What to Wear During an Orange Alert

This blog is dedicated to reviews of music and literature (poetry included) and I check in on it from time to time. Thought you might like a blog that covers a little more than just Poetry 100% of the time. It’s a great read and you can always offer suggestions for items you’d like to see. Check them out at:

http://wearduringorangealert.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for another living poet.

Poetry Tips: Dare to Spread Out

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not good at this above tip and that is to take your poem all over the page. You’ve seen those poets who are able to move lines way back and forth across the page, or create descending ladders of words that form a poem. So often we either use the typical “boring” left-justification setting, or maybe we’ll be a little more creative and use “centered” justification. Why not break out of the mold completely and just take a poem all over the place? You can even try it with an existing poem you have, just whip it all over the page and see what happens. The few poems I’ve tried this method with were a tad too short for the way I wanted it to turn out, but I’m working on it. I dare you to try it, too!

Please don’t forget my post on February 15th requesting answers to five questions to be utilized as poetry tips in the future!

May the muse be with you during your writing and all creative endeavors, I will see you tomorrow for another featured poetry blog…

Threepenny Review Open Submissions

Definitely check out the link below for more guidelines regarding poetry submissions. In the meantime, you should know that they pay $200.00 per poem, yes, that’s right, $200.00! I stumbled upon an ad for them in the magazine POETRY and then looked them up on-line. No simultaneous submissions, be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and don’t forget to familiarize yourself with their journal before submitting.

All submissions should be sent to:
The Editors
The Threepenny Review
PO Box 9131
Berkeley, CA 94709

http://www.threepennyreview.com/submissions.html

I wish you luck and continued creation of imaginative and wonderful poems! I also hope you will stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=179790
Susan Mitchell’s “Bus Trip” needs only one word: Beautiful

http://www.poolpoetry.com/hamby%202007.html
Barbara Hamby’s “Mambo Cadillac” also needs only one word: Fantastic

Thanks for checking out the links, please stop in tomorrow for another open submissions…

Oh my!

You know, I never thought this was possible. I am fresh out of dead poets at my local library this week. Or, at least, when I was able to spare enough time to GO to the library I ended up picking a stack of exclusively living poets. Not that it’s a bad thing but it means today’s feature is about you reading my ramble about not having any dead poets today. So if there are any dead poets you’d like to see, please leave their names in the comments section and I will go to a different library and start searching there. Thanks, and I’ll see you tomorrow for poems found on the world wide web.

Anthology Site

Anthology.org is based in Arizona, specifically Phoenix, and I wish more cities/towns were able to create a similar site and have these kinds of events. Poetry slams, reading series, and people come together in Scottsdale, or downtown Phoenix and there is even a Slam Team. Seriously, check this site out for inspiration whether you’re anywhere near Phoenix or not, this is just plain awe-inspiring… If I had the energy I would try to get all these kinds of events going in my own town.

http://www.anthology.org/

Thanks for stopping in, please stop by tomorrow…

Maxine Kumin

Maxine Kumin is a prolific writer who covers several genres in addition to poetry including novels, short stories, essays, and memoir. Born in Philadelphia, PA in 1925 Maxine has received numerous awards for her work including the Ruth Lily Prize for her poetry. I picked up her book, Jack and Other New Poems at my local library and thought that you, too, may have been under a rock and not read her yet either.
The link below can lead you to her poem about her horse, Jack, that is also mentioned in the title. What I like about this book of poems is that she covers a wide range of subjects such as pets and war. Luckily, the change of subjects doesn’t come as a shocker nor does it leave you feeling confused about the arrangement of the poems. Everything seems to come very naturally. If you have a sense of humor, I highly recommend the poem “Leech Spit.” Also, the poem “The Apparition” is a wonderful ode to a pet who has passed. Lines such as “That night the old dog works/his way back up and out/gasping, salted with dirt/….I swear I recognize:/some flap of ear or fur/swims out of nothingness…” I think we all visualize loved ones appearing before us after they’ve passed and pets are no exception. This poem is tender and heartening. She even addresses Siamese twins Cheng and Eng and compares them to relatives of her own. What I enjoy is how clever Maxine Kumin is. There are fresh view points on the subjects she writes about and I hope that you will find her clever as well. Please pause and read her work when you happen upon it.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/94


Thanks for dropping in, please stop by tomorrow for another poetry web-site…

Paul Hoover's Blog

Paul Hoover posts reviews, poems, ideas, the works! I really liked his “Poetry Ladder” back in January 25th so if you get the chance to dig through the archives, please take a look. I think the subtle changes as you go down and down is very interesting.
Please take a gander by clicking the link below:

http://www.paulhooverpoetry.blogspot.com/

As always, thanks for stopping in. Tomorrow will be another living poet…

Poetry Tips: I ask you...

I am asking you, poets and poetry readers, to help come up with some tips! I’m looking for answers to these particular questions:

1. How can you support living poets?

2. What are some tips for reading poetry?

3. How do you seek out inspiration?

4. What are the appropriate steps to take when submitting poems?

5. How do you keep submitting after many rejections?

I am hoping to do a series including these above questions as subject lines and I am hoping my regulars and new visitors will be so kind as to e-mail an answer to any of these questions. I will quote you directly, please use one of these questions in your subject line and I hopefully will get enough responses to warrant posting the tips you provide about a month from now. This way you have time to come up with some answers. Thanks so much! Remember to e-mail any answers to poethoundblogspotATyahooDOTcom…

Colorado Review Open Submissions

Submissions of up to 5 poems are accepted from September through April 30th. You have plenty of time to submit some of your more polished work. Don’t forget to include a cover letter, a self-addressed stamped envelope, and for additional guidelines see the link below. Colorado Review suggests that you become familiar with their magazine and they have sample copies for $10.00. If you are familiar with submitting poems and have gotten into the practice of reviewing sample copies you know how important it is to send poems that “jive” with a particular journal’s tastes. Do your research and good luck on your submissions!

http://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/cr/guidelines.html

Happy Valentine’s Day and thanks for checking in, tomorrow’s Friday Poetry Tips have a twist so I hope you will stop by and respond…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=176832
“Arms and the Boy” by Wilfred Owens, this one’s for the soldiers and their families…

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19514
“The Rain Poured Down” by Dan Gerber, makes you wonder the circumstances of his mother’s weeping… What do you think caused her to cry?


Thanks for dropping in, please stop by for another open submissions!

Mary Sarton

Mary Sarton was born in 1912 and publishes novels as well as poetry during her long career. Even a stroke in 1986 did not keep her from continuing to write. Sadly, however, she died of breash cancer in July of 1995. I happened to pick up her book, Coming Into Eighty published by W.W. Norton & Company, in the library. This was written after her stroke and explores the process of aging. I have a career that aids those in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living so it was wonderful to stumble upon a poet that explores this topic giving me further insight into the kinds of people I meet daily. I will also note that Mary Sarton was awarded the Levinson Prize for this particular book of Poetry.
Her preface describes a “magical year” in which poems came to her easily at night and she wrote often and well like never before. The poems in this book are as a result of that year and they are all fluid, rhythmic, and beautiful. There are also poems with clever rhyme matched perfectly with rhythm so that they could almost be songs…
“The O’s of November” is one such example, with lines: “Like the trees we are bare/And the chill on the air/Speaks of death.” The ending,also, is strong and clear and crisp just like the month of November itself.
I also love her short poem “A Thought” which is short enough that it is difficult to quote. I leave you the last lines: “Brute power/Is not superior/To a flower.”
If you happen upon this book, please read it. It holds so much more than a woman describing her life in her eighties. It speaks of universal truths and illuminated moments, it is quite worth the reading. If you are able to sit by a sunny window and sip your favorite drink, then you have set up the perfect way to read her book.
For more information about her I have included the link below…

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6015

Thanks for reading, please stop by tomorrow for more finds around the world wide web…

Writer's Resource Site

I was trying to find some poetry articles/tips and found this site. There are some ideas for poems, reasons for writing poems, and how to write certain types of poems. All in all, not a bad resource… I have written about some of these already in past Poetry Tips for Fridays but there is plenty in the list of items to look through. Check it out at:

http://www.poewar.com/poetry-articles/

See you tomorrow for another poet who has passed…

Arupa Chiarini

Arupa Chiarini is a poet and playwright in Gainesville, Florida. I found her book, The Ancestors Are Calling Down the Rainbow, published by Carl Mautz Publishing, in my local library. This collection focuses on her ancestry by giving voices of past generations of relatives their voice through poems. The voices are intriguing, relatives speak of their life and what their souls feel like after death.
In one of the beginning poems, “Lucina Hartsorne Whitaker Teft” the lines describe a unique feeling of aging: “I got so old I felt like/a piece of dandelion fluff that might/blow away in the wind.”
The poems bring forth family dysfunction and the individuals’ voices of the bullies and the victims, the poems a process of healing over a century of wounds.
“Linton Teft” was a young man who died on his way home after war in France and had a difficult relationship with his father as described in the poem. I particularly like the lines “My father said I was going to hell,/I hoped hell would be a little like/October and the hard cider would be sweet and cold.”
I enjoyed reading this collection of poems about family and skeletons released from their closets. The idea that you can envision the minds of relatives gone so long ago is not an easy one to approach in any medium so I consider Ms. Chiarini to have strong guts to take on such a project.
I could not find much on the web about her, however. You can purchase this book by Amazon.com through the link I’ve provided if you are interested, however.

http://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-are-Calling-Down-Rainbow/dp/1887694099

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and reading. Tomorrow is another poetry web-site.

P.S. Thanks for those of you who took the time to answer how many places you’ve sent poems. I wish you luck on all your submissions, may they receive rave reviews and acceptances!

12 or 20 Questions Blog

I have returned safely and somewhat frazzled thanks to the usual muck-ups at airports and I am so glad to be home! Now life can get back to "normal."

Check this out: I found a link to this blog via Ron Silliman’s site and I have been trying to read the interviews off and on, all of them are awesome! Also, Mr. McLennan, the creator of this site, responded to some questions I had and said that due to the nature of his work he knew each and every one of these people personally, so that of course makes for some great interview questions since you can really dive in knowing your subject. I urge you to check them out at:

http://12or20questions.blogspot.com/

Thanks for returning to my blog after my brief absence. Tomorrow will be another living
poet…