Poetry Tips: Support in Hard Times

Support poets and small presses!

The reasons, I think, should be obvious. If you enjoy reading poetry you should be willing to part with at least a small portion of your hard earned money to buy and read a journal or chapbook. Also, if you are a poet trying to get published you should invest in at least one subscription to a journal or small press publication of some kind. Times may be tough but the editors and presses are working harder now than ever because grants are disappearing, donations are slowing down, and new subscribers are probably growing scarce. I’m a huge advocate for poets getting paid for their work and there are presses out there who pay their poets. There are presses who have low prices and great quality combined so that even if they can’t pay their poets, the readers are sure to be proud that they spent their money on such a fine chapbook or journal while the poets are proud to be part of the press or journal.

Any of the presses on the sidebar are worth your money, and there are countless more out there not included. For those of you who would like to add a press to the sidebar, by all means, post a link or two in the comments section so I can add it for other potential readers to find it.

On a personal note, money is so tight right now that I can’t remember the last time I went to the movie theater, let alone a “nice restaurant” in comparison to fast food, but I am still willing to subscribe to a journal and buy a poetry book because I have personally connected to the press and the poets. I suggest you do the same for the ones you feel connected to. We’re all in this together, and together we’ll pull through.

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by Monday for another featured site…

Lilliput Review Open Submissions

Don’t you think this ties nicely with the review? Don Wentworth is always seeking more poems of ten lines or less to publish at the Lilliput Review so please submit up to 3 poems (all which can be typed on one page if they fit) along with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope to:

Lilliput Review
Don Wentworth, Editor
282 Main Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

lilliputreviewATgmailDOTcom

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/nelsona2.html
Amber Nelson’s “Swarm”

http://www.leftfacingbird.com/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD/LEFT%20FACING%20BIRD_files/Lily%20Brown.pdf
Lily Brown’s “Morning. The Poem Is Dead.”

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

Lilliput Review Issue #167

Lilliput Reviews Issue #167 speaks often of pines and the flights of various birds such as sparrows and egrets. I am always intrigued how Don Wentworth is able to put subtle themes in each issue and I am happy to share some precious gems with you:


February

The dark elms are cloaked
in bloodless vines, thin men
pulling out their hearts
on long, raveling string.
O, to be like them.
To be like them.

Hannah Craig, Pittsburgh, PA

All I can say is: Isn’t that a beautiful description?



The Nick of Time

I was lost
and this poem
found me.

Now we’re
lost together.
What a relief.

Jim Tolan, Brooklyn, NY

This is another poem that says it all—about poetry!




flowing through a chain link fence a flock of sparrows

Robbie Gamble, Jamaica Plain, MA

--Another beautiful description.

This is just a small sample of the wonderful poems in this issue and I hope you enjoyed them. As some of you may know, I am partial to poems that say what they mean to say in a clever, funny, and/or beautiful way. Issue #167 includes these kinds of poems and I hope you’ll spring at the chance to nab Issue #167 at the Lilliput Review for yourself, after all, it’s merely $1.00. Also, don’t forget to visit Issa's Untidy Hut, the Lilliput Review Blog, for all things poetic and excerpts from past issues.

Thanks always for reading! Please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Blue Hour Press

Blue Hour Press embraced technology and offers up digital chapbooks—you get to see the pages turn with every click and the experience is fantastic! Find out for yourself by clicking below:

Blue Hour Press

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

Poetry Tips: Tools of the Trade

There are thousands of ways to improve your poetic writing. Some handy basics to keep near your desk at all times would be: a dictionary, thesaurus, and a rhyming dictionary.

Of course, you can also keep plenty of incentives to write creatively such as beautiful journals, an interesting typewriter, fancy pens and pencils, beautiful parchment papers, pocket-sized notebooks, 3X5 cards, etc. There’s also the Writer’s Market, Poet’s Market, countless How-To books on writing poetry, and of course, poetry books themselves.

Don’t forget your on-line resources! There are plenty on the sidebar of this blog and you are sure to find help when typing key words into “Google” such as Poetry Tips, Writing Tips, etc.

Then of course, there are people: Start a poetry writing club, write to poets you admire and ask their advice, see if you can do any collaborative work with writers you feel connected to, whether it’s via e-mail, through letters, over the phone, or in person.


Remember, writing a poem doesn’t have to be a solo act unless you want it to be, and anytime you feel creatively blocked there are countless resources to be had. Get out there and be inspired!

Thanks for dropping in, please stop by again soon…

Flying Guillotine Press Chapbook Open Submissions

The submission guidelines are fairly simple, e-mail your manuscript (under 32) pages to
flyinguillotinepress (AT) gmail (DOT) com anytime during the month of April—not much time left so better hurry! Also, explore the blog to get an idea of what they’re about if you aren’t familiar with them.

I would recommend including your contact information such as name, address, e-mail, and phone number and be sure that you place “Submission” in the subject line of your e-mail.

See more for yourself below:

http://flyingguillotinepress.blogspot.com/


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://haikuguy.com/issa/haiku.php?code=027.09a
Issa’s “lantern”

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/180901.html
Russel Jaffe’s “Indiana”

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

Kevin Stein's Sufficiency of the Actual

Kevin Stein happens to be Illinois' Poet Laureate and Caterpillar professor of English at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Thanks to my mother-in-law, I received his book, Sufficiency of the Actual published by University of Illinois Press in 2009, as a present and was delighted with the poems I found inside.

You can view a preview of the book and its poems here: Sample Preview at Google: Sufficiency of the Actual

One of the poems that made me smile is titled “On Being a Nielsen Family” which essentially boils down to how we try to impress people despite who we really are. The following lines “the way a bickering couple makes nice/once the bell ding-dongs neighbors in/for cocktails and unsalted Cheese Nips” and “Though we watch Oprah, we circle BBC News” indicate what I mean. While we may not behave exactly as these lines represent, we can all relate in some way to how we alter ourselves for appearances’ sake.


This poem made me laugh and then cover my mouth: “Song of the Night Shift Foreman” where the poet and his fellow factory workers make up a song to ridicule their Foreman who typically has ear plugs in until one fateful night he overhears the song “trilled to The Beatles’ ‘Come Together.’” The song goes such as the poet provides: “he got juju eyeball,/he got funky hairlip,/he got nose down below his knees./Got to be a foreman,/he just do what he please” to which the foreman punishes them for it. In the poem, the foreman retaliates by demanding “200 boxes to the hour or your rear’s hauled out.” There is more to the poem than this but I want you to read it and discover your own reaction.

Kevin Stein’s collection pokes fun at the American way of life in many of his poems and I like his perspective on our country. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously and in tough times like these, his poems are a welcome read. I hope you’ll pick up this collection for yourself and thanks always for reading.

Please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

The Beat Generation

This blog is all things related to the beat generation, such as poets Ginsberg and Kerouac—whether it’s movies being made or news being shared, it all relates to the time period. Check it out at the link below:

http://thebeatgeneration.net/blog/

Thanks for dropping in, please stop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

Poetry Tips: As Poet Laureate I Would...

Some may dream about being the President, others CEO. What would you do if you were the Poet Laureate of your state? Of the country? Would you polish up your poems or write more often? Would you spend more time reaching out to those who don’t read poetry? What would you do as Poet Laureate and how would it affect you?
Sure, it’s not your typical poem writing prompt, but why not think and dream bigger than writing your next poem?

What is a Poet Laureate you may ask? Click the link below to learn more:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562026/Poet_Laureate.html


Thanks for dropping in, please stop by again soon. I’m afraid I have no interview for this weekend but hopefully the next one! One person I hoped to interview has had an influx of busy-life and she is working diligently to answer my q’s in the meantime, another has a chapbook that is behind in its publication so it will be an interview posted later on when it is available. Stay tuned!

Please drop in on Monday…

Copper Nickel Open Submissions

You may submit up to five poems or one piece of prose attached as a Microsoft Word file or an “RTF” with “submission” in the title line of your e-mail to element15ATcopper-nickelDOTorg. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, and phone number with each submission, and yes simultaneous submissions are accepted. For further details please click the link below:

http://www.copper-nickel.org/submissions.html

Good luck to all who submit! Please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://silencedpress.com/poetry/adrift/
“Adrift” by William Taylor Jr., excerpt from Pulverized Canine

http://adirondackreview.homestead.com/Urso.html
“Better Off” by Felicia Urso


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

Julian Gallo's A Symphony of Olives

Julian Gallo’s chapbook, A Symphony of Olives is published by Alternating Current's Propaganda Press. Isn’t the title marvelous? It is brought by the poem’s title in the collection and is also in the line of another poem. Mr. Gallo lives in New York City as a writer/musician and painter with many previous books published such as Standing On Lorimer Street Awaiting Crucifixion published by Alpha Beat Press in 1996 and novel November Rust published by Lulu in 2007. This particular collection of poems runs from light-hearted to critical and ranges from personal relationships to whimsical scenarios. Below are a few of my favorites:

Afternoon Delight

Like a red-eyed scavenger you
devoured my thoughts one by one.
You sometimes sit with
predatory hands, waiting to snatch any
Word that can be used against me.
You hear me but you never listen;
for that would take too much effort.
You are not what I always thought you were.
No, you are just one of the rubber gloved elite,
an aging debutante peering at the faded portraits
through your own weathered prism.

Interesting juxtaposition of the title to the poem itself! The lover sounds like a buzzard in the beginning and at the end is an aging debutante, opposites are engaged throughout the poem giving light to the conflict in the relationship yet the title indicates affection. Very clever surprise.


Rules Of The Game

And I try to teach myself many things.
A professor of the self, incessantly searching
for the right way, the only way, in fact
for me to get on with things.
Apart from the myths of today’s age.
Apart from the standards someone else has set.
Apart from the rules of the game
that I don’t want to be a contestant in.

It’s not an easy thing when you tell someone
that you don’t feel like playing.
They will try their best to make you play,
for they will not tolerate any insubordination,
any insurrection of any sort.
There are rules to this game and you must abide by them
or else be disqualified and forever withheld the dice.
It never occurs to them that you never wanted the dice
in the first place.

It never occurs to them that
one is just simply not willing to play.
You must conform, must be part of things.
Nothing else is tolerated.
They want you to play so they can try to beat you.
They want to win and badly
for this kind of success is most desired.
Otherwise they may have to face the extreme
Failure of their own.

This could just as easily have been titled “Society” don’t you think? I have always felt the way the poet describes himself here, I’m sure most of you have as well. Whether it be office politics, family or friends’ gatherings, there are unspoken rules to be followed and those who do not follow are immediately punished. I like that the ending says the game really has nothing to win which is obvious to all but the rule-followers who refuse to face reality.


Silence Over A Bridge

All of this of course is silence over a bridge.
Or a papal bull.
Or a royal decree.
All of this is everything
and nothing.
Oil. Lather.
A codex of blood
written on towels.
A piece of a symphonic bible
kept hidden in jars
under the sink.
All of this of course is bullshit,
designed to project something
lost in childhood reverie
which itself was lost
with dust bunnies under the couch.
Sexuality is the power you weild
Designed to ensnare the more
deceived among us.
But I am not fooled.
I know better.
It is
nothing more than the tap of phlegm
in old rusty spittoons.

I like all the strange imagery: “codex of blood/written on towels” and “symphonic bible” and then it shifts to the poet revealing these words as “bullshit” and that all things people use to fool one another is “nothing more than the tap of phlegm/in old rusty spittoons.” It’s a strange poem and that is why I like it.


If you enjoyed this sample of poems please note there is a wider range of subjects and that this chapbook can be had for a mere $5.00 at Propaganda Press where a free chapbook from the archives is included with your purchase. All poets receive royalties and I am a huge advocate of poets getting paid for their books so I hope you’ll support this small press and be amused by this collection of poems.

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

One Poet's Notes

Edward Byrne’s blog is intelligent and meaningful in the world of poetry and literary figures. Read the awesome essays and posts by clicking below and be inspired:

http://edwardbyrne.blogspot.com/

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