The Write Spot Blog by Marlene Cullen

Tag: Ron Salisbury

  • After Retirement . . . Prompt #592

    After Retirement By Ron Salisbury
    What were you thinking Eunice asked
    as the fireman who had strapped me
    to his back brought me down from
    the eucalyptus on the engine ladder.
    It seem like such a good idea, just
    nail little boards to the tree and keep
    climbing. The canopy of things up there,
    a complete universe, distance like future.
    Thinking was something I usually did.
    Then one day stopped. Idea doesn’t have
    boundaries, besides, I had these little boards
    left over from the fence.

    Note from Marlene: When the prompt is a poem, you can write on the mood or the theme of the poem, a line, or a word. Just Write!

    You are welcome to comment on my Writers Forum Facebook Page.

    Ron Salisbury

    “Since the seventh grade, all I’ve ever wanted to be is a poet. It is a great honor to be chosen as San Diego’s first Poet Laureate. This appointment will empower me to represent the dynamic San Diego I love and promote. It will allow me to teach and encourage poetry to an even higher presence than I already do. I want to give back to the city that adopted me, share my poetry with its people and share San Diego with the world.”

  • The Nyx Café

    By Ron Salisbury
     
    Day stood by our table with her eager smile,
    pad and pen at ready.
     
    “Today we only have two specials,” she said.
    “The first one includes an amuse bouche;
    one hour and a half of good sleep. Upon waking
    you wonder why? Then realize you’re still damp
    from a hot flash. The appetizer is a couple of hours
    when the pillows are too soft, too hard, or both,
    the bed clothes too heavy, cramp in your big toe,
    wondering if you should call the doctor about
    that little pain in your side. Suddenly you realize
    you have been asleep because of the dream you had
    filled with people you absolutely don’t know.
    The main course is filled with noise—traffic, but
    you live on a cul-de-sac, the overhead fan but
    it’s not on, a strange hum from the kitchen,
    the dogs rushing downstairs and you get up
    to check and find them both at their water bowls,
    you might as well see if the doors are locked. Then
    three delightful dreams, three in a row of three
    important things in your life you never finished.
    Dessert is an hour of deep sleep at the end
    to remind you that some people sleep this way
    all the time.”
     
    “Tonight’s second special,” she said, “is much less
    complex, but an intense flavor experience—you just
    can’t sleep. I recommend as a paring, you try
    imagining counting backwards from one hundred,
    the telephone poles wizzing by your imaginary
    ride down a desert road. That thing with sheep
    is totally overrated.  Dessert is also quite simple:
    a parfait filled with the thankfulness that night
    is over.”
     
    “She’s so sweet,” Eunice said, as day left with our order.
    “I’m glad we didn’t get the harpy with a pencil stuck
    in her hairbun.”
     
    Ron Salisbury

    “Since the seventh grade, all I’ve ever wanted to be is a poet,” he said. “It is a great honor to be chosen as San Diego’s first Poet Laureate. This appointment will empower me to represent the dynamic San Diego I love and promote. It will allow me to teach and encourage poetry to an even higher presence than I already do. I want to give back to the city that adopted me, share my poetry with its people and share San Diego with the world.”

  • Hope . . . Prompt #201

    HopeToday’s writing prompt is inspired by Ron Salisbury’s poem “The Ride Southbound.” When the writing prompt is a poem, you can write about the title, a line or a word. You can also write about Hope. Just write whatever comes up for you.

    The Ride Southbound by Ron Salisbury

    When I jerked open the cab door, Hope was sitting in the back seat,

    Prada dark glasses and lip gloss.  This is mine, she said,

    but we can share until 34th street. What’s at 34th street? I asked.

    Just a sale at Macys.  The driver put my two-suiter in the trunk

    and the extra bag on the front seat, I climbed in with my briefcase

    and umbrella.  Is it gonna rain? she asked.  You never know,

    I answered.  What’s with all the bags? It’s been a long trip.

    You need all that stuff?  Most of it, at least I thought I did.

    The traffic on 7th Avenue slowed then didn’t, other cabs

    cut us off, it was noisy, complicated, but we were there

    in no time at all.  Haven’t we met before? I asked.  Probably,

    she said.  I meet a lot of people.  Did we like each other?

    Hard to say, she answered.  She leaned over and tapped

    on the window behind the cabbie.  This is where I get off.

    Good luck wherever you’re going. Standing on the sidewalk,

    holding the door open, she said, Look at this, and hiked

    her skirt to show me a small purple birth mark on her thigh.

    I can’t always be perfect.

    Ron Salisbury is the author of the recently published Miss Desert Inn. He writes and studies in San Diego State University’s Master of Fine Arts program, Creative Writing.

  • 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 is implied but never stated by these programs. (Is that what you thought you’d learn at that program?)

    When I started my MFA – Poetry program in 2013, I had few of those allusions given my age (70) and narrative style of poetry. I was not going to be offered that tenure track teaching position in some MFA program. At best, I would get some adjunct position. (the typical pay for a semester class as an adjunct is $2000 to $3000 with no guarantee of any future work) And would hope to worm my way into the hearts and pockets of the program directors and students. Last year the United States graduated approximately 2,000 poetry MFAs, 2,000 fiction and between 500 to 1,000 non-fiction and other. And there were less than forty tenure tract creative writing positions available in those universities and colleges. But, I did naively expect that in my program I would be among poets striving to become better poets. What I have mostly found is a cadre of wonderful people learning “how” to write poetry. My observations have been generally supported by other writers in other programs throughout the United States.

    To  satisfy the body count necessary for these 200+ programs, the threshold has been considerably lowered. If your goal is to teach in an MFA program, anecdotally, minimal requirements today are the MFA degree and two published books at least. If one or both books were contest winners, so much the better. Given the proliferation of book publishing options today such as high quality appearing print-on-demand and self-published, the vetting process for MFA instructors—ones skilled and with enough notoriety to attract students—has become more difficult for universities. It used to be just a book from a good publisher and you could be considered, then it became the book and the MFA. Now the field is murky. Which has led to an entirely new phenomenon, the PhD in Creative Writing which has begun to propagate much as the MFA programs did fifteen-twenty years ago (today, about 32 programs). It would not be a surprise to discover in less than ten years that the minimum requirement to be considered as an instructor in an MFA program is the book or two and the Creative Writing PhD. So, if you have a goal to obtain an MFA in Creative Writing and do more with it than hang it on your wall, continue to work at Starbucks or teach two classes of freshman composition at some Junior College, hurry.

    Your Turn: Should you or shouldn’t you join an MFA program? Have you done it? What do you think? Weigh in. Post your writing on The Write Spot Blog.

    Miss Desert Inn. Salisbury.180Ron Salisbury lives in  San Diego, CA where he continues to publish, write and study in San Diego State University’s Master of Fine Arts program, Creative Writing. Publications and awards include: Eclipse, The Cape Reader, Serving House Journal, Alaska Quarterly Review, Spitball, Soundings East, The Briar Cliff Review, Hiram Poetry Review, A Year in Ink, etc; Semi Finalist for the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize – 2012, Finalist for the ABZ First Book Contest – 2014, First Runner-up for the Brittingham and Pollak Prize in Poetry – 2014, Winner of Main Street Rag’s 2015 Poetry Prize

    Miss Desert Inn published November 2015.

     

  • 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.

    Miss Desert Inn. Salisbury.180Ron 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 past, he continues to study, publish and write in San Diego.  His new book, Miss Desert Inn. is being published this fall by Main Street Press, Charlotte, NC