Kim Addonizio, Poet Extraordinaire!

Kim Addonizio is a fantastic poet.  I love her because she was born the same year as me, yet she looks like she's ten years younger.  LOL!  You have to admire women who march to the beat of their own drummer....It's not an easy thing to do.  She also has some cool tattoos.....And, she makes a living with her poetry!!  She caught my attention with a poem in "More" magazine many years ago.  I emailed her and she emailed me back and encouraged me to write to magazine editors and suggest they put more poetry in the mags.  And I did.  The poem that introduced me to her is this one:

What Do Woman Want?

By Kim Addonizio

I want a red dress.
I want it flimsy and cheap,

I want it too tight, I want to wear it
until someone tears it off me.
I want it sleeveless and backless,
this dress, so no one has to guess
what's underneath. I want to walk down
the street past Thrifty's and the hardware store
with all those keys glittering in the window,
past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old
donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers
slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly,
hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders.
I want to walk like I'm the only
woman on earth and I can have my pick.
I want that red dress bad.
I want it to confirm
your worst fears about me,
to show you how little I care about you
or anything except what
I want. When I find it, I'll pull that garment
from its hanger like I'm choosing a body
to carry me into this world, through
the birth-cries and the love-cries too,
and I'll wear it like bones, like skin,
it'll be the goddamned
dress they bury me in.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

So I bought "The Poet's Companion" writtten by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, another favorite poet of mine.  The book is awesome, just loaded with inspiration and poetry.   Here's another favorite poem by Kim:

The Divorcee and Gin
By Kim Addonizio

I love the frosted pints you come in,
and the tall bottles with their uniformed men;
the bars where you’re poured chilled
into shallow glasses, the taste of drowned olives,
and the scrawled benches where I see you
passed impatiently from one mouth
to another, the bag twisted tight around
your neck, the hand that holds you
shaking a little from its need
which is the true source of desire, God, I love
what you do to me at night when we’re alone,
how you wait for me to take you into me
until I’m so confused with you I can’t
stand up anymore. I know you want me
helpless, each cell whimpering, and I give
you that, letting you have me just the way
you like it. And when you’re finished
you turn your face to the wall while I curl
around you again, and enter another morning
with aspirin and the useless ache
that comes from loving, too well,
those who, under the guise of pleasure,
destroy everything they touch.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Kim's books of poetry are "Lucifer at the Starlight", "Tell Me", 'What is This Thing Called Love", and "My Dreams Out in the Street".  She also co-authored this collection of writings by famous authors about tattoos (and it's an amazing book!)  "Dorothy Parker's Elbow:  Writers on Tattoos and Tattoos on Writers".  Her latest book on the craft of writing poetry is the magnificent book: "Ordinary Genius, A Guide for the Poet Within".  If you're looking for some awesome poetry, or for some advice on the craft of writing poetry, Kim will not disappoint you.

I have my 13 year old grandson, Taylor, over so I have to make pancakes, then get dressed to go to the mall with him to buy Manga books.  (He's a bookaholic like me.)  It's a cold, dreary and rainy day here in swamp country, so the mall will be a bright, happy place...well, the book store will be. 

Happy Saturday, everyone!!

Love & Blessings, 

~*~ Marion ~*~

*****************************

"Lord! when you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book."   ~Christopher Morley

******************************

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled "This could change your life." ~Helen Exley

******************************

Browsing the dim back corner
Of a musty antique shop
Opened an old book of poetry
Angels flew out from the pages
I caught the whiff of a soul
The ink seemed fresh as today
Was that voices whispering?
The tree of the paper still grows.

~Pixie Foudre

****************************

"You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you."  ~Joseph Joubert