Bamboo and Plum Blossom Blog

Beautiful imagery and words at this zen-filled blog, check it out at:

http://bambooplum.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for a book give-away…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://juked.com/2012/02/oldguysinthesteamroom.asp
“Old Guys in the Steam Room 132 degrees Fahrenheit” by John Mckernan

http://juked.com/2012/01/gonegone.asp
“Gone, Gone, All the Stones I’ve Thrown Out to Sea” by Michael Mlokeday

Thanks for clicking in. I am in need of more poetry and good novels to review so if you’d like to send your work my way, please send me an e-mail at poethoundblogspotATyahooDOTcom!

Please drop in again next week, I’ve been working some overtime and so I fear this week is rather sparse on posts and I do apologize, thanks always for reading and for your patience…

American Literary Review

Based out of UNT, this is a fantastic blog with great interviews, great reviews, essentially the things I love for and more to be found at:

http://americanliteraryreview.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in again Wednesday…

Chicken Pinata Open Submissions

I have copy-and-pasted the guidelines below and have provided a link so you can explore their journal:
Chickenpinata wants your poetry!

Please send a submission of up to four unpublished poems as a single .rtf or .doc file to
submissions@chickenpinata.com. The subject line for your e-mail should be
"submission--your name." Please put at least your name and e-mail on each page that you
submit.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know immediately if your work is taken
elsewhere! Please also do not submit another batch of poems until you have heard a
response from us.

Please also include a .jpg of you, if you have one, and a third-person bio of up to 100
words in the body of your e-mail. You can include previous publication credits, if you have
any, but we'd be just as happy if you told us something interesting about your life or your
philosophy of writing.

We do prefer that your bio wasn't overly self-aggrandizing or dull, but we don't mind if you
demonstrate a bit of your personality. And if you have a website you'd like us to link to,
we're happy to do it.
Generally, we appreciate shorter pieces, but if you wow us with a longer poem (say, up to
two pages), we won't turn you away. We like to read accessible poetry that's fresh, new,
and fun.
Of course we love lush language and metaphor, but please, skip heavy allusions and other
overly "poetical" styling. That stuff makes our head hurt. Individual rights return to the
poet upon publication, but we ask that you allow us to keep your poem in perpetuity in
our archived issues.
We also ask that you credit Chickenpinata, a journal of poetry, when you republish your
poem in your first (or next!) book.
For all issues, please expect a response within 4 months. For regular correspondence,
we'll try to answer daily-ish, but definitely within a week. If for some crazy reason, you
haven't heard from us in 4 months about your submission, please feel free to send us a
query. Sometimes e-mails get buried and sticky-notes go awry. We don't want you to wait
indefinitely wondering if we even received your work. We've had that happen to us, and
it's both disheartening and aggravating.

And, as always, thank you for your interest.

~~Eds.

To learn more go to:
http://www.chickenpinata.com/index.html

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in again next week…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/nelsona2.html
“Swarm” and “Fork” by Amber Nelson

http://www.chickenpinata.com/I5--Potos.html
“When House Guests Leave” and “On my Grandmother’s Bed at Age 5” by Andrea Potos

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

Linebreak Site

This is a wonderful site for poetry lovers, pictures of writers, great poems to read and on audio, check it out at:

http://linebreak.org/about/

Thanks for clicking in, I am out of poetry books to review at this time so if you’d like to send one my way please e-mail me. As for the Friday feature, it takes me a little longer to read and review books for that feature so please be patient. In the meantime, please drop in again on Wednesday…

The Last Storyteller by Frank Delaney

Imagine spending an evening at an intimate dinner party where the food and the company are so magnificent that when you return home for the evening all you can do is slip off your shoes, find the nearest chair and sit staring into space mouthing to yourself the various parts of the evening and conversation that struck you at your core. That’s what this book has done for me.

Frank Delaney was born in Tipperary, Ireland and has been a BBC Broadcaster, a former judge of the Booker Prize, and has published several novels that are part of a series that concludes here in his latest novel, The Last Storyteller. Frank Delaney currently resides in Connecticut and New York, and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and his own web-site where he also provides a regular podcast about James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The Last Storyteller is the final conclusion of the main character, Ben MacCarthy’s, life. The first two novels, Venetia Kelly’s Traveling Show and The Matchmaker of Kenmare introduce you to Ben MacCarthy and the love of his life, Venetia Kelly. I have not yet read these two preceding novels but certainly will be hunting them up now that I’ve had the great fortune of reading its third which can stand alone, but has made me thirsty for more.
Ben MacCarthy’s life in 1956 is tumultuous. As he collects stories for the Folklore Commission, he encounters less than savory characters along the way and is swept unexpectedly into the rising tide of violence sweeping Ireland at this time. In addition, the love of his life has returned from the United States as part of a traveling show titled, “Gentleman Jack and his Friend,” which is of course headed by no such gentleman at all: Jack Stirling. To further complicate Ben’s life, his twin children whom he has never met are in tow of this traveling show. Ben battles his feelings of fear and regret as he must now decide how to rescue his beloved wife, after he had abandoned his chance years ago.

Frank Delaney’s novel weaves in characters that will take your breath away, especially John Jacob O’Neill, a most wonderful storyteller and a gentleman to the core whose stories seem to predict Ben’s future each time Ben drops in for a visit. Jimmy Bermingham, a rabble-rouser, brings unwanted excitement into Ben’s otherwise sedate life on the road. Finally, Venetia Kelly’s appearances and disappearances in the novel are maddening in their enticement and brevity. Venetia is as mysterious a woman as they come, her thoughts veiled from the audience as well as from Ben, their marriage as long and bumpy a road as you could ever anticipate and yet the tenderness and devotion through the years brings relief to the reader.
What I love most about the novel is that the main character is not presented as a neat and tidy hero that follows a steady climb upwards through difficulties. Ben advances and retreats in many battles within him and with others just as all true humans do. He is doggedly stubborn in the worst ways, slow to move his feet towards doing the right thing, and blunders into the wrong hands when searching for help. Ben’s saving grace is his connection to the ultimate storyteller, John Jacob O’Neill, who takes him under his wing and brings order and wisdom to his life. As a result, Ben is able to bring about the desired means to his own life and finds the words to tell his own ultimate story.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Ireland, folklore, and especially those who understand the ups and downs of romance and the complications that life brings in adulthood. It is a story that makes you feel richer for having read and one I will happily read again, after I read the two preceding novels.
If you enjoyed this review (and I truly do not feel I can do this book enough justice) you may find a copy at your local book-store, local library, or on-line at:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-storyteller-frank-delaney/1100572447?ean=9781400067855&itm=1&usri=the+last+storyteller
or at:

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Storyteller-Novel-Ireland/dp/1400067855/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0


To learn more about Frank Delaney and his work please visit his wonderful and easy-to-navigate website:
http://www.frankdelaney.com

Thanks always for reading, please drop in again next week…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/48rhpissue/josh-bernstein
“mistaken identity” by Josh Bernstein

https://sites.google.com/site/48rhpissue/rose-auslander
“Postcard” by Rose Auslander

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by again Friday for Read A Good Book…

Jordan Orleans Site

Find vibrant artwork, poems, and more courtesy of Jordan Orleans at his site:

http://jordanorleans.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by again Wednesday…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/124605
Extra Care Poems and Lyrics by Alina Cosma, this is a self-published chapbook and yes you’ll have to make a purchase, the poems range from lyrical and feminine to straightforward and free flowing.

http://juked.com/2012/01/whenallelsefails.asp
“When All Else Fails” by Joni Lee

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in again soon, no new laptop just yet as I compare prices but please continue to drop in to check on the latest posts here at Poet Hound …

Lilliput Review Issue #183

Don Wentworth delicately stitches together nature and dreaming into the gently packaged issue #183. Inside you walk the surreal landscapes of farmlands and the realistic landscapes of dreams in the night. Beautiful contrasts abound and I am happy to share with you a few poems:

How gently the rose petal falls to the ground,
keep the mind so.

We don’t want to crush the illusion
do we?

By: Charlie Mehrhoff of Oakland, ME

This poem reminds me of those rare moments out-of-doors when the breeze is gentle, the world is tame, and you have the luxurious moment of taking in the beauty of the landscape of your own yard or the local park. In reality, the world is rushing by filled with ambulance sirens and lawn mowers, but this one peaceful moment arrives and we inhale deeply, that is what this poem reminds me of.



True Dreaming

Once the body is removed
true dreaming begins
as flesh is made into feathers
pillows are stuffed with,
making nests flocking birds
cling to with rigid claws
immovable as barbed wire
fences on the edge of no
man’s land that seems so real
you can almost touch it.

By: Alan Catlin of Schenectady, NY

I love the idea that “flesh is made into feathers” in dreams, a reference to how often we are able to fly in dreams and wish we could in real life. The landscape in the dream described above makes me think of crows clinging to nests, stark, bare-bone fences stretching across fields and the “no man’s land” makes me think of wide open spaces out West. It’s a poem that lends itself to dreaming of your own landscape, letting your imagination create its own dream from the poem and I enjoy the pictures that come into my mind from it.


The Ridge

From low among the darkening oaks
a single bird call
doesn’t stop
until the glow along the mountain ridge
has disappeared.

By: David Chorlton of Phoenix, AZ

This poem is a selfish inclusion as I spent a summer living in Arizona and was immediately transported by this poem. I lived in the valley and every morning as I walked to my work at the hospital during my internship early in the morning I can recall that lone bird singing and the backdrop of the mountains and it is as beautiful as you can imagine. If you have not ever been to Phoenix, I urge you to go and experience its beauty for yourself.


There are other poems I would love to include but you need to purchase this gem, Issue #183 for yourself! Each issue is only $1.00 and worth so much more than the price. You can check out Lilliput Review’s blog and use the PayPal button to purchase the journal for yourself at:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

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

The Camel Saloon Blog

Russell Streur sent me the link to this on-line blog journal that publishes poems regularly, an excellent read, too. You can also submit poems yourself so be sure to check them out at:

http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/
Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured journal…

Can’t stop now! By John Yamrus

John Yamrus has been featured previously here at Poet Hound and his latest collection of poems, can’t stop now!, published by Epic Rites Press is an excellent collection. From every-day humor to every-day tragedy it is all here. I flagged so many poems to share that it will be difficult to choose just a small sample to entice readers into purchasing a copy for themselves. There are poems that made me laugh out loud, poems that made me say out loud “Isn’t that right?” In any case, John Yamrus’ writing is straightforward and to the point and I am happy to share just a few poems below:

right around the ninety minute mark
the poetry reading
got nuts.

it was one of those
blog-talk radio
things

and there were
four of us,

all on the phone
from wherever
we were,

and,
(like i said)
right around the
ninety minute
mark

the wine and beer
kicked in,

and Plath,
(still on the phone)
ran out of
smokes,

so,
he went
to a mini-market,

and,
in the lot
he sees this girl
who was kinda cute
and he starts talking to her…

“hey,
you like poetry?
i’m on the radio right now.

you wanna
hear some poems?”

and he
puts her
on the phone,

and
Carstens
starts reading,

and you can hear Plath
in the background
trying to talk her
boyfriend

out of decking him.

and
when she
hands the phone back,

Plath
says to us:

“i’m gonna grab another.”

and
he finds this
old juice-head
sitting in the lot,
and Hardung reads him
one about his junkie days,

and the old guy’s almost in tears,
when he hands back the phone,
saying:

“god bless ya,
man.

god bless
ya.”

that’s just the way
it goes.

sometimes
you’re lucky
and find the poem.

and, sometimes
it finds
you.

This poem makes me grin ear to ear. I can just picture this poet on the radio walking outside and finding random people to connect with on the air to poetry. The “juice-head” is moved to tears, blesses the poets, and the poets are indeed, blessed. To have your poem move someone, anyone, is always the ultimate goal and the scene depicted in this poem makes it fun to imagine and hope for.



he says to me

“i can’t believe
you actually
throw some poems out.”

“sure i do.
lots.”

“why
would you ever
throw a poem out?”

i looked at him and said:
“if they don’t work,
there’s no sense
in keeping them.

so,
i throw them out.”

“that’s nuts
(he says)
my words are
like gold.

i’ve slaved
every word i ever wrote.

i’d never
throw them out.

they’re covered in my
blood,

drenched in my
sweat.”

i didn’t know
how to answer that.

i couldn’t tell him
that i can’t
stand
the sight of blood,

and a long time ago
i made a promise
to myself

i’d never
ever

let them
see me
sweat.

This poem reminds me of the countless times writers volley back and forth with each other about whether to keep or toss works they are not proud of. There is also the battle within ourselves. This poem hits me personally, I tend to keep even the lousy work but I live in fear that some poor soul will stumble upon my “treasure trove” of work after I die and try to “put it out there” for the world to see and that gives me nightmares. This poem hits home.



every year

someone
sends me
an entry form
for the local
Poet Laureate competition.

unable
to throw the thing out,
but unwilling to co-operate,
i take ten minutes
and fill out the form,

sending in
the required
number of entries,

all the while
making sure
that each and every poem
is about hemorrhoids,
a hair on the tip of my nose,
bad breath
or my dog
taking a dump in the yard.

i know the poems
won’t be what they want,
but they
just might be

precisely
what they
need.

This poem makes me laugh out loud. I like the rebellious attitude of Mr. Yamrus. I am just dying to know what the people who appoint the Poet Laureate think when they see his application and his poems!

Mr. Yamrus has been publishing poems since 1970 and his work has been translated into many languages including Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and so on. He has also published two novels in addition to eighteen volumes of poetry. If you enjoyed this short sample, you may purchase a copy of can’t stop now! by John Yamrus at Epic Rites Press for $22.00 at:

http://www.epicrites.org/bookstore.html

Thanks always for reading, please drop in again soon…

Death Becomes Her

Well, folks, my laptop has finally given up the ghost. At nearly ten years old it decided to stop accessing my Word Files and the internet on exactly the same day that my husband's power cord to his laptop fell apart. We weren't able to resolve either issue until yesterday.

At the moment, my prized posts from last week are being pried free of my old laptop and onto an external hard drive compliments of the Geek Squad team at Best Buy. My husband has replaced his power cord and we now share his computer.

What does this mean for everyone? It means that posts will be rather sporadic for the next couple of weeks as I search for a new user-friendly laptop. Thanks for your patience, I have some excellent books that I can't wait to feature here on the blog and at least this interruption allows more time for reading these books more thoroughly.

In the meantime, please enjoy the sprinkling of posts over the next couple of weeks and thanks always for reading...

Exquisite Corpse Site

This site is an on-line journal worth exploring for articles, poetry, art, and so on. I urge you to check them out at:

http://corpse.org/index.php

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