Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20283
Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul selects her own society”
(Recording)

http://snorkel.org.au/008/manhire.html
Bill Manhire “The Little Match Girl”

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Slice of Life by Kevin Hibshman

The press, Alternating Current, has a series of chapbooks called the Pocket Protector series that are just as small as you can imagine, about the size of a business card. They cost a mere $3.00 each (not including $1.00 postage).

Mr. Kevin Hibshman whose chapbook is titled Slice of Life is a collection of short poems that capture daily life events pared down to their essential frame.

One of the poems I enjoyed is as follows:

My Vacation?

No sea.
No beach.
Phone still rings and rings.
Two weeks of staying up late.
Running Nina to the vet’s where she
was put to sleep.
Smoking tearfully in the bathroom.
Smoking between CD’s.
Waiting for pizza.
Waiting for poems.
Settling for thunderstorm.
I lie under the skylight, my connection
to the outside.

I like this poem mostly because I can relate. How often have you taken a vacation only to realize you can’t escape what you were hoping to get away from and then an unexpected tragedy (as with the pet in the poem) occurs? It’s a poem that is pared down to the letdowns where the thoughts punctuate the page, simple, clear, and sober.


Another poem I enjoy is:

Until you Spoke

Heaven quietly fermented on moist,
dutiful sheets.
Sleep finally overtook assailing need
until we, like tired children,
surrendered to dream.

Serene until the sun rose, morning
broke, until you spoke and
ruined everything.

I’d like to know what was said that ruined everything, but imagining what could have been said lends the quality of mystery to the poem. I especially like the first two lines, indicating intimacy and love between the couple before it all changes the next morning.

The final poem I would like to share with you is:

Bone Grinder

In ultimate irony, I once lived to the
rear of a funeral parlor.
In a time when death seems to pervade
my waking life,
I am forced to chuckle at my own
mortality.

These years have served to siphon the
romance right out of suffering.
I’ve been blowing on dice while
throwing up blood.
I think I may have broken someone’s
heart but I am sure I killed
somebody’s plans.

I’ve been hiding behind buildings,
behind alibis, behind cigarettes
and nighttime.
Behind a past so transparent that it’s
hard to find.

Here I sit numb, the hollow taste of
time on my tongue.
Stung by the act of saying one too
many goodbyes.

This is my favorite poem in the collection, I love the ways Mr. Hibshin explains his life in lines such as “I think I may have broken someone’s/heart but I am sure I killed/somebody’s plans” that ties to the funeral parlor mentioned in the beginning. I’m always happy when a poet can keep a common thread running through a poem and this one references facing ones own mortality and then leaving it open ended since he has not passed away but has been “Stung by the act of saying one too/many goodbyes.” Words such as “throwing up blood” bring a sense of violence to this poem, it keeps the reader from feeling comfortable and safe while reading it, and I am the type to find morbidity intriguing.

If you enjoyed these poems and you’d like to purchase a copy for yourself, Ms. Leah Angstman (the owner of the press) has included the following information for the Pocket Protector Series:

“they are $3.00 each, plus $1 US postage, $2 out-of-US postage. they can be purchased by cash, check, money order made out to Alternating Current, PO Box 398058, Cambridge MA 02139 USA, or via Paypal directly to the email address alt.current@gmail.com, or online at alt-current.com, where postage is done by weight. the direct links to them online are here: http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#slice_of_life all authors receive royalties on our press, and each purchase comes with a free random chapbook from the archives.”

I am a huge fan of poets making money for their work when so often they can only be rewarded with extra copies of their publication. Please support small presses such as this one and I’ll be reviewing more books from Alternating Current in the future and thanks always for reading!

Please drop in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Center for Book Arts

Check out the beautiful selection of books from artists and poets at this site! They also teach classes about the art of book-making and they also have contests for publication. It is a wonderful place to peruse so I hope you’ll visit by clicking the link below:

http://www.centerforbookarts.org/newsite/bookstore/

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M. Kei's Bridge of Bones

Now for today’s officially featured poet, Bridge of Bones by M. Kei
This gem of a collection is pure zen for me. There is a focus on mother nature’s small treasures and I will share a few of the poems below:

five
creamy white petals
the first briar rose
blooms
beside my boot.

I love the imagery of a small rose being noticed as you look down from your full height, don’t you? That’s the image I had when I read this poem the first time.


a line of
lavender wisteria along
the highway;
for a moment I forget
his death.

This poem has an unexpected ending that brings bittersweet emotion to an underappreciated lovely sight. Now whenever I see small flowers growing along the highways I’ll be thinking of this little poem.


sifting through
the window screen
this evening,
the yellow scent of
wild vines blooming.

“yellow scent” caught my imagination immediately. I think of honeysuckle blooms in my old backyard in Indiana and of the morning glory vines here in Florida. This poem describes the briefest moment in time and ties it to smell which is one of the most powerful ways to remember something, anything, of importance.


in a dream
if a coyote calls
answer with another’s voice.

This is the last poem in the collection and I love it. I have no words to explain or describe this one other than it reminds me of the desert in El Paso where I spent my youth and I do miss hearing the coyotes call and our family howling back into the darkness from our backyard. This one is simply for me and I’m sharing it with you.

Remember that each issue from Lilliput Review is only $1.00 and each chapbook is $3.00 so if you enjoyed these little gems then I suggest you purchase M. Kei’s collection by going to Lilliput Review: http://lilliputreview.googlepages.com/home


Thanks for reading as always! I’ll be taking the next few days off for the holidays to spend with my family on the Suwannee River here in Florida. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and we will meet again on Monday, December 29th…

42 Opus

Check out this fabulous on-line magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction with new poems, etc. regularly every few days. Their site is easy to navigate and well worth exploring, please visit them by clicking the link below:

http://42opus.com/

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Poetry Tips: Spin-off Titles

This idea came to me very simply. One of the titles of the poems in my weekly “Poems Found by Poet Hound” grabbed my attention and I spun off a poem as a result. Sometimes a title can do that for you. So I urge you to look at the titles of books, poems, articles, anything that grabs your attention as a headliner and spin off a poem as a result. Have fun and good luck!

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Rattle Open Submissions

I apologize for the delays in posts lately. For some reason when I get up in the morning the internet connection isn't working. Then when I get home my computer acts up in other ways so we'll see how long it takes me to break down and call the Geek Squad. In the meantime, back to our scheduled program:

Yes, they’re open year round and they feature a new poem every day at 5am according to their home page. Isn’t that wonderful? Be sure your contact information is on each page you send. You may send up to 6 poems, but no simultaneous submissions, to: submissionsATrattleDOTcom
or to:
RATTLE12411 Ventura Blvd.Studio City, CA 91604

For further details go to the submissions link below and explore their site to see what kinds of poems they publish and any applicable tributes that are related to your kind of poetry:
http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20446
“Poetry Is A Destructive Force” by Wallace Stevens

http://juked.com/2008/12/inlandamongstones.asp
“Inland Among Stones” by Sean Patrick Hill

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Lilliput Review Issue 165

I received my new issues #165 and #166 from Lilliput Review. Issue #165’s collection is the regular Lilliput Review issue and #166 is a mini chapbook by M. Kei. So I asked Mr. Wentworth if I could review both featuring several poems from each and he was kind enough to oblige. So today will be issue #165 and next week will be M. Kei’s collection…

Let’s start with #165’s collection of poets. This collection has wonderful poems regarding the five senses and some strange and intriguing descriptions within the lines of the various poems included. Here are some of the poems I enjoyed immensely:

Indelicate clank of the radiator
and the hesitant tapping
of autumn rain. Add one small voice
and you’ve got a symphony.

--Greg Watson of St. Paul, MN

I love this little gem because it involves the senses as I mentioned above and I can easily hear the symphony for myself through the imagination brought out in Mr. Watson’s lines.


Canyon Grass

A rag of wind catches
in January’s grass
where a deer has checked
its slow descent to water
with a mountain the size of a snowflake
reflected in each eye.

--David Chorlton, Phoenix, AZ

I love the words in the first line because I’ve never heard of “A rag of wind” and I think the entire poem is simply beautiful. Can you imagine being so close to a deer as to see the reflection in its eyes and for the reflection to be so beautiful?

alone
all you’ve
brought with you

--John Martone, Charleston, IL

Another simple and beautiful poem that has no need for further explanation that I can see.

There are many more poems just as insightful and beautiful as these so I hope you’ll spring at the chance to buy a copy or a subscription if you have a chance. You can also check out Issa's Untidy Hut which features poems from back issues of Lilliput Review.


Thanks for reading, next week will feature M. Kei’s collection titled Bridge of Bones. Please drop in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

One Thousand Journals

Now this is an awesome project that I hope you will definitely check out. There are 1000 journals in circulation being passed hand to hand and being filled by whoever stumbles across them. Then the entries are posted on the web-site linked below. You can go through the pages and see some rhymes and insightful words and blessings. Wouldn’t this be a great poetry project? Who’s with me?

http://1000journals.com/

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Poetry Tips: Blind Perspective

If you are able to read this then you are not blind, so for this week’s idea for poetry it is to write a poem as though you really are blind. What kind of poem would you dictate if you couldn’t see? How would it change the poems you typically write and could you recreate an existing poem from the “viewpoint” of being blind? I wish you luck to those of you who are up to the challenge.

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Gloom Cupboard Open Submissions

“Our guidelines are deliberately vague because we have nothing worthwhile to say. It’s up to you to take us beyond what has gone before.email: poetry/flashfiction/shortstories/articles to aprilmaymarch777@yahoo.co.ukSubmissions are now required for #70. Our last call of 2008”

Take a look at their site, http://www.gloomcupboard.com/ so you can get a better idea of what kind of work is published and good luck to all who submit!

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poems.com/poem.php?date=14218
Craig Arnolds’ “from A Place of First Permission”

http://www.versedaily.org/2008/spoke.shtml
Erin Malone’s “Spoke”

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Frank O'Hara's Meditations In An Emergency

I picked up Frank O’Hara’s book, Meditations In An Emergency at my local library and was very happy to read through it. Born June 27th, 1926 in Baltimore, Maryland, Frank O’Hara would move to Boston, Massachusetts to study piano and become a sonarman in World War II. Frank O’Hara’s first passion was music, which he majored in Harvard, but also began writing poetry for which he has become well-known, as well as his friendship with John Ashberry. He also became associated with painters such as Jackson Pollack and Jasper Johns to which he worked with collaboratively with his poetry.

In this collection of poems, published originally in 1957, it is obvious that he has a sense of rhythm in his lines without a need for rhyme and the structure of the lines can vary within a poem. There are countless enjoyable poems within the pages and of course I will only select two to mention.

The first one is very simple and almost childlike, but when you read it in context with all of his other poems the very reason I enjoy this one is because it has been stripped down to its childlike wonder. This poem is titled “Les Etiquettes juanes.” The poem is simply Frank O’Hara picking up a leaf and observing it. “Leaf! You are so big!/How can you change your/color, then just fall!” This stanza sounds exactly like how I thought as a child when playing in the leaves, and he accuses the leaf of being “too relaxed/to answer me.” I love the idea he places on personifying the leaf, another trait children have. He ends his poem with the lines “Leaf! don’t be neurotic/like the small chameleon.” Again, the personification of the leaf and the childlike view of it makes this poem just pure and simple pleasure to read. Also, it is a great poem for this time of year, since leaves are falling in beautiful showers of red, orange, and gold in different parts of the country.

Another poem I quite enjoyed is titled “On Rachmaninoff’s Birthday.” This poem showcases his passion for music as well as his admiration of Rachmaninoff, the composer. “Blue windows, blue rooftops/and the blue light of rain,/these contiguous phrases of Rachmaninoff/pouring into my enormous ears…” I like to think the word “blue” is used to explain O’Hara’s thoughts on the music and how it affects O’Hara’s view of his surroundings. Blue often can be used for seeming sad or somber but in this poem seems to connote more the idea of crisp and cool like water which is often described as blue in color. “…for without him I do not play, especially in the afternoon/on the day of his birthday.” O’Hara’s admiration being so great that he does not attempt to play Rachmaninoff’s music is a glimpse of O’Hara’s sentimental side and of his view of the importance of paying tribute to his favorite composer. “Only my eyes would be blue as I played/and you rapped my knuckles,/dearest father of all the Russias…” Again, O’Hara uses the word blue to explain his feelings toward his favorite composer, the desire to have been his pupil in the mention of rapped knuckles, and how their relationship would have been as well as the love mixed in with the pain of discipline when he says “dearest father,” all succinctly said in just a few lines. This is what I find remarkable about Frank O’Hara because he says so much with so few words and lines, even when it comes to his longer poems. His poetry is an ideal model for all poets.

I hope that you will find Frank O’Hara’s poems as beautiful and amazing as I do, and I hope you will pick up a copy of any of his collections and relish them all.

To find out more and to read poems by Frank O’Hara, visit the links below:
http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/164

http://www.frankohara.org/

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

Adirondack Review Book Sale

I received this via e-mail and hope some of you may find it interesting and perhaps useful for next year since it has come and gone already, but definitely check out the link:

“Dear Friends, Celebrate publishing's independent spirit with over 100 indie publishers from around the world, all under one roof, selling books you can't get at your big box bookstore. The Indie and Small Press Book is one of New York City's favorite annual literary events. It's free, open to all, and packed with an exciting line-up of public events. You can find more information here: http://www.nycip.org/bookfair
Where: 20 West 44th Street, New YorkWhen: December 6th and 7th (This weekend!)If you can make it, be sure to visit your friends at Black Lawrence Press and The Adirondack Review. We'll have a table on the third floor. Happy Holidays!Diane Goettel”

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