E-Verse Radio

Now this is an awesome web-site! Ernest Hilbert hosts a weekly episode with producer Paul Fleming about poetry and they make it very fun and entertaining. They’ve had episodes about money and poetry, superheroes, the circus, all kinds of interesting things. You can also subscribe to their weekly newsletter and learn when the newest episode is available. If you find you just LOVE them, ask to receive some of their free E-Verse merchandise, and no I am not kidding, it is free! Check these episodes out at:

http://www.everseradio.com/

You won’t be disappointed! Please drop by tomorrow for another lost poet…

Unstable Euphony

I accidentally switched Saturday and Sunday, so today is a blog and yesterday was a poet. We'll continue with our regularly scheduled program come Monday.

Matt Mullins' blog, Unstable Euphony, has done a wonderful service to those of us unsure about which chapbooks to buy, he has been reviewing some of the ones from Kitchen Press. I find this a wonderful thing so that I don’t feel as apprehensive about my next purchase for my all-consuming hobby. He also provides commentary on other poetry-related themes. Please check him out at:

http://www.unstableeuphony.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading, please return tomorrow for another poetry website…

Robert Bly

Robert Bly was born December 23rd, 1926 in Madison, Minnesota. I picked up a book of his prose poems from the local library titled: What Have I Ever Lost By Dying. He has worked as a poet, translator, and editor and published more than 30 books of poetry. Isn’t that amazing? I often think of prose as poetry-as-a-paragraph. That isn’t the true definition, but that is how I make the distinction for my own knowledge, and thought I would share it with you. Below are two links to give you more information on Robert Bly and connect you to some of his poems. Also, here is an excerpt from one of his prose poems, “ Two Sounds When We Sit By the Ocean:”

…pebbles going out…Its is a complicated sound, as of small sticks breaking, or kitchen sounds heard from another house…
…And always another sound, a heavy underground roaring in my ears from the surf farther out, as if the earth were reverberating under the feet of one dancer.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/280

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=653

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for another great website!

Poetry Tips: Avoid the Word Poetry

Many poets at one point or another write about writing poems… This is a little obvious for the world of poetry. Most poets I have read do at some point include a poem about writing poems or about being a poet. I, also, have done it. However, it may be time to change up this practice a bit. If you decide to do such a poem, please omit the words Poem, Poetry, and Poet from the poem itself. Try to be creative in how you present the feeling of crafting a poem, negative or positive, and the experience of being a poet, without mentioning that you are one. In other words, think outside of the box and use different terminology. This will engage the reader and push you to be more creative. As a result, better poems and more fascinated readers. I wish you luck in all your writing endeavors…

Please stop by tomorrow for another wonderful blog…

Pleaides Opens For Submissions

Please include telephone number and email address with all submissions.
Prose should be double spaced with reasonable margins. Poetry should be single spaced, with the author's name on each page.
Do not send your only copy of any manuscript.
Pleiades accepts simultaneous submissions. We ask, however, that you note if a piece has been sent to another magazine.
Poetry should be addressed to Kevin Prufer and Wayne Miller. Please do not send poetry after May 31. We resume reading poetry on September 1.

Pleiades: A Journal Of New Writing
Department of English
University of Central Missouri
Warrensburg, MO 64093

This is all straight from their guidelines page, good luck submitting! I’ll see you tomorrow for more Poetry Tips!

Poems Linked by Poet Hound

http://tonguefire.blogspot.com/search/label/reasoning%20rhyme
This isn’t actually a poem, this is a discussion on rhyme which I found enlightening and came by it by way of Jim Murdoch who has been kind enough to post comments and references to poets on my own blog. Please check out this link written by Andrew Philip for some great information about rhyme.

http://www.fishousepoems.org/archives/yona_harvey/blessing_blue_crabs.shtml
I love this poem because I am now in Florida and blue crabs are tasty and popular down here… join in the feast!


Thanks for reading/listening to the links, tomorrow is another Open Submissions…

Temporary Setback

Hello devoted readers and anyone dropping by for a glance! I will be unable to post for several days because the breaker box in our place burned up and I'll be without power and living temporarily with family until things are fixed. Shouldn't be more than a few days, thanks for your patience!

Louise Gluck's satisfying meal of Poetry

Louise Gluck was born in 1943 and is a professor and a former Poet Laureate. Her poems are well known, or at least as well known as they can be for poets… As always, the Poetry Foundation has a nice collection of her work that you can check out at:

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=2578

I picked up her book, Averno, at the public library. This is a fairly recent publication, 2006, and therefore more easily found for purchase in book-stores. The beginning poem, “The Night Migrations” catches you right away and it is one of those short, seemingly simple poems. The last stanza asks a very good question in reference to the dead not being able to see things that we, the living, can. “What will the soul do for solace then?” and goes on to say “maybe just not being is simply enough/hard as that is to imagine.”
From there, the poems continue to reach out and pull you in a little more and a little more. Some poems you can read quickly, Gluck’s deserve some time to savor, to be read just a little slower. There are many lines that can be read too fast where you might miss the “pull” I described earlier. Lines such as:

Sunrise. A film of moisture
On each living thing.
--from the poem “October” number 3.

I often hear of dew, but I’ve never thought of a film of moisture on every living thing. Little things like this are throughout the poems and can be easy to miss. Louise has a wonderful way of making sure you are paying attention without being too flowery, intense, or confrontational. There are so many poems with great lines and I could go on and on but I won’t for your sake. Please look through the archive of poems on the Poetry Foundation and absolutely take the time to check her out in the library or the book-store. She is very pleasing, “pleasing” to me seems the perfect word for it.

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for another Monday edition of a Great Poetry Web-Site.

The Truth About Lies Blog

Jim Murdoch is the author of this blog talking about all things poetry. He discusses his views on various subjects related to poetry and also his views on other people’s articles. If you like intelligent discussion, this is the place to go. Much like Ron Silliman’s articles you will find these articles require real attention because they are full of useful information.

http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all of you who took the poll. Six people answered, four read more than 15 individual poets a year, 1 reads almost 15, and 1 reads between 6 and 10. Looks like people read more poets than I initially thought! Very good...
Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for another living poet…

P.S. If you would like to see any particular poets featured here, please let me know either by comments or e-mail. I’m always open to searching out poets and hopefully I can find the majority of the mentions in the library or a used book-store.

Poetry Tip: Brainstorm Lists

There are some poems out there made up entirely of a list of things. Why not try the same thing for your poetry exercise? How can you turn your grocery list into a poem? How about a to-do list? Once you have the list, can you expand on the experience of performing the actions required to complete what is on the list and turn those actions into a poem? Your next poem may be about trying to buy your favorite bag of chips at the store only to discover your favorite flavor isn’t available. What then? You expand on the experience of feeling disappointed and settling on something else. The sky is the limit, may the muse be with you…

Stop by tomorrow for another poetry blog…

Gloom Cupboard Open Submissions

This is actually blog that publishes poems regularly, and is now accepting e-mail submissions for Issue 10. You can e-mail your submissions to: aprilmaymarch777@yahoo.co.uk

I asked the owner of the blog if there were any particular guidelines he used, and in a word, “no.” Here is what he told me in reply:

“I've deliberately left the submissions guidelines free and open. So there are no limits on style or content. I like people who are trying to be awkward and different. Of course my weakness for Bukowski-lite poetry means that occasionally a few of the same old - same old slip through the net.” –Richard Wink

http://gloomcupboard.blogspot.com/

Poems Linked and Liked by Poet Hound

http://chicanopoet.blogspot.com/2007/10/bluebonnet-state-of-mind-wallace.html
Reyes Cardenas’ poem linking poets to Texas


http://www.guerillapoetics.org/broadsides/
Charles P. Ries “The Perfect Saint”, and all of the poems featured are great!


Thanks for dropping in, check out tomorrow’s Open Submissions for those of you sending your poems out into the world in hopes of publication…

T.S. Eliot

Yes, T.S. Eliot is well known and loved by poets everywhere. Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in 1888 and passed away in 1965. His work is admired and cited often, and serious poets often look to his work for his literary correctness. He published several collections and I procured his copy of The Waste Land and Other Poems at a used book-store. Don’t you just love the hidden treasures found in used book-stores? The majority of the poems in this book are long poems and therefore I will feature a shorter excerpt of one I found in this collection. If you are thirsty for more, the Poetry Foundation has a collection of his poems so please click the link on the right and type in his name.

Virginia

Red river, red river
Slow flow heat is silence
No will is still as a river
Still.
......
White trees, wait, wait,
Delay, decay. Living, living,
Never moving. Ever moving
Iron thoughts came with me
And go with me:
Red river, river, river.

Thank you for dropping in, please stop by for links to more poems on the web…

Slope Site

Slope publishes poetry and criticism, and while it is not currently accepting submissions, you can check out the poems and be on the look-out for open submissions in the future. There is also a feature for American Sign Language. Definitely an intriguing site, especially since the moment you enter the page there is awesome music playing so be sure to turn your speakers up. Don’t worry, if you click on a poet or another page to look at, the music stops. This way you won’t be distracted by reading the contents of the site. Check it out at:

http://www.slope.org/index.html

Thanks for dropping in, tomorrow will be another feature of a poet who has passed…

Justin Barrett, not for the faint of heart

This poet is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended. His poems can make you laugh, think, or even make you uncomfortable. He pushes the envelope. Below I have included a link to his personal site filled with poems so you can see for yourself what I’m talking about. In the meantime, I asked the crew at the Guerrilla Poetics Project if I could have permission to post a poem from his book The Magnificent Seven produced by 12 Gauge Press and they said yes! Just to let you know, the book is available for purchase for $5.00 at the Guerrilla Poetics Store and that is how I came by purchasing it for myself. I love the cover, it is a watercolor painting of a man holding a guitar with the title of the poem I am about to reveal to you as the painting’s title.
Here are some useful links to check Justin Barrett out:
http://www.guerillapoetics.org/store/

http://justinbarrett.com/justinbarrett_lt.html

And without further delay, here is one of my favorite poems from Justin Barrett’s book:

they say robert johnson sold his soul to the devil, but i’m convinced the devil sold his soul to robert Johnson

the memphis heat,
sweltering and
humid,
drips off him like condensation down
a bottle of beer as he waits
at the crossroads.

the devil walks
towards him from the
north.

“howdy son,” the
devil says.

“howdy to you,”
robert returns.

“i got something for you
if you got something for me,”
the devil says

and that’s how it went.

when it was over
robert johnson returned
able to play his guitar
like it was a woman;

alternately turning
it on and pissing
it off,
making it moan
and sigh,

groan and cry.

they say robert johnson sold his
soul to the devil
but i’m convinced the devil
sold his soul to
robert johnson.

and it was the only time
the devil lost a bet.


Now how about that? The ending is my favorite part because how often do you ever hear of the devil losing? This poem rocks and I dare you to read more of his work on the GPP broadsides archive and on his personal site. Give him a shout out at GPP if you like, his work is awesome.

Thanks for reading, please drop in tomorrow for another great poetry web-site.