Poetry Tips: Poetry In The News

Today I challenge you to take the latest headlines either globally or within your community and turn them into poems. Depending on the community you live in you could find plenty of strange incidents to write about. I heard a new story the other day of a woman whose foot was broken because of a runaway thief who ran smack into her. That’s certainly an entertaining headline compared to which celebrities are getting married vs. getting divorced, don’t you think? Find something in the news that makes your eyebrows rise and write about it.

Good luck to all who try and please stop in Monday for another featured site…

Blue Hour Chapbook Open Submissions

Send between 10-40 pages of your chapbook manuscript to submitATbluehourpressDOTcom and in the subject line of the e-mail please put in Caps Lock the following: Last name, First Name, and the Title of your project. Their example is: ASHBERRY JOHN SOME TREES

Include a small bio and a restricted version of your publication history. For further details please click the link below:

http://www.bluehourpress.com/


Good luck to all of you who submit and please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/019/bunting_rachel_002.html
Rachel Bunting’s “The Apiary”

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/clarkj1.html
Jackie Clark’s “The Never Ending Shredding Project”


Thanks for clicking in, please stop in tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Michael Kriesel's The Light of Fields

Michael Kriesel’s mini chapbook, The Light of Fields, courtesy of the Pocket Protector Series by Alternating Current is a mere $3.00 at Propaganda Press. I think it is interesting to note that this collection is a reprint originally published by Jump River Press, Inc. in 1982 when this author was 20 years old. What would you say to re-printing something you wrote 20 years ago? I think it would be an enlightening experience as to how you’ve changed as a writer since. This collection exposes fresh experiences of love and life throughout the pages and there are several poems I enjoyed in this collection and as always I will share them with you below:


Breaking Silences

For days
I have watched each cloud in the river
broken into speech against the rocks

I will break many silences
to tell you this.


Personally, I love the imagery of “each cloud in the river/broken into speech against the rocks” because it is unusual and imaginative. I also wonder what kind of silences are broken in the last stanza, an awkward first meeting or simply an interruption of quietness together?



Walking From Funerals

Unconsoled I see the light of fields

the bursting red dyings of leaves
clutch my hair and my feet
with the hands of small children

Unmoved I continue

although I have hands like their own
and veins swell as theirs do

Look back
and the fires are stars

We are not ours
but those we cannot hold

I am a universe alone


I like the way Mr. Kriesel uses leaves as comparisons to hands clutching him despite his feeling so alone after loss, the idea of anyone clutching him being unable to comfort him.




The Lean Tree

To wake
to snow’s still soul

easing the bent stems
from memory

Rising
to still limbs of pine
become white as the eyes of the blind

I trust to the green underneath

and abandon my tracks
to the snow.


If it were still winter, I would recommend reading this poem and comparing it to your own surroundings. It’s a beautiful poem in which you can feel the silence and picture the beauty of the landscape knowing that there is the promise of color and spring to come.



If you enjoyed this short sample please visit The Propaganda Press Catalog to snap up a copy of your own and remember that with any purchase through the catalog a bonus book is included from archives. Not only will you be supporting the small press but the poet as well since poets can set royalties through Alternating Current and I am always an advocate of poets getting paid for their work.

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

Blogging Along Tobacco Road

If you love reading interviews as much as I do, you’ll be overjoyed to read the weekly interview features by following the blog link below and you’ll find some familiar names from this blog (such as M. Kei). Check it out at:

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/


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

Poetry Tips: Support in Hard Times

Support poets and small presses!

The reasons, I think, should be obvious. If you enjoy reading poetry you should be willing to part with at least a small portion of your hard earned money to buy and read a journal or chapbook. Also, if you are a poet trying to get published you should invest in at least one subscription to a journal or small press publication of some kind. Times may be tough but the editors and presses are working harder now than ever because grants are disappearing, donations are slowing down, and new subscribers are probably growing scarce. I’m a huge advocate for poets getting paid for their work and there are presses out there who pay their poets. There are presses who have low prices and great quality combined so that even if they can’t pay their poets, the readers are sure to be proud that they spent their money on such a fine chapbook or journal while the poets are proud to be part of the press or journal.

Any of the presses on the sidebar are worth your money, and there are countless more out there not included. For those of you who would like to add a press to the sidebar, by all means, post a link or two in the comments section so I can add it for other potential readers to find it.

On a personal note, money is so tight right now that I can’t remember the last time I went to the movie theater, let alone a “nice restaurant” in comparison to fast food, but I am still willing to subscribe to a journal and buy a poetry book because I have personally connected to the press and the poets. I suggest you do the same for the ones you feel connected to. We’re all in this together, and together we’ll pull through.

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by Monday for another featured site…

Lilliput Review Open Submissions

Don’t you think this ties nicely with the review? Don Wentworth is always seeking more poems of ten lines or less to publish at the Lilliput Review so please submit up to 3 poems (all which can be typed on one page if they fit) along with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to:

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

lilliputreviewATgmailDOTcom

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/nelsona2.html
Amber Nelson’s “Swarm”

http://www.leftfacingbird.com/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD_files/Lily%20Brown.pdf
Lily Brown’s “Morning. The Poem Is Dead.”

Thanks for clicking in, please click in tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Lilliput Review Issue #167

Lilliput Reviews Issue #167 speaks often of pines and the flights of various birds such as sparrows and egrets. I am always intrigued how Don Wentworth is able to put subtle themes in each issue and I am happy to share some precious gems with you:


February

The dark elms are cloaked
in bloodless vines, thin men
pulling out their hearts
on long, raveling string.
O, to be like them.
To be like them.

Hannah Craig, Pittsburgh, PA

All I can say is: Isn’t that a beautiful description?



The Nick of Time

I was lost
and this poem
found me.

Now we’re
lost together.
What a relief.

Jim Tolan, Brooklyn, NY

This is another poem that says it all—about poetry!




flowing through a chain link fence a flock of sparrows

Robbie Gamble, Jamaica Plain, MA

--Another beautiful description.

This is just a small sample of the wonderful poems in this issue and I hope you enjoyed them. As some of you may know, I am partial to poems that say what they mean to say in a clever, funny, and/or beautiful way. Issue #167 includes these kinds of poems and I hope you’ll spring at the chance to nab Issue #167 at the Lilliput Review for yourself, after all, it’s merely $1.00. Also, don’t forget to visit Issa's Untidy Hut, the Lilliput Review Blog, for all things poetic and excerpts from past issues.

Thanks always for reading! Please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Blue Hour Press

Blue Hour Press embraced technology and offers up digital chapbooks—you get to see the pages turn with every click and the experience is fantastic! Find out for yourself by clicking below:

Blue Hour Press

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for a featured journal…

Poetry Tips: Tools of the Trade

There are thousands of ways to improve your poetic writing. Some handy basics to keep near your desk at all times would be: a dictionary, thesaurus, and a rhyming dictionary.

Of course, you can also keep plenty of incentives to write creatively such as beautiful journals, an interesting typewriter, fancy pens and pencils, beautiful parchment papers, pocket-sized notebooks, 3X5 cards, etc. There’s also the Writer’s Market, Poet’s Market, countless How-To books on writing poetry, and of course, poetry books themselves.

Don’t forget your on-line resources! There are plenty on the sidebar of this blog and you are sure to find help when typing key words into “Google” such as Poetry Tips, Writing Tips, etc.

Then of course, there are people: Start a poetry writing club, write to poets you admire and ask their advice, see if you can do any collaborative work with writers you feel connected to, whether it’s via e-mail, through letters, over the phone, or in person.


Remember, writing a poem doesn’t have to be a solo act unless you want it to be, and anytime you feel creatively blocked there are countless resources to be had. Get out there and be inspired!

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by again soon…

Flying Guillotine Press Chapbook Open Submissions

The submission guidelines are fairly simple, e-mail your manuscript (under 32) pages to
flyinguillotinepress (AT) gmail (DOT) com anytime during the month of April—not much time left so better hurry! Also, explore the blog to get an idea of what they’re about if you aren’t familiar with them.

I would recommend including your contact information such as name, address, e-mail, and phone number and be sure that you place “Submission” in the subject line of your e-mail.

See more for yourself below:

http://flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com/


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://haikuguy.com/issa/haiku.php?code=027.09a
Issa’s “lantern”

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/180901.html
Russel Jaffe’s “Indiana”

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more Open Submissions...

Kevin Stein's Sufficiency of the Actual

Kevin Stein happens to be Illinois' Poet Laureate and Caterpillar professor of English at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Thanks to my mother-in-law, I received his book, Sufficiency of the Actual published by University of Illinois Press in 2009, as a present and was delighted with the poems I found inside.

You can view a preview of the book and its poems here: Sample Preview at Google: Sufficiency of the Actual

One of the poems that made me smile is titled “On Being a Nielsen Family” which essentially boils down to how we try to impress people despite who we really are. The following lines “the way a bickering couple makes nice/once the bell ding-dongs neighbors in/for cocktails and unsalted Cheese Nips” and “Though we watch Oprah, we circle BBC News” indicate what I mean. While we may not behave exactly as these lines represent, we can all relate in some way to how we alter ourselves for appearances’ sake.


This poem made me laugh and then cover my mouth: “Song of the Night Shift Foreman” where the poet and his fellow factory workers make up a song to ridicule their Foreman who typically has ear plugs in until one fateful night he overhears the song “trilled to The Beatles’ ‘Come Together.’” The song goes such as the poet provides: “he got juju eyeball,/he got funky hairlip,/he got nose down below his knees./Got to be a foreman,/he just do what he please” to which the foreman punishes them for it. In the poem, the foreman retaliates by demanding “200 boxes to the hour or your rear’s hauled out.” There is more to the poem than this but I want you to read it and discover your own reaction.

Kevin Stein’s collection pokes fun at the American way of life in many of his poems and I like his perspective on our country. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously and in tough times like these, his poems are a welcome read. I hope you’ll pick up this collection for yourself and thanks always for reading.

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

The Beat Generation

This blog is all things related to the beat generation, such as poets Ginsberg and Kerouac—whether it’s movies being made or news being shared, it all relates to the time period. Check it out at the link below:

http://thebeatgeneration.net/blog/

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