Friday, March 5, 2010

Poetry Tips: Poetry Texting

With all of the shorthand now running back and forth in e-mails and through texting, why not try a poem using only shorthand? Think of shorthand phrases like “LOL” and “BTW” and see what you can come up with. This allows you to experiment in a whole new way with poetry and perhaps fuel creativity for the next full-length worded poem.

Good luck to all who try it, please drop in next Monday for a new featured site…

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Triggerfish Open Submissions

You may send 2-5 previously unpublished poems (simultaneous submissions accepted) via e-mail to:
triggerfishcriticalreview@gmail.com
Subject line should read: Poetry Submission, Your Name, Number of Poems

For more details, check out:
http://www.triggerfishcriticalreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=11

Good luck to all who submit, please drop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips...

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=238618
“Pupil” by D.A. Powell

http://www.sundress.net/wickedalice/woodson.html
“Chrysalis” by Rose Maria Woodson

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

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Davide Trame's Poetry

Davide Trame is a regular reader at Poet Hound and teaches English in Italy and he can also be found at the blog Tomasso Gervasutti:

http://tommasogervasutti.blogspot.com/

Davide has several poems around the world wide web and I would like to share some of those poems with you all below:

On The Scree
The path is zigzagging, narrow and steep,
logs hammered in keep it tight to this
bright cheek of gravel.
It’s hard to climb but it’s
the effort I want and I need despite
the pain in my foot, a pain
that like most of anything else
is what one can’t escape.
Maybe it will leave — I want to think — the pain,
because at one point everything changes and leaves,
but slowly, so slowly, because nothing is a flash,
but just a breathing and enduring on a path
like these steps that negotiate each stone
under the sole, each uneven and honed speck
of the ridge’s skin, each drop of sweat
trickling down the back
while the blue sky
spaces, pressing
its silence on the bones.
A still chamois stares at us down there
from a rock, one chamois only, alone.
But no, you take in at once
others running and jumping and no sound comes,
their feet looking like sailing on air.
We climb on, the one on the rock, king or guardian,
has not moved, keeps staring, and the dog sits
for a moment, spellbound, and stares too. Statue-like
under the sun.
And the top of the mountain, the path pointing
towards it, like at the top of a triangle,
stares down, openly covers us
with its stare.
So, call it faith all we come down to:
feeling an unframed eye, calling for it,
bearing it with the force of gravity and pain
and, suspending the search for a name,
enduring the brightness that spaces and cuts in.

This poem is lovely, it gives me the images of a long hike that tests your endurance and faith. I love the lines “while the blue sky/spaces, pressing/its silence on the bones.” Isn’t that an interesting feeling to have? The idea that the silence under a wide blue sky could press down upon you, all the way to your bones? From the top of the mountain Davide sees that the mountain itself “stares down, openly covers us/with its stare” which gives the mountain the personification of a large force peering down on all below. I enjoy the imagery in this poem and I urge you to listen to it as well.
To listen to the podcast of this poem, please use the link below:

http://qarrtsiluni.com/2010/01/18/on-the-scree/



There is also a sample of Davide Trame’s chapbook on-line titled Re-Emerging, published by Gatto Publishing, scroll below for the link, and I’d love to share some lines with a couple of the poems there:

In the poem “Tiepelo Sky” Davide describes the wide open waters of boating and the carefree experience of “not having any solid ground to tread on.” There are some lovely and insightful lines, such as “No storms with the yellow, woolly broken clouds/…Nor loneliness with the swishes up there/of silken cloaks, scarves streaming…” It is a very peaceful and beautiful poem that leaves me feeling refreshed for having read it.


One of my favorite poems in this collection is titled “The Last Day of School.” I know for most students that the last day of school is very far away but it is nonetheless exhilarating to read. From the opening lines of “Open windows, the dance of sunlight and leaves’ shadows,/sunflowers of laughter in the walls” to likening the children to a flock of birds scattering it is a poignant reminder of school days for adults who have long since experienced the last day of school and a reminder to current students the charm and the nervous parting from their teachers. You’ll have to read the poem for yourself it really is just wonderful.


You can read David Trame’s poems in their entirety in the sample on-line chapbook titled Re-Emerging by using the link below:

http://www.gattopublishing.com/books.html

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

Monday, March 1, 2010

Lannan Foundation

This is a one-stop shop for audio, literary programs, interviews and more, check them out at:

http://www.lannan.org/

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