Lilliput Review's Blog: Issa's Untidy Hut

Don Wentworth is well known for his little magazine of poems that are all ten lines or less and just in case you didn’t know he also has a blog! Can you believe each Lilliput Review issue is only $1.00? Isn’t that wonderful? I have already included his blog on my sidebar before this feature because Don was kind enough to add me to his sidebar. Please check his blog out at:

http://www.lilliputreview.blogspot.com

Thanks for checking in, please stop in tomorrow for another living, breathing poet…

Poetry Tips: Home Towns and Cities

Have you paid homage to your hometown or favorite place lately? Surely you know there are plenty of poems about New York City, but what about where you were born? The place you spent an internship? Or, you could even write a poem about a place you don’t like, and point out all its faults. Either way, it makes for some great poems, particularly if you can play with imagery.
In April of 2007 the Poetry Foundation’s magazine published Valzhyna Mort’s poem “New York” and I just absolutely loved the poem! Especially the line “by the ears of skyscrapers” since it was an image I never would have thought of and was delightful to read. So for inspiration I have included the link to Ms. Mort and her poem so that you may find the inspiration to pay tribute to or write a scathing letter about your place of choice… Let me know how they turn out!

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=98244

Thanks for stopping in, please come by tomorrow for another Saturday Blog Feature…

Shampoo Poetry Open Submissions

Please be sure to read the poems that Shampoo publishes before submitting. On their site there are no particular guidelines for submission, just the e-mail address which is:
delray@shampoopoetry.com. I would recommend putting the words “poetry submission” in your subject line so it isn’t rejected as spam. Good luck with submissions!

http://www.shampoopoetry.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for more poetry tips…

Poet Hound's Found Poems

http://juked.com/2007/12/dreamfish.asp
Dave Rowley’s “Fish Dream Sequence” at Juked presents a lovely turn-of-the-tables idea for those of us who love to eat seafood. Fantastic!


http://www.shampoopoetry.com/ShampooThirtyone/yee.html
Debbie Yee’s poem “Clean-up” at Shampoo Poetry magazine has a wonderful way with imagery concerning the word “blue”, and I love the post-card picture that goes with it.

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more open submissions!

John Ciardi

John Ciardi was born in 1916 in Boston, Massachusetts and was the son of Italian immigrants. He passed away in 1986 after a career writing, editing, translating, and poetry readings. His poems were popular with people of all ages and education levels and he was also known as an excellent researcher during his studies. Unfortunately the links below do not have links to poems I enjoyed in the library book I picked up, Person to Person published by Rutgers University Press. Two of those poems, “The Size of Song” and “Old Man” are worth trying to find, however. Mr. Ciardi has excellent rhythm so that as you read any poem it flows beautifully and before you know it the end has been reached. Personally, I am always hoping the poem goes on. I love the “Old Man” poem because it describes a former ladies’ man who is now content to court the pigeons in the park by bringing them peanuts. I can picture several “dirty old men” that I know becoming the man in this poem. “The Size of Song” has rhyme in addition to rhythm and an intelligent way of speaking about birdsong that leaves your mind wandering further than the poem’s reaches. For example:
Bird music is the tremolo/of the tremulous. Birds let us know/the songsters never are the strong.
There are countless poems worth reading by Ciardi and I hope you will find some you enjoy by following the links below. In the meantime, if you happen to go into a library I recommend that you seek him on the shelves!

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1259
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/680

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more poems linked around the web…

The Guild of Outside Writers

This is a site for all writers and book lovers! There are interviews, ratings about various presses, promotions of zines and writers, etc. There is so much to this site that it would take too long to explain it all to you. If you love the small press and want to learn about contemporary writers and where you can find the latest publishing presses, this is the place to go. There are even listings for calls for submissions, so if you ever need more places to submit, you can check out the submissions section of this site. Check it all out at:

http://www.outsiderwriters.org/

As always, I appreciate your visits and feedback! Stop by tomorrow for another poet who has left this world behind…

Marge Piercy in the Every Day

Marge Piercy was born in 1936 in Detroit, Michigan and is still writing. Beyond writing poetry she has also written essays, a memoir, a how-to book for fiction, and many novels. She is undoubtedly prolific and well-respected as a writer. I came across her book, The Crooked Inheritance in the local library and gravitated to her poems immediately. I have provided links below so that you can learn more and read her poems. I didn’t have enough time to request permission to post her poems so I can only provide snippets of what I have enjoyed. Therefore, please use the links to gain access to some of her wonderful poems.
One poem I enjoy is “The Closet of Doom” which complains about the state of her closet and wonders “At night/do these dresses sneak like the twelve/princesses in the tale to a secret ball/to spill wine on their sleeves?”
In this book of poems Marge Piercy ponders many every day things and has several comical rants about things such as “The Hollywood haircut” in which she asks if getting a $400 haircut would make men pant, everyone fall in love with her, whether cars would get out of her way… These are typical conversations you can imagine having with your funny best friend and that is why I love these poems. The poems are entertaining and familiar, funny and friendly. She even talks about her imaginary horses while growing up, just as all children have imaginary friends at one time or another.
I highly recommend checking out this book if you get the chance and please look for any of her work while you are perusing bookshelves and the web.

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=5393

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/266

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for another poetry web-site…