Goodness, it has taken me a long time to get around to this post! Better late than never, I suppose.
Becky did an awesome job at the Princess Meet:
Vault: 9.2 (2nd)
Floor: 9.15 (1st)
Bars: 7.8 (4th)
Beam: 8.9 (3rd)
All Around: 35.05 (2nd)
A couple of interesting things to note: recently I had a conversation with her coach about her citizenship status. The coach was concerned that some opportunities might not be open to her because she isn’t an American citizen. I was surprised it was of a concern at this stage, but assured the coach that we will be applying for citizenship as early as we can (Jan ‘09.) “Becky is one in a million,” the coach said, “And then to learn she isn’t a citizen…” Well, hey guys, that’s Murphy’s Law.
But hang on a sec, I hear you say, if she’s one in a million, why isn’t she coming first all the time? Good question! I watched the entire session in which she competed. The girl who won the All Around in her age group deserved to win–she was solid. She stood about a head taller than Becky and looked considerably stronger. She beat Becky on Bars and Beam. Becky fumbled one of the Bars moves and wobbled very nervously on Beam, BUT Becky has That Thing That Sets Her Apart. She’s a natural. One of the other mothers on my team asked me after the previous meet why Becky got more on Beam than her daughter even though Becky fell off and hers didn’t. That’s the undefinable thing I’m trying to define here.
God (or whatever passes for her in your personal religion) help us all.
I know I’m always griping about how many of the poems I receive in submissions are sonnets. Well, now there’s a new online venue devoted to sonnets, so you can send them there instead!
The Zine is called 14 by 14 and the idea is simple. Every two months they hope to publish 14 sonnets by 14 authors. The selection panel includes Rhina Espaillat, twice winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Contest, and I’m on it too. So, what are you waiting for? Read those guidelines and get your sonnets in!
Actually, Gymnastics Mom has been working her tail off since the kids went back to school. I volunteered to be President of the Parents Association this season, and it is taking up far more of my time than I would ideally like. Still, it’s in a good cause!
And that cause is of course Becky, who attended her first Level 6 Meet last night. Things were a little wobbly to start with, and she scored 7.3 on Bars after fluffing the dismount. They were scoring Bars really harshly last night, though, because 7.3 netted her second place in her age group!
Then she got 7.5 on Vault, which has never been her best event although nerves uundoubtedly hampered her on this occasion. I was starting to wonder if we would manage the magic 30 All Around score to qualify for Sectionals, but then Becky, being Becky, pulled out a magnificent 9.0 on Floor! This also got second place in her age group. Finally she delivered a respectable 8.2 on Beam. (She fell off doing the back walkover, but got back on and calmly repeated it, staying on this time, and then finished like a pro.) This also put her second in the Event. (There were eight ten year olds.) Finally her AA score of 32 got her Second All Around also.
I was thrilled with her. Miss I, in her rather severe Eastern European way, felt she could have done better. Well, that’s why you have Moms, and you have Coaches, and they shouldn’t let their roles overlap too closely!
Now onto the Princess Meet, which dominates next weekend’s schedule, given it is a Home Meet and, gulp, I’m nominally at least partially responsible!
I have just finished reading Naomi Wolf’s The End of America, Letter of Warning to Young Patriot, and it makes frightening sense. In the opening chapter she states that “there are ten steps that are taken in order to close down a democracy…Impossible as it may seem, we are seeing each of these ten steps taking hold in the United States today.”
I urge you to buy, and read the book. To pique your interest, I’ll do no more than list the ten steps and invite you to put your own mental check mark against the steps that you have seen evidence of in the land of the brave and the home of the free, under George Bush’s Republican Party.
- Invoke an External and Internal Threat
- Establish Secret Prisons
- Develop a Paramilitary Force
- Surveil Ordinary Citizens
- Infiltrate Citizens’ Groups
- Arbitrarily Detain and Release Citizens
- Target Key Individuals
- Restrict the Press
- Cast Criticism as ‘Espionage” and Dissent as “Treason”
- Subvert the Rule of Law
I’m not a citizen, but I love this country–as it was meant to be, not as I fear it is quietly becoming.
You can find poems of mine that haven’t previously appeared online in the first issue of The Chimaera , which looks to be a fine endeavor.
Some acceptances to report also: The Lyric are taking my sonnet “Not By Design” and Measure shocked me by responding to a submission within two weeks and wanting my sonnet “Mistress Bradstreet Imagines a Shipwreck.”
Now, if only I could find a journal that wants to publish any of my thesis free verse! It’s horribly telling: 16 of my 52 thesis poems have now achieved publication in the small presses, and 13 of these are formal pieces (out of 25 such total in the thesis.) Does this mean my formal poetry is better than my free verse? Or is it a reflection of the fact that there are more poets working in free verse than formal? My inner cynic says perhaps it’s to do with the fact that I now have a teensy-weensy “name” in formal poetry circles and none at all in free verse. On the other hand 4 of these poems have been accepted by mainstream publications with no noticeable leaning toward free verse. I don’t know. Sometimes statistics are just statistics.
Last night the Quick & Dirty Poets hosted the first Reading of the Season, featuring Aeren Perry. It was wonderful to be back at the Daily Grind, and it seemed as if all our regulars had missed us too, because almost everyone turned up. There were Ron & Paul of Sunken Lines fame; Adele brought along a couple of Burlington County Poets; our Open Mic stalwarts Brian S and Ron K did their thing; and, of course, the QNDs ourselves–not quite the full ticket with Rachel taking a well-deserved break–but totally raring to go.
Aeren is a polished and entertaining reader. He began with a few poems he does in a jazz style, performing them rather than reciting, with some parts even sung in his pleasantly melodic voice. He then interspersed a long sectioned poem based on a trip to Cuba, which managed to be both funny in parts and achingly sad in others, with a variety of shorter pieces, including “Sorry Street” (a personal favorite) and a hilarious poem about the kind of rambling introductions some poets give their work (a fault of which he himself is blameless.) He was great!
Bruce did an excellent job of hosting, and all the QNDs read well. The inimitable KB read from his new book Fourteen Ways to Die–classic KB stuff!
And then we all went to Dunleavy’s, which is as it should be.
David Gates remembers Liam Rector.
