Pugnacious Pinoy's Blog

As a poet hound I do so love other hounds, and pugs are adorable. Plus, pugnacious is such a fun word that doesn’t get used nearly enough in our every day language. Thus, this poet blogger has spunk. As far as I can tell, he is also a teacher and has quite the busy work week. Check him out at:
http://www.pugnaciouspinoy.blogspot.com/

Thanks for checking in, tomorrow we’ll discuss another living poet who is better known for her non-fiction and short story collection…

Poetry Tips Friday

Today I’d like to invite you to do something a little more involved than sitting down to write a poem. I want you to find a poem that you love (whether it is one you’ve written or one you’ve read) and turn it into a work of art.

There are a number of ways to do this. You could paint an image you think of while reading it, take a picture of something that reminds you of the poem. You could make a collage based on the poem, or build something if you have a workshop that reminds you of the poem. You could make a collage of various words that grab your eye in the poem, and find those words in magazines, newspaper, etc. The only limit is your imagination.

Once you have finished your project, set it out where people can ask about it, and explain what poem it came from. Maybe you’ll spark some new interest and conversation, or maybe you’ll inspire them to read poems again. Either way, you’ll have done something unique and fun.
Thanks for stopping in, see you tomorrow when we talk about a spunky blogger…

Ellipsis: Open Submissions Thursday

Act now or miss out! The open submission is only open from Aug. 1st to November 1st 2007. You need a cover letter and a contributor’s note (where else you’ve published, if applicable). I would say you should submit only if you’ve published somewhere, anywhere, at least once before. Even on the internet.
Here is the mailing address, and I wish you the best of luck:

Ellipsis Editor
Westminster College
1840 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Poet Hound and a Proposition

Proposing? So soon? Well…yes! For years populations around the world make fun of their best writers, painters, innovators, and famous people. Why not do something similar with poets and their poems? We have Weird Al who makes his own wacky lyrics to popular songs, we have Jay Leno and countless other show hosts who poke fun at the public’s captive eye, and we have folks who make products poking fun at others such as an inflateable “Scream” doll from the famous painting “The Scream.” Most of the people who are the butt of these jokes have one of two reactions: One: They LOVE it and laugh along with it. Or Two: They HATE it and immediately seek revenge.
Well, I am thinking of making my own wacky versions of poems whether they are well known or not. I will feature the original, and then my wacky version of it. A Weird Al of Poetry, if you will. Only, I would be titling it Punctured Poetry. I got the idea from my Dad who will read a poem of mine, then e-mail me a wacky version of it in return. So I thought, why not post something like this on the web? If you have any opinions on this idea, please post them or e-mail me about them. Otherwise, starting next week, I might start trying my hand at it. You will have to see…


For now, we are back to our regularly scheduled program of a Poem By Poet Hound:


Gray

Indiana is always cloudy
covered in rain, fog, snow
sometimes more rain,
or less snow, more or less
fog, sun is so scarce
our neighbors blink
disbelieving and sneezing,
they curse backwards into their
homes. After all, no one’s
seen color quite like
this but once a year
on the Fourth of July.


Please also remember that I am perfectly happy to feature poems by other readers. Whether you are a published poet or not, please feel free to post or e-mail poems for submission. As always, must be less than 50 lines, no profanity, pornography, or overtly religious poems. Thank you! Don’t forget to let me know whether you would like to see Punctured Poetry.

Gwendolyn Brooks on the South Side

Gwendolyn Brooks was born June 7th, 1917 and grew up in Chicago. She became a poet before marrying another writer, Henry L. Blakely, in 1939. They lived in the South Side of Chicago and were part of a very creative group of people including other writers, painters, and musicians. As an African American woman, she portrayed life and times witnessed outside her own windows. She also discovered the power of the press when John Sengstacke was building the Chicago Defender “into the most noted black paper in the country, where one could regularly read cutting-edge political news, poetry, and the column by Langston Hughes which began in 1942.” I have taken this information from The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks edited by Elizabeth Alexander. Sadly, Mrs. Brooks passed away in 2003 of cancer. She was and still is an influential poet.

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=17315

Thank you for reading, we will meet again tomorrow for an interesting new idea I need your opinion on...

Beard of Bees Small Press Web-Site

This web-site publishes chapbooks on-line. It’s a great site because you can download all of the chapbooks for free and print them out for yourself. You can submit a collection of poems of your own to this small press in hopes of publication, and they publish more often than most small presses. If you look at their list of chapbooks, you’ll see they publish a chapbook between every month/ every other month. There were 9 chapbooks published in all for the year 2006. There is a wide variety of poems published and you will never grow bored looking through them. Once you find a favorite chapbook, print it and share it. The best part is, you can refer your friends and family to the site if you enjoy a particular poet or if you have been published yourself because all of it is available for free. Use the web-site below to check them out, and I will also add them to the Recommended Sites list. See you tomorrow for a poet who grew up in South Side Chicago…
http://www.beardofbees.com/

Ted Kooser is Pure Delight

Ted Kooser is a Pulitzer prize winner of Poetry, and I have in my hand his book Delights and Shadows which is copyrighted for 2004. I found him in the library and have heard about him through the grapevine. He was also Poet Laureate of the United States in 2004.
According to the Library of Congress,
"The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry."

As you can see, he has a very big job in regards to bringing poetry to the public audience. I would say that is a daunting task to get paid for. How would you go about proving a wider audience? I wonder…

Anyway, Ted Kooser writes much like Billy Collins and Mary Oliver in that he does not have any heavy allusions, big complicated words, or any pretentious language. He is plain spoken in the most eloquent way possible. He is another poet you can understand right away. That makes him a great man in my book! After having picked up his book in the library I feel that the next time I’m in a book-store I’ll feel ready to take my commitment to the next level and buy a book of his poetry. I highly recommend utilizing your local library to see which poets/fiction-writers/non-fiction writers you like best before attempting to buy their work. In a perfect world, all writers would make a decent living from their ways with words. Until then, we have bloggers like me who support them by spreading the word.

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171342

*By the way, he talks about much more than just china dishes. I just happened to really like these two, and I bet it has something to do with drinking tea while reading this book. I highly recommend you look up Mr. Kooser next time you’re in a library or book-store. I think you’ll be delighted.Thank you, and see you tomorrow for another manic Monday…