Work in Progress: Declaim from the Mountaintop

My husband recently went walkabout in the mountains of Vermont. He asked friends and family to provide poetry that he could read from the mountaintop. So I wrote him this.

Declaim from the Mountaintop

for Alex
5/21/2009

Why do we do
things we don't want to do?
Work, wash, whisper, wake,
why? Obligation, politesse,
politics, necessity?
We all do it,
those small things we dislike,
make us weary or worrisome,
because we think we must.

Do not let this,
your declaimation upon a mountaintop
be one of them.
Step outside convention,
ignore obligation,
punt propriety.
Breathe.

Now stand upon your mountaintop,
not master of all you survey
but, just for these few moments,
blissful master of nothing,
and ask:

Why do I do what I do?
Why do I?

And now let go even
of the need
to ask.

- with love, Jenise

First Draft: Summer in April

Summer in April

Spring heat
ninety-four
record high
at Logan
kale bolting
in glorious sun.
Break out the shorts.
Walden Pond
with no shade
trees still bare
with just the hint
of bud
bright water
sandalled,
sand-coated
feet.
Tomorrow, sixty-eight degrees
but now, today,
summer in April.

The Economic Realities of Modern Poetry

Let's face it: poetry does not pay.

If you're a working poet, you'll quickly find that the vast majority of poetry markets pay absolutely nothing. Diddly. Squat. Really, they're doing you a favor by putting your work in print. Maybe they'll deign to give you a free copy of their publication.

Yes, there are paying markets out there. I have, in fact, sold one poem to the now defunct Terra Incognita magazine for $25. But finding paying markets and successfully competing against all the other struggling poets out there is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. I've given up sending out poetry. The reward is just too small.

But I still write poetry. I still like reading my poetry to audiences. I founded and still help run a successful poetry series in Cambridge, and I have set for myself a goal of bringing a new poem to read at the open mike each month. If I enjoy writing poetry, and I enjoy sharing poetry, and I expect no more remuneration than the pleasure of others, then really, the Internet is the perfect medium for my poetry.

Henceforth and forthwith (What great words! Why do we never use them, except sarcastically?), I'm going to publish my poems on this blog for whoever cares to read them. If you'd like to print them in your magazine, journal, chapbook, or just email them around to your friends, please note that I retain copyright on all my work. I will try to post a poem every week, most of which will be works in progress, and I'll try to post a finished work about once/month. This means I have at least three or four years before I burn through my backlog.

I hope you enjoy my poetry. Feel free to send me email directly if you don't wish to comment publicly on my work.

EDIT 8/20/2009: I've now made this poetry available under Creative Commons license:

Therefore Iamb by Jenise Aminoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.