing will be announced tomorrow.

Sonnet information

Here is a handy link to sonnet information, as our lottery contest is actively rewarding sonnets (whither the formalist?)

http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm

Remember, the contest still has a little time left before the deadline, and the entries keep coming in, but you can't win if you don't play. There are two subscriptions to Poetry Magazine on the line, and what's more important, the glory of being our champion poet, and having one of your poems forwarded to them. Exciting!

Also, in literary cross-promotion, I direct your attention here:

http://www.burlington.k12.ma.us/~BhsCollab/?OpenItemURL=S00B6ED66

Calling All Poetry Blogs

To all current and former ramblers, if you have a blog of your poetry, I'd love to have a link to it. It's exciting to see some of our members' works-in-progress, and it would be even better if we had even more of it. Ideally, I'd like this site to be a sort of hub for BHS student poetry site. So if you have a blog of your own, or you know of any other BHS student-poet who does, send them my way.

And don't forget, the contest awaits your greatness! Good luck.

I am beginning to run out of adjectives to describe this contest

A mind-blowing update, ramblers. Mind-blowing.

Today, during fifth period, I received a phone call from Poetry Magazine. They had found our blog - the visitor count doesn't lie people - and were pleased to see their magazine promoted as a reward for good writing. They even offered to send me a coupon for the free subscription to subsidize the cost for me, which I greatly appreciate. And... they asked me to send them an update on our winner. So!

The contest becomes more competitive...

I will award TWO subscriptions to the magazine. One, at random, selected lottery style. After today's meeting, we already have one sonnet in, and two more that are very near completion (Remember, your submissions do not have to be sonnets, but it helps in the lottery. See previous post). And the other contest winner will be the best poem that comes in from a CURRENT Poetic Rambler (sorry Adam, Kathleen, et. al.). This will be the one that I send along to Poetry. I've mentioned to a few of you already - I don't know much more incentive I can gather...

I will likely enlist a second or third judge from the English Department to help me make the decision.

Remember, the ultimate point is to bring in as many poems as possible, so we have more stuff to critique, and more original work for our 2009 publication. Bring me your poems! Post them anywhere here on the blog, or bring me a copy - either in person or via email.

Good luck, all!

Poetry Challenge #2 - INCREDIBLE UPDATE

OK, so our goal to have new poetry flowing in has hit a drought. And I haven't heard any response to the sonnet challenge. So let's raise the stakes.

This challenge goes out to all Poetic Ramblers, past and present. Get me a poem, either in hand or posted on the blog by December 1st (Hey, what do you know, that's the same due date as the current Collab contest. Curious.) and you will be entered into a lottery to win a one-year subscription to Poetry Magazine, the most significant poetry magazine in the US. A subscription usually goes for $35, so this is the greatest prize we've ever offered.

Here's how the winner will be chosen: For every poem that I get, your name goes in a hat. If it is a sonnet, your name goes in twice. At the end of the contest, I will draw one lucky winner. Two noteworthy points: 1) This is not a prize for the BEST poem, so there's no reason to hold back, and 2) Seniors, if you like the poems that you come up with, submit them as well to the Collab contest. You could get a total of $65 in prizes for a single poem, which when you adjust it to the general pay scale in the everyday workspace, that's around three million dollars.

Oh, and one last and major caveat: I will not award a prize if I receive fewer than five poems.

Happy writing!

Flatbread Pizza! And A Stat Counter!

We've finalized a date for our Flatbread Pizza fundraiser - April 8th. Mark your calendars. It will be too late to fundraise for the England trip, but we could use it to help pay for Poetry Out Loud business. 

And I am trying to attach a stat counter to our page. If & when I do, I will artificially bump the stats way up to make the page look more popular. Don't tell anyone. 

Next meeting is Friday - BE THERE.

Poetry Challenge #2

We have had a slowdown in creative exercises, partially my fault. So here's the CHALLENGE:

A sonnet.

Nothing complicated about it. But let's get some poetry coming in. Bring me your poems ASAP.

And SENIORS - Get ready for a Collab contest made especially for YOU.

Two more points--

Congratulations to Obama!
and
Happy Guy Fawkes Day!!

As promised--

a video of Adam Ahmed's reading in the Holloway Series!





-Stephanie

Twenty-Three Skidoo! It's the Bee's Knees!

The votes are in, and we will be appearing as THE ROARING TWENTIES, or alternately, THE DEPRESSION-DEMORALIZED TWENTIES for our yearbook photo this year. The photo will be taken in the lower library on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28th!!! Bring in your best gangster/flapper/newsie/hobo attire for the picture.

Inspiration:

Hobo





















Newsies














Clara Bow ('20s starlet)





















Gangster

Alumni update!

Adam Ahmed has shown us all just how far Poetic Ramblings will take you! One of the old-school members of Poetic Ramblings that graduated in 2004, Adam graduated from Emerson this past spring with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing, Literature and Publishing. However, he currently attends University of California at Berkeley where on October 30th he will be taking part in the Holloway Poetry Series! He will be reading his original poetry and opening for the poet D.S. Marriot. Extremely prestigious, Adam.

More information on the readings can be found at: http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu/
or check out his awesome original poetry at:http://adamahmed.blogspot.com/

Aspire, young ramblers. Aspire.


--Stephanie

Writing contests

Here's a link to the page where I've listed a number of writing contests. Check back for updates every so often.

http://www.burlington.mec.edu/~lally/FOV1-0001B3EC/

Good luck!

Alas!

I am really feeling guilty about my Friday schedule so far this year. Another unexpected Friday appointment - and we can't meet. Here's the deal: For the next two weeks, we will have meetings on BOTH Tuesday AND Friday. Poetry overload.

On deck for our Tuesday meeting: An update on Flatbread & our podcast. A decision about which decade to choose for our phenomenal photograph (absentee voters, add your thoughts to the comments page here). Thoughts on a new writing challenge. A resurrection of the Poetic Ramblings poetry contests? And so much more. And when I say "so much more," that is just meant to disguise that I don't have anything else.

Sorry again for the cancellation - truly sorry. If you want to stay sharp on your writing, finish this analogy: "We're going to hit October like..."

Such Great Things

Three quick notes from this week's meeting - reminders to those who were in attendance, announcements to those who were not:

1) For our yearbook photo this year - no resting on our laurels. We're going historic. We've decided to dress up as a decade from the 20th century. Which one? It's up to you. Ponder and be ready to decide next week. If you cannot make next Friday's meeting, post your vote and your reasoning in the comments section.

2) I stopped by Flatbread today to try to set up our fundraiser, and next week, we will decide what to do with our funds. If we cannot get a BEF grant to fund Poetry Out Loud this year, the money will go toward POL costs. If the grant covers those costs, then we have a decision to make. I couldn't get in touch with anyone at Flatbread though, and will try again tomorrow.

3) Speaking of Poetry Out Loud, I threw out the idea of spending some of our earlier meetings this year to record as many POL poems as we can onto a podcast that will be made available to BHS students to help with memorization. If it is possible, we can even post the podcast on iTunes, worldwide. WORLDWIDE! By next week, we'll decide if we want to take on this gargantuan (or even brobdingnagian) task.

Next meeting: Flatbread, Poems and Our Greatest Endeavor in History

OK, we have some new poems to discuss, and some new members to welcome. We'll meet on Friday after school in the teachers' lounge. Lots of things to do.

By Friday, I will have potentially set a date for our Flatbread Pizza fundraiser / poetry reading. It won't be any time too soon, and I am not exactly sure what funds we will need to raise (Volume Six? Poetry Out Loud expenses? England field trip? More lottery tickets and gambling?), but it is on its way. I will need an artist to create for us a righteous and mind-blowing banner. Calling all artistes.

That's all. Don't forget the extension on our first poetry challenge (see below). Bring in a poem or post one here by Friday.

Activities Faire + Meeting update!

The activities faire went great today-- we had over twenty-five students sign up!
Hopefully we will see all of them at the next meeting.

At the meeting after the faire, collective poems were written in a group writing exercise. We only have three, due to the small turn out, but they are melancholy and brilliant.

The Fall of Man

Tumbling over the rocks and grasping for life,
Elliott tried his hardest to remember that day.
The deepness of resonation as the avalanche
claimed Elliott for the Earth.
Borne back, like Persephone,
his sixty years of good health
never seemed to fail him, until now.
A sudden pain in his heart,
and then quickly followed the collapsing
of his ribcage, moving to kiss each other--
she first sensed his warmth
before she felt it, first saw
his dark eyes an unwilling face.
Opposites it seemed but
within, the farce that he played
showed him truth: he was the same.
Laying down the law, a set of rules
to say, once and for all,
this would be the end of it.
This would be his redemption.
He drew the sword from his hip
and under a cry of repent, he
brought it back to the stone,
hands ripped, splinters sparked.
The aimless fury of memory.


The Man with a Gold Tooth

Heorot holds little for those, drowned
without victory in their old age. The gold
flecked away by unsympathetic time,
and not hacked by savage swords.
His pristine face brought forth a shudder,
a man with his life behind him and
only the eyes of judgment ahead:
gold tasted bitter, youth a pained past
and tomorrow...
At the end, it was nothing gained.
The sun and moon switched positions,
the tide visited and left him,
the night had fallen to crest the sand,
until only a crescent on the water sparkled
for a moment on the water and was gone.
Like a child, he wondered why
this was his fate,
why must the world torture only him.
It seemed as if he was the last martyr
left to the beating fists of providence.
Locked in a cafe, a mental cave,
a whispering in his ringing ear,
It is time to let go
be free and give us your life--
you are free.

The Saddest Comic

Like a road in the desert,
swept over with sand,
the path disappeared
yet a light shone down:
here lay the death, illuminated by
the depth and rapidity of transience,
the half-caught breath, the morning mist.
He always knew what lay ahead. But still,
there was an unsettling feeling inside of him.
Encompassed by shadows, be rethought his next move,
the calculation of the few moments ahead of him
meant everything. He could not imagine life beyond
these walls, this familiar bed.
The sun hadn't set yet.
There was still a hint of hope.
Running, tripping, and screaming--
the roll of motions beat each other
through the rhythm, and they prayed on.
Prayed for the nights that would shake them like shingles,
prayed for a moment to wander in fear.
For once, it was a necessity.
It was time for
the crossing of the threshold:
entrance to the battle of
the champions.




--Stephanie

Change of Date - this week's meeting

In case it isn't getting through on the announcements...

I (once again) am tied up on Friday afternoon. This week, we will have our meeting in the teachers' lounge after we have wrapped up the Activity Faire. Then next week, we will be back to our normal schedule.

My apologies to any of the band members who cannot make it. But if you get me your poems, we can discuss them...

-Mr. Lally

Challenge #1

Here is our first literary challenge:

A few of us scoured some selected passages to find words or phrases that might make for an interesting inspiration for a new poem. Look at the list attached below, find a line, and use it as either the title of a new poem, or work it into the poem somewhere else. You cannot change the wording.

An aside, when we read aloud our "found lines," we discovered that they made strange little poems of their own, so the arrangement has been kept intact to reflect this. As people use the titles, I will remove them from the master lists.

DEADLINE: Rolling deadline until we start a new challenge...

THE STARTING POINTS:

The second stop is Jupiter
4:00 AM
The velvet smile of scorn
The only true reader
Ask Jacob or Jake
Unmapped
The year had lost its meaning
Mind-bound images
Two measures of tenderness
Smother
Bone and paper
Tramp and tread
It ended up a mess
Fluttering
This trembling
Merciless brightness
He signs at the gates of death
Indifference
Ego had another plan
Quicksand and sidewalk
Mistress of the hammocks


I travel through time
Till God called “No”
As swift as premonition
He’s seen the newspaper
Spray cans and needles
Brooding this hour
Flames of Discipline
I stare ten-thousand miles vacantly
Soft blue smoke
I forgot her
Benign Dementia
Admirer
The statistician
A rising coil of smoke
A coarse grace remained
Engulfing America
Flickering in sunlight
Nothing of harm to dread
Quaking like the dust
Though sad moons shadow every sun that sets.

-Mr. Lally

PS - As soon as someone "claims" one of our starting points, as is happening in our comments, I will put it in italics to show that it has already been taken. Try to avoid choosing a line that someone else has used. Good luck! Oh - and if you want, publish your responses here in the comments section. A living poetry blog. How delightful.

Welcome!

So, for those of you who have been members in past years, this is a new blog for a new (hopefully more productive) start!

And to all those who have just joined, welcome! Hopefully Mr. Lally and I will be posting weekly updates on meetings, writing contests, writing challenges, and just general poetic ramblings on here.

Also, to alumni: I will be linking blogs of past ramblers hopefully, so we can all keep the update on your lives and brilliance! Let me know if you're interested!


--Stephanie