Boxcar Poetry Open Submissions

I copy-and-pasted their guidelines below:

Boxcar Poetry Review seeks top quality poetry, artwork, photography, interviews, and reviews.
poetry
Email 3-5 poems as a Word or RTF file to boxcarpoetry@gmail.com with "POETRY-SUB: your name" in the subject line of the email. Include a brief bio in the text of your email. Simultaneous submissions ok with immediate notification. Please wait for a response before sending a second submission. We do not consider previously published material. While we currently are unable to pay our contributors, published work is eligible for Peer Awards ($25 for best poem of the issue) and the end of the year Oboh Awards (top three poems of the year).

You can check them out at:
http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/main.html


Good luck to all who submit! Please stop in next Tuesday for another featured poet…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://righthandpointing.com/Issue27/murdoch.html
“Cut the Blue Wire” by Jim Murdoch


http://www.blossombones.com/winter09/bashaar_w09.html
“The Giraffe Woman” by Margaret Bashaar



Also, Talia Reed recommended that I sign up for August Poetry Post Card Fest where you write and send 31 poems on post-cards throughout the month using the mailing list on the site where you register for this brilliant project and I recommend you check it out as well:

http://poetrypostcards.blogspot.com/
*Note that you need to sign up right away BEFORE August 1st if possible so you can mail your first postcard in time for your first recipient on the list to get their postcard on August 1st. Counting today, that gives you four mailing days for the postcard to reach its destination. Good luck, have a blast, hopefully see your postcard!

Join us if you dare, hope to see you there!


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

Dave Tickel's Snow In The Forecast

David Tickel’s chapbook, Snow In The Forecast is published by Alternating Current:
http://alt-current.blogspot.com/
This is a collection of dead-pan true to life poems by Dave L. Tickel. While the chapbook doesn’t provide much information about Mr. Tickel I imagine these poems come straight from his experiences and I am happy to share several poems with you:


SEAT BELTS

Cousin Mike
And I played your
Drums.

You and Aunt Sandy slept as me and
Your son

Wandered through
Hungry
Hippie beads, through your apartment.

You sent me a
Christmas gift
A year and a half later, when I was
eleven, the Allman Bros’ Eat A Peach.

Still
A Chiropractic student, you
And your second wife Pam

Scaled the Sears Tower,
Gave King Kong a
Free exam.

You liked Brautigan
I liked Jack Kerouac.

Your mom
Died on the first day of spring. You
Were likewise fatally injured on
December 7th.

The title is confusing until you get to the end and I love it when a poet can title a poem in this way. Also, Mr. Tickel pieces together memories in a way that make it sound free-form and then ties it up neatly at the end.



WRITERS’ CONFERENCE DECEASED

I attended a
Yearly writers’ conference for
More than a few years.

I submitted
a play
- an outline for a novel

-unsavory characters/impeccable
Punctuation
-a
Joycean short story.

I submitted poems that
Lacked punctuation, that were
Poundian, that were
- I learned something – incorrect stanzy-wise.

I didn’t win any
Awards, I wasn’t a
Teacher/student at the college. Kurt
Vonnegut and
Ken Kesey

In
The night auditorium, on
The rock & roll stage.

I enjoy the story-telling of this poem. While Mr. Tickel keeps it fairly bare you can envision the writer’s conference/workshop he was involved in and get a sense of his less-than-thrilled attitude about the whole thing.



SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND

She calls me Temporary Trash. I
Want to get in her pants,
I’m a virgin.

We
Wear leather and plastic pants, go to all
The
Punk clubs. She taught me how to

Dance
Down and up, up and down, how to
Walk the dog, how to do the frog.

We met at
Community College.
Our first date: she gave me a fat lip

This poem is just plain entertaining. A memory revealed by its skeleton in which we fill in the rest. The ending leaves you wondering how the fat lip transpired: concert mishap or something he said?


If you enjoyed these sample poems, you may purchase this chapbook for an astoundingly low price of $1.00 at http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#snow_in_the_forecast
through Propaganda Press. Remember that Alternating Current is one of the few small presses where poets are able to be paid for their work so definitely check them out!

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

La Petite Zine Open Submissions

I have directly quote them below:
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“Please send all submissions to the following new address:
lapetitezine@gmail.com
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We accept e-mail submissions only. Please paste your work directly into the e-mail. If you are greatly concerned about formatting, please send an attached document in addition to the pasted text. We accept visual files in pdf, jpeg, and gif format. Include a brief bio with your submission.
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Please send work in all genres. And all non- or anti-genres. We consider visual work of all types. We consider personal and academic essays.
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We require that you put in your e-mail subject line the following information:
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LPZ.lastname.month.date.year.
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Thus, a submission from a poet might read in its subject line:
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LPZ.Notley.10.28.2006
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•Please send 3-5 poems. Essays and fiction should be under 2,000 words, but query if you think we have reason to consider your longer work.
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•Please include a brief bio.
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•Please, no multiple submissions. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please let us know if work’s been accepted elsewhere.
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•Please wait two months before submitting again.
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Any deviation from our guidelines may result in the disposal of your submission--trash folder, no questions asked.
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Read our current and recent issues before submitting. No excuses; they're free and they're stunners!
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If, after a few months, you haven't heard from us, please feel free to check in. Check nice! We’re tender.
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We acquire First Rights, or one-time rights. Copyright reverts back to author/artist after publication. “
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For more details go to:
http://www.lapetitezine.org/
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Good luck to all who enter and please stop by next week…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.h-ngm-n.com/h_ngm_n-7/gavin-adair.html
Gavin Adair’s “After the crash”
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http://www.redividerjournal.org/deaths-daughter/
Cathleen Calbert’s “Death’s Daughter”
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Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

Justin Barrett's the uncertainty principle

Justin Barrett sent this little gem in the mail and guess what? The poems are translated into French! The uncertainty principle is Barrett’s newest collection of poems, published by Les Mi(ni)crobe. Mr. Barrett admitted he wasn’t sure if they were available for purchase on-line so I e-mailed the press and hoped they could read English since I do not know how to write, let alone speak, French. I have not heard anything from the press but Justin Barrett has given me permission to review it regardless. The poems are in English and then in French and almost all of them make me laugh. I’ll spare you the French translation as I’m sure I’ll butcher it. As usual, Barrett’s poems aren’t for the faint of heart so you have been forewarned:
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the good die young
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a new study on the death rates
of writers was conducted by
a scientist from California
and his results showed that poets die
sooner than any other type of writer.
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apparently, this finding is true across
cultural, racial, and gender lines.
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novelists, playwrights, journalists,
how-to book writers;
all of them live longer
than poets.
it seems to be a side-effect
of writing poetry.
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but, dying young and leaving
all the shit of this
world behind for
the rest of the writers to
write about is
just further proof
of the superiority of
the poet.
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Don’t you just love the arrogant attitude at the end of this poem? I also wonder where he found this study that inspired the poem. Justin Barrett typically has a biting “punch-line” in his poems that makes him stand out from others and I admire that.
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but, i must be better than that damn collection of yodeling CDs, right?
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after years of suffering
through bad movies
and bad music
and bad television shows,
i finally tell my
wife that she
has horrible tase.
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“the ultimate proof,”
she says,
“is the fact
that i chose you.”
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we both laugh.
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i, because i know
it’s not true.
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she, because
she knows it is.
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Again, this is a biting remark of a poem and it encompasses real life with a great title that at first appears to have nothing to do with the poem. Then after you read it, the title could easily work as the ending. This is a good example of a poem scaled down to its skeleton.
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morning
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After you wake
up and
leave in the
morning
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i roll over
to your side
of the bed,
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curl up in your
emptiness
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and fall back
to sleep
in the ghost
of your warmth.
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Mr. Barrett isn’t always biting in his writing, this is a great example of sentimentality pared down to its frame. Simple and engaging.
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If you enjoyed this little collection, you can see if it is available for purchase by e-mailing rvmicrobeATyahooDOTfr
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If you know French, you’ll probably get a response since I haven’t heard back yet. The collection is short and sweet, funny and entertaining.
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Thanks always for reading, please drop in again tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Coconut Open Submissions

You may send 3 to 8 poems to Editor Bruce Covey by e-mail to submit AT coconutpoetry DOT org and be sure to include “Poetry Submission” in the subject line and perhaps your last name as well. Paste your poems into the body of the e-mail and you have until September to submit. Please check out the site for more details and to check out the types of poems they publish:
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http://www.coconutpoetry.org/submit14.html
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Good luck to all of you who submit! Please stop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.angelicdynamo.com/poems/03/
“Lessons” by Fatima Al Matar
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http://anti-poetry.com/liszkiewiczaj1/
“Emperor Ink” by A.J. Patrick Liszkiewicz
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Thanks for clicking in, please drop by for more Open Submissions…

Announcement

It is that time of year again where my dance troupe prepares for its Annual BIG SHOW at the end of July so I will be paring down posts to Tuesday through Thursday to allow myself more time for mending costumes and practicing technique. Things will go back to normal on the first full week of August.
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I didn’t have time to do a review for Tuesday--preparing for the show, cleaning the house after entertaining relatives over the 4th of July weekend, and trying to remove and move around furniture took up my available time for this week.
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Please stop in on Wednesday, wish me luck on the performance and apologies for any inconveniences….

Poetry Tips: Title Up At The Used Book Store

I recently went into a used book store and found a plethora of bizarre and fabulous titles such as “How To Become A Virgin” and a very large book titled “A Short History of Opera” and it inspired me to create poems based off these finds. I am passing the idea on to you of going to a used book-store and finding titles that inspire you to write poems or combine titles to create a poem. Have fun and feel free to share!

Thanks for stopping by, please stop by next Monday…

Literary Mary Open Submissions

You may send up to six of your best poems as an attachment via e-mail to literary.mary.submissionsATgmailDOTcom. You absolutely must check out the guidelines in detail in order for your submission to be successful. Please use the subject line of the e-mail to place your name and “Poetry” for the type of submission and include your contact information in your e-mail. Check out the rest of the details at:
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http://literarymary.com/forum/index.php?topic=10800.msg106768
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Good luck to all of you who submit and please drop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://apt.aforementionedproductions.com/twenty/acuff.htm
“A La Mode” by Gale Acuff
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http://arseniclobster.magere.com/190202.html
“On the Night of her Wake” by Christina Cook
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Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

A.D. Winans' Days In Heaven Nights In Hell

A.D. Winans’ collection Days in Heaven Nights in Hell is book nine in the Pocket Protector Series from Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press. I “dog-eared” the majority of the pages because the poems really struck a chord with me. A.D. Winans can be blunt, witty, and familiar all at once. I am more than happy to share some of them with you:
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City Poet
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Once addiction sets in
There’s no stopping it
You become a serial killer
Attacking the keyboard at will
Your mind working in shifts
Strange creatures live inside
Your head and show no mercy
Give no ground force your fingers
To do their bidding
Writing down their thoughts
In your looseleaf notebook
The city is your slaughterhouse
Like a wife it accommodates
Your moods doesn’t seem to mind
Your giving her a bad name
You walk her streets like a vampire
Lapping up your own blood
On nights when word transfusions
Are not enough.
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The disembodiment of poetry vs. the writer is entertaining. Poetry as an “It” shape-shifts throughout the poem in an alarming way which only Mr. Winans can describe and makes writing an adventure. It’s marvelous.
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Going Back In Time
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I was looking at my scrapbook the other night
while listening to an old Dylan record
and there I was in my youth traveling
from California to Arizona and places
farther west
heading in so many directions
it was like getting lost in the
trick-mirrors at the old fun house
and there were the women
then young girls
free flowing spirits who gave
their minds and bodies at the
slightest invitation
and nights too lying alone
in tangled sleep feeling
like a deer caught in barbed wire
or sitting hunched over cold and disheveled
at the local Greyhound station
fighting off the eyes of leering men
who preferred boys to women
Now seventy and counting
I realize I was there and back so fast
like a train running out of track
returning home carrying my life
in a Knapp-sack
the days the months the years
hung out to dry
like your mother’s washing
on an old clothesline.
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I enjoy recounting Mr. Winans’ adventures alongside him in this poem. A brief glimpse of travels veers into surprises such as the experience of “leering men/who preferred boys to women” and the rush of traveling down memory lane back to the present. He touches and goes in the poem the same way his memory does and executes this beautifully.
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Untitled
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At 71, death plays with me
Cases my apartment
Like a cat burglar
Sniffing at the four corners
Of my bedroom
Toys with me like a cat
Toys with a spool of thread
On good days he allows
Me a poem or two
Words of thunder
Then the melancholy sets in
Blackbirds flap their wings
Against the window panes
In the kitchen a spicy sauce
Simmers on the back-burner
An opera playing on the radio
Stills the winter chill
Leaves me feeling
Like a drifter walking through
A ghost town.
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Mr. Winans’ poem on death and aging is poignant in its mysteriousness. Death peeks in during every day moments while cooking or writing and leaves Mr. Winans with a chill on his skin which can be felt on my own while reading.
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If you enjoyed this sample of poems, you can purchase A.D. Winans’ collection, Days In Heaven Nights In Hell for $3.00 at Propaganda Press through Alternating Current. Alternating Current allows authors to set royalties and is one of the few places where small press poets can receive payment for their work. It is a wonderful way to support small press poets and I urge you to check out Alternating Current at:
http://alt-current.com/
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Thanks always for reading, please drop in tomorrow for more Poems Found By Poet Hound…

Fiddler Crab Review Blog

Yes yes yes!!! This blog reviews poetry chapbooks weekly from presses found all over and poets from all over. You absolutely must learn more by clicking the link below:
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http://fiddlercrabreview.blogspot.com/
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Thanks for checking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured poet…

Poetry Tips: En Vogue, Too Much, or Not Enough

It occurred to me the other day when an acquaintance bravely asked to read me a poem that was lovely and then related his difficulties in feeling he had too much rhyme and how many times he revised it that brought to mind my own qualms in editing my own poems. Your tip today is to abandon all the imagined critics in your head—the academic critic, the editor-of-a-particular-journal critic, the self-critic, and any other imaginary critic that begins to speak as you begin to revise or revisit your poems.
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Whatever poems you come up with for the rest of the week allow them to flow out of you and leave them as they are. If you feel you are going to revise it to please a particular editor or person realize that you must first please yourself. If it pleases you, leave it alone. There is nothing wrong with rhyme, cliché subject matter, cliché phrases, so long as you enjoy the poem it is yours for the keeping.
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Have a happy and safe 4th of July to all my fellow Americans!
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Thanks for dropping in, please stop by on Monday for another featured site…