Reginald Shepherd's Blog Tells it Like it Is

Reginald Shepherd is a published poet who also posts his opinion in his own blog at:
http://reginaldshepherd.blogspot.com/
He is very eloquent, much like Ron Silliman. His perspective is unique from Silliman’s just as it should be. Otherwise there’d be no need to feature him. Mr. Shepherd discusses poets, what is going on in Poetry today, how others perceive it, etc. He does not necessarily post every single day but you should check in on him regularly. I hope you find him as interesting as I do, thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow we will be discussing a living legend…

Poetry Tips: Worth Describing

When I first started writing poems I made the same mistakes most beginning poets do. For one, I was much too wordy. Another was that I was not descriptive enough. My poems sometimes read like a play-by-play instead of using descriptive words to conjure up the imagery and feelings behind what I was saying.
So your task today is to revise a couple of poems to see which ones merely tell the reader what is happening rather than describing it. For example:

My grandmother made tea,
As she always does on Sundays,
Lifting the porcelain cups from
The cupboard and clinking
Them together onto the silver
Tray. Today we were to
Discuss the latest bit
Of juicy gossip involving
My cousin and her good-
For-nothing-boyfriend.
As always, the tea steamed
Away all guilt from gossip.

Let’s try using more imagery, and less play-by-play, shall we?

My grandmother’s delicate, long
fingers grasped the pale blue
porcelain tea cups by their stems
and, clinking, set them upon her
favored, tarnished, silver tea tray.
As was custom on Sundays, we
were to sit together steaming
about our relative (my cousin)
and her good-for-nothing
boyfriend, much like this rich
Irish Breakfast Black tea was
steaming up at us warming our
cheeks as though they weren’t
already red with anger.


Notice the differences? By expanding on the description of the small scene taking place you can interest and involve the reader much more closely. If you have some poems lying around, you may want to see if you can tweak it a little to include more descriptive imagery. Or you can create a brand new poem keeping this tactic in mind.
Thanks for stopping in. Tomorrow I will be introducing you to another poet that blogs…

Open Submissions: Rattle

Rattle Poetry Journal is open year round to poets who wish to submit their work. If you check out their site you can also see if there’s any particular up-coming theme if you are so inspired. Otherwise, you can send up to 3 poems to Rattle with a brief biography about yourself and why you’re interested in poetry to the following address:

Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

http://www.rattle.com/ereviews.htm Check out their web-site and don’t forget to read what kind of poems they are interested in and to make sure you include all your contact information with each poem. Best of luck to those of you submitting!

Poem by Poet Hound

White

Lily half-floats the surface
submerged in the greenery
petals wave a slow ballet
in the breeze this autumn
evening quite content
amongst the egrets
ignoring her beauty
for the dart of fish.

Ordinarily, this poem would be centered on the page but this blog is not capable of doing so and therefore, it is left justified.

I would also like to remind you that Poet Hound is accepting submissions for posting your poems on Wednesdays. Please send your poems for consideration to:
poethoundblogspotATyahooDOTcom
Must be 50 lines or less, no profanity, pornography, or overtly religious poetry. Please include a brief biography about yourself and name any books or chapbooks that are still available for purchase and where they can be found if applicable. If you are a beginning poet, I’d love to help you gain an audience. Poet Hound encourages the idea of helping poets earn a living doing what they do best. Thank you! I look forward to hearing from you.

Emily Dickinson, Almost but not Quite

Tuesday, as some of you may know, is dedicated to those poets who have passed away. Emily Dickinson is the very first poet I fell head over heels for. I love her poems because they always seem a little strange, they almost fit a rhythm and rhyme but not quite. They flow, almost. In this way she keeps the reader awake and paying attention to every word and the best part is she really wasn’t seeking a wide adoring audience when writing. She wrote for herself as the words came and then stowed them away. (With the exception of sending poems when writing letters back and forth to loved ones of course). Now there is hardly a person out there who hasn’t heard of her, thanks to English classes of all school-age levels and course studies. No matter how much you already know about her I still would like to feature her in this blog as she is the reason why I got into poetry at all in the first place.
This excerpted poem appeals to me in that anyone can relate to a broken heart and the idea that love or divine intervention appears just in time to heal it:

A poor torn heart, a tattered heart
That sat it down to rest,
Nor noticed that the ebbing day
.....

The angels, happening that way,
This dusty heart espied;
Tenderly took it up from toil
And carried it to God

......


Thanks for reading, stop by tomorrow to see whether anyone has submitted a poem for Poet Hound to post (poethoundblogspotATyahooDOTcom), or if Poet Hound will have to post their own…

Monday's Verse Daily

Much like Poetry Daily, this site features a different poem each day for you to read and enjoy. It also includes a biography of the poet and any featured published books by that poet. I highly recommend checking it out for a daily dose of poetry. If you like what you see, look up the poet on-line or see if there are any books available from your local library. You do visit the library sometimes, right? Right?
http://www.versedaily.org/

Thank you for visiting, tomorrow we will feature another poet who is no longer with us but still inspires people to this day with her odd rhythm and flow…