Thursday, April 19, 2018

Come on in!

A little talent is a nice thing to have if you want to be a writer, but the only real requirement is the ability to remember the story of every scar.
~Stephen King


Welcome! The Poetry Friday round-up is here -- looking forward to seeing your poetry posts!


Today we're celebrating the release of IMPERFECT, poems about mistakes for middle schoolers. We're also having a mistake party on the TEAM IMPERFECT blog. Bring your melty ice cream cake that you almost tossed in the bin and wear your shirt that turned pink in the laundry. Somebody accidentally delivered a giant butter statue in the shape of a frog and I don't know where it's really supposed to go (a herpetology convention?). Looks like we're having froggy butter with our bread and bagels!

In addition to our virtual parties, we're giving away real-world kintsugi kits! Both here and at TEAM IMPERFECT (The one here is silver and the one at TI is gold...you can try for either or both.) The deadline for the giveaways is May 4. Just leave a comment or drop me a line.



Why kintsugi? We have it on the cover of IMPERFECT...Kat Apel wrote this poem from the text of our cover reveal:

KINTSUGI
by Kat Apel

Precious scars
filling cracks
with liquid gold,
mended
more beautiful;
broken history
displayed with pride;

imperfection golden.


*********

An off-the-cuff limerick for imperfect poets:

There once was a mistake-making poet
whose persistence was truly heroic
every word she'd misspell
made her feel so unwell
her stomach moaned that she wasn't more stoic

*********

Do you Pin? Here's the Pinterest board for IMPERFECT.

Please leave your link below!



39 comments:

Robyn Hood Black said...

CONGRATS and Yipppeeeee re. IMPERFECT, Tabatha! Honored to have a poem in there along with so many poets who border on perfection. Well... let's just say they're pretty great. Thanks for hosting and rounding up today!

Linda Mitchell said...

Hooray, TABATHA! I'm so happy for you and the words that are now out into the world. Many, many congratulations. I am celebrating Imperfect's birthday on A Word Edgewise https://awordedgewiselindamitchell.blogspot.com/
with a story of a mistake that is now infused with giggles.
Enjoy every moment of success on your first anthology. I look forward to enjoying it myself!

jama said...

Hooray! Congrats on the release of IMPERFECT!! I'm happy to accidentally smear melty ice cream and extra sticky cake all over your blog today. :)

Thanks for the giveaways and for hosting this week!

Diane Mayr said...

So proud to be a part of your IMPERFECT project! I can't wait to read everyone's imperfectly perfect poems, or should that be perfectly imperfect poems?

Linda said...

How exciting! Congratulations on the release of IMPERFECT! I am honored to have a poem included and can't wait to read everyone's poems.

mbhmaine said...

I'm also so excited about IMPERFECT and am delighted (thrilled, flabbergasted!) to have a poem included. I can't wait to hold the actual book in my hands and read all the poems. Congratulations and thanks for hosting today!!

Matt Forrest Esenwine said...

Congratulations on "Imperfect!" Sounds like a unique and fun type of anthology - especially from what I've seen posted! By the way, have you seen "The Book of Mistakes" picture book? It fits right in with your theme!

Donna Smith said...

So happy to see this perfectly imperfect collection come to fruition! And honored to have my poems included in the imperfect ranks! Happy Poetry Friday!

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

YOU DID IT, T!!! Take some deep breaths— breathe in the relief and breathe out the pride. I'll be at the party on the TI blog tomorrow morning... once I realize I've overslept and missed my alarm. ;) I'm so excited to be a part of your perfectly IMPERFECT collection!

Kimberly Hutmacher said...

Love your Imperfect poems. I'm looking forward to reading the rest. Thank you for hosting this week's round up :)

Whispers from the Ridge said...

Hooray for "Imperfect!" Congrats, Tabatha. Thank you so much for sharing and for hosting this week!

Alan j Wright said...

Such synchronicity today Tabatha as my post on this Friday concerns anthologies and the themes that often connect the poems within -and here you are with 'Imperfect' as the theme for your anthology. Love it. as we know perfection is elusive and imperfection is commonplace, so recognising it is part of being human, part of being a poet. Congratulations.

Brenda at FriendlyFairyTales said...

Congrats for all your hard work, Tabatha! So many of us PF regulars have poems in it, how fun.

I'll be pleased to read the whole enchilada one day soon. I just finished Jabber Walking, and I feel very blue-cheesy, flame-eyed and capable of rescuing a pinched-ess from Bunion Intersection Middle School with a foil-wrapped Imperfect poet-enchilada.

Meanwhile, back to the editing! #AmWriting really should be #AmEditing. :-)

Linda B said...

Congratulations on this book/poetry birthday, Tabatha. My copy is ordered, looking forward to feeling good about making mistakes through everyone's poetry, not an easy thing for anyone! I happen to be writing about one today! Enjoy and be proud of all your work!

Michelle Kogan said...

YAY for IMPERFECT!!!!!! I love your post Tabatha, this one and the party goin' on over yonder at Team Imperfect, with heart-wrenching music. I've had my share of pink clothing, and the Kintsugi video is wonderful along with Kat Apel's poem, so many literary treasures here. So happy to be a part of this rich new poetry anthology, many Congratulations! Thanks for hosting too.

Renee LaTulippe said...

Congratulations on IMPERFECT! I'm so excited to have some defective ditties in it, and will be heading over to the party after I clean up my overturned cappuccino.

What an achievement to bestow a book upon the unsuspecting masses -- now find a lumpy mattress and get some shuteye! :)

Ruth said...

Congratulations, Tabatha! And thank you for hosting, both here and over at the Imperfect blog. I can't wait to read the book, and that froggy butter sounds wonderful, too.

Heidi Mordhorst said...

Good morning, Tabatha, and congratulations on the release of IMPERFECT! But I confess that even as a contributor I'm not sure how to get my hands on a copy! Perhaps that needs to go into the post?

I'm also sorry that I haven't had a chance to participate in the blogging fun. I love Kat's poem but I'll tell you what my brain did upon reading it for the first time--I substituted a word and it came out like this:

KINTSUGI
by Kat Apel

Precious scars
filling cracks
with liquid gold,
ment
more beautiful;
broken history
displayed with pride;

imperfection golden.

Somehow I wanted the past participle of mend to be MENT, which is also MEANT. : )

Enjoy this big day of celebration!

Mary Lee said...

Thanks for hosting! Hooray for imperfection! I swim in it daily!!

Tabatha said...

Hi Heidi! If you click on the cover, it will take you to Barnes and Noble. You can also get it at Powell's. Amazon seems to have run out of it??? I'm sure they will have more soon.

Carmela Martino said...

I LOVE the idea behind your IMPERFECT anthology. Congratulations! And thanks for hosting today.
Today at our TeachingAuthors blog, I share a spring poem from the marvelous JoAnn Early Macken and announce a new beginning for our blog.

author amok said...

Hi, Tabatha. I'm not blogging this week, but stopped by to say CONGRATULATIONS! Can't wait to see and read IMPERFECT. The kintsugi giveaway -- yes, please.

Amy LV said...

SO so many congratulations! I truly appreciate your wisdom and am off to purchase this book. We all need it! (May I repair my own self with one of those beautiful kits?) Peace and Happy Poetry Friday! xxxx

Glenda Funk said...

“Imperfect” perfectly describes how I feel about my new foray into writing poetry. You may see I did not tag my link w/ a title or anything. Oh well. My poem is “Palouse.”

Co gratilatikns in the book. Here’s to celebrating mistakes.

Kay said...

Congratulations on the release of Imperfect! I have enjoyed reading all the mistakes poems leading up to its release and now am looking forward to reading the entire collection!

Elaine Magliaro said...

Congratulations! I am always happy to read about the release of a new poetry book!

Ed DeCaria said...

I left my link about everyone's favorite imperfect poetry event ... now off to read about your perfectly imperfect book! -Ed

Little Willow said...

Congratulations! I was just telling someone about kintsugi. Here's to illuminating and celebrating everything. :) I posted Left-Handed Sugar by Jane Hirshfield at my blog, Bildungsroman: https://slayground.livejournal.com/870787.html

Christie Wyman said...

In honor of IMPERFECT's birthday, I'm celebrating by dumping coffee down my front in the car dealer waiting room. WOO HOO! Hearty congrats to you, Tabatha, and the entire (IM)PERFECT team! How cool is Kintsugi? Works of art, I believe!. Thanks for hosting our weekly get-together, too!

Catherine Flynn said...

I'm a little late to the party (no one is perfect, right? :-)) Kat's last line is exactly right: "imperfection golden." Adding my hoorays and congratulations, Tabatha! Thank you for including me in this celebration of being human, and thank you for hosting today!

JoAnn Early Macken said...

Congratulations on Imperfect, which sounds perfectly delightful to me!

tanita✿davis said...

Happy Book Birthday!

Cheriee Weichel said...

Congratulations of the book! That is such exciting news.

Joyce Ray said...

Congratulations on the release of IMPERFECT! Such a wonderful theme. Can't wait to see it. Love the kintsugi idea, one I am familiar with, but never knew ordinary folk could actually repair a broken item with gold or silver! Very cool.

Amanda Potts said...

Congratulations on the release of Imperfect. Very exciting and the theme is wonderful. I love the limerick you offered today. Pretty much perfect for the end of my day!

Carol Varsalona said...

Tabatha, congratulations on the release of Imperfect. What a wonderful title that celebrates the imperfections of life that are the everyday happenings. Thank you for hosting. I am late in getting my post out because I had 6 presentations in 4 days and the weight of keeping my mind going has left me so tired. I will post soon.

Carol Varsalona said...

Tabatha, I tried to post but I get an error message saying that I already posted. My post, "Down to the Beach" is at http://beyondliteracylink.blogspot.com/2018/04/down-to-beach.html.

Cathy said...

Mistakes. Always helping us grow forward. Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday, and thank you for the chuckle with the Imperfect Poet. I thought I'd try to write a poem a day this month, and I'm feeling the struggle. The limerick did make me smile.

Amanda Potts said...

A follow-up comment, weeks later. This week has been a bit crazy for me & when I went to write my Tuesday "slice of life" blog, I couldn't get more than a few minutes here and there. I ended up frustrated with only 10 minutes to pound something out and, as I wrote, your post came to mind. With only a few minutes left before another interruption, I couldn't remember where I had read about kintsugi, so I wrote on.
As it turns out, the idea of using something precious to glue together the fragments of my time these days and create a beautiful whole has helped me stay calm this week. So I wanted to say thanks, now that I figured out where I first read about kintsugi.