Tuesday Poem: The Downside to an Earthquake by Emanuel E Garcia

Hello, all my faithful followers!   Yes, I know was meant to be on sabbatical 'til the end of the month - but its worth breaking a sabbatical when a poem like this flies into your radar...
Also I should note, if you like this, you will almost certainly love The Upside to an Earthquake here on my blog.

The Downside to an Earthquake

 

The rumble begins

You wonder just how long it will go on

Before the walls start swaying and

A carelessly placed book falls off a shelf

For the life of you

You can’t remember whether you should

Hide under a table or head for the hills

So you’re stuck in your tracks

Shaking with the thought

That survival’s more important

Than, say, writing poems

Until you come back to your senses

When it stops

That is,

If you have any senses left

Emanuel E. Garcia

July 2013

emanuelegarcia@gmail.com

The rumble begins...

And with it a poem that feels real. 
Wellington has started and stopped quite a bit lately, as the middle of the country has been rocked by quakes.  And we have all discovered Geo Net, (somewhat after the Christchurch folk) so that in the moments after a quake we can quantify it, put it at rest, and return to our senses.

About the Author:

Emanuel E Garcia is an author and physician who resides in Eastbourne. His most recent book, "Twenty-Four Caprices for Violin," is a collection of whimsical, fantastic, poignant, macabre and capricious tales, each of which features the violin. Set in wide-ranging locations and milieux, from Vienna to Nashville, Florence to New York, Venice to New Zealand, they capture the bittersweet and ridiculous nature of human follies — romance, repression, vanity, fidelity, ugliness, adultery, mischief, mastery, innocence and betrayal, and is available here at http://mebooks.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=485 for only $2.99.

I was treated to a number of these stories at a reading at Rona Gallery, and they really did all the things the blurb says.  Unexpectedly fun, given there wasn't a single spaceship. Not even a wizard— unless you count the multitalented Emanuel E. Garcia himself.

... and just a reminder the poem's sequel, The Upside to an Earthquake is here :) 

cheers,
A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

Two more projects ticked off. One more to go. The big one.

Yes, there was an earthquake - but that's not the big one I was thinking of...please let there not be another one.  And yes, times are busy, but not so busy I couldn't manage just one more project - getting out of my usual genre and having a wee crack at horror...

Baby Teeth

What really fascinated me abut this project - apart from the fact that so many great authors were writing sotries for it, is that there were so many great authors involved at all stages, and all with great energy and new ideas just bursting out of their skulls. Like crowdfunding the anthology. Something you can see in action at  https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/1214

I've found it amazing how quickly Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts have got everything together so fearlessly, when I've been struggling to put together an anthology featuring Te Papa.

@ Te Papa anthology (now available online here at http://www.amazon.com/Lost-The-Museum-Phillip-Mann-ebook/dp/B00KTV5K0U)

This has taken a while, possibly because the idea of getting permission totally terrifies me, and possibly because members of my family get breaking the cardinal rule (don't get sick) in spectacularly time consuming fashion.  (Poor things it's been awful for them.)  But you heard it first here folks.  I fully intend to get contracts off, and copies of the proposed Anthology to the museum by the end of the week.  Done and dusted you might say?

But no, assuming getting the acceptance isn't that difficult there are so many more things to think of - the cover, the layout, even the title is now in question...  But now, instead of panicking, it's time to say - Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts have organised theirs - and in  a matter of weeks.  So while all the i's are being dotted and the t's crossed those are the things I'll be looking to get done by the end of the month.

Cheers to my avid followers,
I can't wait to get back to being a layabout poet  ;)

A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

PS and did I mention Baby Teeth... ? It's very horror, so if you're a fan of horror, why not buy the book or visit their facebook page
PPS my earthquake poem, Boys, Please Don't Rock the Boat, can be found here at http://anafflictionofpoetry.blogspot.co.nz/2010/09/tuesday-poem-boys-please-dont-rock-boat.html

The National Science Fiction and Fantasy meetup (Au Contraire 2) and a Pantomime?

It's Tuesday, and although this isn't a genuine Tuesday Blog, it feels strange not to at least put something up.

So here goes...

'Twas a very strange weekend, which I imagine is par for the course at any convention, let alone one designed to celebrate all things weird and wonderful.

Somewhere between doing the can can, and defeating some evil prince or other with the awesome and ever so talented Butterfly Theatre Troupe (and feeling rather rubbish because most of the kids had done more acting than me) I found myself on a roller-coaster of planning to do one thing -- and getting sucked into doing something completely different...

But that's half the fun - the other half (more than half) is meeting so many fellow writers who are so passionate about what they do.  Ripley Patton's idea of having the Specfic meetup there was a masterstroke, because it brought a certain life, not only to the convention, but also to the SpecFicAGM which went off without a hitch.  Of course if you love Speculative Fiction of any kind, poetry, short stories and novels then this the organisation to join with so much energy, support, competitions and innovation I think they put some of our bigger writers organisations to shame - so if you think you like the sound of that why not join up?  They can be found here at http://www.specficnz.org/

So much energy and enthusiasm, and of course it isn't a National Convention without the Sir Julius Vogel Awards.  Check out the awesome winners here at http://www.sffanz.org.nz/sjv/sjvResults-2013.html -
and yes, of course I was disappointed not to carry off one of the stunning awards, but there is always next year and I do so admire all the winners.  They are all so amazing! :)

Hope to be back to poetry soon.
Miss it already,

A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.

My blogging moratorium during July is broken one day early

Yes, that's right - I couldn't stay away for a whole month.  Fellow author and poet Emanuel E. Garcia had written an exciting poem - one whose moment was now.  And so I've started blogging again a week early.  The post of the poem, The Downside to an Earthquake is here.


see below for original post:
(I am very sad to say that due to illness in the family, and a number of other projects, I have decided to call a moratium of poetry over July 2013.  After this date hopefully some of the other projects I'm working on (not to mention the other projects/events I'm goofing off on, including Butterfly Creek Theatre's Pantio, Beauty and the Beast and Au Contraire), will be finally complete, my child will be well, and I can once again enjoy contributing fully to the Tuesday Poem Blog.)

cheers for your support everyone - I know I don't say it often enough - but you've all been a real inspiration - so if anyone else wants some of that inspiration why not go and visit the Tuesday Poetry Blog and feel the love :)

Tuesday Poem

A.J.

A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.