Poetry Tips: Teamwork Blues

This idea comes from an article I read about couples who are now trying to start their own business together and the potential conflicts that arise. This week is about “teamwork blues,” and it doesn’t have to be your significant other. It could be memories of group work in summer camp, school, current teamwork efforts for fundraising or work, anything that springs to mind.

Good luck to all who try it!

I am afraid that I will be unable to post anything next week as this week is our Annual Performance, my apologies. Please stop in after next week, things should be back to normal August 1st…

The Valley Apple Review Open Submissions

While submissions are accepted year-round and they do publish twice a year be sure to look at their guidelines as they are very detailed. Prose may range from 100 to 300 words, there was nothing said about the number of poems so I suggest 3-5. You may e-mail your submissions to the editor, Leah Browning, at editor@leahbrowning.net with “poetry” listed in the subject line.

Please take a look at the website:
http://www.leahbrowning.net/Apple/Submit.html

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21605
“The Wind Blows Through The Doors of My Heart” by Deborah Digges

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175881
“Eagle Poem” by Joy Harjo

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

Lilliput Review Issue #174

Full Moon is a chapbook collection under issue #174 written by Ed Baker. Three line poems about the full moon are spare and beautiful. Below I will share a few:


full moon
can you move
a little closer

This poem reminds me of nights when the moon looms so large in the sky you feel you could almost reach out and touch it.


full moon
helping
wash the dishes

I picture Mr. Baker washing his dishes and looking up at the moon, don’t you?


full moon
here again
with nothing to say

I see the face of the moon and think of this poem now, the “man on the moon” has nothing to say, only stares down at our world so far away…


If you enjoyed this short sample, you may purchase a copy of Ed Baker’s Full Moon for $1.00 and requesting the copy by mail to:

Lilliput Review
Don Wentworth, Editor
282 Main Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201


You can also visit the Lilliput Review site for more details at:

http://sites.google.com/site/lilliputreview/home


If you would like to subscribe on-line via paypal and read the most excellent Lilliput Review Blog, visit Issa’s Untidy Hut at:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/



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

Library of Congress Poetry Resources

Check out this wonderful wealth of knowledge at the Library of Congress: Webcasts, audio links, articles, poetry news and events, all at the link below!

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow…

Poetry Tips: Old Fashioned Love Song

Yes, I was listening to the radio when exactly this song came on. This week see if you can write an old-fashioned love poem, it may just turn into a song you can sing to your loved one!

Good luck to all who try it, please drop in again next week…

Black Warrior Review Open Submissions

Straight from the site:

"We have moved to an online submission system, which can be found at http://bwrsubmissions.ua.edu.

SPECIAL NOTE: Poetry and Nonfiction are STILL OPEN for both regular and contest submissions. Please visit the submission manager to submit.
Snail mail submissions were officially closed as of 4/25/2010. Any snail mail submissions we receive will now be recycled. Please take note.

We read submissions year-round, though our response time is slower in the summer. Please submit only once every six months. The average response time for submissions is between 2 and 4 months. If you have not received a response after 4 months (excepting the summer), send a query and SASE through the mail, or email us at blackwarriorreview@gmail.com, and we'll check on the status of your submission.
In addition to poetry and fiction, Black Warrior Review is also seeking creative nonfiction that experiments, plays, and throws the occasional snowball in our faces. We call for essays that offer up a new perspective, an unvoiced thought, an overlooked association—and we hope that you will send us pieces that not only challenge us with their content, but also with their form. We prize the lyric and the language driven, both the sparsely stated and the indulgently ruminative.

Please do not mix genres in the same submission.

We do NOT accept unsolicited e-mail submissions, nor do we consider previously published work.
We encourage you to read Black Warrior Review before submitting. Sample issues are available for $10; one-year subscriptions for $16.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, if noted (please notify us immediately if the work is accepted somewhere else)."

Check out the site listed above and good luck to all who submit…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=29826
“Tomorrow” by Dennis O’Driscoll

http://www.righthandpointing.com/Issue15/kevin-above.htm
“From Above” by Kevin McLellan

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more open submissions…

Ed Galing's Diner

Diner is a collection of poems by Ed Galing, published by Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press in 1999 about…Diners! Of course! It is a wonderful homage to all the diners Mr. Galing (and you and I, for that matter) have eaten in across American. Below are a few of my favorites:


those who work in
diners

in the front,
and in the back,
somehow never get
enough credit
for the great job
they do…

that big fat cook
who works the kitchen grill,
hot steam rolling down
his face,
slapping orders together
like a machine,
no letup…

the dishwasher,
the dirtiest job
in the place,
(and i know)
my hat is off to you…

the cashier,
the waitresses…

and last week,
joe the cook,
and mary the blonde waitress,
got married, in the diner,
closed for the day, they hired
a preacher, invited everyone to their
diner wedding,
decorated with flowers,
wine flowed, people cheered,

they kissed each other…now married…
went back to work the next day.


Not only is this a poem where Mr. Galing acknowledges the roles of the diners but he captures briefly the wonderful event in anyone’s life by adding in the wedding of two of the workers. I think what I love best is that he ends it with the couple returning to work the very next day—my parents went through the same thing (only Dad worked in a factory and Mom worked at the local burger joint). Here Mr. Galing portrays diner life exactly as it is, no more, no less, no romanticizing, no embellishment, just like a no-frills diner.




counter work

i like sitting
at the counter
in my diner

grab a quick
lonely cupa
coffee and Danish

read the paper
and rub elbows
with the big fat guy
next to me,
on one side,
and the little thin
bald headed guy on the other,
who asks me to pass him the sugar…
it’s easy to make friends
at the counter,
when you’re by yourself,
or in a hurry…
the counter is for the
brave ones,
like myself,
trying to catch a waitress’
eye,
as they flit by…
that’s the hard part.
but hell, what’s the hurry
anyway?

Mr. Galing says exactly what I’ve always thought about the counter: It’s for the “brave ones,” the people who are typically their alone, braving a seat next to the unknown folks at the counter. I like the picture he paints of who sits there and the difficulty of capturing the eye of the ever-busy waitress, the hustle and bustle you’d expect while you sit “alone” at the counter making new friends.



cashier

i hear the rumor
this morning
when i walk into
this diner

where i eat
all the time

mary the cashier
has died…

worked the front
for twenty five
years

always pleasant
gave you a cheery
hello and goodbye

if you got to know
mary the way i
did,
you got to like her
a lot…
knew all about her family,
her two sons and her
daughter,

how she worked the 11 to 7 shift
so she could be
home during the day

mary is gone
mary has left the diner
to serve at
the table in heaven

hope God knows
how lucky he is.

I love this poem because it’s one most can relate to—most of us frequent a restaurant or diner and have a favorite waiter or waitress we’ve come to rely on each visit, one we’ve gotten to know and make part of our lives even if it’s in a small way. I also love the ending, that mary is now working in Heaven’s Diner, serving God, which is an idea that brings a smile to my face. Mr. Galing allows himself to be sentimental, as well he should be, in dedicating a poem to a favorite diner worker who has passed away.



If you enjoyed this short sample of poems as much as I have you can purchase a copy of Diner for yourself for $5.00 (not including Shipping & Handling) through the Propaganda Press Catalog at:

http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#diner



You can find more of Ed Galing’s work at
http://Alt-current.com



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

Barefeet and Long Nightgowns

Beautiful short poems by Jessica Thompson can be found below at:

http://barefeetandnightgowns.wordpress.com/

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

Poetry Tips: Crime Rhyme

This week I want you to look at local headlines and find an unusual crime and see if you can make a rhyming poem out of it. In addition to illustrating the details of the crime you have the added effort of rhyme and most likely rhythm, but it is a fun challenge for me and I hope it is for you as well.

Good luck to all who try it, please drop in again next week…

Blue Collar Open Submissions

You may send up to 5 poems and include a Self-addressed stamped envelope when mailing to:

Blue Collar Review P.O. Box 11417 Norfolk, VA 23517
For further details, go to:

http://www.angelfire.com/va/bcr/Guidelines.html

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in again tomorrow…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.juked.com/2010/06/crossexamination.asp
“Katherine: Cross Examination,” by Mark Neely

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21538
“Detail of My Sort of Light,” by Ander Monson

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

Lilliput Review Issue #173

The poems collected in the latest issue of Lilliput Review speak of falling leaves, sunlight, hope and despair. For some reason, the poems that lend themselves towards darker feelings are the ones that inspired me and so I share a few with you:


even in daylight, these shadows find me

by: Constance Campbell of Austin, TX

I admire one-line poems and this one leaves any reader the imagination to decide upon what kind of shadows Ms. Campbell speaks of. For me, it is the lingering memories of sad times despite the outdoor sunshine. For you it may simply be that the trees offer shade amongst the cloudless blue skies.



the solution wasn’t
obvious to begin with
trapeze bars swinging
abandoned a lion
crying in the dark
of his cage

by: J.M. Hall of Nashville, TN

For some, the circus is a joyous and entertaining experience but for this poet there is painted a darker picture. Personally, I picture empty trapeze bars due to a tragic fall, the lion mourning its trainer. What do you picture?



Drove by this farmhouse
where someone had taken a crow
and hung it upside down
dead and dangling
upon a pole
right in the middle
of the garden—

healthy stalks
bending
toward the light.

By: Charlie Mehrhoff of Oakland, ME

I have to say, I’ve always liked Mr. Mehrhoff’s poems. This one’s imagery appears daunting yet even though the dead crow may be there to warn off other garden pests the garden is portrayed and healthy and growing at the end. An interesting juxtaposition of life and death, don’t you think?


If you enjoyed this collection you will also be pleased to know that each issue is only $1.00 and if you’d like to find out more about Lilliput Review please check out the official web-site at:

http://sites.google.com/site/lilliputreview/home

You can also visit the editor, Don Wentworth’s, blog at:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

Thanks always for reading, please drop in again tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

The Good Typist

Aesthetically pleasing, intriguing and fun to read, check out Kristin McHenry’s blog at:

http://thegoodtypist.blogspot.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow…