Poetry Tips: Decorative Poems

While most people are busy putting up decorations in their houses for upcoming holidays why not add poems into the mix? What spooky poems can you find and disperse among your house for your children or guests to find? You could cut shapes of haunted houses or pumpkins and post the poems on them. How about a poetic menu for the next holiday feast? Or, instead of a jarful of ingredients to make cookies, you could enclose a bundle of poems whether hand-written by you or copied down/printed out neatly from other poets? Robert Frost’s poems would make an excellent bundle tied in ribbon and placed in a jar or vase to give as a present when the winter snows bear down. Gifts can take many forms for poems as well: you could place a tied bundle of poems in a giant mug with some hot cocoa packets and ta-da! Any way you try it, you are bound to have some fun mixing poetry and decorating with plenty of holidays marching in over the next few months. Good luck to all who try the mix!

Thanks always for dropping in, please stop by next Monday for more Poetry Sites….

Rattle Open Submissions

You may send up to five poems including your contact information and a short and interesting biography either by e-mail or mail. E-mail submissions to: submissions AT rattle DOT com or you can mail with an enclosed, stamped return envelope to:

Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

For further details check out their guidelines at:
http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm

Good luck to all who submit, please come by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://juked.com/2009/09/self-portraiture.asp
“We Try Self-Portraiture” by Nicole Cartwright Denison


http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19975
“After Apple Picking” by Robert Frost


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

Fragile Arts Quarterly

http://fragile-arts-quarterly.blogspot.com/

I am beginning with a link because you can download the entire issue for yourself for free and please do so because there is bold art and photography woven among the poems for an enlightening mix. I will happily share a small sample of poems with you:


Sammy
by Wendy Parkin

You don’t care about wearing socks and shoes,
whether the soles of your feet turn black as asphalt.
Grass glued to your sticky fingers doesn’t keep you
from holding up sagging pants falling off your skinny waist.
It doesn’t matter to you
your mom is burning the spaghetti on the stove
because she drank too many Budweiser’s,
the neighbors are sitting on front porches
talking about how dirty you are,
and there isn’t enough money
to buy cigarettes and your first grade class pictures.
It doesn’t matter to you
the school nurse constantly sends you home
because you have head lice, and your clothes stink.
It doesn’t matter to you
adults don’t understand why
you spit on kids at recess for saying you have fleas
and calling you retarded because you don’t talk right.
Right now, happiness to you
is running your little brother over with your bike
in the middle of the street
until you make him scream and cry.
It’s good you’re too young to realize
a little boy should have sheets and pillows on his bed,
a bubble bath every night, and wake to prepared
breakfast every morning; some hot cereal and apple juice.
You don’t realize chocolate ice-cream sandwiches
and flat cans of generic Cola-Bubba for dinner
will rot your teeth until they all go missing.
It’s good you’re too young to realize
what missing is.
It’s good
youth feeds and covers you.


The editors describe Wendy Parkin’s poetry is described as “stark” and that is exactly the term I’d come up with for her poems. She brings to light what is often not spoken of in some neighborhoods but thought about behind closed doors. There is no evidence that anyone will involve themselves in “Sammy’s” life but you can feel the undercurrent of helplessness in watching his life unfold in the poem. Stark, and haunting.



maybe even devils get depressed
by David McLean

maybe even devils get depressed
when screams get quieter
and we seem to be enjoying it,
when anxiety becomes an infinity
of self-congratulation for sensitivity
and self-pity, when people don't really
suffer easily, maybe even devils
get depressed then. after all,
they're only human

I like this one because it’s an unusual take on how devils are portrayed—as human—and as being able to feel sadness/depression. A topsy-turvy turn of events that I find intriguing in that when humanity isn’t suffering so much collectively anymore that devils may become depressed and finally, with a surprise ending of perhaps humans being the devils and angels they create for themselves.


Melinda’s Two Cats
By: Mikki Mous

Melinda's two cats
loiter upon the sidewalk
flipping matchsticks into the street
making catly comments, sleeping in the sun
and generally lending a disreptuable air
to the neighborhood of pristine lawns
and carefully sheared shrubs of no character

I’m including this one because I experienced this sight myself the other day, only at a restaurant crowded with noisy people, the cats were eating anything tossed their way, then sleeping peacefully amidst the noise. I like Mous’s line of “flipping matchsticks into the street” which lends a quirky visual and the words “disreputable air/to the neighborhood of pristine lawns” furthers it along. Among human existence, other worlds continue despite our best efforts, that is what I take away from it.


I hope you enjoyed this small sample and that you’ll check out the journal for yourself, there really are some amazing photos and art alongside the poems, a visual treat in all respects. Please use the link below if you haven’t already done so at the beginning of this post:
http://fragile-arts-quarterly.blogspot.com/

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

The Practicing Writer

Countless resources for all levels of writers at this web-site by Erika Dreifus. You can find e-book resources, newsletters, links to writing programs, If you are interested in improving your writing or embarking on a writing career, check it out at:

http://www.practicing-writer.com/content.php?page=resources&n=5&f=2

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for a featured poetry journal…

Poetry Tips: The Fan Letter

We are all fans of someone or of something, such as sports. Why not try writing a fan letter by way of a poem? You can be as fanatical or as reserved as you like, it can be addressed to anyone or anything. Perhaps you are the world’s biggest fan of Reese’s Cups or perhaps you are a Dallas Cowboys Fan. Are you a die-hard fan of a particular film maker or actor? Dedicate your poem to them and fill it with as many admirations or absurdities as you wish. At worst, you’ll have some fun, at best, you may actually try sending it out and may even receive a response.

Good luck to all who try and please stop by on Monday for a featured poetry site…

580 Split Open Submissions

I have copied-and-pasted the submission guidelines below:
Email submissions are preferred. Please send:
- prose submissions to: 580prose@gmail.com
- poetry submissions to: 580poetry@gmail.com
- art submissions to: five80split@gmail.com
Mail submissions may be sent to:
580 Split
Mills College
P.O. Box 9982
Oakland, CA 94613-0982
These must include a cover letter with your name, submission title(s) and contact information. Mail submissions must also include a SASE. All written submissions must be typed. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, as long as the editors are notified if work is accepted elsewhere
Please see the links below to learn more about 580 Split which is based out of Mills College. You may submit up to 2 prose pieces or 4 poems.

According to Poets and Writers (link below) the dead-line is October 15th, and the journal accepts up to 10 prose pieces and 20 poems.
http://www.pw.org/content/580_split_journal_letters


http://580split.com/call-for-submissions/where-to-submit/

Good luck to all who submit! Please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.swinkmag.com/tesstaylor.html
“A Song For El Cerrito” by Tess Taylor

http://www.sundress.net/wickedalice/kiefer.html
“Beekeeping” by Molly Sutton Kiefer

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

Braided Creek by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser

Braided Creek, A Conversation in Poetry contains the correspondence in poems between Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison during Ted Kooser’s diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This book was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2003 and while it does not stipulate who, specifically, wrote the poems, you can find plenty of insightful moments alongside basic every-day moments. You can also use a link provided below to listen to Ted Kooser’s interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air that includes his experiences with cancer, how he sent his poems on postcards to Mr. Harrison, and how he came to be a Poet Laureate. This collection was sent to me by my father-in-law but you can find it at your local library, book-store, and of course, on-line.

There are hundreds of short poems that range in their poignancy and immediacy of the surroundings and lifestyle of the poets. I think one of the first poems you encounter is descriptive of how a man dealing with his mortality might speak to a friend: “Old friend,/perhaps we work too hard/at being remembered.” I think this is true of writers in general but there is an added layer to its meaning when someone is diagnosed with cancer.

What I also find interesting as a reader is that depending on my own mood I am drawn to different poems. Certainly there are other collections of poems that do the same but this collection stands out more so than any others I’ve read. Some poems strike you in their simplicity: “Under the storyteller’s hat/are many heads, all troubled.” Others, for their open-ended ability to let you decide what it’s true meaning may be: “Old white soup bowl/chipped like a tooth,/one of us is always empty.”

Then there are the poems that make you smile or laugh, always wonderful to see mixed in with a collection such as this: “So what if women/no longer smile to see me?/I smile to see them!” or “Strange world indeed:/a poet keeping himself awake/to write about insomnia.”

Finally, there are poems that let your mind wander to your own memories: “At the tip of memory’s/great funnel-cloud/is the nib of a pen.” “Winter knows/when a man’s pockets/are empty.” And finally “An empty boat/will volunteer for anything.”

As I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of poems and all of them worth pouring over. If you enjoyed this feature you can use the links below to learn more about Ted Kooser in his interview at National Public Radio or you may purchase the book yourself with the link to Amazon:

An Interview with Ted Kooser on NPR’s Fresh Air is linked below:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4574862

To purchase a copy of this book, please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Braided-Creek-Conversation-Jim-Harrison/dp/155659187X

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

Lit Up Magazine

There is much more than poetry to be found, but excellent poems abound and I urge you to peruse the site at your leisure by using the link below:

http://litupmagazine.wordpress.com/poetry/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more featured poets…

Poetry Tips: Rhyme For Rhythm

Sometimes I have trouble getting a poem to flow, I’m sure you do, too. However, I have found that creating rhyming poems provides fantastic practice for rhythm and timing. So this week I want you to come up with rhyming versions of any poem you are wanting to write and see if you don’t find a way to create better flow, timing, and rhythm in the process. Also, challenge yourself to rhyme unusual words just for the fun of it!

Examples:

Orange – Stone Henge
Austere – Mere
Meter -- Cedar

You may just find that rhyme isn’t passé after all and find some new insights while writing. Good luck to all who try it!

Thanks for stopping in, please drop by Monday for another featured site…

Swink Open Submissions

Let me just say that I had a good laugh reading their submission guidelines, they are the epitome of “cheeky.” So please, please, read their submission guidelines in detail while I give you the bare bones version: You may send between “three longish” or “five shortish” poems using their special submissions link which allows you to enter all kinds of information on-line including which genre you are submitting to and gives you the ability to track your submission throughout its entire process of being read, accepted, rejected, etc. Please only submit to one genre (poetry, fiction, etc) at one time, simultaneous submissions are accepted as long as you immediately notify Swink if your submission is accepted elsewhere. Please note they also read year round which is always a plus! Be sure to explore their site to see what their style is in regards to publication and I insist you read the submission guidelines in their entirety.

Check out the full submission guidelines here:

http://www.swinkmag.com/submit.html

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/most1.html
John Most’s “Star to Galaxy is a Speechless Participant”

http://www.swinkmag.com/sarahjsloat.html
Sarah J. Sloat’s “Shady” (scroll down just a little)

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

An Interview With Nerve Cowboy

An Interview with Joseph Shields of Nerve Cowboy. Joseph Shields and Jerry Hagins co-edit the magazine. Joseph Shields took on the task of answering for both himself and Jerry.

Joseph Shields, thank you for being kind enough to consent to being interviewed about your journal, Nerve Cowboy, and your press, Liquid Paper Press.

1. One of the things I love about your web-site is your introduction to which I’ll quote here: “Nerve Cowboy is a biannual journal of poems and short fiction sensitive enough to make the hardest hard-ass cry, funny enough to make the most hopeless brooder laugh, and disturbing enough to make us all glad we're not the author of the piece.” How did you decide to create a journal based on the above-described attitude and can you explain the conception of the name, Nerve Cowboy?

Interesting question—the term “Nerve Cowboy” was actually coined by a two of my wife’s New York friend while visiting us in Jamaica where we served as Peace Corps volunteers. One of our visitors had a lazy, slackjaw boyfriend “Fat Dave” who just sat on the couch and watched TV and never wanted to do anything and drove her crazy. She referred to him as a nerve cowboy because no matter what she did, he had the ability to find her last raw nerve and ride it. Hence, the birth of Nerve Cowboy. Five years later I adopted it as the name of my new magazine.

The description on our web site really just represents the type of poems we want to see. Poems people can understand and poems that create some type of emotional reaction in the reader. Those are the poems I have always enjoyed reading in other journals and wanted to see in Nerve Cowboy.




2. Another thing I love about your journal is the fact that you take the time to hand-write notes to all of your subscribers saying you hope they like the issue and you also hand-write notes to everyone who submits poems to your magazine. Where do you find the time and why choose hand-written correspondence as opposed to typed letters or form letters?

We do that out of courtesy to our subscribers, contributors, and the larger community of writers interested enough in our magazine to send their work to us for review. I think it helps build a small poetry community and a connection to the hundreds of writers that make Nerve Cowboy possible. After all, I can’t pull these amazing poems out of my ass, somebody has got to write them and we need to connect with those people.

It is time consuming but as I just said, it is really part of what Nerve Cowboy is. As a writer, I never really liked the impersonal rejection or acceptance letters computer printed and unsigned. There are people behind the magazine and people sending poems—they should be corresponding in some genuine way.




3. I can’t resist asking this, so forgive me in advance: Having been around for more than ten years, how have you maintained success and continued readership through the ups and downs of the economy?

Sometimes I can’t believe we have been at this so long, going on 12 years with our fall 2009 issue. For one thing, Jerry and I keep doing the magazine because it never gets boring. We are truly excited about each and every issue that is produced, and are pumped when a new writer comes along that just kicks our asses with a fantastic batch of poems. We love to hear new voices.

In terms of the economics of it all, we have always believed that if produce an interesting and eclectic collection of poetry 2 times per year, the readers will be there. By and large, subscriptions remain stable (or grow or shrink a bit over time), but we try to keep the price of subscription reasonable and think it is a still a pretty good value in the scheme of things.



4. Your aesthetic for this journal differs from most in that it focuses so much on the nitty-gritty sides of life, including the artistic works on the cover and throughout the pages. What is the inspiration for the focus on life’s sometimes darker, dirtier, or more uncertain sides?

I have never really thought about it that way, but I guess you are right about the darker content. Simply put, I think that is just a stylistic preference, or it might just mean that the more engaging poems tend to be from that genre of writing. In any event, we are open to anything, but it has to have meaning for us in some way.




5. As editors, how do you vote on each piece? Do you both approve of each other’s picks or do you split up the number or type of items accepted into the journal?

We both read all of the submissions and tend to split up first and second reads. We usually only accept pieces that we both agree on. Sometimes we will go back and forth of some poems and discuss the merits of the poems or the writer and make a decision after that discussion. It is very collaborative and hopefully results in the best poems getting into the magazine, which is our end goal.





6. What is the process of putting this journal together and how long does it take to produce and then distribute? Are there more staff than just the two of you who help put it all together?

Once we have accepted enough poems and artwork for an issue (it usually takes about 6 months to collect and accept these poems and stories), I will order the poems and figure out which selections work best together, determine who we want to use as openers and closers for the issue, and see if there is a natural selection for the center of the magazine. Next, Jerry scans the poems to capture the text and lays out the issue on the computer, where he makes any page adjustments or poem ordering changes that need to be made due to spacing. Then, I select which pieces of art will go with which poems, Jerry scans the art in and reduces or enlarges them to fit spaces. Lastly there is a final proofing process (and we always miss something) before it goes to print. From the time the issue is full to the time it comes back from the printer probably takes about six weeks.



7. In addition to your journal you also produce chapbooks published under the name of Liquid Paper Press. Which do you enjoy more, sifting through poems for the journal or manuscripts for the press and why?

Currently, we are only publishing chapbooks which place in either first or second place in our annual contest, which has a January 31 deadline for submissions each year. We enjoy both the contest and the magazine in different ways. It is very satisfying being able to support an exceptional writer through the publication of their book. It is hard to get books published. But, I would say the magazine is our focus and I probably enjoy that work more because of the unexpected gems you can find in the thousands of manuscripts we receive each year. Sometimes five poems won’t work for us, but there is one in the envelope that totally rocks. It’s fun and never boring.



8. No doubt you have your hands full with your journal and press but do you both have regular jobs outside of this and may I ask what they are?
We both have day jobs. For years I have worked as a public policy researcher for the state of Texas and for private firms. Jerry is a public information officer for a large state agency in Texas. Our career paths have crossed a couple of different times and that is how we connected to start Nerve Cowboy.



9. Do either of you have time for other hobbies outside of poetry and what are they?

My hobbies are not all that interesting, but I used fly hang gliders in my reckless youth. I am a huge music fan and regularly see bands at clubs in Austin. Right now, I think Deer Tick is the best band on the planet. My wife and I end up spending a lot of weekend time on the soccer fields with our daughters who play on teams here in Austin. Being from Wisconsin, I am also a lifelong Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers fan

Jerry is a musician and played in the Pistol Love Family Band with his cousin, who has since moved on to bigger and better things at the guitarist for Okkervil River. He plays banjo and fiddle in various Austin bands and gives lessons to aspiring musicians in the area.



10. Who or what do you read for fun outside of what you read for the press? Do those writers influence the course of your decision-making with Nerve Cowboy and Liquid Paper Press?

Right now I am reading Ben Mezrich’s book “Accidental Billionaires” about the kids that started Facebook. His other books (e.g., Rigging, Bringing Down the House, Ugly Americans) are great too. Mike Manguson’s books are great (e.g., the Lummox, Fire Gospels, Heft on Wheels).

I also love many of the classics from Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment is top 5 all-time for me), Celine, Fante., and others The poets I love reading are too many to mention, and alot of them are the writers that appear in the pages of Nerve Cowboy, Pearl, Slipstream, and other small press magazines. The late, great Albert Huffsticker (who once lived in my neighborhood and with whom I shared many early mornings out in front of the old Hyde Park Bakery) is among my favorite poets ever. He was instrumental in me starting Nerve Cowboy in the first place, and here we are 12 years later.



11. Do you have any particular goals for the future in regards to Nerve Cowboy and Liquid Paper Press that you haven’t reached yet or are currently working on?

We just want to keep the thing going and continue finding interesting new writers to publish.



Joseph Shields and Jerry Hagins, thank you for letting me interview you about your hard-core journal and press. I wish you continued success for the future and can hopefully send some new subscribers and exciting poets your way.


If you are interested in finding out more about Nerve Cowboy or subscribing to them ($20 gets you a two year subscription, four issues total), you can visit their website at:

http://www.jwhagins.com/nervecowboy.html

You will find links to poems they’ve published, the chapbooks page, and how to subscribe. I am renewing my own subscription with them and hope you will join me! I have always found it pleasing that they have an uncanny ability to pair artwork submissions that matches up with poem submissions in a way that always makes me say “Genius!”

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

Poetry Super Highway

Wow! This is a pretty extensive site with all kinds of interesting “nooks and crannies” to click on and explore. From featured poets to interesting titles of poems, you’ll find all kinds of great things here. You’ll also find resource links, an e-book Free-For-All, and so much more. It really is an amazing place so check it out at:


http://poetrysuperhighway.com/PoetLinks.html#top


Thanks for clicking in, please stop in tomorrow for an interview with the editors, Jerry Hagins and Joseph Shields of Nerve Cowboy…