Poetry Tips: Just Do It

Sometimes we fear rejection so much that we don’t want to try, but try we must. Maybe you haven’t sent out that first poem, uncertain whether your poem fits a journal’s or e-zine’s style. Maybe you have a chapbook collection that you’re not sure will win the contest. I encourage you to send your best efforts into the world and “just do it.” As I read in a magazine this past week: do it afraid, the courage will come later. If the rejection does come, at least you know you tried and can try elsewhere. There are countless opportunities to present yourself whether you’re a poet or trying to gain employment, so why not try? Courage is pursuing your passions despite the fear.

Good luck to all of you, thanks for dropping in. Please drop in next Monday for another featured site…

Open Submissions The Chattahoochee Review

Send three to five unpublished poems along with a cover letter (it’s encouraged but you don’t absolutely have to) through snail mail with an SASE or via e-mail to:
Mail or e-mail submissions to:

The Chattahoochee Review
2101 Womack Road
Dunwoody, Georgia 30338-4497

gpccr@gpc.edu

For more information, use the link below:

http://www.gpc.edu/~gpccr/submissions.php

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175758
“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert E. Hayden

http://www.juked.com/2010/01/bonnieprincebilly.asp
“Letter to the Bonnie “Prince Billy” by Taylor McMahon

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Lilliput Review #171

Don Wentworth at Lilliput Review has put together another riveting issue in #171 which is filled with poems about the ends of fall and the beginning of spring and the wellsprings of creative impulses of ink and paper. The first dozen poems I quickly claimed as favorites and then decided the whole issue is one of my favorite issues I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Quite frankly I feel like posting the whole gosh-darned issue right here! However, that would not be practical or fair. So I will provide a small sample here…

4 A.M.

Spring cracks the sky and ink runs out.
An immense rom
rises around us
A wave of birdsong
breaks slowly across the continent.

Jim Ellis of Auburn, NY

Isn’t this a beautiful vision of spring and sunrise? It makes me want to step outside and breathe in deep the fresh air…



The sidewalks have disappeared.
I walk out into blank thought. The hinges
of the mailbox frozen over; the news,
small though it may seem, has traveled
whole lifetimes to reach us.

Greg Watson of St. Paul, MN

This is a nice contrast to the first poem, both make me want to breathe in fresh air. I love the idea of the mailbox being frozen over containing news that has “traveled whole lifetimes” and I am always a romantic about mailboxes and letters.



From the bridge I watch rust-colored barges
pushing pyramids of gravel up the river.
There is no Egypt here, no mystery;
only the earth shifting its weight, sun blazing,
the small indifferent birds who do not
sing. Not even for you.

Greg Watson of St. Paul, MN

I know we’ve already featured Greg Watson but his visuals are so crisp! Pyramids of gravel being pushed up river, how can you not picture it clearly in your mind’s eye? And then the emotions are brought forth by the last lines of birds who do not sing, “not even for you.” Who, exactly, is he naming? I’m dying to know! It’s a great way to create intrigue, don’t you think?



Going nowhere.
Always packed and ready.

Charlie Mehrhoff of Oakland, ME

Such a short poem loaded with any and all ideas you can bring to it. Personally, I wonder if he also means “having nothing” and therefore even more ready to just pick up and go where the winds may take him.


If you enjoyed these poems you can purchase Issue #171 for a whopping $1.00 bill or you can subscribe to six issues for $5 or 15 issues for $10.00 by sending a check made out to “Don Wentworth” and mail it to:
Lilliput Review
Don Wentworth
282 Main Street
Pittsburgh PA 15201

Being a subscriber of Lilliput Review, I can tell you that each envelope that arrives in the mail with the latest issues is always jam packed and colorful with book-mark sized flyers for new chapbooks, and I do use them as bookmarks, each issue arrives on colored paper and the illustrations are just as entertaining as the poems within the pages and on the cover. I always think of it as a present to receive the latest issues in the mail.
You can also learn more about Lilliput Review and its submissions guidelines at:

http://lilliputreview.googlepages.com/home

Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Hokku Site

Wonderful and informative site about Hokku and its history, please check it out at:
http://hokku.wordpress.com/


Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured poet…

P.S. I am always interested in feedback so always feel free to leave comments. I’ve received some wonderful e-mails but would love to see some dialogue in the comments section as well, so please don’t be shy about sharing your thoughts.