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Just my luck, somebody forgot to unlock it.

Mr. Sun, our brightest? local light is live blogging the 2006 National Spelling Bee Championship for the second year in a row. Good thing they have the bee during daylight hours or Sunny Boy would be left in the dark.

More on the Spelling Bee at LaureatesKids.com.

Tags: National Spelling Bee, Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee

Lots of people have sent me e-mails asking that their favorite poet be featured in 100 Blogging Poets In 100 Days-- Episode III, giving me every reason to believe that this edition is the most popular rendition yet. One poet even threw a rock at me with a URL attached, but the poet who has the largest number of supporters thus far is the poet I’ll be featuring tonight.

Ryan, Ruth, Katie, Elaine, Kate, Elizabeth, and several others whose names I can’t remember all asked me to feature Pashka Shokolodskaya of Schadenfraulines. A determined young woman living in the Chicago, Illinois area, Pashka is available for speaking engagements and is one of a growing number of legal professionals who are openly writing poetry and posting it to blogs.

Born the daughter of superheros, Pashka is herself endowed with the ability to write super passionate verse guaranteed to warm your heart and stir your emotions along with a few other things that sometimes need to be stirred, but don’t be fooled as Miss Shokolodskaya is also a political fire brand who doesn’t mind penning to liberal verse, her observations of politricksters run amuck. I-- for one-- agree.

I gave notice on my job today. My last day will be June 9th., 2006. Beginning June 10th. I will work full time at pursuing my dreams until I either realize my dreams or find myself living on the street yet again. I do hope for the former.

No, I’ll not be blogging full time, but blogging will become a part of how I hope to earn my living. BloggingPoet.com saw 1 million page views in the last 12 months so it’s time to monetize if I’m able. I also plan to schedule time into most work days to allow me to volunteer-- free of charge-- to read, teach, and promote poetry to children in day cares, kindergartens, elementary schools, and nonprofits. I’ll be available to private schools for a reasonable fee. By the way, I sing too.

In the beginning I’ll remain close to home as travel is expensive but look for me to start turning up all over Greensboro, Guilford County, and other parts of the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina very soon.

Look for some changes for the better here at BloggingPoet.com, LaureatesKids.com, Poets101.com, and the other websites I’m currently involved in.

PS. Look for me to publish some more books sometime later this year.

Okay, I know the title for tonight’s addition to 100 101 Blogging Poets In 100 Days-- Episode III is a strange choice of words but it was a Stranger who pointed me toward the poets who make up tonight’s honored guests.

Photographer Assaf Reznik and home decorating guru Startha Mewart post pictures of couches-- that’s right, couches-- to Revolting Sofas and solicit the verse of their readers to accompany each revolting piece of living room furniture from Antebellum to Victorian to Post Modern to Ghetto and all in between. Viewers study the pictures of worn, torn, stained, and sometimes new sofas and reply back with their observations and inspirations in verse. After choosing the responses they like best Startha posts them to the blog for all to read. Talk about reader participation, it’s as if you were doing it on the couch with them.

I guess the muse really is where you find it, even if you find it on the sofa.

Tags: 100 Blogging Poets, poetry, Poem, poetry blogger, blogging poet, sofas, Martha Stewart

Back To The Daily Grind

The holiday is over
the holidaze begun
your ass is dragging
with the week at day one.
It’s back to the grind
back to the mines
so let’s drink to coffee
and waiting in lines

for more coffee.

“For a very important date.”

Yes, I’m late getting to this week’s Tarheel Tavern hosted by the lovely Miss Erin but have no fear I’ll still have loads of fun. If you’re a North Carolina writer then why not check out how you may participate in or host future taverns.

Also, as long as you’re enjoying the good times in the tavern, why not help Erin walk.

I just thought I’d pass along a few of the CDs I’m currently considering for review here at BloggingPoet.com. You can listen to the tracks by clicking on the album covers and following the links. Enjoy.









Who knows, maybe I’ll get around to posting a few more reviews in the near future. With this huge stack of CDs piled up on my table I really need to do something about it.

If you only knew the hours I spend searching out the poets I feature in 100 101 Blogging Poets In 100 Days-- Episode III then you’d probably think me a fool but today’s addition to our list is certainly no fool. (By the way, if you’re wondering why I changed from 100 to 101, it seems I made a boo-boo and featured someone from a previous list.)

Lynn Harrigan is a teacher in the amazing city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada who actually goes so far as to share my poems with her students. (Hey, every class needs bad examples, right?) Lynn is also the author of Moon Sea Crossing and is currently doing collaborations with musicians and visual artists bound for film and radio.

Lynn writes her poetry and posts her adventurers to Oblique Poetries from a hillside overlooking Toronto and specializes in documentary poetry-- in Moon Sea Crossing, the true story of an Irish immigrant written in verse. Her book is currently being performed as a play at several venues in and around Toronto.

Hey Lynn, Buffalo’s not that far, I hear we’ll soon have an opening for a United States Poet Laureate, maybe you should apply?

Are you waiting to be featured? Do I know you exist? Write your URL on a rock and throw it at President Bush and I’m sure I’ll hear of you soon. Of course, if you’d rather stay out of trouble (Those Secret Service Dudes simply can’t take a joke.) then why not e-mail me at idleblogs (AT) yahoo.com and we can discuss what you need to do to get featured. (I promise it won’t involve any G-men or presidents.)

Tags: 100 Blogging Poets, poetry, Poem, poetry, poetry blogger, blogging poet, Toronto

Talking Signs

Just last night I talked to a sign.
The sign said, “Stop.” He’d not change his mind.
So I tried to reason in hopes I could go
but the sign still says, “Stop.”
and the traffic can’t flow.

So while I wait in front of the sign waiting for it to change its mind, why not show this poem to your kids by clicking on over to LaureatesKids.com.