Chicano Poet Blog

This poet’s name is Reyes Cardenas and he posted a comment on my blog some time ago and of course I had to see who he was. He writes poems regularly and I enjoy all of them, especially since he lives in Texas. Texas is another personal favorite of mine as I used to live there for many years. Mr. Cardenas recently had a series of poems naming plenty of well known poets and linking them in one way or another to Texas which was funny and clever and very Texan of him. Please check out his blog at:

http://chicanopoet.blogspot.com/

Thanks for checking in, please come by tomorrow for another living poet…

Poetry Tips: Writer's Block Navigation

It is unavoidable. Sooner or later you will experience complete writer’s block, the boulder will stretch so tall and wide you cannot find a way to get around it. Here are a couple of ideas you can use to write a poem.

The Telephone Game: Sometimes you may find yourself busy-on-purpose to avoid writing and therefore facing the writer’s block boulder. If one of your ways of avoidance is to call up someone just to strike up conversation, write your idea of the phone conversation as a poem. You can make it as literal, abstract, or straightforward as you like. Once you finish, go ahead and call the person you had in mind and see if your “conversation” was as creative as what you produced.

The Letter/Card Conundrum: If you are about to write a letter or a holiday card to someone, try writing it in poem form with the person in mind. How would you describe what you’ve been up to lately? Would you be able to make it rhyme, put it in stanzas instead of paragraphs, etc? The possibilities are endless! Holiday cards make it interesting because once you write a holiday themed poem for one person, you can duplicate it and send it to others. See if writing a normal letter or holiday card in poetry form helps chip away that large boulder.

The Picture Poem: As you know, each picture is said to be worth a thousand words. Try to find a picture that you really enjoy whether it is silly, beautiful, sad, or inspiring and write about it in poem form.


Hopefully these ideas will help in a pinch when Writer’s Block sits in your path. May the muse be with you, and please stop by tomorrow for another great poetry blog…

Chicago Review Open for Submissions

The Chicago Review features poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. For poetry, there are no specific lengths or subject requirements, but be sure to include a cover letter. They also ask that you send at least three poems, and as always, include a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope.
Send your poems to:
Chicago Review 5801 South Kenwood Avenue Chicago IL 60637
Email: chicago hyphen review at uchicago dot edu

For further information, subscription rates, and samples go to:
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/review/submit.shtml


Thanks for checking in, good luck on your submissions! Tomorrow we will feature more Poetry Tips…

Linked Poems and Demise of Poems

Here are some poems I would like to share with you:

http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/1107/poem_180160.html
Kevin Young’s Poem: From “Book of Hours”


http://www.alicebluereview.org/main.html
Prose by Mike Cunningham: Flowering Dogwood


I will feature a couple of poems I enjoy each week and link you to them. Enjoy the writing and as always, support living poets by seeking out their books and purchasing them, and of course, always write to poets whose work you enjoy and let them know.

Aha! It was bound to happen sooner or later, an agent for a poet told me to delete a poem I had not asked permission to post. So I deleted it. However, I believe poetry should be free and shared. I didn’t plagiarize this poet or claim their work was mine or anything of the sort. My motive was to bring this poet’s work to the attention of other poetry readers. Of course, this poet is also a well known writer with many books under her belt and probably doesn’t need any help selling extra copies. For the other poets out there, I’d like to think they would be happy their work was featured and displayed for others to happily stumble upon. As a result, I have deleted several more posts that I think could lead to more agents requesting I take them down. I have also altered, deleted, or replaced poems with poetry links just in case. I will delete any and all work that an agent or poet asks me to, however, I still believe poetry was meant to be shared… This is why I am part of the Guerrilla Poetics Project.

Thanks for dropping in, see you tomorrow for another Open Submissions…

Dorothy Parker

Ah yes, Dorothy Parker. Not only is she well known, but I seem to encounter more and more women with her name. I often wonder if they get teased for having her name and whether any of them are poets, too. Dorothy Rothschild was born August 22nd, 1893. Her mother died young and Dorothy didn’t have a good relationship with her father and stepmother. Despite all of this, she became well known as a result of her editorial position at Vogue and then moved on to Vanity Fair. She married Edwin Parker whom she met at the Algonquin Round Table, the famous literary circle. Dorothy is best known for her poems, and published plays as well. Dorothy passed away on June 7th, 1967.

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=174097


Thanks for stopping in, tomorrow I will feature links to poetry I enjoy rather than poems I have written. See you tomorrow…

Cloudy Day Art

Cloudy Day Art is a site with wonderful audio,podcasts, poetry, interviews, and blog features. And it also talks about how to make your own podcast poetry by explaining how to use audacity. Check it all out at:


http://www.cloudydayart.com/

Thanks for stopping in, tomorrow we’ll discuss another well-known poet who has passed…

Poetry's November Issue

Sometimes I run out of time to go to the local library to find living poets but I do try to subscribe to at least two publications a year that have poets featured in them. Poetry is the most obvious choice, and I would like to recommend this magazine for people who love poetry enough to have a whole literary journal dedicated to poets. Not only can this clue you in to living poets you may want to check out at the book-store, the poems selected often move you in some way.
The poet who moved me the most in the journal was Elfriede Jelinek, translated into English by Michael Hoffman. Elfriede does not write poetry much anymore, but the works included were wonderful, they all had a “bite” to them. She is better known for her fiction titled The Piano Teacher, however I implore you to check out this issue on-line, in book-stores, or libraries and seek her poems out. They are truly wonderful.
May I also mention that Neko Case has an article in this issue? For those of you who love the band The New Pornographers, this is a fabulous treat. I, for one, love her article because I can relate. I have no degree in English and yet I love poetry and feel the need to pursue it by sharing it with others or trying it myself. Fantastic little article…
In the meantime, check out Kevin Young’s poem “From Book of Hours”, a little long by my usual standards but I ate it up, and also Nicole Pekarske’s poem “Carolina Journal” which reminds me of all my relatives in their hometown of Linton, Indiana.

I would post the poems if I could, but I ran out of time to ask permission. And Poetry is wonderful about granting permission so long as the author also agrees should any of you ever want to share poems with a class, on a web-site, blog, etc. Keep reading poetry, and please check out this journal based out of Chicago. Thanks for dropping by!

P.S. I will be delayed in posting Monday's response as I will be going out of town and returning later in the afternoon. Also, don't forget to vote in the poll at the bottom...