Poetry Tips: Empty

This week I couldn’t think of anything for poetry tips and came up empty so I’m using the word as inspiration. Write poems about empty items—cups, boxes, homes, or the feeling of emptiness over missing someone, anything that comes to mind with the word “empty.”

Good luck to all who try it! Please drop by next Monday for another featured site…

5 X 5 Open Submissions

You may send up to five short poems by June 1st for the themed issue “SELF” (simultaneous submissions are accepted) via e-mail to poetryAT5X5litmagDOTorg
For more details go to:
http://www.5x5litmag.org/Submit.html

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

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20038
“Envoy” by Robert L Stevenson

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=17607
“Scenes of Childhood” by James Merrill

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips….

Befallen by K. Alma Peterson

Befallen is a collection of poems that spin off from their creator, K. Alma Peterson, and evolve into new creatures, some exciting, some unnerving. A graduate from the MFA Program for writers at Warren Wilson College, K. Alma Peterson’s poems have appeared in journals such as Hayden’s Ferry Review, Skidrow Penthouse, and Wicked Alice, to name a few. Her poem “Between Us” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1999. Below is a small sample from her collection, Befallen, published by Alternating Current:


Lost Poem

An insect insinuates the pleural wall rests a fraction
in the laurelled chamber of goldenrod stalk

a swelling in the stem how did you in your final silence
part the June and Needle grasses find the strap and lever
up the rubric door one hinge broken

your zippered leather pouch a sac of sorts
contains a crow call and a grainy field photo

duly referencing the gall an only chance to fumble
then fly forth


Turning a lost poem into a meandering insect is an interesting idea and evolves as the insect is personified in carrying odds and ends in a sac. The line breaks are interesting, as though the regular lines were separated with space rather than punctuation, that’s how I came to read it.



Acher With Grub and Earworm

Ingrained and firm the summer platitudes begin to rattle in
October’s broadleaved sheaves bring tasseled girls in early
from straight furrows their platinum silks dyed a bristled
horsetail brown they shiver pleasant rumors through maize
and up sleeves of crowpecked men wadded up in cornices
thumping tables for the milkweed to come mingle full sun my
eye introduce me to a purple thistle too pretty to do prickle
yet look away past ruts of crib and silo to lady slippers of hip
bible belts where late rains saunter in winter sobers enough
to muck and clot as they pick so shall they sell us roadside to
passerby in plaids who peel back our paper collars examine
for conformity our kernels gleaned by rote curled and rotting

I really enjoyed this poem/prose piece. It seems a little of both to me and I love the imagery, I immediately think of corn fields in Indiana. I see farmer’s daughters and wives picking the corn while gossiping “they shiver pleasant rumors through maize” and then the “crowpicked men” waiting for supper by thumping the tables. Finally, you realize that the poem has evolved so that “we” become the corn: “so shall they sell us roadside to/passerby n plaids who peel back our paper collars.” It’s an endlessly fascinating transition that happens so fast you hardly notice it until you think about what you’ve just read. Very clever indeed!



The Squid Reconsiders Its Approach

Inking up the ocean I advance dagger-eyed on a jet of
self-propulsion
head-footed and a pulse forgetful I entertain a
fondness for the snail
squeezed and bearing up its whorled frame only a truss
embedded deep and out of mind remains of mine

I speak for all mollusks less advanced the grim calm
pried hard
would ask the knobbed whelk why the false mouth

your muscled foot will overbear you have a crude
tool to grate
on my resolve goad my flesh for weakness my
abductors
revealed doubly tender once my ropy ligaments relax

Maybe it’s the loose clasp of an inconspicuous hinge or
the symmetry
of simple bivalves that compels a predator to have at
them
as do the lightning and the frilly dogwhelk jag and
dollop

I like this poem quite a bit, too. A squid personified who then in turn personifies the mollusks. Here is another poem that evolves in a way that seems independent of the poet.


If you enjoyed this short sample of poems by K. Alma Peterson, you may purchase a copy of Befallen for $7 (plus $2 US Shipping or $3 out-of-US shipping) via check, cash, or money order by mail at:
Alternating Current
PO Box 398058
Cambridge, MA 02139

Or you may purchase a copy on-line at:
http://alternating-current-weekly.blogspot.com/

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

Jeffrey Bahr Site

Mr. Bahr has compiled lots of useful information on submissions and journal response times, resources, the works! Check it out at:

http://www.jefferybahr.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

Poetry Tips: Time Capsule

This week I want you to go back in time with your own writings and select the best poems you have to offer from the whole of your lifespan, maybe one per year or every five years. These may inspire you to write new ones, and in the end, place them all into an envelope or a box and “hide” them from yourself with a date for ten or twenty years into the future to be opened again. This will be like a time capsule of your best work and refresh you in later years when you find them again.

Good luck to all who try it, please stop in next Monday for another featured site…

The Sentinel Literary Quarterly

I received an e-mail from the contest judge, Claire Askew, from “across the pond” and I have copied-and-pasted the guidelines below for The Sentinel Literary Quarterly Contest:

"Very exciting news: I have been asked to judge a poetry competition! The Sentinel Literary Quarterly is a fabulous London-based magazine dedicated to publishing world literature: everything from poetry to plays, essays to reviews. Every quarter, they hold a poetry competition with a top prize of £100, to seek out and reward great writing. And I’m very pleased to announce that for the latest contest, they’ve asked me to be their poetry judge.
The contest is open to all — you can enter regardless of age, experience or your location in the world. The only rules are these:
* Poems must be 40 lines or less
* They only accept submissions in the English language
* Poems must be typed
* Identifying marks must not appear on the poems themselves
* You have to include an entry fee of £3 per poem — OR take advantage of a discount: 5 poems for £12.
What could you win?
* The first prize poem wins £100 and publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly
* Second prize is £60, and third prize £40 — plus publication in Sentinel Literary Quarterly
* A further twelve highly-commended poems will also be published in the magazine
There are more details of how to enter, how to present your poems and what you can win here, at the competition’s homepage. The closing date is THURSDAY 25TH MARCH 2010 so get scribbling!
What will I be looking for?
As the contest’s judge, I’ll be looking for a variety of things in the winning poems. Firstly, a strong and original voice — any subject, however old and tired, can be reinvigorated by a fresh perspective, an engaging voice. I’ll also be looking for excellent wordsmithery — not necessarily anything flashy, but signs that the writer knows what language is all about, and how to weild it. I want ideas that make me think “damn, I wish I’d thought of that!”, and turns of phrase that excite and inspire me.
I know that so many of you ONS readers have the power to write work like this — I definitely think you’re all up to the challenge, and hey, I know none of you would say no to a free hundred quid, right? So I hope you’ll all get yourselves to the contest page and enter your work. This is a great contest: there’s no theme, and apart from length, no formal contraints. I’m excited to sift through what I’m sure will be a melting pot of themes, ideas and voices. Make sure yours is part of it!
To learn more about Sentinel Literary Quarterly and for details on entering on-line for their contest, see below:
http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/slq/3.2/competitions/poetry2010april.htm"

Claire Askew’s site is below, where I got the details on the contest:

http://www.readthismagazine.co.uk/onenightstanzas/?p=1265

Good luck to all of you who enter, please stop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173990
“Lament” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/211201.html
“Black Squirrel Poem” by Bill Yarrow

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Sorry Everyone...

Sorry everyone, I ran out of time this weekend to finish reading a chapbook on my desk to feature it this week. I got busy working on some other projects and quite a few birthdays are in order this month as well. I’ll hopefully be back on track next week and I do have posts for the rest of the week so please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Luminous Clarity Blog

This blog features poems and poetry tidbits by Lisa Espenmiller complete with poetic dedications and is a wonderful read, check it out at:

http://luminousclarity.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

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…

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...

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…

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…

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…