Poetry Tips: Thanksgiving

Yes, it is the time of year for family gatherings and good cheer, so why not create a Thanksgiving poem counting your blessings and thanking loved ones at the dinner table this season? It doesn’t have to be long, just heartfelt. You can also go to poetryfoundation.org for holiday poems for inspiration!

Good luck to all who try it, please drop in next week for another features site…

Juked Open Submissions

“There are no limits on word count for prose submissions—we like stories of all sizes, so long as the colors fit. (These days, though, we tend to favor stories running longer than so-called "flash fiction.") Send us just one piece at a time, regardless of length. For poetry, send a maximum of five poems.

In all instances we prefer Rich Text Format files (.rtf), but won't begrudge old Word (.doc) documents. Do not use new Word documents (.docx), as many of us are still living in the 1997-2003 years.

We encourage simultaneous submissions, but let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere. Previously published material, we are sorry to say, will not be considered.

Your work will always remain yours—we ask only for first- and one-time and archival rights. That means we use your work once, and then we place it lovingly into our archive.

If you don't hear back within four months write us with Query in the subject line and we'll see if it was misplaced.

We do not yet pay our contributors with hard currency, but are hopeful that will change sometime in the future.

Visit the Print page for information regarding print submissions.”

Send submissions to: submissionsATjukedDOTcom


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=179992
"Nest" by Marianne Boruch

http://www.juked.com/2009/09/sha-zam.asp
"Sha-Zam" by Luke Degnan


http://accreditedonlinedegrees.org/10-places-to-help-find-a-home-for-your-writing/
Linda Smith sent me her link for writers looking for a home for their words and I hope you’ll check it out, too, by using the link above!

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

Tim Scannell’s Eden, Over

Tim Scannell’s collection of poems in “Eden, Over…” was produced by Cedar Hill Publications in 1998. This collection is elegant and eloquent, Mr. Scannell has a wonderful gift for rhyme and I am happy to share some of his poems with you:

Endurance

I have decided, this November
to let each loss not longer linger.
Maples, naked, gray against snow
stripped of flutter, yet still show
their growth of limb & farthest bud
of thunderstorm & August drought.

Since it is November I couldn’t help including this poem, especially since it has a wonderful rhythm and rhyme to it. I really enjoy the lines “Maples, naked, gray against snow/stripped of flutter” to signify the absence of its leaves. It also makes a wonderful visual.


Swimmer

Tread, then, a while. Observe the swell
whose undulation flows, at its pace,
toward the place. Stop for breath, to feel
each foot-leg, hand-arm separately,
unionsoned a moment in the crossing
of palm-pulled water, sequenced kick.
So, all is well.
Tread a measure
- dance where you are –
up, up to each crest (all there),
there beautiful, even down each long,
gently-sloped trough which is
the obvious way of tidal water.
There, as eye shuts going under with
each stroke. Rest and be thankful: the coast
afloat, horizon to horizon.

The visual of the swimmer through the waves is executed perfectly in Mr. Scannell’s lines. I really like the words “palm-pulled water” as it creates a sense of feeling the water, not just picturing a swimmer moving through the waves. The poem also creates a sense of peacefulness through words such as “gently-sloped trough” and “Rest and be thankful: the coast/ afloat…”


Close Call

Down the ravine
- long talus, scree –
Nerve
Slipped butt-hot skid
Reaching
cedar branch gripped
wrenching shoulder happily
safe
- stars tonight –
yet down, slower
for another thousand feet
(aching ankles, fried soles)
Triumphant kneeling in
an eddy, finally hearing the
boulder-water-deafening
roar, and spray cooling salt
dripping from my eyes.

Tim Scannell creates a disjointed lined poem that coincides perfectly with the subject of the close-call car crash down the ravine and the racing thoughts of the driver. The sounds, the sights, the terrifying “wrenching shoulder” versus the serene “stars tonight”, the sounds of “boulder-water-deafening/roar” while landing with “spray cooling salt/dripping from my eyes” give this poem exciting motion with words.


If you enjoyed this sample, note that Mr. Scannell has recently been featured in Alternating Current’s Poeisis in a previous post and you can find him at bigcitylit.com to find out more about his writing style.

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

Pathetic.org

This site is anything but! Thanks to my fellow dance studio member, Kristin, I have now discovered this site for poets and poems of all varieties. I loved the Halloween Contest poems, the first place winning poem is so charming! Please check it all out at:

http://pathetic.org/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

Poetry Tips: Poetry Calendar

Some people give out calendars for Christmas Gifts using family pictures, etc. Why not create your own gift calendar only with poems? Whether they are poems you find inspiring by other writers or your own, you could pick one poem per month, by week, or if you have more time on your hands than I do, a poem each day! I would pick Edgar Allen Poe for October, Robert Frost in December, just for an example. Or I may take my own poems, or create a mix of both. Either way, you can print the calendar pages using the web and then pair them up with poems, then find a way to fasten them together in a binder or get them bound at a copy shop so they can be hung up for display.

Good luck to any who try it, please stop in next Monday for another featured site…

95 Notes Open Submissions

Accepts Poetry year-round and publishes twice a year! I would recommend sending 3 poems with your contact information included in the e-mail and titling your submission “Poetry/last name”

“Editorial Focus
95Notes is a platform designed to showcase higher quality creative writing and artwork. 95Notes is an independent literary magazine started by Chicago State University writers to represent creative writers within the literary community. All creative minds are encouraged to submit their work to 95Notes@gmail.com.
Tips from the Editor
Please send all submissions as attachments. “

Shaunwell Posley
Editor-in-Chief
9501 South King Drive
Chicago, IL 60628

Good luck to all who submit and please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/200901.html
Cypresses by Davide Trame

http://www.versedaily.org/2009/yearsaway.shtml
In England Away by Lois Williams

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

Giggle Poetry

Whether you are a parent, a teacher, or someone who enjoys good clean fun, this is a wonderful site for children sure to bring a smile to their face as well as to yours:

http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please excuse me for not having had enough time over the weekend to prepare a post for tomorrow’s usual featured poet, please stop in on Wednesday for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Poetry Tips: Seek Advice

Never be afraid to seek advice from other writers, especially if you enjoy their work. While small press poets seem to be more easily accessible, it never hurts to write the ones in “the big leagues” who have a major publisher behind them. Some writers have a web-site with an e-mail address and it is a convenient way to get in touch with them, just be sure to be sincere and do not feel letdown if you do not receive a response. Sometimes e-mails get lost, or there may be so many e-mails the author or poet cannot respond quickly. Otherwise, you can always write to the publisher with the request that your letter be sent directly to the writer—I have done that and I received a response from the writer. Then of course there are plenty of blogs by writers where leaving comments is another way to connect and seek advice. If you are afraid of coming across as naïve or uneducated, do not let that stop you. When I first started trying to figure out how to publish I naively sent out letters to publishers asking for advice and a publisher directed me to one poet who finally responded kindly with some basic books to check out. It never hurts to ask, right?

Good luck to all who seek advice from those they admire, please drop in next week for another featured site…

Etched Press Open Submissions

“Query for full-length poetry collections, novels, or non-fiction titles. Do not send complete unsolicited manuscripts. Submissions may either be e-mailed to submit@etchedpress.com or sent by postal mail to
Etched Press
P.O. Box 3063
Wilmington, NC 28406
Include a SASE if you wish to have your manuscript returned.
Submissions by postal mail must be on letter-sized paper with one-inch margins on all sides, stapled in the top left corner, and have your name and contact information listed on the first sheet along with the title of your work. All individual poems must also have titles in bold and each poem must be on a separate page.

Poetry:
We invite you to submit twelve to eighteen pages of poetry to our chapbook series. We read submissions all year. Selected submissions will have their chapbook set, printed, bound, and the poet will receive 25 copies of the chapbook and further copies are sold in the online bookstore. Authors receive substantial royalties on all copies sold and can obtain their own copies at a discount. We will work directly with the author throughout the entire process. The layout, binding, and cover of the chapbook will be a few of the things the author will help decide.

Prose:
We are equipped to publish short stories, novellas, short memoirs, and how-to guides. Any prose we publish must be exceptional or extremely informative. Submit five to twenty pages of a complete prose piece or collection of shorter work with the title in bold at the top of the first page.”

http://www.pw.org/content/etched_press

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=173000#
Among The Rocks by Robert Browning

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19998
Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allen Poe

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Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil

Charles Baudelaire was born April 21st in 1821 and was a fan of one of my favorite poets, Edgar Allen Poe. Mr. Baudelaire’s collection of poems, The Flowers of Evil, became infamous and banned by mainstream society when it was published in 1861 because his poems were thought to be gruesome and immoral in its depictions of humanity’s lesser, baser sides. I thought his poems would be a wonderful way to close out the month of October and a perfect accompaniment to all things related to Halloween so here are a few poems:


The Temptation

The Demon, in my chamber high,
This morning came to visit me,
And, thinking he would find some fault,
He whispered: “I would know of thee

Among the many lovely things
That make the magic of her face,
Among the beauties, black and rose,
That make her body’s charm and grace,

Which is most fair?” Thou didst reply
To the Abhorred, O soul of mine:
“No single beauty is the best
When she is all one flower divine.

When all things charm me I ignore
Which one brings most delight;
She shines before me like the dawn,
And she consoles me like the night.

The harmony is far too great,
That governs all her body fair.
For impotence to analyse
And say which note is sweetest there.

O mystic metamorphosis!
My sense into one sense flow—
Her voice makes perfume when she speaks,
Her breath is music faint and low!”



Reversibility

Angel of gaiety, have you tasted grief?
Shame and remorse and sobs and weary spite,
And the vague terrors of the fearful night
That crush the heart up like a crumpled leaf?
Angel of gaiety, have you tasted grief?

Angel of kindness, have you tasted hate?
With hands clenched in the shade and tears of gall,
When Vengeance beats her hellish battle-call,
And makes herself the captain of our fate,
Angel of kindness, have you tasted hate?

Angel of health, did ever you know pain,
Which like an exile trails his tired footfalls
The cold length of the white infirmary walls,
With lips compressed, seeking the sun in vain?
Angel of health, did ever you know pain?

Angel of beauty, do you wrinkles know?
Know you the fear of age, the torment vile
Of reading secret horror in the smile
Of eyes your eyes have loved since long ago?
Angel of beauty, do you wrinkles know?

Angel of happiness, and joy, and light,
Old David would have asked for youth afresh
From the pure touch of your enchanted flesh;
I but implore your prayers to aid my plight,
Angel of happiness, and joy, and light.



The Corpse

Remember, my Beloved, what thing we met
By the roadside on that sweet summer day;
There on a grassy couch with pebbles set,
A loathsome body lay.

The wanton limbs stiff-stretched into the air,
Steaming with exhalations vile and dank,
In ruthless cynic fashion had laid bare
The swollen side and flank.

On this decay the sun shone hot from heaven
As though with chemic heat to broil and burn,
And unto Nature all that she had given
A hundredfold return.

The sky smiled down upon the horror there
As on a flower that opens to the day;
So awful an infection smote the air,
Almost you swooned away.

The swarming flies hummed on the putrid side,
Whence poured the maggots in a darkling stream,
That ran along these tatters of life’s pride
With a liquescent gleam.

And like a wave the maggots rose and fell,
The murmuring flies swirled round in busy strife:
It seemed as though a vague breath came to swell
And multiply with life

The hideous corpse. From all his living world
A music as of wind and water ran,
Or as of grain in rhythmic motion swirled
By the swift winnower’s fan.

And then the vague forms like a dream died out,
Or like some distant scene that slowly falls
Upon the artist’s canvas, that with doubt
He only half recalls.

A homeless dog behind the boulders lay
And watched us both with angry eyes forlorn,
Waiting a chance to come and take away
The morsel she had torn.

And you, even you, will be like this drear thing,
A vile infection man may not endure;
Star that I yearn to! Sun that lights my spring!
O passionate and pure!

Yes, such will be you, Queen of every grace!
When the last sacramental words are said;
And beneath grass and flowers that lovely face
Moulders among the dead.

Then, O Beloved, whisper to the worm
That crawls up to devour you with a kiss,
That I still guard in memory the dear form
Of love that comes to this!



If you would like to devour the whole collection yourself, you can easily find Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poems in libraries, universities, book-stores, and on-line book-stores. For an on-line resource that is educational and thorough, I urge you to check out:

http://fleursdumal.org/

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

Poetry Translation Site

This is an incredible site with featured poems on the home page. You can also find live events, learn the process of translation, read poems from over 20 countries, and more at:

http://www.poetrytranslation.org/
Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured poet…

Poetry Tips: The Supply Closet of Bad Poetry

This tip is thanks to a literal event in which I was cleaning out my office’s supply closet and found a box titled “Joey’s.” I looked inside to find all manner of crumpled up pieces of paper, various colors, and on a plain white piece was a carefully hand-written poem of love turned sour and bitter. I described my find to my father and he said “It’s like the Supply Closet of Bad Poetry!” Which, if you ask me, would be a fantastic titled to a collection of poems but I also loved the title so much I thought I would turn it into a poetry tip. I urge you to dig out your own bad poems, the poems you can’t bear to throw away but you also cannot bear the thought of others reading and face them in the light. I’ve dragged out some of my own, wincing or laughing, and I may actually get around to cleaning them up and dressing them anew with better flow, better words. I urge you to do the same.

Have fun, thanks for stopping by and please drop in next week for another featured site…