Poetry Tips: Poetry Texting

With all of the shorthand now running back and forth in e-mails and through texting, why not try a poem using only shorthand? Think of shorthand phrases like “LOL” and “BTW” and see what you can come up with. This allows you to experiment in a whole new way with poetry and perhaps fuel creativity for the next full-length worded poem.

Good luck to all who try it, please drop in next Monday for a new featured site…

Triggerfish Open Submissions

You may send 2-5 previously unpublished poems (simultaneous submissions accepted) via e-mail to:
triggerfishcriticalreview@gmail.com
Subject line should read: Poetry Submission, Your Name, Number of Poems

For more details, check out:
http://www.triggerfishcriticalreview.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17&Itemid=11

Good luck to all who submit, please drop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips...

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=238618
“Pupil” by D.A. Powell

http://www.sundress.net/wickedalice/woodson.html
“Chrysalis” by Rose Maria Woodson

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Davide Trame's Poetry

Davide Trame is a regular reader at Poet Hound and teaches English in Italy and he can also be found at the blog Tomasso Gervasutti:

http://tommasogervasutti.blogspot.com/

Davide has several poems around the world wide web and I would like to share some of those poems with you all below:

On The Scree
The path is zigzagging, narrow and steep,
logs hammered in keep it tight to this
bright cheek of gravel.
It’s hard to climb but it’s
the effort I want and I need despite
the pain in my foot, a pain
that like most of anything else
is what one can’t escape.
Maybe it will leave — I want to think — the pain,
because at one point everything changes and leaves,
but slowly, so slowly, because nothing is a flash,
but just a breathing and enduring on a path
like these steps that negotiate each stone
under the sole, each uneven and honed speck
of the ridge’s skin, each drop of sweat
trickling down the back
while the blue sky
spaces, pressing
its silence on the bones.
A still chamois stares at us down there
from a rock, one chamois only, alone.
But no, you take in at once
others running and jumping and no sound comes,
their feet looking like sailing on air.
We climb on, the one on the rock, king or guardian,
has not moved, keeps staring, and the dog sits
for a moment, spellbound, and stares too. Statue-like
under the sun.
And the top of the mountain, the path pointing
towards it, like at the top of a triangle,
stares down, openly covers us
with its stare.
So, call it faith all we come down to:
feeling an unframed eye, calling for it,
bearing it with the force of gravity and pain
and, suspending the search for a name,
enduring the brightness that spaces and cuts in.

This poem is lovely, it gives me the images of a long hike that tests your endurance and faith. I love the lines “while the blue sky/spaces, pressing/its silence on the bones.” Isn’t that an interesting feeling to have? The idea that the silence under a wide blue sky could press down upon you, all the way to your bones? From the top of the mountain Davide sees that the mountain itself “stares down, openly covers us/with its stare” which gives the mountain the personification of a large force peering down on all below. I enjoy the imagery in this poem and I urge you to listen to it as well.
To listen to the podcast of this poem, please use the link below:

http://qarrtsiluni.com/2010/01/18/on-the-scree/



There is also a sample of Davide Trame’s chapbook on-line titled Re-Emerging, published by Gatto Publishing, scroll below for the link, and I’d love to share some lines with a couple of the poems there:

In the poem “Tiepelo Sky” Davide describes the wide open waters of boating and the carefree experience of “not having any solid ground to tread on.” There are some lovely and insightful lines, such as “No storms with the yellow, woolly broken clouds/…Nor loneliness with the swishes up there/of silken cloaks, scarves streaming…” It is a very peaceful and beautiful poem that leaves me feeling refreshed for having read it.


One of my favorite poems in this collection is titled “The Last Day of School.” I know for most students that the last day of school is very far away but it is nonetheless exhilarating to read. From the opening lines of “Open windows, the dance of sunlight and leaves’ shadows,/sunflowers of laughter in the walls” to likening the children to a flock of birds scattering it is a poignant reminder of school days for adults who have long since experienced the last day of school and a reminder to current students the charm and the nervous parting from their teachers. You’ll have to read the poem for yourself it really is just wonderful.


You can read David Trame’s poems in their entirety in the sample on-line chapbook titled Re-Emerging by using the link below:

http://www.gattopublishing.com/books.html

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

Lannan Foundation

This is a one-stop shop for audio, literary programs, interviews and more, check them out at:

http://www.lannan.org/

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

Poetry Tips: The Name Game

There are some catchy songs out there that have names, such as “Hit the Road Jack” and “Oh, Donna.” Why not create a catchy-sounding poem using names? It doesn’t have to rhyme, it could become a “refrain” in the stanzas, the possibilities are endless.

Good luck to all who try, please click in on Monday for another featured site…

Folly Magazine Open Submissions

You may send 3-7 previously unpublished poems and please use a word document to create a manuscript to attach in your e-mail when sending your submission to: folly@follymag.com

*Make sure your name and the word “Submission” are in the subject line
For more details check out:

http://www.follymag.com/FollyContact.html

Good luck to all who submit! Please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://tinhouse.com/mag/issue_current/current_poem.htm
“Dirge” by Allyson Paty

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/211401.html
“Thrift” by John Thomas

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

Ed Markowski's 15 Poems Issue #172

Lilliput Review also produces small chapbooks (the same size as their journal) and issue #172 features Ed Markowski’s collection of short poems. I found this collection to be spiritual and simplistic, two words that ought to go hand in hand more often. I will share an equally small sample with you…

the scarecrow’s sutra

to
become

a
buddha
a

crow
become

a
scarecrow

become
corn

silk
woven

into
wind.

I think this sounds lovely when reading and the flow into transformation is pleasant and supernatural just like the Buddha.



midnight mass
i add a few casino chips
to the collection plate

This poem makes me smile. I imagine an eccentric gambler tossing some of his winnings and I can only imagine the look on the face of the person designated to count the offerings.


born again
now
what?

This one also makes me smile. So many ways you can take this phrase besides “what next?” So versatile in so few lines.


If you enjoyed this little sample of poems, this issue of Ed Markowski’s 15 Poems in issue #172 is a mere $1.00 from Lilliput Review at:

Lilliput Review
Don Wentworth, Editor
282 Main Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Please also use the sidebar to explore Lilliput Review’s blog titled: Issa’s Untidy Hut

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

Bijou Poetry Review

An on-line journal with posts individually representing poets’ submissions, all are wonderful. Check it out at:

http://bijoupoetryreview.blogspot.com/

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

Poetry Tips: An Unusual Perspective

I credit Patricia Smith with this idea. She wrote a poem from the perspective of a skinhead, she’s written many poems from a perspective unusual to her personally. This week, I urge you to embody someone unlike yourself and spin a poem from their perspective. You could be the worst kind of person, such as a murderer, the best kind of person, such as a philanthropist. You could be dirt poor, filthy rich, incredibly narcissistic, or full of self-doubt. Take yourself to an extreme and explore it, read an autobiography of someone very unlike yourself and imagine writing a poem from their perspective. This will not only help you walk in another’s shoes but expand your horizons in writing.

For more enlightenment, read this interview with Patricia Smith at Torch to get an idea of how she goes about it:

http://www.torchpoetry.org/patriciasmith.htm


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

Upstreet Open Submissions

You may submit three unpublished poems by March 1st using the electronic form available on-line here:

http://www.upstreet-mag.org/guideline_layers.html

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=179273
“My Lover Gave Me Green Leaves” by Josephine Dickinson

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=179292
“You, Therefore” by Reginald Shepard

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

David S. Pointer's Triggertopia

David S. Pointer has a wily collection of poems in his chapbook Triggertopia, complete with artistic drawings, and family photos in this chapbook published by Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press. His poems range from insightful to disturbing depending on the subject matter and I am happy to share several with you:

Major CEO:
Basic Job Description

The preferred candidate
in addition to authorized
attire must wear an
overexpression of
innocence when answering
questions, must wear
collegiality and situational
reality like a clip-on candy
dispenser to be passed
out to all Presidential
administrations as well
as communicating to them
the need to do the same,
must be able to secure
supersizasaurus subsidies
before they are designated for the poor,
must be expert
at creating the image of
false job creation while
using the money to move
overseas, must assist and
instruct the President, senators
and lobbyists in dismantling
worker compensation and
safety laws while manipulating
legal and medical research
while simultaneously ignoring
the collective chemotherapeutic
cough of the common workers.
Most of all must occupy space
where truth and lies intersect
on a consistent basis and like it
while going up the backside of
humanity like a giant grapefruit
reamer while still playing rounds
of golf with foreign economic
gophers through the international
gauntlets of diplomatic goodwill.
All compensation and benefits
will catapult past all experience
or anything previously imagined.

I like the quirky and inventive words and phrases Mr. Pointer brings about such as “supersizasaurus subsidies” which highlights how ridiculous subsidies can be with his invented word, and the idea of wearing “situational/reality like a clip-on candy/dispenser” which is unusual and eye-grabbing. As for the message of the poem, I’d say he nails it splendidly, the idea of large corporations saying one thing while doing another.



Banjo Dan

He cut his first 30-bracket
aluminum rim right out of a
hubcap found in a milofield
off Missouri Hwy 13.
Just hybrid homework for
a banjo-playing boy destined
for Uncle Dave Macon Days
in Murfreesboro, Tennessee,
where clawhammer hooks
and modern creativity creep
around each sacred mountain
of melodic frost, as mythical
bootleggers get their
jangling comeuppance or
hard lot fair pay for
exquisite cornliquor.
No musical matter, some
more depression era mug-
shot men may escape a
straight razor romp through
custom shop strings only to
be gunned up good two
fast frets down on this
hazardous homemade
narrow stretch of maple
neck needed in the next
town now like the tenant
farmer wearily walking to
an obsolete oil field near
Sequoyah County,
Oklahoma, in the next song’s
smoldering breeze.

The title captures the essence of what is guaranteed to be a person you could only classify as a “character” and brings us into the imagery of a banjo player’s life in lines such as “hard lot fair pay for/exquisite cornliquor” which brings to mind a backwoods feel to the kind of music that is played. I also like the visual language such as “tenant/farmer wearily walking to/an obsolete oil field” which brings about the idea of a solitary man facing a potentially bleak future, an idea that all things are impermanent. David Pointer has some wonderful alliterations that bring some speed and rhythm to this poem as well such as “razor romp,” and “hazardous homemade.” It’s a well-paced attention-holding poem.


The following short poems have no titles but are also excellent:


hubcap dinner plates
holding bountiful stew
in the hobo camp.

This poem immediately brings about our powers of imagination and I can easily go into tangents about the lives of the people eating stew out of hubcaps in a hobo camp. Much is brought to the mind from relatively few words.


ceiling fan blades
coptering over kids
playing war

This is also an interesting and arresting visual, turning a ceiling fan into a much more ominous subject of an army helicopter hovering over children at play.


David S. Pointer’s poems in Triggertopia are well thought out and hold my attention all while reading. If you enjoyed this sample of poems you may purchase a copy through Alternating Current, which is one of the few small presses able to allow poets to make some money from their collections of poems, for $5.00 (plus $2 US shipping or $3 out –of-US shipping) by using the link below:
http://alt-current.blogspot.com/

You can also e-mail Leah Angstman at alt.current@gmail.com for more information.

Or you may send check or money order to:
Alternating Current
PO Box 398058
Cambridge, MA 02139

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

Poetry Dispatch and Other Notes From the Underground

Alan Caitlin is not only a wonderful poet but he also has a wonderful website of all things poetic, check him out at:

http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poetry anthology…