FirstBlog

Originally published by me here Up on roofs the city lights break up the night skyscrapers piercing the moon bathing us tonight Up on roofs towers blinking kids spray stinking paint across concrete walls young artists sneaking Up on roofs wine filled cups and cigarette butts emit nicotine clouds and solace to us Up on roofs moonlight ascends and dawn pretends, with pinkish purple light, to send us to bed. copyright 2011 Justin W Price

Ezra Pound was an American Modernist (He was also instrumental in developing the Imagist movement.) poet who lived from October 1882 to November 1972. He spent much of his time in England penning many classical poems including In a Station at the Metro , along with many many Cantos. While he did do many longer pieces, he was best known for his spare and very specific poems, using concrete details and very few adjectives. An example of this, of course, is Metro which, in it's first draft was thirty lines long. The final draft is the famous two line poem, which uses very strong and specific details to show what Pound saw when he was exiting a train. He is one of my favorite poems, and also one of the coolest looking. What follow is a tribute to Pound. Instead of using my words, I chose to use words from Pound's own work and turn them into a poem. It is from an article by Ezra Pound wrote on the use of imagery in poems. It's a fun and visual way to present wha

I have a basic rule of thumb when it comes to reading  books  and that is- start what you finish. I don't know if it's my mildly obsessive compulsive nature or if it's my fear that by not finishing a book I will end up missing out on something potentially great. The only book I remember intentionally not finishing was one of Alexander  McCall Smith 's stupid detective books, which was so dreadfully boring and poorly written, I nearly died while reading it. However, he is apparently a well respected author who has sold far more books then I, so his drivel must sit well with most folks. I would have gladly read all of Alexander McCall Smith 's books, if it had meant that  Whistle  by James Jones had never been written.  Whistle, also a classic and the third book in James Jones' World War Two Trilogy (The first two being  From Here to Eternity  and  The Thin Red Line  - Both of which were adapted into wonderful films) is perhaps the only book I have ever read, tha

Josh Powell. source: http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2012/news/120220/josh-powell-300.jpg Probably. Anyone who knows me and/or follows my writing both and on my hubpage account , knows that I was reared in a very Christian home and am now, in my thirties struggling with many common and widely held beliefs that the modern Christian church teaches. The most alarming of these is the concept of hell . I question how a loving God, a Creator who refers to Himself as “Love” would create creatures that would end up in a placed of eternal anguish called “hell”. Thankfully, because of Josh Powell , I’m clinging to the idea of hell—and of heaven—and some sort of comfort. Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife Susan's 2009 disappearance. She is most likely dead and he is almost positively the reason for it. Killing your wife is bad, killing your children is worse and incomprehensible even to me, a lifelong non-parent. Last week, Josh Powell lost custody of his two boys and

Starting tomorrow (Feb 8th, 2012) I will be publishing an article here every day at 9:27 am PST. It will be a combination of new material exclusive to this blog, of revised previously published material and of material taken verbatim from my HUB. Click the follow button so you don't miss out!

One of my short stories,  Lime Green Buddha , was published in  efiction magazine 's latest (February 2012) issue. They're also publishing one of my poems in the March issue. I just read my own story in a publication that I had no control over for the first time and it was a surreal experience. I couldn't turn the critic in me off. I found one typo that neither me nor the editor caught and it threw me off guard. i also found one or two small edits that the editor did that worked but also seemed odd. I haven't had anyone else edit my work for publication prior to now. I'm grateful and excited to be published, even if it was for a pittance, because I love the exposure and I want to read my work in publications all the time. I suppose that's the dream of any writer. But, I thought I'd enjoy reading it, and I didn't. I was self conscious and critical. I imagine those feelings will change as I get used to seeing my work in different fonts and

I keep hearing about these Occupy people. Those protesting the upper “one percent” that they should pay their “Fair share.” Why is it so important? Is your life going to be any better off if some CEO pays twice as many taxes as he currently pays (by the way, this CEO is at work, while we’re out free loading on the street. The average CEO of a major corporation works around 80 hours a week)? Are we going to see an increase in your lifestyle because they pay more in taxes? How does that make us any less greedy then we accuse them of being? History has shown that you won’t, but that’s not the point.The point I want to talk about today is, who exactly  is  the one percent? Quite simply, if you live in America,  you  are the one percent.I am the one percent.The median income in the US for a family of four is just under $50,000. That dollar amount puts the average American family in the .99% of the richest people,  IN THE WORLD!!!   That’s right, the average American family is