Poetry Hut Blog

This site features great links to articles, sites, news, and podcasts. Check it out at:

http://www.poetryhut.com/wordpress/

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

Poetry Tips Question 2: What Are Some Tips For Reading Poetry?

Thanks again to my readers who responded to five questions in February that will be posted one by one on Fridays throughout March into early April! Here are their responses to

Question 2: What are some tips for reading poetry?

Jim Murdoch responds with:

Persist. If you don't like one poet's style then look for another.


Barbara Smith responds with:

Read it out loud. Discuss it with poetry mad friends/colleagues. Maybe read more of that person's work. If it doesn't do it for you, try someone else. But you usually get in after a while of trying (took me ages to get into T. S. Eliot and then some).


Rob Mack responds with:

If you are new to poetry, getting hold of a good anthology is worthwhile. It will introduce you to a wide variety of poets and you can follow up on the ones you like best.
I also think it’s best not to be too hasty to criticise a poet because you find his/her work ‘difficult’ (or too simple, in some cases). It might be simply that you need to read more and learn more about where a particular poet is coming from.


Juliet Wilson responds with:

Subscribe to some literary journals that publish poetry. If there are individuals published there who particularly appeal to you then buy their books or try to hear them read sometime. Read the poetry that appeals to you, not the poetry you feel you should read. Having said that, extend your comfort zone all the time, read poets recommended by those you admire

Ben Wilkinson responds with:

If you're a beginner? Take it easy. Poetry doesn't have to be difficult, even if it's complicated. Remember that poetry usually works in a different way to prose. You probably won't fully get what the poem is saying in the first read (though if you don't get the poem at all after a few reads, that's most probably the poem's fault!) Most people I know who read little poetry usually complain about not understanding it, or its being 'difficult' or 'complex'. But it's no more complicated than a novel really, it's just that most of us have been reading novels (or at least prose of some kind) since we were kids. The more poetry you read, then, the more you'll come to understand it and enjoy it, and the more you'll appreciate its clever use of language; its combination of sound with sense. Give poems a chance: read them, leave them, come back to them. For one thing, they're much better suited to our busy lifestyles than the cumbersome novel: you can read a good few poems on the bus, train or tube, or whenever you've got ten minutes free and want something interesting and intelligent to occupy yourself with. If you're new to contemporary poetry, a good place to start is with poets that make good use of colloquial, everyday language: Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Paul Farley and Roddy Lumsden spring to mind as very strong poets in this area, among others. Some of those poets were definitely the ones who made me sit up and take notice of the exciting things going on in poetry today.

Cuitlamiztli Carter:

Read through it once just for cadence & word choice, then scan againfor meaning (of course, you will be unconsciously drawing meaning nomatter what). One could write a book on how to read poetry (Mr. Bloomhas, of course), but I think a basic tip is that one shouldn't lookimmediately for the meaning, or even scan intentionally to see wherethe rhymes and rhythms fall, or what the meter is, or any technicalbits. Just run through the poem, preferably out loud, to get theimmediate impact.

Hazel B. Cameron:

If you don't understand it after reading it, try and listen to the poet reading it. If you still don't get it, probably best to choose another poem.
One bad poem does not mean all bad. Read the poem not the poet.
Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for another featured blog…

Damselfly Press Open Submissions

Thanks to reading the Luna Park Review’s articles on their new site, I stumbled upon this press. Happily, you will find that they read year round and you can submit on-line therefore saving you postage. Send 1-3 poems as an attachment and it must be Microsoft Word or .RTF to the Poetry Editor: Lesley AT damselflypress DOT net
No simultaneous submissions and please check further guidelines at the link below:

http://damselflypress.net/submissions/

As always I wish you luck and continued persistence. Please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips from the blog audience…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poems.com/poem.php?date=13935
“For the Birds” by Ciaran Berry

http://juked.com/2008/02/slipperyhandles.asp
“Slippery Handles” by Evelyn Hampton

Thanks for reading and please stop by tomorrow for Open Submissions Thursday…

Ooops

Sorry folks, I put the same post on twice!
I won't be posting anything on Tuesdays until April, then I'll be rearranging some things.
Thanks for stopping in, please stop in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound!

Luna Park Review Site

I used to read their blog regularly for literary journal reviews and they now have a very user friendly site that they have moved to. If you are curious about what literary magazines you might like to try subscribing to then I absolutely insist that you read the reviews on their site. If you are going to spend your hard earned money on a literary journal you ought to be able to find out what journal fits your personal style or aesthetic, don’t you agree? Check it out at:

http://www.lunaparkreview.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for a Tuesday Feature in the works…

Luna Park Review Site

I used to read their blog regularly for literary journal reviews and they now have a very user friendly site that they have moved to. If you are curious about what literary magazines you might like to try subscribing to then I absolutely insist that you read the reviews on their site. If you are going to spend your hard earned money on a literary journal you ought to be able to find out what journal fits your personal style or aesthetic, don’t you agree? Check it out at:

http://www.lunaparkreview.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow…

Cynthia Rylant and Walker Evans

I picked up this book at the library titled Something Permanent where poet Cynthia Rylant has utilized the famous photographer Walker Evans’ photos of the Great Depression as inspiration for poems. The poems and photographs are paired up in this book and I think it is just fabulous. The photos are amazing and Cynthia Rylant weaves wonderful short story poems about the photos that definitely left me itching to try the same thing. The poems, like I said, are wonderful stories. One, titled “Tombstone,” is about the curious tombstone sculpture of a man and his dog and how people react to seeing this tombstone. The lines at the end captures their reaction perfectly: “each had shyly to/lean over and stroke that lovely dog’s head,/swallowing back the “good boy”/that was on their wondering lips.”
There is also another poem relating to a picture of a skinny church steeple butted up against a high-rise apartment building and the great opening lines are: “It wasn’t easy being a sinner/with God Himself living right next door,” and talks about the tenants feeling guilty of literally airing their dirty laundry underneath the cross of the church. The visual and the words are just perfect together. If you ever get a chance to read this book or buy it please do, you won’t be disappointed.

http://wvlc.lib.wv.us/cgi-bin/search/fcp.pl?words=wv&d=/center_for_the_book/In%20Their%20Own%20Country/Author's%20pages/rylant.htm

I had difficulty finding out much about Cynthia but the above link has an interview with her that I think you will enjoy. Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow!