Short Announcement

Posted on by Eva

Hello friends!
Just letting you know that I’ll be posting fewer poetry posts from now on. I’m working on submitting my work to various lit mags & such, and most of them do not accept previously published poems.
Thanks,
Eva

Poetry Book

Posted on by Eva

Hello,

For the past few months, I’ve worked on my application for the 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent prize. After submitting my work, I realized I had over 40 poems ready to go into a book. Half of them were written within the last year. They vary in subject matter, which is something I’ve been uncertain about. Can I put almost-love poems next to poems about magic? Yep. Do I really need a cohesive book that deals with one theme? Nope. Isn’t it best to keep making things and putting them out there? Yep.

Next steps for me:
Step 1. Organize the poems so they flow together
Step 2. Figure this out later. It’s okay to take things one step at a time.

Hope you’re doing well,
Eva

Dolce

Posted on by Eva

This poem was originally posted here a few months ago as Clair de lune. The true inspiration behind the poem was “Patience” by The Lumineers. I called it Clair de lune because I also felt this way when hearing that song, plus it’s a song everyone knows. Still, it felt dishonest to claim the true inspiration came from a universally beloved classical piece rather than a modern song! Is that silly? Here’s the latest version, which is nothing like the other version.

 

Dolce
After hearing “Patience” by The Lumineers

Dear Piano,
You are the only voice who can sing this one.
No offense to clarinets
But my god
Your black and white teeth
Bite along my spine til it straightens.
You loosen my jaw
Floss my teeth with your strings.
And you’re smooth
As a bar of soap on glass.
Dear Piano you make my eyes roll back
Like a tongue between my thighs.
Unfear me.
I was born to understand what sweet is
in many languages.

2018 Goals!

Posted on by Eva

Everyone [yes, even babies] has New Year goals. Here are mine for 2018. I’m making these up right now.

  1. Read 50 books. My goal last year was 40. So far I finished 24 books in 2017. It’s December 29 so there’s still …. no time!
  2. Publish a book, dammit. My goal for 2017 was to publish 2 books. Did I publish 1? No. I think swearing might help me achieve this pursuit. Dammit, Eva. Publish a book.
  3. Move out. I’m turning 25 in 2018. Can we all agree that I need to move out of my parent’s house once and for all? Good. The motion passes.
  4. Finish the Spanish course on Duolingo.
  5. Travel to a country I’ve never been to. I’m thinking Mexico. It pairs well with goal #4.

These five are my bare minimum goals that I MUST REACH. Everything else is extra credit.

See you soon,
Eva Moe

Keep Going – poem

Posted on by Eva

Hello! I hope everyone’s doing well. I wrote this one yesterday, so it’s still fresh! Not sure about the title yet. I’m trying not to publish the VERY first draft of any poem because they’re rarely good enough to claim. But the 2nd and 3rd drafts? Sure. I’m an impatient millennial. I always wanna post [exciting/interesting/unusual/new] things as they happen.

See you later! I might even do a 2018 Goals list like everyone else.

Eva

I Quit My Job

Posted on by Eva

Good morning!
I’m on day 4 of my writing/music career. It’s a silly thing to say, yes. What I mean is, last Friday was my last day of going to work. At a job. I decided to quit because I really wanted to give myself a chance to make things work in my creative career.

Let me give you a rundown on how quitting my job to focus on creative endeavors works:

  1. I’m living with my parents. Yes. I’m 24 years old, unemployed, and I like video games. I’m becoming a statistic. I know. Does it help me seem less pathetic to say that I pay rent?
  2. I’m very good at saving money. As in, I’ve never made more than $10,000 USD in a year. In the past 2 years I’ve travelled to China (3 months), Malaysia (1 month), New Zealand (1 month), England and Scotland (5 weeks total). If you’re interested, Nomadic Matt will get you started. Author’s note: I hope to make more than 10K in 2018.
  3. I worked. This summer I worked 60+ hours a week at two jobs just to fund my U.K. travels. I had leftover money when I returned home and one of my part-time jobs was waiting for me. So for the past 2 months I worked there and tried to pay off as much credit card debt/student loans as I could while saving for these next few months.

If my parents did not let me stay with them, I’d likely be working some low-wage job that drains most of my energy. I’d be coming home from work and flipping on the TV or plugging in the GameCube. And every month I’d be giving more than half my income to some apartment I don’t even like. So basically, my parents are awesome.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about my plans for the coming months.

  1. Grants/Competitions. I’m researching grants and competitions for writers and musicians. If granted/awarded, these will help fund my projects.
  2. Artist Residency. There are plenty of artist residencies around the country. This will get me out of my hometown and allow me some freedom to work and be around other artists.
  3. Open mic. I’ll be performing poetry/music around the Twin Cities.
  4. Working. Duh! Most of what I’ll be doing is A) Working on my poetry book and B) Recording an album/writing more songs to go on that album.
  5. Reading! I can’t very well be a writer without reading, can I? No. My goal for this year was to read 40 books but I only read 21 so far 😦 oops.

If you have any recommendations for grants/competitions/artist residencies/etc. please let me know in the comments!

In the next few days, I’ll write about my goals for 2018. For now, back to work!

See you soon,
Eva Moe

Art History Poem

Posted on by Eva

Hello!
Last week I reached my 50,000 word goal for the month of November! To anyone else who participated in National Novel Writing Month, congratulations! This year, I wrote 50k words of poetry. On Monday, I started reading through and revising.

To be honest, most of it is garbage. But there’s a lot of stuff in there with potential. Such as:

November 6
Poem 9
Here’s what I learned in Art History:
A woman in a Renaissance painting has powdered white skin (no other color)
and never farts
or shits
or vomits after too much wine.
No one has to hold back her pompadour
while she pukes up her servant-made supper into a golden chamber pot.
She doesn’t do drugs or smoke.
Her somber expression pouts at the painters.
The world’s first selfies.

Now, I don’t agree with the last line even though I wrote it. The argument can be made that the world’s first selfies were actually cave paintings and little sculptures done long before Renaissance painting was a thing. Anyway, I’ve got LOTS of editing to do.

See you soon,
Eva Moe