Durable Goods Microzine

Durable Goods is a microzine which is so micro that I cannot really even feature an individual issue. You will definitely need to check out their blog to learn more and I am going to share just one poem per issue as forwarded to me by Alternating Current:


Durable Goods Issue 20:

Maybe I Expected Something More Profound

operating rooms are bitter cold
and those black slab tables are stiff

sounds dissolve into liquid metal
when the nurse lets me know
the knockout drugs are in

I say two words and they reverb like
a robot pulling its own wires:
“hummingbird hamburger:

some other robot voice laughs
and I’m gone

I mistook dying for two very distinct places

first—

a zen temple with a black sand
octagon buried to my waist
and midgets shuttling me tiny plastic
cups of cold green tea

then—

the attic of a bent old Victorian
tied down to a cement mattress
squat teenage nurses holding gas
masks
over my face, oxygen hyper-blasted
down my throat
and dinosaur jr. wafting from
somewhere
lower in the house

by: Shawn Misener

I enjoyed this poem because of the strange delusions experienced from the anesthetics. I’ve never had to experience such a thing but I’ve heard tales, and Shawn Misener turned it into entertaining poetry.



Durable Goods Issue 24:

Spineless
She wears my vertebrae
hanging from her wrist—
each one collected as a charm.

They drum against each other
like hollow wind chimes
as her hips rock pneumatic
down Hollywood Boulevard.

She steps on stars
in those nasty boots

and wonders
out loud –
when I’ll grow a spine

By: Jason Hardung

This poem is a new take on “wrapped around your finger,” don’t you think? I really like the description of the vertebrae drumming together around this woman’s wrist as she wonders when the poet will grow a spine. He has one, the problem is that she’s got it wrapped around her wrist. Very interesting take on things, I like it.


If you enjoyed this micro-sample, please consider a subscription. It is a mere $12 US or $14 International for a 2011 subscription of 22 issues, for more details please use the link below:

http://durablegoodsmicrozine.blogspot.com/


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

Ink Haven

Annie Kerr posts regularly about her poetic endeavors, shares beautiful photographs and blogs about the beauty of the landscape around her. Check it out at:

http://inkhaven.blogspot.com/

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

Poetry Tips: Blogging

This is not about reading other people’s blogs, this is the active verb to blog, specifically about poetry. Many poets use blogs to share their own work, many are like myself and post things they believe are interesting or helpful.

For those of you who have blogs you know that it takes more time and effort to create it than for anyone visiting to read it. Even then, your readers most likely skim the material.

So is blogging right for you? Well, Monday’s post about Ron Silliman having three million bloggers would suggest that if you work hard and long at your passion, yes, it is worth the time and effort.

As for myself, I feel I have learned much more trying to blog than by trying to write and submit. This blog forces me to move out of my comfort zone to try new things, send poems to new places, to reach out to poets I would have been too shy to otherwise, and it has allowed other poets to reach out to me knowing that I support poets and poetry in all of its forms.

If you don’t have a blog you do not have to create one. The point for this post is to consider the idea. Find a way to reach out to more readers, writers, and editors and you may just surprise yourself.

For any veteran bloggers out there (I’d say you are veteran if you’ve been posting regularly for at least one full year) I’d love to see your thoughts about blogging in the comments section.

For potential bloggers, please feel free to leave questions in the comments section, even if you are afraid to ask a seemingly simple question all questions are good questions when it is unfamiliar territory.

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by again next week…

Rattle Open Submissions

You may send up to six poems, any length, throughout the year to Rattle Poetry. You may also send your work elsewhere but if your work is accepted elsewhere you must notify the staff at Rattle immediately. Make sure you look at their site to see if any of your poems fit any of the “themes” in upcoming issues to increase your chances of acceptance.

You also need to include your contact information. If submitting via e-mail to submissionsATrattleDOTcom, it would behoove you to put “Poetry Submission” and your last name as the title of your subject line in the e-mail.

If submitting by snail mail to:
Rattle
12411 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

Make sure your contact information is on each page of poetry.

For more details, visit:

http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm

Good luck to all of you who submit

Poems Found by Poet Hound

I have said before that I have been getting up early and as a result, forgetting my Poet Hound posts, so I do apologize. Here are the weeks' posts as they should have appeared:

https://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue36/amydavid2
Amy David’s “Reassurance”

http://www.sundresspublications.com/wickedalice/petro30.html
Teresa Petro-Micchelli’s “Bob Dylan’s Lost Children”

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

An Interview With Ed Galing

Ed Galing was born in New York City in 1917 on the lower east side and has lived an adventurous life serving in World War II, giving performances with his harmonica, and publishing book reviews, articles, poetry (of course) and essays all over the United States. He has won literary awards, been given numerous literary nominations and has been featured in several literary journals in addition to serving as Poet Laureate in his now hometown of Hatboro, Pennsylvania. Did I mention he is also 93 this year? Mr. Galing’s poetry collections have been featured before on Poet Hound and I feel it is time to pick his brain and he was kind enough to oblige. This interview also focuses on his collection of poems in a chapbook titled Senior Center, published by Peerless Press, which is a world in itself that the majority of us don’t think about often, if at all. Not only is Mr. Galing himself an interesting subject but so is this collection of poems so let’s marry the two and proceed:

1.) Mr. Galing, thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed. You’ve been writing for decades and you are still going. Any advice for writers who want to write as long as you’ve been writing? Any secrets such as “eat corned beef every day?”

Writing poetry, or any other media, fiction, articles, etc. is a burning desire to communicate with other people. One has to be committed-- (almost like a marriage) a true writer will always write – never stop. Others will do it for a while, then give up! Age has nothing to do with it! Only PASSION!



2.) I have read poets who discuss aging and how their lives are affected by it but you are the first to discuss life in a Senior Center, which is also the title of your collection that I have in front of me. May I ask why you wanted to devote a collection of poems to the people who work at and visit a Senior Center?

When I wrote Senior Center I envisioned those who go to them, who never had a VOICE! I wanted everyone to know about them—their LIVES, etc. Mostly widows and widowers—the lonely—sadly not many read this chap[book].



3.) The next few questions I’ll be asking you to expand on how you came up with some of the poems inside this chapbook. The first one I’d like to ask you about is “A Haven of Refuge.” For one, it is a group of people gathering for a very inexpensive meal, and second, you do not necessarily end up sitting with someone you know. For people like me who know nothing about Senior Centers, how is it that such a place comes into existence? Also, why do you sometimes end up next to strangers? Is it something the staff arranges or is it something you do to meet new people? Finally, you end with the easing of loneliness which is a feeling we can all relate to. Can you expand on the feeling of loneliness before you arrive at the Senior Center that drives people to come here for a meal and companionship?

A Haven For Refuge
we have several
rooms
in our senior
center
but the favorite
room
is the main
dining room…
open from twelve
to three,
and for just
fifty centers,
we are able to
sit down at a
round table,
complete with
table cloths,
holding about
six or seven
people each,
being served
a great jewish
meal on a nice
day,
soup and salad,
chicken or fish,
while we rub
shoulders with
whoever is next
to us,
getting acquainted
all over again,
strangers when we
came in,
now no longer,
as we sip the soup,
eat our dessert,
and no longer
alone in the world.

Those of us who attend Senior Centers soon become friends—the common bond is we are mostly Jewish and share different experiences sitting around the table, men and women, being served by others, soon begin to talk, and share their lives. And they are all so interesting, all ages. The Government subsidizes the meals—and they are delicious. It’s almost like a “Red Cross Club” during WWII when everyone in the “SERVICE” came together. It’s a bond, a sharing—Senior Centers have been around a long time—being alone is often frightening—as my poem relates—togetherness spells LOVE! & Peace.



4.) In your poem, “The Young and the Old” you describe how the energy from the young people infuses you and your fellow visitors with joy and how at the end you feel like crying when a young girl kisses your cheek. Having worked as an Activities Director of a nursing home I know how much older people enjoy visiting with younger people. Some of the residents would say, “I don’t like being stuck talking to old people all of the time.” That sentiment comes clear to me in this poem, can you explain the importance of having a mix of ages to interact with in daily life for our other readers?

The Young and the Old
in our senior center
youth is celebrated
there are times when
the young come to
visit us;
they mingle with
we older folks,
and it makes us feel good;
the young boys
and girls
who visit
our center
come willingly,
to mingle with
us older ones;
to intermingle
and we swap stories;
and we listen to
their eager voices;
their freshness is
a joy to behold;
we all gather in
the large dayroom
when they come;
sometimes they entertain
us;
they dance and sing;
to broadway sketches;
we sit in chairs while
they perform;
marveling how they move;
the joy in their faces;
there is a time when
the old and the young
in our center share
a common bond of humanity;
and once, when a young
lady kissed my cheek,
i almost felt like crying.


Senior Centers and adult day care centers are needed for those of us who are not too well, or lost someone, and needs a place for someone to take care of them for a few hours. Besides health care, they also have amusements, all kinds of singing, dog acts, harmonica, magicians, and young people to make the old people feel good. Both young and old learn from it.

My wife attended day care when she was 80 some years old. She mingled with others her own age while I did the shopping, etc. and I took a break. There were lots of activities and lunch, too, it was necessary.




5.) I think your poem, “Philosophy” is a very important one in capturing the sentiments I often hear expressed of people who are aging and I have to say I agree with your poem wholeheartedly. I am not quite sure how to phrase what I want to ask you for this poem but it boils down to this: How can you enlighten those of us who are younger as to what older people really want to see on television and hear on the radio? What is important to you and other people your age versus what those of us under 65 are led to believe thanks to the media that is focused on youth?

Philosophy
I am not a
very sociable
creature

neither am i
a hermit

there are times
when the senior
center does
bother me a bit,

i will admit
it..

i feel as if these
people are like
me,

wanting to be cooped
up with our own
kind,

trying to keep old
age in a corner,

locked up in a box
away from the outside
world..

everything on the outside
is geared to youth,

old people are never mentioned
in any television ads,
except when it comes to
arthritis; alzheimers;
constipation; diabetes; and
clogged arteries..

i begin to feel
like i want to stand
up on a soap box and
shout out loud,
liars, liars..
we live too…


Well, of course it’s the Young and Beautiful—but aging needs to be honored, recognized, respected, and understood. Many get older in looks but inside we’re FINE. Yes, we hate the thought of being old. I think women, more than men. Movie stars—all that, face lifts, all that. More older people now than ever and a cheerful redignation is better than “pumped up” make-overs. “Dem’s my Thoughts!”



6.) There are many poems I’d love to feature but then our readers wouldn’t have as large an incentive to reach out to you and read more of your work so let’s stick with some lines that piqued my interest instead of sharing poems in their entirety. You mention your wife who passed away several years ago and how you do not have someone at your side every day to pass the days with. If you don’t mind, can you expand on the role your wife played in your daily lives together and what life is like now in comparison without her?


The saddest, most heart breaking moment of my LIFE when my dear WIFE died at 88. She was very ill by then—Alzheimer’s, all kinds of ailments—I LOVED my wife—we were like Brother & Sister—like lovers, always. I loved her smile—her sense of humor—she was BEAUTIFUL! We went everywhere together, trips to the shore, New York, all over—I GRIEVE every day—I MISS HER.




7.) The last question I have for your collection is the one regarding the other Senior Center visitors. Many different kinds of people come to the Senior Center, including those who are homeless, you mentioned. How does such a large mix of people interact here in relative acceptance when in earlier years this mix of people would be unheard of in locations such as restaurants or parties or business events? What makes a Senior Center different from any other gathering place?

There is a linking bond at a Senior Center. A common sharing. Restaurants, parties, you come & go—it’s IMPERSONAL. Dancing helps, too, and MUSIC!




8.) Mr. Galing, being 93 and a poet who has lived a life full of family, friends, writers, do you still feel lonely more often than not? What do you do for yourself to combat those feelings nowadays? Any advice for the rest of us who may be lonely at different times in our lives?

Oh-oh-at 93, I am now in a “Scooter” Chair. Disabled. But get around. Lonely as heck. Write every day, I have people to help me every day from Government. Meditate. That HELPS.




Mr. Galing, thank you so much for answering my questions. I hope readers not only come away with an appreciation of your poetry but also an appreciation for people who are, as you say, “trying to keep old/age in a corner.” I hope to be as strong in mind and opinion as you are while I continue to age.

“Music Helps, PLAY harmonica”



If you enjoyed this interview and you would like to purchase a copy of Senior Center it is a mere $5.00. Please e-mail me at:
Poethoundblogspot@yahoo.com
I will be happy to provide Mr. Galing’s address so that you may obtain a copy for yourself.

Ron Silliman's 3 Millionth Visitor

On Oct. 14th Mr. Silliman announced he would soon have his 3 millionth visitor. That’s right, that’s what he said! He also talks more about the idea of poets reaching out by blogging and I urge you to read that post so when you visit his site, scroll down and read about this new record. It just may inspire you:

http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/

Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for an interview with poet Ed Galing…

Open Submissions and Poetry Tips

I have been trying to get up earlier these days and I have to say, the sleepiness in the morning has made me forgetful, so my apologies for skipping Thursday, here's both Thursday and Friday's features:


Open Submissions:

Ampersand Review

You should check out the link below, their guidelines are humorous and open year-round, but note you may e-mail five poems with your contact information to:
ampersandsubmit@gmail.com

For further details, go to:
http://ampersand-books.com/guidelines/

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


Poetry Tips: Be Bold

Lately I have been pleased with the e-mails I have been receiving from poets who are polite yet bold enough to ask if I’d like to review their chapbook. So far they have all been men and I don’t know if that is coincidence or not but I’d like to extend the invitation to women to be bold and to men who haven’t taken the plunge. There is nothing wrong with finding a blog or site you enjoy that posts reviews and politely asking if the editor or creator would be willing to take the time to review and feature you on-line. It takes courage and some careful wording but I would encourage all of you to be bolder in your daily lives with poetry and all things outside of poetry. This week be bold! Ask for a raise (with quantifiable data printed out), ask for that job you’ve applied for instead of waiting for a response, ask for an editor or reader to review your work, this week, be bold!

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21836
“Vespertina Cognito” by Natasha Tretheway

http://www.sundresspublications.com/wickedalice/dixon30.html
“Poem For The Friend Who Packed My Husband’s Closet” by Laura Dixon

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

Up and Running

Greetings and Salutations!

Our internet is back up and running, there will be posts again starting on Wednesday so please check back again in a couple of days.

Thanks for dropping by...

Internet Troubles

Hello Everyone,
I am sitting at a local coffee shop because Vonage and AT&T did not switch everything over within the 24 hours that they had indicated to us and our local AT&T won't be open until Monday. That means that there will be no Monday morning post and depending on how complicated it is to fix there may not be posts further into the week.
Apologies for the inconvenience, I won't be stopping at the local wireless coffee shop very often as I would feel obliged to buy coffee every time I sat down and I just don't have the funds at the moment.

Thanks always for visiting, please keep checking in!

Poetry Tips: Memorize One Poem

I know I’ve put this up in the past but this is one I think is important. There is a poem out there that speaks to you and it is one you need to learn and carry with you in your memory. There will be times when you have trouble putting feelings into words and this poem will bring you comfort or joy.

My personal favorite is by Emily Dickinson and it starts “A poor torn heart, a tattered heart…”

How about you?

Good luck to all who endeavor to memorize, please stop in again next week…

Barrier Islands Review Open Submissions

Straight from the site:

POETRY
Barrier Islands Review is also looking for well-written poetry. As with fiction, we're not looking for sentimentality, but well placed emotion doesn't hurt. Poetry may be on any subject and in any format, but special attention will be paid to traditional and invented forms. However, content should never be sacrificed for form. Submit up to six poems for consideration, up to 100 lines each.
SEND
All submissions must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are okay if you tell us when they’ve been published elsewhere. Multiple submissions are okay, too. Please use our handy-dandy submissions manager.

Email submissions will be scowled at and deleted. Snail mail submissions will be used to make paper maché jungle animals.

IFS
If your work is selected for publication, we request first digital publication rights along with the right to archive your piece indefinitely. However, pieces may be taken down upon the author’s request. Published works are eligible for the yearly chapbook publication.

PAYMENT
At this time we are not a paying market. This may change in the future, depending on readership and donations. However, digital copies will be furnished for all contributors. Those whose work is chosen for the “Best Of” anthology will receive a contributors’ copy.

For more details and to use their submissions manager go to:
http://barrierislandsreview.com/html/submissions.html

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

Poems Found By Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175341
“Cold Blooded Creatures” by Elinor Wylie

http://www.anhinga.org/books/book_info.cfm?title=Lost Country of Sight
Neil Atkin’s Poems from Lost Country of Sight

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

Ed Galing's Sunrise, Sunset

Mr. Galing’s Sunrise, Sunset is published by Peerless Press. Mr. Galing’s Author’s note explains that the title is taken from “Fiddler on the Roof” as it best fits his collection of poems. These poems take in childhood memories and current day reflections of his life. As always, Mr. Galing’s poems are straightforward and communicate exactly what he is trying to say, which I enjoy immensely. I hope you’ll enjoy the small sample of the poems I’ve selected:

Waiting For My Son

it will take him
about
two hours to get
to
jack’s deli, where
i am waiting
he lives in
maryland

says he can’t get a good corned
beef sandwiches there.

so he is coming to meet me
here, and i sit in a booth
and wait and i am holding an
old album,
full of pictures from the old days.

one is when i bought him his first
bike, oh, how he rode around and
around, waving his hands happily.

it was the first bike he ever had, and
we lived in a housing project, very,
poor, but somehow, i was able to buy
him the bike.

i had never seen a happier boy in my life
i want to show him these pictures when he comes.

so much time has gone by since those days
for one, my wife has died, and
i am alone, and the album is about the
only thing that keeps me thinking young.

my wife once said: why do you keep the
pictures so long?, she couldn’t understand how much it meant to
be able to see the
past, when we were young and happy.

he should be here soon…i keep thinking
now he is seventy years old, and i’m
ninety one… it’s hard to believe so much time
has come and gone… so many tribulations.

wait till he sees this album, i think…
and there he is, just walked in, he sees me

and waves, and for a moment I can’t believe
this is my ten year old son…this is a man…
who is slightly bent over, has a moustache, limps,
and is headed my way…no, there must be a mistake…
but here he is now, smiling and saying, hello, dad,
but the traffic is awful out there… now let’s eat
some of the good cornbeef.

hello son, i reply. be my guest.

i don’t think I will show him the album.
that’s a different story, a different time…

This poem definitely tugs at my heartstrings. Mr. Galing is looking fondly over the photos of his family when they were all young and his son full of energy on his bicycle. When Mr. Galing looks up he sees the transformation of his son’s youth to a man bent over and walking with a limp, he doesn’t have to say his heart aches but you know through his words that it does. It would break his heart to show the album to his son by the time he arrives and so he puts it away to spare himself. This is a poignant poem from the heart.



Burlesque

we didn’t know, really,
how good we had it,
until the day it
came to an end,
it was a long time
ago,
when burlesque made us
feel like real men,
when the girls
danced on two left feet,
dressed in gaudy
costumes with plumes and
feathers, but at least
they tried,
and the strip teasers pranced
up and down the stage,
to the staccato beat of the
drum, keeping time with every
beat, tatatata tatata…
shedding a little bit of
clothing every time,
until all of us would
scream, take it off, take
it all off,
to see a naked girl in
the flesh, young, beautiful,
not ashamed of their bodies,
you always bought a candy box
from the candy man who said
there was a prize in every box,
which was a lie,
but we didn’t mind,
part of the fun of bein
alive at this time,
seeing naked girls without
having to beg for it
when burlesque faded
away, like a 45 rpm, it was
a bad day for us,
and now it is gone, and
in its place is a WALMART DRUGS
store, and the only sound
now, is the sound of the cash registers,
and thats the only music
they care about,
and nothing else.

I thought I’d lighten up the mood after the previous poem. This one is a no-holds-barred poem about a man missing the burlesque shows and knowing there is nothing like it anymore. Straightforward and funny, to me anyway, Mr. Galing describes “the good ol’ days” in a way that most men do not. Thanks for the big grin, Mr. Galing.



Jewish Heaven

in the day care center where i
often go for a visit, i see all
kinds of old people, some in wheel
chairs, walkers, staring out at
the world who has treated them so
unkindly… who asked for a broken
down body? who wanted to have
alzheimers? we have nothing to say
about it. we pray, we go to church
or synagogue, hoping that God will
hear our prayers… i know someone who
eats in a jewish deli, about eighty
two years old, who wrings his hands
together and looks up at the ceiling,
praying to someone up there to give
him just one more day of life…
i know what he’s thinking… he knows
that the odds are great that when his
number is up, there is nothing he can
do about it, even if he prays every day.
at least he eats his corned beef sandwich
with relish. and ketchup too. and i
watch this old little man, who prays
in a jewish deli, and then eats like
there is no tomorrow… i hope he likes
corned beef up in heaven, if that is where
he goes someday. as for me, i like a
good bowl of matzo ball soup. and please,
some rye bread too.

This poem makes me smile, too. Mr. Galing observing a fellow diner while they enjoy their respective dishes and witnessing prayers to God for one more day of good food is an entertaining subject for a poem. Think of how many different kinds of people thank God for their meal and then think of this poem. It makes me smile all the more, watching an older man wringing his hands as if to say “please just one more corned beef sandwich before I die” instead of the usual prayers said at mealtime. Mr. Galing is inspired to add his own prayer which is for matzo ball soup instead, with some rye bread, and leaves me smiling at the end. I think I’ll be appreciating my meals even more from now on thanks to this poem.


I hope you enjoy these poems as much as I do. You can snag a copy for yourself for $5.00 from Ed Galing himself. If you are interested, please e-mail me at poethoundblogspot@yahoo.com

I don’t want to give out his mailing address so openly on the internet, so please do e-mail me if you’d like a copy of this chapbook.


You can also read and learn more about Mr. Galing by visiting his blog, run by his friend Doug Holder, at:

http://edgaling.blogspot.com/

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