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	<title>Telling Stories</title>
	<link>http://slstellingstories.com</link>
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		<title>Four Ways Participate during National Poetry Month, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[April is National Poetry Month. I’m on time this year&#8212;for me anyway. So get ready to read about great online poetry sites to experience. Today, I want to share with you the ways I have found to write in community.
A bit about National Poetry Month:
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/four-ways-to-participate-in-communit-npm-2010/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Bought Optimism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Optimism is a commodity
bought and paid for
on life&#8217;s open market.
All the salt and
disappointment,
the ointment worked
into my wounds
lasts until my watery tears
dilute them sufficiently
and I can again feel confident
this too shall pass.
&#169; 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/bought-optimism/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Hero Factor</title>
		<description><![CDATA[One luminous, still summer day,
you said it was perfect to paint the shutters.
To my delight you let me, even though mom said
only use my brothers. Well into the job,
I beamed brighter than the sun’s rays
when you said my work was outstanding.
That day, I thought I could be
a professional house painter.
A very different summer day was
imbued [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/hero-factor/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Inaction</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Looking over my wishes list
I wonder why I don’t
act on shit that could
bring these into being.
Some call it fear.
When I’m near it I can
see that’s part
of what keeps me silent.
Far worse than that is
the habit it creates of inaction
encouraged by feigned comfort
from never being rejected.
Incongruous I know but
this hateful, insidious peace can be
more powerful than
life [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/inaction/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guide Me</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Even my own voice
offends my ears of late, all
I want is Your words.
&#169; 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/guide-me/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Bad News</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Family
disturbs my worrying and fretting
over what I can’t control.
Impatient, defensive
hyper logical commentary
highlight the fact that
there’s not shit else we can do.
However
bad news, too much cop TV
and a predisposition
toward intense panic attacks
speak loudest to me.
All the strong, controlled blustering
and feigned aloofness
does nothing to me
to allay my fears for one in trouble.
Instead it reveals
they’re fearful as me
only [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/bad-news/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Stale Cookies</title>
		<description><![CDATA[PHP&#8217;s mostly a foreign language to me
I learn as I go along
to direct my blog
to do things the way I want it.
Hours pass like minutes as I
discover and recover from tests
that work different than
I&#8217;d planned them.
When I brought them up here,
these cookies were noticeably fresher.
&#169; 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/stale-cookies/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Today&#8217;s Web Surfing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Overwhelm stole the helm.
It tricked with the availability
of a plethora of multimedia
that spoke directly to me
so I sat and ingested all I could
to the point of sensory overload.
All I read and heard and saw and felt
is churning chaotically in my mind
with excess overflowed to unconscious storage,
floating and spinning fixing itself
to come out later in some [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/todays-web-surfing/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>I had a Rough Day</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s already the second of March.
I’m a day behind on the easy stuff.
And what’s worse, this day
seems not to want me to catch up.
No poetry no prose got posted
yesterday.
No verses edited yet today
as, important stuff is in my way
to execute them.
Slightly under the weather
I’d like to self-diagnose
but can&#8217;t quite place the ailment.
I talk to my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/03/i-had-a-rough-day/</link>
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		<title>Winter to Spring</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Winter&#8217;s blowing out
rain&#8217;s increase between brilliant
days, heralding Spring.
&#169; 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/winter-to-spring/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>I Turned to Me</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The world didn’t stop
I just stepped off.
It wouldn’t pull up
so I took a break
from people telling me
who were my idols,
why they’re now fallen,
demanding from them
the apology I don&#8217;t need.
I stepped back from
the sound bytes from
leaders bereft of sound advice,
like play yard fighters
screaming “No, Mine!”
only with lives at stake.
My spirit was affected
flashed flaming red hot
then flash-frozen [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/i-turned-to-me/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Infectious Joy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Exceeding joy presents, for
no particular reason
than seeing a new sunrise.
Walking out heading
to the library, to the store,
even just to the mailbox;
it starts
as a tickle in my tummy,
incites a wide grin.
It creeps upwards.
My eyes almost close
in chorus with
the other happy signs.
I even feel my ears
move my glasses
as my whole head is
affected in happy
joyful resonance
rolling in from
nowhere [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/infectious-joy/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Rock Bottom</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When you can do no
worse than what you do, only
thing left is better.
&#169; 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/rock-bottom/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Still Awake</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Floor, bed space mined with
pens, books, tablets—toothpicks that
prop my lids open.
Computer screen light
keeps me typing and reading
beyond lucidity.
Worth little early
awake returns too soon, I&#8217;m
again caught at ON;
progenitors of
awake time still at their on
positions on floor bed screen.
© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers
]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/still-awake/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>A Little More Haiku for You</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was going to pick a new poetry form for February. But, I&#8217;ve decided to continue the exploration of Haiku because my month is shortened. Two trips to New Orleans in thirty days, (I&#8217;ll be back in Houston on Wednesday), and new website work (for a site I built) mean that I must focus my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://slstellingstories.com/2010/02/a-little-more-haiku-for-you/</link>
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