Friday, April 17, 2009

Eizzy K Gave Me An Award For My Poetry!

What makes this especially important to me is that Eizzy K is a poet and a reader of my poetry. I write poetry so seldom that I have neglected the site. I don't know when I got this award exactly, but I'm really thrilled that it comes from a young poet to an old woman who hardly considers herself a poet. And Eizzy K, called me "Savage Queen" which makes me cry with this welcome elevation to royalty. It's one thing to write the occasional poem, but some of the poets in the blogosphere write a poem a day. That amazes me, since I only write poetry when a poem presents itself to me and gives me no choice. It's like having a vision or a little stroke or a mild seizure. So thank you Eizzy K.

One of the things I love about this award is the muscularity of it. It has an industrial, workman-like aspect that appeals to me esthetically and politically--it reminds me of my fondness for the labor movement. I love the wage earning working men and women of this world.

Now I have to think of ten things you don't yet know about me.

1. I fantasized a life as a labor organizer. I'm completely pro labor, and damn proud of it. I read The Jungle, by Upton Sinclaire when I was in my early teens. That was the beginning of my desire to be a labor organizer. Yet I have never been a member of a union.
2. Kindness makes me cry. I have toughened myself over a lifetime of cruelty from my family to be unmoved by the carelessly tossed off insult, but a kind and loving word brings tears I can't control.
3. I'm a socialist. I think the public utilities should be owned by the public. Water should not be sold. Nor should the oil and coal be owned by a company with a profit motive. If Alaska owns it's oil, why don't the rest of us own our oil? I'm not a fan of capitalism. Capitalism has given us a meltdown of the world's economies. What the financial services industries have done amounts to an enormous Ponzi scheme. Those responsible for the collapse should be prosecuted for gross malfeasance. I want single payer universal health care.
4. I would sell my soul to get my novel published. And yet I fear rejection so much I'm avoiding the edit on the first three chapters because then I will have no excuse for not finding another contest or opportunity to submit the manuscript. The most embarrassing thing about this procrastination is that MRMacrum has done the edit for me. All I have to do is print the copy of his editorial suggestions and get to work. I am sabotaging myself. I should be toughened to rejection--I spent my working life going to auditions. I did not get every job I auditioned for. The rejection was nothing I took personally, and yet the book is my baby.
5. I love the underdog, literally. I will take an animal no one else will, just to give it a bit of happiness and security before it dies. I'm sentimental for the person or animal who has been treated badly. I would love to be able to rescue all those needing rescue. But I can only rescue one creature at a time.
6. I care little for wealth and have never been ambitious enough to strive for money. It shows now. I worked in a industry where the pay is enormous for merely being pretty and showing up for a couple of hours of easy work and knowing how to move on a runway or pose for a photo. I was always embarrassed by this profession. Why so much money for something that is actually bad for society? I worked as little as possible.
7. I purposely avoided getting academic credentials as a way of pissing off my mother.
8. I married three men I did not love, and, if asked, would not have married the one man I always loved.
9. I do not like my fellow humans much. Oh I like a few people very much, but generally I avoid crowds. I have chosen the life of a recluse because I like being alone.
10. Poems take me like possession. Sadly that possession comes rarely.

The recipients I have chosen for this award are:
1. The Crow
2. Sarah's Dancing With The Waves of the Sea
3. Steve Emery
4. Pagan Sphinx
5. Watergate Summer
6. Alphaville
7. Naj
8. Mr E

These are the rules:
Then the instructions for the 'chosen ones' ;
1.You must brag about the award
2.You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger
3.You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. 4.Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.
5.List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself.
Then pass it on with the instructions!

Remember, I did not make the rules, I just pass them along.

15 comments:

enigma4ever said...

oh this is great and you so deserve this award...and thank you...I will work on this later tonight...( I always love reading about you- you are full of surprizes and wonders....and then I also feel like we know you so well....) thank you for being here.....

Utah Savage said...

Thank you too, Enigma, I think you have one of the loveliest sites around. The photos of your garden are an inspiration to me.

Today is the first gorgeous spring day. I had started an indoor cleaning job--taking all the rugs outdoors and banging the dust out of them. Then vacuuming and mopping indoors. I have now worked up a bit of color in my cheeks.

The Crow said...

Peggy, as a poet I stink, but I am flattered you think I should receive an award for it. I'll do my best to carry out the instructions, not break the rules.

Thank you for the honor.

Utah Savage said...

Crow, rules are meant to be broken, no?

Commander Zaius said...

An award for your poetry is no surprise. Your talented works are always on a professional level.

3. I'm a socialist.This begs the question of which one of us might be in the greatest danger being that we both reside in Red states that border on the infrared.
After this weeks TEA bag events in which the chattering mass of ignorance and intolerance blew off enough hot air to accelerate global warming all by themselves I'm worried about the nut balls squawking about "action", "secession", and "revolution".

Utah Savage said...

Beach, let's work to get our friends out of Texas. Then let Texas recruit other secessionists to join them and then let them battle it out with Mexico about who owns Texas.

Billie Greenwood said...

New Mexico is starting to look good to me, Utah. Anyway, congratulations on your award! Awards are (most deservedly) rolling in for you.

Anonymous said...

Are you crazy/mad? Ha! I guess you must be giving me such.Bless.Thank you. My 'Scribbles' thank you too.

Freida Bee said...

Sometimes I believe that timing is always perfect, so will say to stop beating yourself up on the novel thing. If you're like me (and, baby, you are), your writing is a safe place for you- where you can escape criticism and judgement, where you can just be who you are, so it makes sense that when people pleasing slips into it, you'll feel threatened. Something that's been working for me- and your comments on my eternal first chapter helped- is to be centered squarely on the emotion I am trying to relay as I try to convey it in writing. That's why I love poetry, because I can resolve my emotions through it. I can have an unresolved feeling, sit squarely with it and write it and somehow it seems to not be so uncomfortable.

Utah Savage said...

Freida Bee MD, I love it when you come see me.

Unknown said...

Hi, Ms. Utah! It's been too long since I've come by here, so I'm glad you gave me the award because it got me over here again, reading your wonderful posts.

As far as whether you have to be a real poet to get it or not, it matters only to me that I have the soul of a poet and I'm attracted to those who, at the very least, are not afraid of it! :-)

Hurray for honest scrap and bloggers like you!

Love,
Pagan Sphinx

Steve Emery said...

Thank you for this! I'm writing a post in response...

And your own posts are many things - artful, intense, potent, vivid - but much of that is because they are so powerfully honest (whether fact or fiction). So I think this is a perfect award for you.

susan said...

You absolutely deserve the poetry award.. even if you never wrote any poems you do live them.

Lemmy Caution said...

I am just now seeing this. Damn you google reader for making me skim too fast and miss important information!! Many thanks! I shall work on my end of the bargain when I get home this evening!

lisahgolden said...

I love this post because you lay bare so clearly some of the motivations for how you are. It's not an easy thing to do, you know. Nor is writing poetry, which you've shown you have a talent for.

Congratulations on a much deserved award, Utah.