Poetry Tips: Ridiculous Rant

You know those days where even the coffee pot is uncooperative? Or, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t prevent your sandwich from getting soggy overnight in the refrigerator? Your challenge is to write a Ridiculous Rant Poem. That small, banal, stupid little thing that is just driving you up the wall: It’s time to write a poem about it. Let it all hang out, experiment with whipping that rant all over the page, or control it into a sensible set of stanzas. Either way, it’ll be cathartic. May the muse rant with you!

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Conjunctions Open Submissions

While I wasn’t able to find too many requirements, you can always find out more at their web-site by using the link below. I directly copied what they had under submissions below:

“Submissions should be directed to the editorial office at 21 East 10th St., New York, NY 10003. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Electronic and simultaneous submissions will not be considered.”

http://www.conjunctions.com/about.htm

My recommendation is to send 3 to 5 poems, that is typical of most any journal. Good luck to you all who submit, may the muse be with you.

P.S. If you happen to know of a journal or are the editor of a journal/poetry site and you would like your Open Submissions call featured here, please send me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to oblige the following Thursday. Several editors have asked me to do so in the past and I always appreciate it on behalf of my readers. Thanks!

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Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.alicebluereview.org/main.html
Mathew Savoca’s “Two Hundredths of a Woman”

http://cimarronreview.okstate.edu/currentissue_sample1.html
Jeremy Gregerson’s “Long Division”

Thanks for dropping in, please stay tuned for tomorrow’s Open Submissions…

Poetry Magazine for May

Sometimes when I run out of time to get to the library I resort to my subscription to Poetry and this is one of those times! What I love about being able to review this magazine is that you can also check out parts of it at their site, whose link I provided below:
http://www.poetrymagazine.org/

Luckily, they have a link to a poem I enjoyed titled “Photo (Op/tative) Synthesis” by Liz Waldner. The stanzas seem to break into two subjects, the idea of photosynthesis according to plants but utilizing it in regards to human relationships. She mentions the natural world yet you know she is speaking of sensuality between people, herself and another. Lines such as “with a growing and specific gravity/about –it hopes--/ to be undone like a bud,” are an example. Being able to tie unlike things from the title at the top of the poem all the way to the ending line are admirable in my eyes. I hope you’ll check out the poem which is available on the site so that you can enjoy it also.

If you already have a subscription or are able to buy a copy at the book-store, there are several other poems I enjoyed. One of them is: “I Imagine My Father’s Death” by Bryan D. Dietrich. In a sense, you could take this to be a biblical reference because lines such as “My father’s death is bigger/than a planet, bigger than the gravity/wells worlds make…” but I personally assume this is about Dietrich’s own father. There is a void that has been left behind as a result, a personal one. A clue to that for me are lines in the beginning “It is bigger than a Ford/Escort, than a Zeppelin, black and vast/and slow moving, oozing over an Oklahoma/arena.” References to moments and places that mean something to the author and the loved one, then expanding out to planets, the universe… I enjoy this poem because I imagine it would be how I felt if my own father passed away, which I certainly hope isn’t for countless years to come. This poem is good at bringing you in without overwhelming you with despair and sometimes you want a poem that touches you without also rattling you too much. You are left feeling the void and the power of loss but also the sense that all is not lost, there are still ways to reach out to the void and perhaps even cross it.

I hope you are able to enjoy Poetry magazine where you are and I thank you for reading. Please stop by tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Flying Guillotine Press

I stumbled onto this site via Press Press Press and hope you’ll check it out. There’s a chapbook available and they seem very new, not sure when they offer open submissions but keep it on your radar.

http://flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com/

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Poetry Tips: Mother's Day

Surely, you knew this was coming? In other words, write a poem about your mother, or write a poem for your mother. In fact, it doesn’t have to be your mother per se, but anyone you’ve looked up to for guidance. So for Mother’s Day I ask you to write a tribute poem to the woman you admire most in your life and send/give it to her for Mother’s Day. Sounds simple enough, but if you are like me, many times those turn out to be cheesy poems. So I wish you luck and eloquence, may the muse be with you!

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Gloom Cupboard's Print Edition 3: Open Submissions

Straight from Richard’s e-mail:

Print Edition #3: It's only PoetrySubmissions are now being accepted for our third Print venture. All I ask is that you send a decent selection as this time each writer will have four pieces showcased. Mark your email 'Print Edition Submission'.Send what you deem to be appropriate

Also we have a new feaured writer section cleverly name 'Out of the Cupboard'

Out of the Cupboard: If you want to be considered for this new feature then all you need to do is send a batch of words and a bio. We will then interview you and shine the light in your eyes.

http://gloomcupboard.blogspot.com

email all subs. to aprilmaymarch777@yahoo.co.uk


Cheers
Richard


Thanks to Richard for the heads up, good luck to all of you submitting! Please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/Bernato.html
“Mission” by Richard Bernato

http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/Archives/Winter_2007/poems/D_Revell.html
“Under the Railway Bridge in Albi” by Donald Revell

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Poetry Slam

I received this book for my birthday a couple of months back and have been reading through it leisurely. Poetry Slam The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry is edited by Gary Mex Glazner and published by Manic D Press. Don’t you just love the publisher’s name?
I have never been to a poetry slam and I don’t believe there are any nearby, I’ve tried looking. However, this book is a wonderful read to learn about the art of performance through poetry and there are many poems from various slams included.
I normally review individual poets however there are too many to name in here so I will focus on what I’ve learned as a result of the book. How a poetry slam works: Basically you have the poets who are willing and ready to stand up in front of the crowd and entertain through their poetry. There are judges, and the judges are picked at random from the crowd. This happens at every show. Some slams have rewards for the best poet but it is entirely up to the venue.
General Rules for Slams: For national competitions, this book sums up the rules nicely. Poets have three minutes to perform their poem and points are deducted for going overtime. No one is allowed to use props or costumes but you can imagine that some people may wear clothing and accessories that leads others to argue as to whether they’ve broken the rule. Also, the poet must read their own poems, which seems simple enough. Unless you’ve co-authored a poem, and then it can be a bit tricky.
The book includes plenty of wonderful slam poems and one in particular caught my eye, and that is a poem titled “America (It’s Gotta Be The Cheese)” by Eitan Kadosh. I loved this poem so much I recited it animatedly and loudly several times to my husband. I’ll admit my husband could leave or take poetry but he loved this poem, too. The poet essentially boils down the essence of America into its love for processed cheese, such as your Kraft Singles, individually wrapped, and ties the cheese into all kinds of American cultural icons and moments. For example: “who shot J.F.K., J.R. Ewing, J.C. Penney—its gotta be the cheese/internment camps—it’s gotta be the cheese/the WWF—it’s gotta be the cheese/” and it continues. It doesn’t end every line with “it’s gotta be the cheese,” by the way. It does have a great flow if you read it aloud and certainly inspired me to want to give slam poetry a try.
If you get a chance to read this book you should, it can give you perspective on slams vs. poetry readings and perhaps get you involved if you aren’t already.

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more poems found by poet hound….

Ibbetson Street Press' Blog

News, interviews, reviews, you name it, they’ve got it, all based out of Boston! Great reads, don’t miss it, check it out at:

http://dougholder.blogspot.com/

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Poetry Tip: Picnics and Poems

Yes, the weather is getting gorgeous and what better way to enjoy the weather than to traipse outside with your journal or laptop and write some poems? Think of how many poets get their inspiration from the outdoors, particularly in nice weather. Mary Oliver springs to mind… So your tip for this week is to go outdoors, whether it’s for a picnic, BBQ, Frisbee, or sitting in a lawn chair, and absorb some of those wonderful outdoor moments into poems.

Don’t just use the visuals of the outdoors, think of the sounds! I, for one, hear my neighbors’ wind chimes and the birds chirping, all of which could fit nicely into a poem. What about the sound of the water sprinkler? A watering can over the vegetables and flowers? How might the sounds of warm weather affect your poems? Next there are the insects, animals, trees, breezes, wind, etc… Plenty there for a poem or two!

May the muse be with you and please drop in again soon…

Adirondack Review Open Submissions

Send between 2-7 poems via e-mail to tarpoetry@blacklawerencepress.com.
Be sure the poems are between 8 and 80 lines, they don’t publish much rhyme, and include a brief bio. For more details visit the link below, good luck on your submissions!

http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/submissions.html

Thanks for dropping in, please visit tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.nzetc.org/iiml/bestnzpoems/BNZP07/t1-g1-t19-body1-d1.html
“Blame Vermeer” by Vincent O’Sullivan

http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0408/poem_181322.html
“What is it to be Human?” by Waldo Williams, translated by Menna Elfyn


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Denise Levertov

Denise Levertov was born in Ilford Essex, England in 1923 and passed away in December 1997. During her lifespan she converted from Judaism to Christianity, was educated entirely at home, had her first poem published at the age of 17 and became a nurse while also maintaining a prolific writing career. Even after her death, her poems were still being published. More about her can be found at the link included below at poets.org. I picked up her book Sands of the Well, published by New Directions Books in 1994, at the library.

While Levertov is plain-spoken, that is, every poem is readily understandable, there is grace and beauty in every one. There are two poems that I will focus on and the first is titled “Threat.” It speaks of the majestic beauty of a pinetree and the fear that comes from having one so near your house yet also the fear of losing it altogether. For example, her lines say: “You can live for years next door/to a big pinetree, honored to have/so venerable a neighbor, even/when it sheds needles all over your flowers/….” Then goes on to say “under respect, under your faith/in the pinetree’s beauty, there lies/the fear it will crash some day/…the fragility of the safe/dailiness you have almost/grown used to.”
What I love is that she has such respect, love, and fear all mixed in the same poem about nature and human’s nature towards it.

The second poem is “A Gift” and I simply cannot do this one justice by talking about it. I wish that I could. The poem is gorgeous and contemplative. The beginning lines are fabulous: “Just when you seem to yourself/nothing but a flimsy web/of questions…” and goes on to say that questions from others are being given to you so that “in the emptiness of your hands,/…butterflies opening and closing themselves/in your cupped palms, trusting you not to injure/their scintillant fur, their dust.” Essentially the poem says the questions you ask of life that are never answered are replaced with questions from others that somehow satisfy your need for answers. Isn’t that a beautiful idea?

There are many pages of this book that I “dog-eared” where I liked the poem so much I wanted to go back and absorb it again and again. I hope you will find her equally satisfying when you come across her in your own library or book-store, or perhaps on the web.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/41

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound

Tomasso Gervusatti's Site

Gervasutti discusses poets and their works in his blog. His comments are personable and I enjoy dropping in on him from time to time. I hope you will, too, check him out using the link below…

http://tommasogervasutti.blogspot.com/

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