Still Unpacking

My apologies again for more delays. We've moved into our new home and my husband's computer connects to the internet just fine while mine will not. I'll be trying to get that worked out this week and we are still unpacking so please drop in again next week when I will hopefully have everything right-side up again.

Future Read A Good Book Friday

In the near future Fridays will be about books I’ve read that I enjoyed and will share with readers. This will be a non-poetry feature and I will be looking for feedback as I get this new feature going.

Thanks for reading, please drop in again next week…

Chicken Pinata Open Submissions

You may submit your poems via e-mail as a .doc or .rtf submission, they prefer shorter poems and while they welcome simultaneous submissions you must let them know if your poems are accepted elsewhere. Look at their site as they have links to their poems to get a feel for whether your poetry fits their aesthetic.

When sending your e-mail be sure to attach a .jpg of yourself and submit a third person bio up to 100 words.

Send your e-mail with the subject line reading “Submission—your name” to:
submissionsATchickenpinataDOTcom


Check out all the details using the link below:

http://www.chickenpinata.com/Guidelines.html


Good luck to all who submit, please stop in again…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.chickenpinata.com/I5--Bradford.html
“Back to Back” by Lisa Rose Bradford

http://www.octopusmagazine.com/Issue14/html/main.html
“The Massachusetts Book of the Dead” by Katie Peterson



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

Another Week or Two for the Tuesday Feature

Hello everyone, I am still buried under boxes and we are moving into our new place this weekend. My apologies at delaying Tuesday and the new Friday posts for another week or two but please drop in for Wednesday and Thursday.

Thanks always for reading, please stop by tomorrow…

Dragon Cave Blog

Art Durkee is a wandering musician, artist and writer who shares his work in his wonderful blog providing essays, poetry, audio and visual inspirations. I urge you to check it out at the link below:

http://artdurkee.blogspot.com/


Thanks for clicking in, please stop in again tomorrow…

This Week

Thanks for responding to my Friday post, I'll be happy to feature books that are good reads that are not about poetry.

This week there are no posts since I had a very busy but successful weekend with our annual dance performance.

Please drop in again next week when I am back to my regular schedule...

New Friday Feature Suggestion

I have to admit that coming up with Poetry Tips each week has become increasingly difficult. I’ve been trying to think up a new feature to replace it with and would like some feedback from you about this idea:

Read A Good Book Fridays

I enjoy a wide range of subjects and genres and thought that I could recommend books I’ve enjoyed reading that are not related to poetry. From finance books to short story writers to novels, there would be plenty to feature there.

So let me know if you think it’s a go!

Thanks for dropping in and please stop in again next week…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue42/s-w-whelan
“Compulsion” by S. W. Whelan


https://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue42/kathleen-kirk
“Paperless Cuts” by Kathleen Kirk


Thanks for clicking in, please drop by Friday for more Poetry Tips.…

Announcement

Sorry everyone, there will not be any Tuesday posts for the next 2-3 weeks as I finish up sewing a costume for our big annual dance performance and get more packing done as we move into a new apartment after this performance. In the meantime, the other posts are ready to go so please drop in again tomorrow and thanks always for reading…

Speed of Light Blog

Keddy Ann Outlaw is a poet, artist, and librarian from the Lone Star State who channels her creativity and insight into her wonderful blog, Speed of Light, check it out at:

http://speedoflight-lonestarlibrarian.blogspot.com/


Thanks for clicking in, please stop in tomorrow for a featured poet…

Poetry Tips: Fan Letters

These days I doubt many people write letters but e-mails accomplish the same thing. If you are a poet chances are there are poets who have inspired you, living and dead.

If any of the poets you admire are living, I challenge you to write them a fan letter or e-mail depending on how accessible the poet is. Let them know which poems are your favorite, let them know what collections you have or journals you’ve seen their work in. All poets and writers crave positive feedback on their hard work and if you truly enjoy someone’s work why not let them know?

For poets who are no longer with us, you can still write a fan letter that you keep for yourself or write a letter as a tribute to them. Of course, you can always write a tribute poem as well.

Good luck to all of you who write fan letters this week, please drop in again next week…

Nerve Cowboy Open Submissions

You may snail mail up to five poems, no simultaneous submissions please, with your contact information on each poem. Be sure to include a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope and send your submission to:

Joseph Shields and Jerry Hagins, Editors
Nerve Cowboy
PO Box 4973
Austin, TX 78765

*Definitely look up their website and read a sample of the poems available if you cannot get a copy of the journal to see what kind of poems they lean towards.

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://wordswithoutborders.org/article/path-of-light/
“Path of Light” by Amina Said


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/2043
“Chicago” by Carl Sandburg


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

Mather Schneider's Drought Resistant Strain

Published by Interior Noise Press in Austin, Texas in 2010, Mather Schneider’s full-length collection of poems in Drought Resistant Strain are straightforward and honest. The poems discuss everything from the hot, Tuscan sun to the mortality of the poet’s loved ones, below I am happy to share a few poems:


Old Timers

My grandparents
are getting old.
They stopped sleeping
in the same bed
a long time ago.
I don’t know
if they are still in love
or if they
ever were.
You get the feeling they’re
beyond all that.
Each morning
whoever wakes up first
gets out of bed
and shuffles across the house
to see if the other
is still alive
before starting the
coffee.

I like this poem because I can see this elderly pair taking turns shuffling down the hallway. The mystery of whether they are still in love still enshrouds a sentimental turn that they care enough to check up on the other one before starting the coffee. Also, you can’t help but wonder if they would brew enough coffee for just one cup before calling family if they did discover their other half had passed away.




Our Tin Roof

The squirrels ran around up there
like crazy step-brothers scraping their nails
on the inside of an attic door.
Birds straddled the peak,
their delicate steps
an itch you couldn’t scratch.
Even snakes got up there—
someone rubbing calloused hands together
far above us.
In autumn leaves fell on our tin roof,
little bat-wing whispers
brushing your skin,
and the acorns were thrown
from the macabre
parade float oaks.
Rain became music
that would drown you,
and snow was like being buried alive:
it piled up and made a sound
like the earth itself moving.
The wind was the worst,
the way it howled and tore
at the ragged tongues,
the way it found and infected each
new crack,
the way it taught us
to raise our voices
louder and louder.

This poem reminds me of the houses down here in Florida, most cracker style homes have the tin roof and its occupants always describe how much they love listening to the rain. Mr. Schneider’s poems bring these sounds to life for me since I have not had the opportunity to experience them often and I enjoyed imagining the sounds of snow, rain, and squirrels.



Dwayne

Dwayne invents a perpetual motion machine
while servicing the physics room.
He’s a janitor at the college.
He studies the numbers abandoned
on the blackboard
before erasing them
like a human windshield wiper.
His idea: an immortal generator
with unlimited,
unpolluting energy.
No more killing each other,
no more working two jobs,
no more worrying all the time…
It’s simple, all he needs is an ocean
and gravity.
There’s only one problem:
with no reason to struggle
the human race would deteriorate.
So Dwayne has vowed never to reveal
the details of his creation.
It will die with him, unspoken.
He has saved mankind.

This is an intriguing story to me which I enjoyed very much. You can’t help but wonder what this man discovered that we’ll never know and how often things like this might be happening where one understated genius keeps silent to save us from ourselves.


If you enjoyed this sample, you may purchase a copy of Drought Resistant Strain by Mather Schneider from Interior Noise Press for $15.00 by visiting the link below:

http://interiornoisepress.com/INP_HP_Schneider.html

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