Poetry Tips: Close but no Cigar

Those of us who submit our poetry will often face rejections, but then there are those rejections you should pay special attention to: The ones with personalized notes saying you were close, or that you almost made it, and/or “please try again.” I recently received such a notice and I was elated, it was my first time submitting a chapbook manuscript and I almost made it! Sure, I was a little disappointed but then I realized the odds and was happy I got as far as I did and I’ll definitely try to submit again to the same place—but I hope to add some new ones to it if possible so it isn’t the exact same manuscript. I urge you all to save those “almost made it” notes to spur you forward because you are well on your way to publication. Take them out when you feel as though you don’t have what it takes in order to remind yourself that you do.

Good luck to all of you in your poetic endeavors, please drop in again next week…

AGNI Open Submissions

Even though you can submit on-line using their website you can also submit by mail so I’ve copy-and-pasted their guidelines:
Please:
• Address your submission to Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor. Translations and essays are welcomed.
• Send no more than one story, one essay, or five poems at a time. We have no word limits, but generally the longer a piece is, the better it needs to be to justify taking up so much space in the magazine. We will consider novel excerpts provided that they are cohesive enough to stand alone.

• Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) if you would like us to return your submission. Envelopes that are too small or have insufficient postage for a manuscript’s return will get our response, but the manuscript will be recycled. If you do not require the return of your manuscript and would like to be notified by email, please indicate clearly an email address where we can contact you (and skip the SASE).

• Familiarize yourself with AGNI by ordering a recent print issue or by perusing the work that appears online. This site includes selected pieces from the latest print AGNIs (e.g., 65 and 66), current web-only work, and archived fiction, poetry, and essays from both AGNI and AGNI Online.

Some Notes:
• WE DO NOT READ SUBMISSIONS SENT BY EMAIL; please submit online or send your manuscript to the mailing address below.

• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable and encouraged, but please notify us immediately if the work we are considering has been accepted elsewhere.

• Manuscripts mailed between June 1st and August 31st will be RETURNED UNREAD, provided sufficient postage is included. These dates do not apply to subscribers, whose mailed submissions the editors will read year-round.

• While we endeavor to deal with each submission quickly and fairly, we cannot, due to the overwhelming number of submissions, accept responsibility for your manuscript. Do not send us your only copy.

WHERE to send:
Manuscripts should be addressed to the Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor at:
AGNI Magazine
Boston University
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215

Please also visit their website for more details:
http://www.bu.edu/agni/submit.html

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.juked.com/2011/01/thefutilityzoo.asp
“The Futility Zoo” by Laurie Barton

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15506
“The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy

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

Lilliput Review Issue #178

This latest collection includes poems about poems, late evenings and moonlight, and Zen filled moments. As always, I enjoyed a great many poems and can only share a small portion, I hope you enjoy them:


I forget the words
yet I remember the poem,

it is what carried me away from here
in the first place.

By: Charlie Mehrhoff of Oakland, Maine

The first two lines definitely struck a chord with me, how about you? Often you can remember a poem but not all of its exact words. The second two lines give it a sense of adventure, a poem that beckoned across the miles for you to explore outside your daily comfort zone. Thank you, Mr. Mehrhoff, for a short poem that hits the proverbial nail on the head.



the face
I prepared
collapsed
the firmness slipped
and Buddha crept in

By: Sanford Goldstein from Shibata-Shi, Japan

I picture a face hardened by life, then softened by the teachings of Buddha. I imagine enlightenment shining from the poet’s eyes.



old tombstone—

“life is long/eternity short”
reading it twice

By: John Elsberg of Arlington, Virginia


Yes, I too, read this twice. Then I read it again. Such a vivid picture and insight in so few words, don’t you agree? You cannot help but wonder how the phrase “life is long/eternity short” came into being from the loved ones honoring their departed. Food for thought, don’t you agree?


I hope you enjoyed a short sample of this issue, each issue is $1.00 for those of you who would like a copy for yourself.
Don Wentworth’s blog, titled Issa’s Untidy Hut, allows visitors to listen to rock music, learn about poetry, and gives us the opportunity to subscribe to his journal or purchase the latest chapbook. It’s a wonderful site and the comments section is always enjoyable to read. Please visit using the link below:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

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

Monostitch Poet Blog

Grant Hackett sent me a link to his new blog, he writes wonderful one-line poems and they often appear in Lilliput Review so you may have seen his poems there and on Poet Hound before. Please check out his blog at:

http://monostichpoet.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured journal…

Poetry Tips: Silence is Golden

This week I want you to think about silence and how rare it is to find these days. There really is no complete absence of sound unless you are in a vacuum but there are quiet moments, do you treasure them or fear them? Write about what silence means to you in a situation or in a particular place.

Good luck to all who try it, please drop by again Monday…

Nerve Cowboy Chapbook Contest Open Submissions

Deadline is January 31st, 2011 so please hurry! You will need to submit 24-40 pages of poetry along with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope with enough postage for your submission to return and there is a $10.00 Entry Fee in which you may address your check to “Nerve Cowboy.”

1st Prize: $200.00 and 50 copies of published chapbook

2nd Prize: $100 and 30 copies of published chapbook.

All entrants will receive a copy of the winning chapbook and a discounted price on the second prize chapbook.

Send you manuscript, SASE, and entre fee to:

Nerve Cowboy Chapbook Contest
PO Box 4973
Austin, TX 78765

You can also check out their website at:

http://www.jwhagins.com/nervecowboy.html


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.juked.com/2010/12/mm.asp
“mm.” by Barton Smock

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22047
“My Heart” by Kim Addonizio

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

Nerve Cowboy Issue 30, Fall 2010

I cannot possibly share all of the poems I would like to—it would be almost the entire journal. Nerve Cowboy is known for nitty gritty, no-holds-barred straightforward poetry from real people experiencing the pains and joys of real life. I thoroughly enjoyed the issue cover to cover. Below I am happy to share several with you:

My Brother’s Life

It was the morning after
the night I had thrown
a shot glass at a woman.
The morning after the night
I had threatened to stab.
The morning after the night
of kicked in, broken doors
that I visited my brother’s
wife, the last remnants of
a Crown Royal bottle in my hand.
There was a therapist there
playing with my Autistic nephew
quietly in the other room
as I stood in the corner of the kitchen
watching my brother’s wife wash dishes,
drapes pushed aside the little window
above the sink, the sun coming through
with a bellyful of bird chirps and golden light
to illuminate her Mexican, African, Indian face.
Beautiful. I stood in awe and
for once my lips were parted, my nose not efficient
enough to let out the small gasps
that rose directly from my heart valves.
It wasn’t just love. It was envy mixed with love
and happiness for my brother, as my nephew’s laughter
Blinked in from the other room
and I brought the bitter smooth whiskey
to my parted lips. This stupid beauty
I’ll never be intelligent enough to understand,
for after all the violent, sad, lone nights
trying to obtain something great
I envy you this, brother, today.

By: Mathias Nelson of La Crosse, WI

This poem is bold, imagine being in the poet’s shoes and confessing your admiration and love and envy for your brother’s wife? He juxtaposes his wildness against the wife’s calm, the calm sounds of daylight against his inner conflicts. I like the line “bellyful of bird chirps” because you can get a sense of the surroundings as he stares at this picturesque moment of sunlight streaming in the kitchen window as the wife washes her dishes on an ordinary day. The poet admits his faults in the poem, a very brave thing most people cannot do, and lets the world read his anguish. Of course we can assume some poetic license, but it is still a striking and bold concept, a man admitting love and envy for a brother’s wife, and the brother’s life.



Dictionary Divinity

In the middle of an argument,
a boy I once dated
told me I was being brash.
You don’t mean brash, I said.
Brash is over-the-top
curvy hips
Bette Midler
truck driver language
spewing out through red lips.
It’s the cleavage shot that seduces
from tight black sweaters
sometimes accidental,
but not always.
It’s a cubic zirconium diamond
that’s a little too big to be real.
It’s shots of whiskey
sex on the first date
tattoos and fishnet stockings.
I wasn’t being brash
I am brash
I was being harsh,
and I couldn’t want a boy
who didn’t know the difference.

By: Stephanie Brea of Jeanette, PA

This poet kicks the boy in the teeth with her argument, which makes me grin. Putting him in his place she explains the difference and leaves him in the dust by refusing him. Most women savor the moment when they can finally tell off a man who is bothering them so I enjoy posting this one.



The Hotel Lifshin Isn’t Taking Any More Guests

it needs time to recover.
the hotel can’t keep up
with demands: 17 kinds
of olive oil, seventeen
brands of de-caf coffee.
The hotel doesn’t quite
remember a season like
this. The newspaper
in the lobby shredded,
torn before 8 AM. And
the books a couch
has been propped up on for
reasons the hotel doesn’t
know, mined, unless
you like to read books
where each page is
mostly a hole.

By: Lyn Lifshin of Viena, VA

This poem spurs my imagination, there is just enough to picture but not enough to satisfy which can make a poem even better. To a point, it sounds like this is a poet’s house and that the guests of her home have not been very kind in regards to the hospitality provided. At the same time, it really could be a hotel but wouldn’t a hotel repair a couch that was propped up by books? The questions the poem brings up are intriguing—who shreds a newspaper before 8 AM? Why would someone take books from a couch that are ruined from propping up a couch for a long, long time? If Lyn Lifshin happens to stumble upon this feature I hope some of the questions could be answered in the comments section if only to say it was an idea that popped up and not an actual event. No matter what, I enjoyed the poem because of all the mysteries that crop up and trying to picture who these guests are.



I hope you enjoyed this small sample, there were many more I wanted to share but feel you should obtain a copy for yourself!
To learn more about Nerve Cowboy and how to subscribe, please go to:

http://www.jwhagins.com/nervecowboy.html


Thank you for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Oh Hells Nah Blog

A very funny woman writes about poetry, politics, and food from Chicago on this blog. You will have to scroll down a bit to get to the poetry but please read everything in between, if you have a sense of humor, you will be laughing:

http://oh-hells-nah.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured journal…

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…