Poetry Tips: Be a Kid

Remember when you were a kid and you’d get the bright and seriously fun idea of creating your own newspaper? Or magazine? How about exclusive clubhouses and forts? Well for this week I urge you to be a kid about poetry. Start up your own journal, chapbook, poetry magazine, scrapbook, or “community bulletin board” (refrigerators are good examples) or Official Poetry Club and see what you can do with your poems and even with poems from people you know. Get out the construction paper, scissors, glue, use your computer, digital camera, go wild! Peddle it to family members, drop it in unsuspecting neighbors’ mailboxes, e-mail it on a massive FWD: list. Create your own special something and share it, just like you did when you were a kid inviting your parents into your tiny fort or asking siblings and friends to help provide material for your newspaper. The only rule is to have fun!

Thanks for stopping by, posts for next week may or may not be available because I’m going on vacation over the weekend but I will try to have a few days covered next week…

Open Submissions: The New Yorker

That’s right, I mentioned The New Yorker, think you’ve got what it takes? If so, you may send up to six poems as an attachment and be sure your subject line on the e-mail includes your name and the title of your attachment. Don’t forget to include all of your contact information in the e-mail and be forewarned that due to volume there may not be a personal response to your submission. You can send your e-mail to:
poetryATnewyorkerDOTcom

Or you can mail your poems with a self-addressed, stamped return envelope to:
Poetry Dept.
The New Yorker
4 Times Square
New York, NY 10036

The New Yorker editors also note that poets should only submit twice per year so be sure to send only your best.

Good luck to all who submit and thanks for dropping in! Please stop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://juked.com/2009/06/emily.asp
“Emily as Innumerable Cigarettes” by Darren C. Demaree

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/06/poetry/botanical
“Botanical” by Kristen Gallagher

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

Short Shots by Alan Catlin

Alternating Current features Alan Catlin’s collection titled Short Shots in their Pocket Protector Series as their 8th installment. Alan Catlin is raw and fresh in his portrayal of bar life and its characters which he divides into two sections titled “Part One: Short” and “Part Two: Shots.” Here are a few chosen poems:


Tequila Sunset

The inside of his head
a perfect tequila azul,
his wet brain soaking in
a lemon-lime emulsion;
the salt lick of his lips
white as death.


The descriptive language of this poem is superb, don’t you think?



One ski pole broken off at
the point, the other implanted
in ice, just a slight handicap
to make life more interesting
on those nights you could hear
him calling out from a mile away
as he made his way toward the bar.

An eerie poem, you can imagine any sort of man coming out of the darkness and causing goose bumps to rise on your skin with this poem.



Pink Lady

She sat on the veranda
dressed in pink lace,
sipping her cocktails as
proper as could be,
letting the cool, summer
air surround her, creating
an aura, a still life, complete
with a quarter moon overhead.
It was well known that her
table was reserved every
Saturday night all summer long.
Was some kind of local legend:
hot like fire but fragile like
porcelain or glass, creating a mood,
a space, that no one would dare violate.
In the Winter she vanishes.
No one knows where she goes.

This is another great character description and makes me want to visit outdoor cafes and imagine other people’s lives. Or, perhaps be the Pink Lady.



If you enjoyed these poems, you’ll be happy to hear the chapbook is only $3.00 at the Propaganda Press Catalog. Alan Catlin’s Short Shots is #8 in the Pocket Protector Series which means it literally fits in the palm of your hand and delivers snapshots of its characters and of bar life in palatable form. Remember that with every chapbook you order, Altnerating Current throws in a free chapbook from archives and pays royalties to their poets, a win-win for all.

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

Marc Fitten's Indie 100

Before you lose faith that independent book-stores are headed for the end, check out this delightful blog by Marc Fitten in which his travels reveal the local independent bookshops in all of their glory. I know I fell in love with several featured stores and while this site isn’t devoted to poetry it is devoted to the home we wish to find it in. Check it out at:


http://indie100mfitten.wordpress.com/

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