Blog: Home of a Cackling Jackal

Reb Livingston, creator of No Tell Motel, has created this blog. She happened to add my blog because I featured one of the poets she published, Laurel Snyder. I started reading her blog before she featured me and I was happy to see the link for Ms. Snyder. Reb is funny and insightful and will clue you in to Poetry sites and poems galore. Not only is the blog fun to read, it can be a great resource. I highly recommend stopping by regularly since she posts often. Check it out at:

http://www.cacklingjackal.blogspot.com/

Please take a moment to answer the poll by scrolling down to the picture at the bottom. Thanks again for stopping by, please come back tomorrow for a living poet…

Poetry Tips: Reading Poems Aloud

This seems simple enough, but how often do you read your poems out loud after writing them? I used to be lazy about it until I joined a poetry group. You will be able to uncover words that don’t sit next to each other well, and you may find that you are adding words that aren’t in your poem so that it flows easier.
Be sure to identify any places that trip up your tongue, any punctuation that disrupts the flow negatively, and any words that sound out of place in your poem. It is amazing what you will discover if you read them aloud to yourself. In addition, try to read them aloud to someone else and get their feedback. This has proved invaluable to me. Your audience (no matter how large or small) will be able to say whether the poem made sense in regards to what you wanted it to say, if there are too many “big words” or changes in subject or too simple or too abstract. Depending on the audience you want for yourself, the feedback can also let you know if you are on the right track to reaching them.

Good luck with crafting the perfect poem, please stop by tomorrow for another featured blog!

ALBATROSS Open for Submissions

I am so happy to feature ALBATROSS for open submissions because while you can easily download and read the magazine at your leisure for free, I was able to find the printed hard copy version at a local indie book-store and it is much easier to curl up in a chair and read with a book rather than a laptop. They consistently feature great collections of poems that flow nicely together. Some journals have poems that differ from each other so much that I have a hard time moving from one poem to the next with ease. ALBATROSS issues always flow and ease you into each successive poem and all of them are superb. I never regret spending time reading each of the issues.

ALBATROSS requests 3 to 5 poems not to exceed 200 lines each, no simultaneous submissions, a biography and a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE). For further information about their press and guidelines go to:
http://www.anabiosispress.org/

Good luck with your submissions, and please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips.

Poem by Poet Hound

October’s Embrace

October girls are not obscured in costume,
they are lit from within
like carved pumpkins
delighted to behold bold colors
of autumn forests,
crackling leaves
under every footstep
when the air is becoming
as crisp as their voice
commanding attention
and a foothold
on your heart.
Do not deny her the pleasure
of shaking your hand
or warming you with an embrace
that melts the surliest of souls.
October girls are confident,
clever, and kind
with a pinky-swearing ability
to never let a friend down.
Preserve such a girl,
keep her close,
for if you are lucky
she will prepare you a toast.



Thanks for reading my poem, please stop in tomorrow for another Open Submissions!

Octavio Paz and the Labyrinth

Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City and began writing at an early age. His grandfather had an extensive library and was an active political journalist which passed down to Octavio Paz’s father. Octavio also founded the journal Taller featuring emergent writers. He is well known for his work The Labyrinth of Solitude. This book was his study of the Mexican Identity. He is known as an essayist and poet and while he passed away in 1998, his writing is as important today as it was while he was alive.
The following poem comes from a book of his poems titled: The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz 1957 – 1987.

A Draft of Shadows

in magnetic rotation
link and scatter
on the page.

I am where I was:
I walk behind the murmur,
Footsteps within me, heard with my eyes,
The murmur is in the mind, I am my footsteps,
I hear the voices that I think,
the voices that think me as I think them.
I am the shadow my words cast.

Thanks for stopping by, please come back tomorrow for more Poetry by Poet Hound.

Open Books Web-Site

This is a Poetry Book-store in Seattle, WA and while I do not live anywhere close and have never personally visited I did read an article months ago about them. Poetry Only book-stores are very rare and this is one of them. Even if you cannot visit in person you can find lists of their books available for order on-line and if you are looking for a particular poem or poet who you can’t quite put your finger on they will help you find the answer! I e-mailed them and asked if I had gotten my facts right that the book-store was part of the owners’ house and they responded to that and much more! Here they are quoted directly:

“The bookstore is not in our house, not yet. The store is street-level on a busy arterial in what was the garage and basement of a 100 year old bungalow. The upstairs part of the building was a restaurant for 7 years and has been vacant for 4 years. We are remodeling it back into a residence and will live there someday.We gain customers and lose customers as the years move along. We started in this neighborhood with a small general bookstore 20 years ago, moved it and turned it into poetry-only 12 1/2 years ago. We have watched the children of some of our customers grow up, and attended the funerals of some of our customers.We enjoy the store a great deal. There are headaches, of course, as with any business. We enjoy the art form and like many of the people who enjoy too.We changed to poetry-only as it became clear that owning a small general bookstore was becoming very difficult, what with Barnes & Noble, Borders,and Amazon (which was just beginning to make waves when we made the change).The mass market approach to literature was not for us. We each had studied poetry on the graduate level, knew and read poetry, and were able to talk about it to customers, something we couldn't do with science fiction, etc.When we closed the first bookstore most of our business there was in poetry and poetry-related books, so the move made sound business sense.Thanks for your interest,John”Open Books: A Poem Emporium2414 N. 45th Street Seattle, WA 98103(206) 633-0811www.openpoetrybooks.com


Please check them out by clicking the links and do feel free to drop them a line or an inquiry about a poet or a poetry book!

http://openpoetrybooks.com/index.html

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Poet that has Passed….