Poetry Tips: Mixed Media

Poetry doesn’t have to be black and white by hand or on the computer, there are many ways to portray your words. Heck, you could even clip words out of magazine from a poem you’ve already written and send it off to an unsuspecting recipient. Forget letters from “Serial Killers” what about Serial Poets? You could also paint a portrait of what your poem is about, even if it is abstract. There is also turning your poem into music, what notes would portray the feel and meaning of the poem? If your poem has rhythm, could you play the drums to it? Play a flute, a harp, guitar, trumpet, anything behind it? Could you take a series of photographs that relate to the poem and arrange it into a pictorial poem?

Sometimes it is difficult to get away from the writer’s desk—take a break and try something new. Dive further into the unknown and see what you come up with. Good luck!

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Poetry Midwest Open Submissions

Don’t worry, it will show the year 2006 but the journal is still going and current, Poetry Midwest is published three times a year and accepts e-mail submissions. You may send up to 3 poems pasted into your e-mail to: submitATpoetrymidwestDOTorg
In the subject line include: “Poetry Midwest Submissions : your real name” The editor, Matthew Schmeer, makes a point to say your real name, not your e-mail account’s name. There are many more details and the current issue is available so please read on at:

http://poetrymidwest.blogspot.com/2006/01/submission-guidelines.html


Good luck to all of you who submit, please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=29516
“Carlos” by Theodore Deppe

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/190501.html
“standing offer/birthday saints” by Janie Gleason

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Stay Tuned

Sorry everyone, I ran out of time to read and review this week on account of many birthdays, Mother’s Day, and real life interruptions… I’ll have one next week and please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

A Long House Bird House

I love blogs that come from publishers and this is one of them. There is an assortment of good things here in the form of personal anecdotes, sharing of poems by various authors, plenty of interesting links, more than enough to keep you occupied and entertained at:

http://longhousepoetryandpublishers.blogspot.com/

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Poetry Tips: Poetry In The News

Today I challenge you to take the latest headlines either globally or within your community and turn them into poems. Depending on the community you live in you could find plenty of strange incidents to write about. I heard a new story the other day of a woman whose foot was broken because of a runaway thief who ran smack into her. That’s certainly an entertaining headline compared to which celebrities are getting married vs. getting divorced, don’t you think? Find something in the news that makes your eyebrows rise and write about it.

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

Blue Hour Chapbook Open Submissions

Send between 10-40 pages of your chapbook manuscript to submitATbluehourpressDOTcom and in the subject line of the e-mail please put in Caps Lock the following: Last name, First Name, and the Title of your project. Their example is: ASHBERRY JOHN SOME TREES

Include a small bio and a restricted version of your publication history. For further details please click the link below:

http://www.bluehourpress.com/


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/019/bunting_rachel_002.html
Rachel Bunting’s “The Apiary”

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/clarkj1.html
Jackie Clark’s “The Never Ending Shredding Project”


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Michael Kriesel's The Light of Fields

Michael Kriesel’s mini chapbook, The Light of Fields, courtesy of the Pocket Protector Series by Alternating Current is a mere $3.00 at Propaganda Press. I think it is interesting to note that this collection is a reprint originally published by Jump River Press, Inc. in 1982 when this author was 20 years old. What would you say to re-printing something you wrote 20 years ago? I think it would be an enlightening experience as to how you’ve changed as a writer since. This collection exposes fresh experiences of love and life throughout the pages and there are several poems I enjoyed in this collection and as always I will share them with you below:


Breaking Silences

For days
I have watched each cloud in the river
broken into speech against the rocks

I will break many silences
to tell you this.


Personally, I love the imagery of “each cloud in the river/broken into speech against the rocks” because it is unusual and imaginative. I also wonder what kind of silences are broken in the last stanza, an awkward first meeting or simply an interruption of quietness together?



Walking From Funerals

Unconsoled I see the light of fields

the bursting red dyings of leaves
clutch my hair and my feet
with the hands of small children

Unmoved I continue

although I have hands like their own
and veins swell as theirs do

Look back
and the fires are stars

We are not ours
but those we cannot hold

I am a universe alone


I like the way Mr. Kriesel uses leaves as comparisons to hands clutching him despite his feeling so alone after loss, the idea of anyone clutching him being unable to comfort him.




The Lean Tree

To wake
to snow’s still soul

easing the bent stems
from memory

Rising
to still limbs of pine
become white as the eyes of the blind

I trust to the green underneath

and abandon my tracks
to the snow.


If it were still winter, I would recommend reading this poem and comparing it to your own surroundings. It’s a beautiful poem in which you can feel the silence and picture the beauty of the landscape knowing that there is the promise of color and spring to come.



If you enjoyed this short sample please visit The Propaganda Press Catalog to snap up a copy of your own and remember that with any purchase through the catalog a bonus book is included from archives. Not only will you be supporting the small press but the poet as well since poets can set royalties through Alternating Current and I am always an advocate of poets getting paid for their work.

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

Blogging Along Tobacco Road

If you love reading interviews as much as I do, you’ll be overjoyed to read the weekly interview features by following the blog link below and you’ll find some familiar names from this blog (such as M. Kei). Check it out at:

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/


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Poetry Tips: Support in Hard Times

Support poets and small presses!

The reasons, I think, should be obvious. If you enjoy reading poetry you should be willing to part with at least a small portion of your hard earned money to buy and read a journal or chapbook. Also, if you are a poet trying to get published you should invest in at least one subscription to a journal or small press publication of some kind. Times may be tough but the editors and presses are working harder now than ever because grants are disappearing, donations are slowing down, and new subscribers are probably growing scarce. I’m a huge advocate for poets getting paid for their work and there are presses out there who pay their poets. There are presses who have low prices and great quality combined so that even if they can’t pay their poets, the readers are sure to be proud that they spent their money on such a fine chapbook or journal while the poets are proud to be part of the press or journal.

Any of the presses on the sidebar are worth your money, and there are countless more out there not included. For those of you who would like to add a press to the sidebar, by all means, post a link or two in the comments section so I can add it for other potential readers to find it.

On a personal note, money is so tight right now that I can’t remember the last time I went to the movie theater, let alone a “nice restaurant” in comparison to fast food, but I am still willing to subscribe to a journal and buy a poetry book because I have personally connected to the press and the poets. I suggest you do the same for the ones you feel connected to. We’re all in this together, and together we’ll pull through.

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Lilliput Review Open Submissions

Don’t you think this ties nicely with the review? Don Wentworth is always seeking more poems of ten lines or less to publish at the Lilliput Review so please submit up to 3 poems (all which can be typed on one page if they fit) along with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to:

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

lilliputreviewATgmailDOTcom

Good luck to all of you who submit, please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/nelsona2.html
Amber Nelson’s “Swarm”

http://www.leftfacingbird.com/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD_files/Lily%20Brown.pdf
Lily Brown’s “Morning. The Poem Is Dead.”

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Lilliput Review Issue #167

Lilliput Reviews Issue #167 speaks often of pines and the flights of various birds such as sparrows and egrets. I am always intrigued how Don Wentworth is able to put subtle themes in each issue and I am happy to share some precious gems with you:


February

The dark elms are cloaked
in bloodless vines, thin men
pulling out their hearts
on long, raveling string.
O, to be like them.
To be like them.

Hannah Craig, Pittsburgh, PA

All I can say is: Isn’t that a beautiful description?



The Nick of Time

I was lost
and this poem
found me.

Now we’re
lost together.
What a relief.

Jim Tolan, Brooklyn, NY

This is another poem that says it all—about poetry!




flowing through a chain link fence a flock of sparrows

Robbie Gamble, Jamaica Plain, MA

--Another beautiful description.

This is just a small sample of the wonderful poems in this issue and I hope you enjoyed them. As some of you may know, I am partial to poems that say what they mean to say in a clever, funny, and/or beautiful way. Issue #167 includes these kinds of poems and I hope you’ll spring at the chance to nab Issue #167 at the Lilliput Review for yourself, after all, it’s merely $1.00. Also, don’t forget to visit Issa's Untidy Hut, the Lilliput Review Blog, for all things poetic and excerpts from past issues.

Thanks always for reading! Please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Blue Hour Press

Blue Hour Press embraced technology and offers up digital chapbooks—you get to see the pages turn with every click and the experience is fantastic! Find out for yourself by clicking below:

Blue Hour Press

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