Poetry Tips: New Year's Resolutions

Yes, I bring this up every year but it is important to have resolutions for your own writing and even reading. This year I hope to do better than last year in sending out poems for publication more regularly, at least once a month. I also plan on continuing my quest for reading poets I haven’t read before.
How about you, Dear Reader? What resolutions would you like to make? To write more often? Read new-to-you poets? Publish more poems? Organize your poems and submissions? There are plenty of resolutions one can make. If you would be willing, I’d love to see your resolutions in the comments section.

Good luck to all of you in your creative endeavors this year, please stop in again on Monday…

Catapult To Mars Open Submissions

Gordon Mason is the creator and editor of this wonderful blog and I have copy-and-pasted his guidelines below:

Please send me poems, in the body of your email, to alhaurino-tangerino@hotmail.com, with Catapult to Mars in the subject box. Please include the address of your website or blog if you have one, so I can link to it. Poems can be in English, Scots and/or Spanish.

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/30miniissue2010/barry-w-north
“You Can’t Have It Both Ways” by Barry W. North

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22041
“The Anxiety of Coincidence” by Mark Bibbins

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

Lilliput Review Issue #177

I will be renewing my subscription to Lilliput Review because I’m always fully satisfied by what I find in each issue. This particular issue is filled with Autumn, Winter, and philosophical gems that sent lovely shivers down my spine. I am happy to share a few treasures with you:


garden twine his beadless rosary

By: John Martone of Charleston, IL

One-line poems can be difficult to “pull off” but this one struck my heart because I collect rosaries. I imagine an older gentleman carefully tending his garden with twine, saying prayers to the soil for a fruitful harvest. Your imagination can take you wherever you like with this short but beautiful poem, thank you Mr. Martone, for this little gem.



Good bye my love
For a night at Fuzan spring
I was your wife.
Now until the end of the world
I demand that you forget me.

By: Yosano Akiko, translated by Dennis Maloney

Isn’t this a beautiful and heart-wrenching poem? A night of passion, love, tenderness, and then a lifetime spent trying to forget. Isn’t this what poets dream of experiencing and writing about?



Torn

I am torn.
I am torn between preferring
quarter-moons to be drawn
with the scooped-out
part facing left
versus the scooped-out part
facing right.

By: Wayne Hogan of Cookeville, TN

Wayne Hogan’s drawings are often in Lilliput Review and Nerve Cowboy, two journals I enjoy subscribing to. I imagine Mr. Hogan setting down to a blank page and puzzling over his moons, drawing several before settling on the perfect one. I also picture young children puzzling over the same and Mr. Hogan forming their puzzled concentrations into this poem.


If you enjoyed these poems, please consider purchasing a copy for yourself, each issue is only $1.00 and small enough to tuck into your pants pocket. If you’d like to subscribe, you can use the Paypal link at Lilliput Review’s blog:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/


Subscriptions can be had for $1.00 an issue, or 6 issues for $5.00, or 15 issues for $10.00, very reasonable wouldn’t you say?

Editor Don Wentworth has been editing and publishing Lilliput Review for over 20 years and I highly recommend his journal to all of you.


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

X Poetics Blog

Learn about poets and their works through insightful and in depth features on lectures and literary events around San Francisco at:

http://xpoetics.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for a featured journal…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=180486
“You” by Frank Stanford

https://sites.google.com/site/30miniissue2010/howie-good
“Last Stand” by Howie Good


Thanks for clicking in, I will be away for the holidays so please drop in again January 3rd and I wish you all Happy Holidays and Happy New Year’s…

Roach-O-Rama Open Submissions

Richard Wink, the former editor of Gloom Cupboard, is spreading the word about his new print magazine that he is working on with fellow poet Ben Smith in Australia titled Roach-O-Rama. Since I will be out of town by Christmas Eve, I’m placing their submission guidelines today instead.


I’ve copy-and-pasted the guidelines below:

Send poems the old fashioned way. Jot them down on payslips, pizza boxes or preferably on an A4 sheet of paper, stick them in an envelope and mail them to whichever one of these addresses is cheaper for you to post to. Roach-O-Rama UK, 41 Drayton Wood Road, Hellesdon, Norwich, NR6 6BY, England or Roach-O-Rama Oz, PO Box 806 Tullamarine, Victoria, AUSTRALIA 3049
We are accepting submissions for the first edition until June 1st 2011.

To learn more, visit their site at:

http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/roach-o-rama-2/

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in Wednesday for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Poetry Tips: Secrets

The news these days seems to be focused on Wiki Leaks, the organization that releases documents that are shielded from public view for various reasons from governmental agencies. These days it seems harder and harder to keep a secret thanks to breaches through the internet. This week I am inspired to pretend I am releasing secrets via poems and perhaps you would like to join in? Imagine spilling secrets about yourself, friends, family, just make sure no one actually get a hold of them if they are very sensitive in detail. Does writing the poem feel like a relief of unburdening yourself of these secrets?

Good luck to all who try it, please check in again next week…

Alaska Quarterly Review

You may send up to 20 pages of contemporary poetry “in traditional and experimental styles.”

The rest I have copy and pasted from their site:
Please include the following contact information in your cover letter and/or on your manuscript: mailing address, phone number, and email address if available. All manuscripts must be typed and accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). Unless a SASE is enclosed with your submission, you will not hear from us unless we are interested in publishing your manuscript. We try to reply within 6 to 16 weeks.
All general correspondence should be addressed to The Editors. Please address submissions to the section editor (e.g. Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, Non-Fiction Editor, or Drama Editor) at the following address:

Alaska Quarterly Review
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Drive (ESH 208)
Anchorage, AK 99508
Important notes:
(1) Unsolicited manuscripts are read between August 15 and May 15.
(2) Although we respond to e-mail queries, we cannot review electronic submissions.
(3) We review simultaneous submissions and request that they be identified as such in the cover letter.


For further details please go to:
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/aqr/guidelines.cfm

Good luck to all who submit, please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.juked.com/2010/12/streetpocketpark.asp
“Street Pocket Park” by Nolan Chessman

http://www.sundresspublications.com/wickedalice/steinberg30.html
“Bachelorette” by Nicole Steinberg

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

John Bennett's Battle Scars

Editor Henry Denander of Kamini Press, based in Stockholm Sweden, sent me the press’ latest publication by John Bennett, a beautiful chapbook titled Battle Scars. While the cover features a beautiful abstract watercolor on the cover the poems themselves are my favorite kind: Straightforward and biting. John Bennett was born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, founded the Vagabond Press which published notables such as Charles Bukowski, Anne Menebroker, and many others, while John Bennett himself has published 39 books not including poems published in various anthologies. At age 72, Mr. Bennett is still writing and has his own web-site which I have included the link to at the end of this feature. Mr. Bennett now resides in Ellensburg, Washington, where he continues to write and publish as well as correspond with many other poets and sends his works via an e-mail list which you may sign up for after visiting his web-site.

Battle Scars, as I said, is straightforward with a bite that can be fierce, comical, or gentle. I am happy to share several of the poems with you:


Hospitality

I tell
people I’m
not one
of them &
they laugh
& say
have a
beer.

This poem has me saying aloud “Isn’t that the truth?” How often we find ourselves dismayed or disgusted by others’ behavior only to end up finding ourselves displaying that exact same behavior later, even amongst the same people who we initially were appalled by. I also think of this poem as being one that could apply to a mental health hospital as a result of the title since many people who need psychiatric help deny that they do. I imagine the residents of the institution laughing at the newest member when the new member announces that he or she doesn’t belong there. The poem can be taken at face value or to a deeper level depending on the reader and their own experiences.



Mirrors

After a
certain age
all mirrors are
good for is
checking for
skin cancer &
the nicotine
stain in
your mustache.

This poem makes me grin. It’s another poke at old age while including the humor in aging not-so-gracefully. Also, I hate mirrors so I like this poem all the more.



72nd Birthday

Sitting on
the hill at
sunrise with
my coffee &
cigarettes
thinking
fond thoughts
of all those who
hate my guts.

This poem is my favorite of the whole collection. I laughed aloud and then read aloud this poem to my husband. Just the idea of thinking fondly of the people who hate your guts is something I enjoy very much. The poet is rebellious and undaunted, the best way to be I say.



Ego Like Indelible Ink

Anyone who
tells you he’s
banished his
ego is
lying.

I mean,
there he
stands with
his motor mouth
running a
mile a
minute.

This poem had me saying “YES, yes!” aloud. Often the person who is announcing that they don’t want to bring attention to themselves is in some way actually announcing “pay attention to me!” This behavior is annoying at the very least and I love that Mr. Bennett wrote a straightforward and simple poem of the subject. Really, the rest of us could probably write prose for pages on this subject but Mr. Bennett is succinct and brilliant with his choice of words which captures the scenario perfectly with humor in the last stanza. Bravo Mr. Bennett!


I hope you enjoyed these short, straightforward poems as much as I do. The chapbook itself is also of high quality, spare and beautiful like the poetry inside. Each edition is also signed by Mr. Bennett himself in a limited print run of 125 copies so I urge you to act fast if you would like a copy for yourself.
To obtain a copy of Battle Scars by John Bennett for yourself, a mere $9.00 including international shipping or $18.00 including international shipping for the Limited Edition with artwork included, please go to Kamini Press’ site:

http://kaminipress.com/



To learn more about Mr. Bennett visit his website at:


http://www.hcolompress.com/


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

Belinda Subraman Presents/Gypsy Art Show Blog

Her introduction says it all, she features poets, musicians, artists, and writers with features and book reviews and so on. It’s a riveting site, full of visual appeal and great reads and insights, please check it out at:

http://belindasubramanpresents.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop in tomorrow…

Poetry Tips: Cover Letters

To be honest, I’m not fond of trying to come up with cover letters when sending out poems and for those of you who are nervous, here are some things you can do. Format your cover letter the way you would for a job application. You’ll want to provide your contact information, details about what you have published or at least what poems are enclosed. Thank the editor for their time and end it just as you would a cover letter for a potential job.
For those of you out there who have done many cover letters, any suggestions in the comments section for myself and readers would be greatly appreciated!

I wish you all success as you send out poems and cover letters, please drop in again Monday…

34th Parallel Open Submissions

They are open year-round but choose carefully as you may only send one poem via e-mail as a Microsoft Word or .rtf attachment. You will also need to include a cover letter and while they accept simultaneous submissions be sure to notify them if your poem is accepted elsewhere. Send your poem and cover letter to the poetry editor at:
submissionsAT34thparallelDOTnet

Check out more details at:
http://www.34thparallel.net/submit.html

Good luck to all who submit, please stop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21986
“Dawn Dreams” by Rachel Hadas

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178529
“Problems of Translation: Problems of Language” by June Jordan

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more open submissions…