This Week...

This past weekend was my sister’s graduation from high school and my husband and I’s wedding anniversary. What does this mean? It means I have a post for Wednesday and that I spent the rest of my weekend with family so please drop in on Wednesday and check back again for posts next week…

Apt Open Submissions

For the print journal you may submit 3-5 poems in a single document attachment to the on-line submishmash link on the website. The editors respond within four weeks which is excellent turn- around time!

For further details go to:
http://apt.aforementionedproductions.com/submission-guidelines/

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.alicebluereview.org/main.html
Cat Jones’ “Tuesday”

http://www.blossombones.com/winter_spring2012/darling_ws2012.html
Kristina Marie Darling’s “Noctuary”

Thanks for clicking in, please come back again tomorrow…

Night Boat Books

This site has some great titles and news on poets as well as posts about upcoming events, check them out at:
http://www.nightboat.org/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by again Wednesday…

Read a Good Book: Pat Conroy's Beach Music

A friend of mine recommended this book which she offered as a book-on-tape and I absolutely loved every minute of it. Beach Music centers around the suicide of Shiloh McCall and the effects it has on her family and friends. Shiloh has committed suicide as a result of the voices in her head finally overwhelming her and is instantly forgiven by her loved ones, though it does create turmoil that creates ripple effects throughout the book. Her husband, Jack McCall, is the main character who takes their daughter, Leah, to Rome until he is called back by his mother’s illness.

What ensues is a love story to the South that encompasses the beautiful descriptions of the landscapes and wildlife accompanied by the varied characters of Jack McCall’s family and friends who all grew up in the small town located in South Carolina. Jack’s brothers provide comic relief, especially John Hardin whose schizophrenic episodes turn all of life’s daily events on their ear, and the other brothers’ reactions to John Hardin.

Jack’s friends begin to reconcile the events that caused them to split apart in their college years once they are reunited in South Carolina. Mike Hess, now a movie producer, sets the stage for reconciliation between a friend who went missing and the father who believes and hopes is still dead and also kindles a new love interest for Jack as he begins working on a writing project with their beautiful and kind childhood friend.
There is something for everyone in this novel; it is witty, humorous, dark, poignant, and breathtaking. It is the kind of summer reading that endures long after it is finished and perfect for anyone who has felt love and loss.

You may be able to find this novel in your local library and you may also purchase a copy for yourself through Pat Conroy’s website by going here:
http://www.patconroy.com/beach-music.php

Pat Conroy has written many novels including: The Prince of Tides, The Water is Wide, and My Losing Season and more. To go to his main page, go to:
http://www.patconroy.com/about.php

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

Konundrum Engine Literary Review Open Submissions

Copy-and-pasted details below:
Poetry
Manners are important: before submitting, please have a gander at the site and the poetry in the archives. If you’d like to submit your work, please send your name, contact and biographical information, and two to three poems, pasted into the body of an email, for consideration. Do not send attachments. our Poetry Editors get too attached to things as it is. We will respond to submissions within two months. Courier is not a pretty font. That’s for the record.
poetry[-at-]konundrum.com

Features
Read our Features sections. Get the idea. Got something good to share with all the world? Send it in.
prose[-at-]konundrum.com

We'd like to get back to you as soon as possible, but you know how it is, what with the casino debt, the narcotics anonymous meetings, the nice, welcoming embrace of our mattresses. So wait, OK, Mr. or Ms. Ants-in-your-Pants? Simultaneous submissions are ok, as long as you let us know ASAP that the piece is being published somewhere else.

We get "First Serial and Electronic Rights." Publication rights revert back to the author, of course. We also hold the right to keep the work in our archives for the duration of the site. If the piece is first published here on the Konundrum Engine Literary Review, acknowledge us if it is subsequently re-published. Giving props is good. And yes, all work is subject to editing.

Note: We do not accept submissions between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It's summer. Go outside.

Be sure to submit before May 28th! For more details, go to:
http://lit.konundrum.com/pages/litsubmissions.php

Good luck to all who submit, please drop by tomorrow for a Read a Good Book Review…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.redfez.net/poetry/1478
“Quarantine” by Jay Passer

http://bombsite.com/issues/116/articles/5125
“The Weaver” (scroll down) by Sarah V. Schweig

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

Posts to Follow

I have posts the rest of the week, including a Read a Good Book review for this Friday so please click in again…

Flying Guillotine Press

This press produces handmade chapbooks, beautiful, and I can’t wait to get my hands on them someday. Check out the craftsmanship of both the poet and the press at:
http://flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com/
Thanks for dropping in, please click in tomorrow…

All Poetry

If you’d like to share your poetry in progress and receive feedback, this is the place for you! Check it out at:
http://www.allpoetry.com

Thanks for clicking in!

Now that my big exam is done I am hoping to get back to a regular schedule here at Poet Hound. I am taking a break the rest of this week to organize my house, a belated spring cleaning if you will. Please drop in next week as I will be more settled in and able to do regular posts again...

Barefoot Review Open Submissions

Jamie Sue Austin was kind enough to let me know that the Barefoot Review is actively seeking submissions and that seek poetry that talks about disabilities and illness and how it affects everyone. You will need to use the link to read the guidelines as they are fairly specific. I am happy to see that there is a forum out there that allows those going through difficult times to express themselves whether they are a caretaker or the one going through an illness or living life with a disability. I urge you to check them out at:
http://www.barefootreview.org/submit.html


Good luck to all who submit and please stop by again next week…

This Week

I have a post ready for Thursday, so please drop in for Open Submissions, I will return to a more regular schedule after I take my re-certification exam this Friday, thanks for your patience…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poetrysuperhighway.com/pshffa.html
Not a poem but an awesome idea for sharing more poetry with the world…

I have a major re-certification exam next Friday and have been studying more so there are no more posts for this week, please stay tuned for next week…

Indiana Crime Edited by Murphy Edwards and James Ward Kirk and Durable Goods Issue 61 Edited by Aleathia Drehmer

Indiana Crime 2012 is an anthology of poems, flash fiction, short stories, and art focusing on the crimes and horror stories of the Midwest. Edited by Murphy Edwards and James Ward Kirk, there are gruesome tales as well as heartbreaking hard-luck tales within its pages. Below, I’ll share a couple of poems and a review of one of the stories:

Murder in greasepaint
By: Brian Rosenberger

A painted smile
can hide many things
some longer than others
but nothing forever

Matchless mirth maker
and member of the
fun bunch
in good standing
Harry the clown
had a hole in his heart
as red as his nose

Morganna, mistress of the high wire
and Harry’s bed
was found in repose with
the dead harlequin
wearing the clown’s oversized shoes
and a matching wound

The lovers’ final performance
went largely unnoticed,
save for one

Esmerelda, wife to Harry
and resident sword swallower
bit off more than she could chew
a victim of her own devices
after dispatching the adulterous pair,
she choked hiding the murder weapon

And that marked
the last time
the circus
came to town.

A tale of circus performers caught up in high-stakes of a different kind, this poem is entertaining and tragic all at once. For the sword swallower to choke on the murder weapon is a morbid twist of fate for seeking revenge on her adulterous husband. I enjoy seeing such a story as a poem instead of as a short story tale, taking the skeleton of it and setting its bones for the reader to fill in their own picture of the scene.



Pulp City
By: Roger Cowin

1. Welcome to Fat City

The city is a vampire that bleeds
the vitality from the soul, breeding
its own infestation of violence, greed,
hatred and hopelessness,
leaving only half animated corpses
wandering the brutal streets
looking for their next fix,
the next big score,
the next sure bet.

Welcome to Fat City,
city of suicide dreams and wasted lives,
of sterno bums, junkies, thugs
and ten dollar whores,
of cop killers and killer cops,
of dime store hoods and degenerate gangsters,
a city populated by the living damned
where being down and out is a way of life,
and every cockroach that crawls out of the sewer
has its own story to tell.

This poem actually has six sections and so I share with you its introduction. The description of the city as being a vampire sucking the life out of you is vivid and straightforward enough to let the readers know that only bad things happen here. The following sections showcase miscreants and mishaps, it is riveting and well worth reading.

The Kill Stand by Larry D. Sweazy is a short story of a man who served in Vietnam and is now working a blue collar job killing turkeys for a living and must confront the fact that he must work a third shift regardless of the fact that his granddaughter will be performing in the local church and wants him to be there to see her. It is a heart-breaking story that people can relate to more nowadays than ever before in an economy where jobs are scarce and you must sacrifice time with family to keep whatever job you can. The ending fills the reader with uncertainty and hope that I cannot spoil here. All I can say is if you have every worked long hours and had to face tragedies in family life that effect your ability to keep a job while slogging away then this story will shoot you like an arrow through the heart.

This collection of poems, stories, and artwork is a well-rounded collection of tragedies and hard luck that I highly recommend reading. If you enjoyed this review you may obtain a copy of Indiana Crime for yourself for $12.48 through Amazon of Indiana Crime by using this link below:

http://www.amazon.com/Indiana-Crime-2012-James-Ward/dp/1468146718



Durable Goods is a microzine edited by writer Aleathia Drehmer and issue Number 61 landed in my mailbox recently. Similar in size to the small journal of Lilliput Review, the issue arrives in your standard letter-sized envelope and contains several poets’ poems within. Inside this issue there are poems that describe the daily items of life such as magazines, Dixie cups, clothes you hang on the clothesline, and the feelings that overwhelm us amongst our every-day life existence. Since there are so few poems I will only share one of them with you:


A Lack of Color
By: Jesse Bradley

This couch is like a gondola, spines of
magazines brushing against it
when I almost trip over them;
airbrushed areolae, stomachs
almost break my neck. I drink just
enough for your number to melt
from my thumb. I build a wedding
chapel out of used red Dixie cups
after impregnating your voicemail. I
slap it apart in the morning when
the right side of the bed feels like
the last days of autumn.

I love the imagery in the poem, the couch as a gondola floating among the mess of magazines and Dixie cups in the living room, the idea of a wedding chapel made out of those cups. I’m not sure exactly what the inspiration behind the poem is but I picture the aftermath of a party and the hostess waking on the couch alone and realizing she has filled an ex-lover’s voice mail from drunk-dialing. Jesse Bradley’s poem is enticing in its potential story lines and I hope she sees this post and sheds some light on her poem, even if my interpretation is completely wrong.

If you enjoyed this short sample you can subscribe to Durable Goods for an entire year for a mere $12.00 with an issue being sent your way every two weeks. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful change from receiving nothing but bills in the mail, too? To find out more, send an e-mail to Aleathia Drehmer at:
Windwitch27ATyahooDOTcom


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

Michael Wells’ Blog Stick Poet Superhero

Insights into poetry, poets, and art, all irresistible, can be found at the also irresistibly titled Stick Poet Superhero at:
http://stickpoetsuperhero.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for two poetry reviews…