Lolita & Gilda's Burlesque

What do you think about poets who strip during their readings? “What?!” Funny and not as x-rated as you might think, I am dying to know how this got started. Check it out, I’m serious, at the one and only Lolita and Gilda’s Burlesque. Someday, maybe you, too, can strip for your poetic supper…

http://burlesquepoetryhour.blogspot.com/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by for another living, breathing poet…

Poetry Tips: New Year's Resolutions

Last year I made a resolution to take poetry seriously and to try and get published. I was only able to publish in a small local newspaper but I also ended up joining a poetry group and forming this blog, all as a result of my New Year’s Resolution.

I would like to hear your New Year’s Resolutions for Poetry and hope that you will leave comments or send e-mails regarding your personal goals for poetry this year.

Mine are to continue writing and seeking publication, as well as to try and include more interviews in this blog. If I am able, I would like to include one interview a month, wish me luck!
Good luck on your New Year’s Resolutions, poetry related or not.

Please stop by tomorrow for another wonderful poetry blog…

Comstock Review Open Submissions

Open Submissions are from January 1st through March 15th so you have some time to polish and send your best. I subscribed to their journal, two issues for one year, and was very happy with it. I recommend this magazine for people who write what they mean in beautiful language full of imagery. They prefer poems to fit on one page, just as an FYI.
You may submit between 3 to 5 poems, with an SASE to:
The Comstock Review
4956 St. John Drive
Syracuse, NY 13215

http://www.comstockreview.org/howtosubmit.html


Happy submitting! Best of luck!
Please stop in tomorrow for a New Year’s Resolution edition of Poetry Tips…

Poems Linked by Poet Hound

http://www.alicebluereview.org/main.html
Union, by Arlene Ang, I love the line “a house lit by snow”

http://www.sundress.net/wickedalice/sloat.html
Snorkeling, by Sarah Sloat, for those of you who want to remember warmer weather...

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by for another Open Submissions on Thursday.

Happy New Year with David Ignatow

David Ignatow was a prolific writer with 17 books of poetry over the span of his career. He was born in Brooklyn in 1914 and was eventually employed in his father’s bookbinding business. After being poet-in-residence at several colleges including University of Kentucky, University of Kansas, and Vassar College, as well as being a professor at CUNY, he became President of the Poetry Society of America from 1980-84. Mr. Ignatow passed away in 1997 and I was fortunate enough to pick up a collection of his work titled at my ease: uncollected poems of the fifties and sixties from BOA Editions published in 1998. This collection is about life in its plainest form, almost pessimistic but still has hope and the possibility of waking up to a brighter morning. These poems are good for anyone feeling apprehension for the new year. The information about David Ignatow was provided by this volume of work and more can be found at Poets.org and Poetry Foundation using the links below:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/777

http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=3396

I wasn’t able to obtain permission from BOA editions in time post his poems in their entirety but I will an excerpt from his poem “Resolved:”


Do you love?
Then you are wretched:
you have been hitched
to a plow, the ground
is hard and dry. ….
…
Pride returns
in the knowledge of your achievement.
It is possible to be happy.



I also love his poem “The Jobholder” as there are days for many of us where we feel the same way. He describes the mundane cycle of boarding the bus to go to work, disembarking to return home, and waiting for his turn to die. In this sense it is almost too dismal to take as concrete fact that this is how Mr. Ignatow lives. Surely, something interesting lies around the next corner. In his preface written in 1994 for this book he explains how he wishes his audience to read these poems and feel pleasure and relief. Perhaps he means that by reading his work we will know that life isn’t always so full of mundane, negative, or painful things and that it is time to embrace life for all of its ups and downs. That is how I view these poems, and hope you have some thoughts on them as well if you get a chance to read him.
Thanks for reading, please stop in tomorrow for more linked poems…

Web Del Sol

This site is all about poetry on the web, and provides many useful links and news articles related to poetry. Check it out below at:

http://www.webdelsol.com/IBPC/index.htm

Thanks for dropping in, help me ring in the new year with another poet who is no longer…

Philip Levine's A Simple Truth

First let me say I have a hard time finding ways to ask permission to post an entire poem, so therefore I cannot enlighten you as much as I would like to Levine’s poems. Philip Levine was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1928. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and several other prizes for his work. The link below provides more detailed information about him and poems to read as well as an Audio Clip so you can listen to his poem. Levine is another poet whom I enjoy because he says what he means while making the language beautiful. You don’t have to find hidden meanings unless you want to, some poems are deep and some are just a breath of fresh air. I picked up his book The Simple Truth published in 1994 by Alfred A. Knopf. In this book, one of my favorite poems is “Ask For Nothing” in which he describes going on a walk in the evenings. This is a simple enough subject but I happen to love long walks in the countryside and no longer live where that is possible and he captures the feelings, sights, and sounds perfectly. Here is a short excerpt from “Ask For Nothing:”

Behind you the windows of the town
blink on and off, the houses close down;
ahead the voices fade like music
over deep water, and then are gone;

Please click the link below to find out more and certainly look for his work while you are out and about in your daily busy life. He will remind you to take a breath and see the wonderful things that greet you every day.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/19

Thanks for reading, tomorrow is another poetry web-site installment…

An example of Dialogue

http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/

Jim Murdoch had commented on my Poetry Tips post about his having a dialogue poem shaped like a Rorschach ink blot test and has it posted on his site at the moment. Please check out the link for an example of a dialogue poem and also because he has added another layer of artistry by shaping it into an ink blot test.
Thanks for dropping in!

World Class Poetry Blog with Q&A

Allen and I conversed through e-mail and I asked if he would mind doing a mini-interview about his blog for today's feature and he happily obliged:

Q: What drove you to create a blog and website devoted to poetry?

A: One word - passion.

Q: How long have you had both sites and what do you hope to be able to do by having them?

A: I started the website in 2005 and the blog this year. I've been tinkering with html and Internet marketing since 2001. I wanted to build an online business in 2003, but before I could get anything real solid my National Guard unit was activated (mid-2004) and I spent all of 2005 in Iraq. While in Iraq I found a couple of months in the summer where I had an inordinate amount of free time due to a period of "steady state" operations. It was during those two months that I started the website and built about 10 pages. Then I had a six month period of time when I couldn't work on it at all. I didn't get started again until I got back home. But at that time I had family obligations and I started my business. Those two activities ate up most of my time, but I still took time out when I could to work on the website. It's been hit and miss mostly. I work on it when I can. The blog is something I started because it helps me promote the website and it keeps me writing every day.

Q: Any particular advice for poets out there today?

A: Yeah, I'd say read more than you write and don't worry about getting published until you know for sure that you have something that merits it. Publishing too early will spoil you and make you lazy. The most important thing is to write good literature. If you do that then publication will present itself at the proper time. You have to be patient. Thanks. Let me know if you need anything else. Allen


http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/

Thank you Allen, and thank you Poetry fans! Please stop in tomorrow for another living, breathing poet…

Poetry Tips: Dialogue

If you’ve been around poetry for a while you surely have seen poems where there are two speakers. Sometimes the poems are imagined conversations, others are real ones altered to fit a poem. They do not have to rhyme, or have a particular rhythm, or shape. You can scatter the conversation so that one speaker is “right adjusted” and the other speaker is “centered” when it comes to their lines. You can do many experiments with this and I challenge you to come up with a dialogue poem. It can be rather difficult at first, I admit I have yet to succeed and have scrapped every attempt, but they are good for getting the creative juices flowing.
Best of luck to your writing, may the muse be with you!

Please stop in tomorrow for Saturday’s Edition Poetry Blog…

Open Submissions at CapGun

I’m back and ready to get back to normal life. I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday and that you will have friends and fun on New Year’s.

Today’s Open Submissions are for CapGun:

Deadline is January 2nd 2008, so act fast! Submit 3-5 poems or 10 pages prose by e-mail to submit[at]capgunmag.com
Please explore their site to be sure your work will be a good fit! Best of luck to you!

http://capgunmag.com/

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for another round of Poetry Tips!

Happy Holidays!

Hello regular readers and all newcomers! I will be on vacation until December 26th and I am not bringing my computer as I will not have the time. Please feel free to peruse my blog, and may your holidays be joyous occasions!

Here is the typical set-up of the blogs if you want to look through the archives:

Sundays: Living poets
Mondays: Poetry web-sites
Tuesdays: Poets who have passed away
Wednesday: Poems by Poet Hound OR Poems Linked (poems that I found interesting and provided links to).
Thursdays: Open submissions, whether they are on-line journals, print journals, publishing blogs, etc.
Fridays: Poetry Tips (from what different types of poems there are to ideas for writing exercises)
Saturdays: Poetry Blogs (typically a poet who has their own blog is featured, though sometimes it is a journal’s blog).

Please note I am always open to suggestions! If there are any poets you would like to see featured, or poetry related web-sites, blogs, journals, let me know! Post them in comments or send an e-mail to: poethoundblogspotATyahooDOTcom

We will meet again soon, have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Poetry Tips

Today is more about an idea than a tip. If you have been a regular reader you may have stumbled across some poetry broadsides, decorated cards of poetry. Why not create broadsides of your own poems to send as gifts? All you need is cardstock, and imagination. If you are really crafty and have a paper slicer, you can cut the poems to the appropriate size for 5X7 or 8X10 frames. You can use simple geometric designs or draw a simple scene involving your poem. Since people often like poems about themselves, this would be an excellent way to show your love and appreciation of them, a framed broadside produced by you, the creative genius. I know this tip comes a little late for Christmas gift giving but you can always give them out as birthday presents of as random acts of love and kindness.

May the creative muse be with you this holiday season…

POOL Open for Submissions

through February so be sure to act fast! You will need a cover letter, 3 to 5 poems, and as always, an SASE.

Send to:
POOL
Submissions
P.O. Box 49738
Los Angeles, CA 90049

For more details check out:

http://www.poolpoetry.com/submit.htm

Good luck with submissions, please stop by for more Poetry Tips.

Poems linked to Nerve Cowboy

http://www.onr.com/user/jwhagins/brookskyderby.html
Family get-togethers at their finest (as in the usual bologna). Michele Brooks’ poem “Kentucky Derby Day at my Aunt’s House” reminds me of my own family’s craziness, sure to remind you of yours as well…


http://www.onr.com/user/jwhagins/JakielaWatching.html
“Watching My Father Feed the Birds” By Lori Jakiela is a heart-breaker. Read only if you have the guts.

Thanks for reading the poems, tomorrow is another open submissions…