Poetry Tips: Boredom Before Concentration

Remember summer vacation? I miss it with a passion. Remember being bored? When you were bored you often wandered around and eventually stumbled onto a great idea and tried to put it into action. As a kid, I would always find a way to build more interesting forts in the backyard using the trees as support or when we lived in El Paso, we used tumbleweeds.

Nowadays we are overscheduled and distracted by our various electronics so that we often feel that this is the way life is. I’m asking you to switch off all those electronic devices and just sit there. That’s right, no books allowed, either. You may grab a journal or notebook and a pen, no cameras, nothing else. Allow yourself to finally be alone with your thoughts.

Uncomfortable? Maybe, but you’ll get used to it. Embrace being bored. Let your thoughts flow freely even if all your brain comes up with at first is a list of all the things you should be doing instead.

Next, concentrate on your breathing and county slowly as you breathe in and then count slowly as you breathe out. This will help clear your mind. After at least five long, slow breaths, focus your mind on what you would really like to do creatively.

Whatever you think up next, write it down. Write a list of all the ideas that begin to form in your head and then pick the best ones and try them!

Good luck to all who try this exercise, please drop by again next week…

Chiron Review Open Submissions

I urge you to go the link below because their submissions guidelines are very detailed. You may submit up to four times a year, you may send up to five poems or one long poem via snail mail or e-mail.

To submit by e-mail, put your name and submission genre (Poetry) in the subject line and attach your poems in ONE word document with all of your contact information included in the attachment. Read the on-line guidelines because they will reject your poems if you miss any of the steps. Send your poems to: editorATchironreviewDOTcom

To submit via snail mail: Send your poems with your contact information along with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to:

Chiron Review
522 E. South Avenue
St. John, KS 67576-2212


For More Details, go to:
http://www.chironreview.com/

Good luck to all who submit, please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/arden1.html
Molly Arden’s “The Sign of Four”

http://www.swinkmag.com/index.php?page=archives&artID=70&catID=3
Richard Froude’s “Mike May”

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

Lilliput Review Issue #179

#179 is a good number, I have to say, like a good wine. It is meant to be savored and enjoyed, it contains precious notes of winds, seeds, and the aftertaste of the afterlife. I am happy to share with you some of my favorite poems:

The Expression of Rain

Just as water darkens wood
and brings its grain closer to the surface
rain can change a face.

“He wore the expression of rain” means
that his face could be seen through
seen into

suddenly fragile
as a drop just fallen
against a windowpane.

By: Karina Borowicz of Florence, MA

I like this one for its simple beauty when you first read it and then as you savor it, the layers of meaning underneath. We as humans watch facial expressions for clues to the emotions within a person. This poem brings that to the surface and likens it to wood grain changing as it darkens in the rain just as a person’s face darkens in mood and the lines or wrinkles appear more prominently with the change in the facial expression.



Seed and Wind

If life should always have such dandelion
fresh and shocking yellow-bright hello-ness
to the eyeball universe

how short our time would be before
seediness would settle in and winds
would blow away what seems to matter

to matter
as for instance maybe this.

By: Mark Rich of Cashton, WI

This poem struck me because it appears bright and cheerful like the dandelion at first but then it spreads out to mention how short life is and asks “how short our time would be before/seediness would settle in and winds/would blow away what seems to matter.” My take on it is that joy and light does not last forever even in the brightest of circumstances but to enjoy those short moments while you can.



It wouldn’t be hell

if heaven didn’t keep knocking on the door.

By: Charlie Mehrhoff of Oakland, ME

It’s so short yet so rich with meaning. There are countless ways to interpret the meaning. I interpret it to mean that if heaven is knocking then that must mean loved ones are passing away and that the poet is expressing his feelings about it.



Issue #179 is available for a mere $1.00 and well worth it, I’d say. You can order issues of Lilliput Review, edited by Don Wentworth, from his blog at:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

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

The Guerriella Poetics Project Reader and Don Wentworth's Past All Traps

Hello Guerrilla Poetics Fans and Operatives! You will be thrilled to know that the GPP Reader is now available on-line, all 30 poets and 152 pages of it, so check it out at:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/62895


AND

Also, those of you who are fans of Lilliput Review will be thrilled to know that Don Wentworth has his very own collection of poems out, titled “Past All Traps. The book is available directly at the blog for $8, or from Amazon for $10:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com

check out the interview about his book at:
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:96315


Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for another featured poetry issue…