Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://tiptonpoetryjournal.com/tpj11/reed.htm
“Sunken” by Talia Reed

http://absentmag.org/issue02/index.html
“We Took Away Your Helmet With No Sacrifice on Our Side” by Julia Cohen

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

David S. Pointer's Ice Age

Mr. Pointer’s chapbook Ice Age is book three in the Pocket Protector Series of Alternating Current’s Press. If you didn’t catch details last week, all royalties go to the author and each of these Pocket Protector Series chapbooks cost a mere $3.00. Check out Alternating Current’s site for more detail.

Ice Age is a collection of poems that are political in nature and happen to coincide nicely with the novel I’m reading at the moment, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The poems Mr. Pointer produces mention the complications of living on the border of Mexico and also uses sarcasm against our governmental system. I enjoyed the collection quite thoroughly and highly recommend it to you. As always, I will share several of my favorite poems with you:

Commerce As Chameleon

The telegraph wires of
wisdom have been cut

The bully of economics of
bygone eras have returned

The system has been up on blocks
Ice blocks melting money fumes

As the economic hit men play
truth of Ghengis Khansequences

while Senator Larry Craig gets his
for a little goo cannon collegiality

and at my temp job the biometric
employee hand scanner radiates

us into real early wage slavery and
the pallets of waiting e-waste.

The anger is evident in the use of words such as “bully of economics” and “Ghengis Khansequences” which makes this poem sound more emotionally raw, I think. I also like the reference to “e-waste” in our era of internet where we can waste quite a bit of our time while ignoring real world issues. I enjoyed this poem because its angry political without sounding too “preachy” or being so lengthy the reader would lose interest.

The Find

At a yard sale,
I see a scuffed
schoolmaster’s
desk made possibly
from birch and
birdeye maple,
and know with
a monumental
makeover this
could become a
poet maudit’s
perfect work
station with
a secret wall
or compartment
to the elevated
writing world
working the
literary corridors
of late stage
economics with
an old Bull’s-
eye lamp for
building up
valued verse
blowing the
small press
reader away
with the crisp
literary pop
of a fine
dueling pistol.

This poem romanticizes the writer which I’m always fond of, but instead of being too sappy about writing poetry it romanticizes the desk in which a writer may sit. Even though it sounds dreamy in the beginning it ends with an unexpected closing of a dueling pistol, violent compared to the beginning lines, which I also love as a technique to startle the reader.

Cardboard Sign Cowboy

A wage slave’s
hands were dirty –
some said it was
just the cagefungus
of capitalism under
his fingernails, and
there weren’t any
Shepherd’s bread
crumbs in the
sidewalk cracks, so
he got a cardboard
sign, and stood
under the Bannister
Mall bridge bringing
in three decades of
house payments
in a year’s and a half
becoming a titled
homeowner hurting
the homeless picking
up most of the post
payment tab as an
angered public
withheld offerings
to others, and our
newest neighbor
orders a gypsy
onion omelet in
olive oil over easy
as asking for help.

This poem brings different imagery than what I’ve ever seen to bring to light the prejudice against the homeless. Lines such as “cagefungus/of capitalism” and “Shepherd’s bread/crumbs in the/sidewalk cracks” are fresh compared to the rants we usually hear on the news or in office conversation. The neighbor at the end is clueless about the whole dilemma and asks for a meal that most homeless people could never expect to eat bringing around the clash of the man who siphons funds off the public to pay his mortgage while others starve and are ignored by the public angry at this discovery. It’s a very good poem of contrast and comparison and I always admire poets who can squeeze so much into relatively few words and lines.

There are many great poems in the collection and if you enjoy the poems shown here then please click on the Alternating Press Link to find out more. Also, each purchase comes with a free random chapbook from Alternating Press’ archives! So you get more for your money and all royalties go to the author which deserves support so that all poets can get paid for their hard work.

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Shanna Compton's Site

I’ve seen Shanna Compton’s poems around and when I found her site I was delighted! You can find links to poems, interviews, readings, and more by clicking the link below:

http://shannacompton.com/index.html

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another Featured Poet…

Poetry Tips: A Year of Poetry

Most of us make New Year’s Resolutions and I have a proposal for all my readers out there. I’d like you to pick up a poetry book (library, book-store, internet, however you prefer to acquire poetry) and make sure you read an author you’ve never heard of before at least once a month for the entire year. You don’t have to like the author once you’ve finished, but you will have expanded your mind for trying to read outside your comfort zone.

My New Year’s Resolution for poetry is to try and gather even more people to my humble blog (particularly skeptical family and friends) to see if I can gain a bigger audience for poetry. I think poetry is worthwhile, it feeds the soul, it inspires, it can provide solace, joy, and so much more. I pledge to reduce hesitant people’s fear that poetry is “snobby” or “difficult” by keeping things simple here at Poet Hound and I hope some of you will join me by including your own reviews on your blogs and web-sites if you have them, or linking interesting poems for others to stumble onto.

I have to say that my Wednesday feature of Poems Found by Poet Hound is the most popular and I think that is wonderful because it is a constant introduction to countless types of poetry and poets in just the right sized dosage.

Happy New Year’s and please keep visiting! I wish all of you good fortune in life and in poetry…

Hanging Loose Press Open Submissions

If you aren’t filled to the brim with activity over the weekend then perhaps you’ll want the time to polish and send off some poetry to Hanging Loose Press.
Definitely check out the link because they are very detailed but the general guidelines are:
You may send between three to six poems along with a self addressed stamped envelope to Hanging Loose, 231 Wyckoff Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Note that you may not have simultaneous submissions and the response time can be as long as three months. They also publish writers still in high school for those of you who are younger and hoping to publish.

Good luck to all who submit!
More specific guidelines are below:
http://www.hangingloosepress.com/submissions.html

Thanks for dropping in, please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…