Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=236988
“A River” by John Poch

http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/Archives/Spring_2009/poems/A_Sagar.html
“Afterwards on the Quay” by Arun Sagar


Announcement:
Richard Wink of Gloom Cupboard has a collection of poems titled Dead End Road due out September 3rd (mark your calendars!) at Bewrite Books:
http://www.bewrite.net/coming_soon.htm

You can also pre-order this book (of which I’ve been blessed with a sneak peak and it is an excellent collection of 126 pages) at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-End-Road-Richard-Wink/dp/1906609365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249567736&sr=8-1

If you do purchase this book and enjoy it, you may want to review it on your blog or web-site or for a journal. For permission to reprint poems and provide a review, e-mail Richard Wink at aprilmaymarch777@yahoo.co.uk and title it Permission To Review.


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

Lilliput Review Issue 170

Issue #170 of Lilliput Review brings to mind the closing of summer. The poems speak of fresh cut grass, the fading away of memories, loved ones, the sense of brevity in things and people whom we consider permanent. I feel the sense of summer coming to a close and thought I would share with you the poems that struck this particular thought of mine:


Last summer’s drought,
a hillside, blackened
by a lightning strike—

battalions of green shoots
through the ash.

Hosho McCreesh, Albuquerque, NM

I love Hosho’s visual imagery in a field once thought to be brought to its end, blackened, and then springing to life anew. Though summer is over, we approach a new season and that’s what I think of for the “battalions of green shoots/through the ash.”



garter snake waiting
on the front porch –
and news, friend?

ayaz daryl nielsen, Boulder, CO

I like this poem simply because most people I know would recoil at a snake on their porch, perhaps consider it a bad omen, but Ayaz considers the little fellow a friend, and beckons me to wonder what news the little fellow might have about the land.



it’s our task
we must take on
so much
discard so much
until finally
carrying just a little home
and on the way
losing that too

John Ajac, Apopka, FL

Mr. Ajac’s poem moves me in its skeletal brevity about carrying and scattering things behind. You can place as much onto the poem as you wish for yourself such as making it a metaphor for traveling through life or take it at face value as a simple thought that might have popped into his head. Simplicity allows for greater imagination for the reader and I enjoy all the ideas that come to mind when I read his poem.



a small poem :: is not a brief life

Grant Hackett, Great Barrington, MA

Grant Hackett is a wonder at one-lined poems and of course anything I say is guaranteed to be much longer than his poem. There are many ways a reader can take this poem and I’d be interested in what Mr. Hackett hopes we take away from it. I take it to mean that any poem that moves you has more to it than the words being read, that you absorb and carry it with you for much longer than the moment you spent reading it.


This collection has many poems that let you expound on them with your own thoughts and feelings which I always enjoy doing. As always, Lilliput Review costs only a crisp (or wrinkly) $1.00 bill and you will find your envelope containing that precious little magazine chock full of interesting Lilliput Review fliers and a mini catalog of what is for sale. I always love opening the envelopes because the paper is always in vibrant colors and the poems in each issue never cease to amuse me. If you would like to discover the fun and enjoyment for yourself, go to:
http://lilliputreview.googlepages.com/home

Or visit Don Wentworth’s blog:
http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/


Thanks always for reading, please drop in for more Poems Found by Poet Hound and interesting additional links…

Oranges and Sardines Open Submissions

I copied-and-pasted the guidelines:

Poetry Guidelines:
Interested parties should submit 5 to 8 poems for consideration via email to OSpoetry@yahoo.com. Please do not send attachments or your submission will be deleted. Please do not send in less than five poems or your submission will not be reviewed. Please place your first and last name in the subject line. Submissions sent without your first and last name in the subject line may go unnoticed. No simultaneous submissions please. No submissions or poems that have been previously published. We consider “published” is published. This includes small, private editions, and even poems previously posted on blogs and personal web sites. Allow four to six weeks for your submission to be reviewed by our poetry editors and responded to. If you do not hear from one of our editors by then, feel free to email us again with an inquiry.

Poets selected for the Cover:
Poets selected to be featured on the cover will be asked for other materials including high-end photography and will be interviewed by Grace Cavalieri. The editors will be selecting two poets a year for the cover. The other writers featured in each issue will not be asked for photography starting with the fall issue of 2009.

For more details check it out at:
http://www.poetsandartists.com/guidelines.htm
http://www.poetsandartists.com/about.htm

Good luck to all of you who submit! Please drop in next week for another featured poet on Tuesday…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/bergers1.html
Stephanie Berger’s “Everything is moving, breathing, seething, and I, the robot mop, alone in the kitchen”

http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/Archives/Spring_2009/poems/A_Clay.html
Adam Clay’s “Psalm: And The Light”, “Psalm: As If I Could”

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

Jospeh Veronneau's Within The Grand Scheme

Within The Grand Scheme by Joseph Veronneau is a collection of poems that is dead-pan, and at times, morbid. Poems that tend towards the morbid in life are my favorite kind to read and I have dog-eared the majority of the pages. Joseph Veronneau’s poems open your eyes to the more trying sides of life, the less fortunate circumstances caught up in brief moments. Here is a sample below:


Ignoring The Goodbyes

Battling insomnia, I got
up once, wandered the kitchen.
When nothing interested me there,
I tried to read. No focus.
Finally, I sought the drawers
nearest my bed, and dug deep.
Once holding the steel near my head,
I thought maybe I could stop time
inside the gun, freeze things
so that I could see the reverse
of my thoughts
behind me.
After rolling the barrel a few times,
I stuck it back in the drawer.
I heard hands clapping inside,
but ignored them.

This poem is dangerously close to an unhappy ending and I love that Mr. Veronneau ends it with applause that erupts inside the barrel of a gun. It’s imaginative, unexpected, and leaves a reader holding their breath uncomfortably for a moment. It’s a poem that can have real effect on you as you read it instead of something you absorb, then turn away from.



Birthmark

Where her imperfection lies,
at the bottom of her pantleg
the one who claimed
that I was the first to
undress her.
She explained it to me
as she wriggled out of her jeans;
almost preferring to keep that last
bit of cloth attached,
shield away that bit of unbeauty
she held.
How the doctors
scraped and scrubbed
to get it off initially,
realizing after failed attempts
that it, too, was attached.
I think now at times
of the man she must reveal it to now:
how in the evening light, he attempts
to belittle the discomfort of showing,
a task to which I pretended
to care nothing of.
At the time
I was content to grip the waistline,
drag them down a bit, ass-revealed,
and undo myself in equally dark light
that confined us between
the doorway of learning
and of what was given.

Mr. Veronneau high-lights romance and acceptance in an otherwise awkward situation for a woman who is afraid of being judged on her appearance once she reveals herself completely. I like the line “that bit of unbeauty” since women are always taught a certain standard and the writer here in this piece makes plain that he enjoyed her whether she had something considered “unbeauty” or not. A lovely poem.



Doors

My grandmother reaches
into the space
above her, grabbing
for the unknown, the imaginary.
What are you trying for
I ask
and it’s unclear
whether she hears me at all.
The days of her memory
grow short, and she is constantly reaching.
One day, she looks over
when I ask her again,
and she replies
opening the door
to break out of this.

A poignant poem about memory and I am guessing dementia, which I take very personally having worked with many who have been diagnosed with dementia and alzheimer’s. I love that she is always reaching for an escape, that the grandmother seems to know enough that something is wrong and she must find the way out. I love that she answers the writer in this poem that she “opening the door/to break out of this” without explaining what “this” is. Without explanation, the author and the readers can understand what she means and that she is trying to escape. It is a very moving poem to me.


There are plenty more dog-eared pages I could share but I will leave you to discover the rest for yourself. This collection of poems costs $5.00 from Alternationg Current’s Propaganda Press:
http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#within_the_grand_scheme
Poets are able to set their own royalties and get paid for their words so please support the small press and the poets published by Alternating Current, you won’t be disappointed by the poets you find there:
http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#within_the_grand_scheme


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

Damselfly Open Submissions

You have until Sept. 15th to make it into Issue 8 which comes out in October! Send 1-3 poems to the Poetry Editor: LesleyATdamselflypressDOTnet and make sure your poems arrive as a Microsoft Word or .RTF attachment. Include a bio of less than 50 words and include your contact information. For more details go to:

http://damselflypress.net/2009/07/12/publication-of-eighth-issue-and-call-for-submissions/


Good luck to all who submit and please stop by next Tuesday for another featured poet…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/020/alfier_jeffrey_003.html
“Cubilete Mountain Pilgrimage” by Jeffrey Alfier

http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/freeverse/Archives/Spring_2009/poems/G_Babbitt.html
“We Wend Our Way Across Two Imaginings and Find The World Is Real” by Geoffrey Babbit

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

Lilliput Review #169

What I love in this collection are the pairings of poems clumped together through similar words (not poems, just words) such as “quiet”, “silence” and “firefly.” The cover is spooky to me in a good way, a figure with a darkened face and an outline of a body to greet you as you open the pages. This little journal left me feeling at peace and inspired. I hope you feel the same with some of the following poems:


empty leaves zig zag
from cold branches to the pond –
no sound of water

John K. Rutenberg,
Myrtle Beach, SC

I think this is a lovely nature poem, don’t you? The “empty leaves” echo the last line “no sound of water” tying in the silence of the moment.



James Moore

Last Night the man who said he wrote
seven poems a day might have rolled
a grenade into the room, he left us so
stunned. This morning, the city still quiet,
soft late rain writes a different poem
on each luminous tree.

J. Zimmerman
Santa Cruz, CA

I love the lasting effect of the man, James Moore, of his statement leaving everyone, and even the city, stunned for a while afterwards.



somewhere near
the deep well of silence
it waits for me

John Elsberg
Arlington, VA

A mysterious silence that you can fill with so many of your own ideas, I wonder what Mr. Elsberg’s “it” is?



an old cemetery –
one by one
the fireflies go out

M. Kei
Perryville, MD

Another mysterious poem! I doubt this cemetery could sound any spookier if it makes fireflies turn out the lights.


I hope you enjoyed this little sample. Each journal is only $1.00 and you can find out more along with reading poems from back issues at:
http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found By Poet Hound…

Announcement

From here on until further notice I will only be posting Tuesday through Thursday so that I can devote more time to my own writing. I apologize to those of you who enjoy the Monday and Friday posts, but these seem to be the least popular so I am letting them go for now. Thanks for dropping in and please stop in tomorrow for another featured review…

Boxcar Poetry Open Submissions

I copy-and-pasted their guidelines below:

Boxcar Poetry Review seeks top quality poetry, artwork, photography, interviews, and reviews.
poetry
Email 3-5 poems as a Word or RTF file to boxcarpoetry@gmail.com with "POETRY-SUB: your name" in the subject line of the email. Include a brief bio in the text of your email. Simultaneous submissions ok with immediate notification. Please wait for a response before sending a second submission. We do not consider previously published material. While we currently are unable to pay our contributors, published work is eligible for Peer Awards ($25 for best poem of the issue) and the end of the year Oboh Awards (top three poems of the year).

You can check them out at:
http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/main.html


Good luck to all who submit! Please stop in next Tuesday for another featured poet…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://righthandpointing.com/Issue27/murdoch.html
“Cut the Blue Wire” by Jim Murdoch


http://www.blossombones.com/winter09/bashaar_w09.html
“The Giraffe Woman” by Margaret Bashaar



Also, Talia Reed recommended that I sign up for August Poetry Post Card Fest where you write and send 31 poems on post-cards throughout the month using the mailing list on the site where you register for this brilliant project and I recommend you check it out as well:

http://poetrypostcards.blogspot.com/
*Note that you need to sign up right away BEFORE August 1st if possible so you can mail your first postcard in time for your first recipient on the list to get their postcard on August 1st. Counting today, that gives you four mailing days for the postcard to reach its destination. Good luck, have a blast, hopefully see your postcard!

Join us if you dare, hope to see you there!


Thanks for dropping in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Dave Tickel's Snow In The Forecast

David Tickel’s chapbook, Snow In The Forecast is published by Alternating Current:
http://alt-current.blogspot.com/
This is a collection of dead-pan true to life poems by Dave L. Tickel. While the chapbook doesn’t provide much information about Mr. Tickel I imagine these poems come straight from his experiences and I am happy to share several poems with you:


SEAT BELTS

Cousin Mike
And I played your
Drums.

You and Aunt Sandy slept as me and
Your son

Wandered through
Hungry
Hippie beads, through your apartment.

You sent me a
Christmas gift
A year and a half later, when I was
eleven, the Allman Bros’ Eat A Peach.

Still
A Chiropractic student, you
And your second wife Pam

Scaled the Sears Tower,
Gave King Kong a
Free exam.

You liked Brautigan
I liked Jack Kerouac.

Your mom
Died on the first day of spring. You
Were likewise fatally injured on
December 7th.

The title is confusing until you get to the end and I love it when a poet can title a poem in this way. Also, Mr. Tickel pieces together memories in a way that make it sound free-form and then ties it up neatly at the end.



WRITERS’ CONFERENCE DECEASED

I attended a
Yearly writers’ conference for
More than a few years.

I submitted
a play
- an outline for a novel

-unsavory characters/impeccable
Punctuation
-a
Joycean short story.

I submitted poems that
Lacked punctuation, that were
Poundian, that were
- I learned something – incorrect stanzy-wise.

I didn’t win any
Awards, I wasn’t a
Teacher/student at the college. Kurt
Vonnegut and
Ken Kesey

In
The night auditorium, on
The rock & roll stage.

I enjoy the story-telling of this poem. While Mr. Tickel keeps it fairly bare you can envision the writer’s conference/workshop he was involved in and get a sense of his less-than-thrilled attitude about the whole thing.



SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND

She calls me Temporary Trash. I
Want to get in her pants,
I’m a virgin.

We
Wear leather and plastic pants, go to all
The
Punk clubs. She taught me how to

Dance
Down and up, up and down, how to
Walk the dog, how to do the frog.

We met at
Community College.
Our first date: she gave me a fat lip

This poem is just plain entertaining. A memory revealed by its skeleton in which we fill in the rest. The ending leaves you wondering how the fat lip transpired: concert mishap or something he said?


If you enjoyed these sample poems, you may purchase this chapbook for an astoundingly low price of $1.00 at http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#snow_in_the_forecast
through Propaganda Press. Remember that Alternating Current is one of the few small presses where poets are able to be paid for their work so definitely check them out!

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

La Petite Zine Open Submissions

I have directly quote them below:
-
“Please send all submissions to the following new address:
lapetitezine@gmail.com
-
We accept e-mail submissions only. Please paste your work directly into the e-mail. If you are greatly concerned about formatting, please send an attached document in addition to the pasted text. We accept visual files in pdf, jpeg, and gif format. Include a brief bio with your submission.
-
Please send work in all genres. And all non- or anti-genres. We consider visual work of all types. We consider personal and academic essays.
-
We require that you put in your e-mail subject line the following information:
-
LPZ.lastname.month.date.year.
-
Thus, a submission from a poet might read in its subject line:
-
LPZ.Notley.10.28.2006
-
•Please send 3-5 poems. Essays and fiction should be under 2,000 words, but query if you think we have reason to consider your longer work.
-
•Please include a brief bio.
-
•Please, no multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please let us know if work’s been accepted elsewhere.
-
•Please wait two months before submitting again.
-
Any deviation from our guidelines may result in the disposal of your submission--trash folder, no questions asked.
-
Read our current and recent issues before submitting. No excuses; they're free and they're stunners!
-
If, after a few months, you haven't heard from us, please feel free to check in. Check nice! We’re tender.
-
We acquire First Rights, or one-time rights. Copyright reverts back to author/artist after publication. “
-
For more details go to:
http://www.lapetitezine.org/
-
Good luck to all who enter and please stop by next week…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n-7/gavin-adair.html
Gavin Adair’s “After the crash”
-
http://www.redividerjournal.org/deaths-daughter/
Cathleen Calbert’s “Death’s Daughter”
-
-
Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Justin Barrett's the uncertainty principle

Justin Barrett sent this little gem in the mail and guess what? The poems are translated into French! The uncertainty principle is Barrett’s newest collection of poems, published by Les Mi(ni)crobe. Mr. Barrett admitted he wasn’t sure if they were available for purchase on-line so I e-mailed the press and hoped they could read English since I do not know how to write, let alone speak, French. I have not heard anything from the press but Justin Barrett has given me permission to review it regardless. The poems are in English and then in French and almost all of them make me laugh. I’ll spare you the French translation as I’m sure I’ll butcher it. As usual, Barrett’s poems aren’t for the faint of heart so you have been forewarned:
-
the good die young
-
a new study on the death rates
of writers was conducted by
a scientist from California
and his results showed that poets die
sooner than any other type of writer.
-
apparently, this finding is true across
cultural, racial, and gender lines.
-
novelists, playwrights, journalists,
how-to book writers;
all of them live longer
than poets.
it seems to be a side-effect
of writing poetry.
-
but, dying young and leaving
all the shit of this
world behind for
the rest of the writers to
write about is
just further proof
of the superiority of
the poet.
-
Don’t you just love the arrogant attitude at the end of this poem? I also wonder where he found this study that inspired the poem. Justin Barrett typically has a biting “punch-line” in his poems that makes him stand out from others and I admire that.
-
-
-
but, i must be better than that damn collection of yodeling CDs, right?
-
after years of suffering
through bad movies
and bad music
and bad television shows,
i finally tell my
wife that she
has horrible tase.
-
“the ultimate proof,”
she says,
“is the fact
that i chose you.”
-
we both laugh.
-
i, because i know
it’s not true.
-
she, because
she knows it is.
-
Again, this is a biting remark of a poem and it encompasses real life with a great title that at first appears to have nothing to do with the poem. Then after you read it, the title could easily work as the ending. This is a good example of a poem scaled down to its skeleton.
-
-
-
morning
-
After you wake
up and
leave in the
morning
-
i roll over
to your side
of the bed,
-
curl up in your
emptiness
-
and fall back
to sleep
in the ghost
of your warmth.
-
Mr. Barrett isn’t always biting in his writing, this is a great example of sentimentality pared down to its frame. Simple and engaging.
-
-
If you enjoyed this little collection, you can see if it is available for purchase by e-mailing rvmicrobeATyahooDOTfr
-
If you know French, you’ll probably get a response since I haven’t heard back yet. The collection is short and sweet, funny and entertaining.
-
Thanks always for reading, please drop in again tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…