Reviewed by Dorianne Laux Ron Salisbury’s poems in Miss Desert Inn move us from the poverty of Maine, to the grittiness of New York, from the glitter of Las Vegas, to the glamour of California’s coast, informing us of the truth about this life, harsh as it may be, sorrowful, and wondrous and brief as it is. This is one man’s journey, and we learn as he does what it means to live with loss, with memory, with desire. An accomplished first book, informed by the poetry of Gilbert, Hugo and Kowit, these are poems of the middle passage, where there’s sometimes a woman and a glass of wine, always a good dog nearby, and a bad but beloved cat slipping out the side door. Dorianne Laux‘s poems have been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Romanian, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Brazilian Portuguese. Her selected works, In a Room with a Rag…
Tag: Miss Desert Inn
Suicide Doors . . . Prompt #200
Today’s writing prompt is a poem by Ron Salisbury. You can write on the theme of the poem or the mood. You can use a line or a word for the writing prompt. Ready? Read and write. Just write, without worrying how your writing will sound. Suicide Doors Don’t put that in a poem, she said. What? Don’t put what I said in a poem. We talk and a week later I find what I said in one of your poems. What’s the matter with that? He’ll find out. He doesn’t read poems. His friends will tell him. His friends don’t read poems. Just don’t put me in your poems. How about I make it in the 1960’s and it happens in my 1951 Merc with suicide doors, I got a D.A. haircut, smell of Bay Rum and your angora sweater comes off on my sport coat. Then what happens….
So you’ve earned that MFA, now what?
Guest Blogger Ron Salisbury talks about MFA – Master of Fine Arts writing programs. “Everywhere I go, I’m asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”–Flannery O’Connor Flannery may be a little tough but not far wrong. What will you do with your MFA in poetry or fiction or non-fiction or children’s literature? Is it different from what you thought you would do before you started that MFA program? The proliferation of Master of Fine Arts Writing Programs in the United States (some 200 as of this writing) requires new crops of students every year; cannon fodder, inductees to charge over the lip of the trench into the guns of Admission Departments and Student Loans without much chance of becoming that famous author, a goal which…
The Sadness of Ice Cream . . . . Prompt #175
Today’s writing prompt is a poem. You can write on the theme or mood of the poem, or a line, or a word. Write whatever comes up for you. The Sadness of Ice Cream by Ron Salisbury The emperor had his and I’ve had mine, home churned on the fourth of July, spoon after spoon after she called, gelato in Ravenna, Neapolitan–chocolate was the best– pints, bars, Liz Topps said next summer let’s eat lots, plopped a spoonful of Rocky Road on her bare belly. No more, my doctor says. Cholesterol, blood pressure. Besides, right at the beginning, first cone, bite, spoonful licked off the belly, we begin to measure how much is left not how much there was. The sadness of ice cream. Ron Salisbury is a writer who has integrated his poetry with his business life for decades. Now, three wives deep, four children long, and assorted careers…