Poetry Tips: A Quote From Thoreau

I’ve been reading Walden as time allows and absolutely feel the need to share part of this passage with you:

“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; -not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.”

If that doesn’t spark appreciation or inspiration then I don’t know what else to say.

Thanks for dropping in, please stop in after Memorial Day next week on Tuesday…

Rattle Poetry Prize

I got this via post-card and here’s the scoop: First Prize is $1000!

To be eligible to win the contest you must send an entry fee of $18.00 which automatically includes a one-year subscription to RATTLE, or an extension to those who already subscribe, and you can send up to four poems altogether. No simultaneous submissions and don’t forget to enclose a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope when you mail your entry by August 1st to:

RATTLE
12411 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

OR you can e-mail your poems to submissionsATrattleDOTcom but be sure to title it as “submission – your first and last name.” Paste your poems into the e-mail and you’re done!

Winners will be announced no later than September 19th and the poems will be published in the Winter 2009 issue.

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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://juked.com/2009/04/pineappleandsoda.asp
“Pineapple and Soda” by l. Christopher


http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19501
“Bats” by Paisley Rekdal

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

Stain: A Literary Journal

Stain is based out of Brooklyn, New York and is a product of a group called the Stained Glass Confessional that meets at the Stain Bar to perform poetry, stories, and more. Janice Brabaw, the editor, created this anthology featuring the performers from her press, Tangled Up In Blue which you can find out more about with the links provided at the bottom. The variety in the anthology is a great collection of various personalities in poems, pictures, stories and emotional expressions as anyone could wish for. Luckily, Janice Brabaw has given me permission to share a few of the poems in their entirety:


Innocence
By Patricia Carragon

Innocence came out to play
And saw storm clouds instead.

The fluffy days of childhood
Played tag with problems,
But never could get the stains out
As new problems settled in.

We still wash our dirty laundry
In water and detergent,
Not expecting them to look
Squeaky clean.

The more we scrub,
The darker the stains
After each rinse.

We dry our clothes inside,
Never hang our history
On a clothesline.

It would only clash against
The pretty greenery
Next door
And the neighbors
Would complain.


Don’t you think this is a clever poem? I do. Comparing innocence to washing the laundry may not be a novel comparison but I love that the stains only get darker the harder you try to scrub them away and how the neighbors would complain if you hung your “dirty laundry” out to dry for all to see. Very typical of society who is typically dysfunctional but always going to great lengths to hide it or get rid of the dysfunction.



STR8 Appearing
By Frank Kelly

When was it first uttered,
This boast?
Who first devised this intricate equation?
Gay,
But not gay appearing.
Not straight, no
(Let’s get that straight),
But straight appearing.
Or, even better,
S-T-R the number 8 appearing –
Like some fabulous brand of straightness
To complement our iPhones and Sean John hoodies.
No one will know what you are
By what I appear to be.
We can pass
For our admired
Aped
Feared
Disdained
Ever-fascinating
Former (and occasionally current) oppressors
Now become our role models.
Not-like-them in sexual orientatin
Like-them in everything else.
Indeed, on a good day,
Indistinguishable.
We march out of our closets and into the gym
The iron closet
Where we sweat and strain
To become STR8 appearing.
Free? Not exactly.
Free weights? Exactly!
Broadway buzz? Sure!
But also buzz cuts!
And abs?
My dear, abs-solutely!
Granted,
We can and do discriminate in our color schemes
Between seafoam and mint,
Heather and oatmeal,
But in this era of sensitive straight males
So do they!
Not just equals,
With kids and house and church and family,
We’re the same.
So the question now becomes:
Why go to all the trouble of being gay in the first place?


Frank Kelly brings up an interesting dichotomy, of gays appearing to fit in with the very same people who have or may still be oppressing them. There are plenty of questions to ponder on about that strange socialization of fitting in and an excellent poetic way of bringing about those questions.



Fall
By Darcie VanHamlin

Fall to madness as often as you please,
but do not faint.
Fall to your knees at the songs of birds,
but do not practice fits of fancied dreams winging their way
into the night.
Fall to loving things like pools of light,
wrinkles in your clothes and papers without words,
but do not exit a room without leaving someone with a
peculiar admiration and more.

Fall into habits of whispering when no one’s there to hear,
but do not write the words of your heart upon your skin or in your hair.
Fall to the ground as often as you can, in tears and blubbering sobs,
but do not fall into a lover’s arms without first taking careful consideration
as to whether or not you feel like pushing them out the
window at the slightest provocation.

Fall to being idiosyncratic,
but do not fall to being a heroine to those with idle hands and idle minds.
Fall to life as often as you please.
Just fall,
but do not faint.


I think this poem says more the more often you read it. In general, you know you can fall for and into things with full awareness but then you can look deeper into the kinds of falling Darcie describes.


If you enjoyed this short excerpt into Stain, you can pick up your very own copy and find out more about Tangled Up In Blue Press by going to:

http://www.janicebrabaw.com/the-best-of-stain-anthology.html

You can also join Stained Glass Confessional and find out more about them at:
Stained Glass Confessional on Facebook

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

Delirius Hem

Or “This is what a Feminist (Poet) Looks Like.” This blog features female poets with articles and interviews. It is smart and entertaining, I urge you to check it out at:


http://www.delirioushem.blogspot.com/


Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured journal...

Poetry Tips: Mixed Media

Poetry doesn’t have to be black and white by hand or on the computer, there are many ways to portray your words. Heck, you could even clip words out of magazine from a poem you’ve already written and send it off to an unsuspecting recipient. Forget letters from “Serial Killers” what about Serial Poets? You could also paint a portrait of what your poem is about, even if it is abstract. There is also turning your poem into music, what notes would portray the feel and meaning of the poem? If your poem has rhythm, could you play the drums to it? Play a flute, a harp, guitar, trumpet, anything behind it? Could you take a series of photographs that relate to the poem and arrange it into a pictorial poem?

Sometimes it is difficult to get away from the writer’s desk—take a break and try something new. Dive further into the unknown and see what you come up with. Good luck!

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

Poetry Midwest Open Submissions

Don’t worry, it will show the year 2006 but the journal is still going and current, Poetry Midwest is published three times a year and accepts e-mail submissions. You may send up to 3 poems pasted into your e-mail to: submitATpoetrymidwestDOTorg
In the subject line include: “Poetry Midwest Submissions : your real name” The editor, Matthew Schmeer, makes a point to say your real name, not your e-mail account’s name. There are many more details and the current issue is available so please read on at:

http://poetrymidwest.blogspot.com/2006/01/submission-guidelines.html


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=29516
“Carlos” by Theodore Deppe

http://arseniclobster.magere.com/190501.html
“standing offer/birthday saints” by Janie Gleason

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

Stay Tuned

Sorry everyone, I ran out of time to read and review this week on account of many birthdays, Mother’s Day, and real life interruptions… I’ll have one next week and please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

A Long House Bird House

I love blogs that come from publishers and this is one of them. There is an assortment of good things here in the form of personal anecdotes, sharing of poems by various authors, plenty of interesting links, more than enough to keep you occupied and entertained at:

http://longhousepoetryandpublishers.blogspot.com/

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

Poetry Tips: Poetry In The News

Today I challenge you to take the latest headlines either globally or within your community and turn them into poems. Depending on the community you live in you could find plenty of strange incidents to write about. I heard a new story the other day of a woman whose foot was broken because of a runaway thief who ran smack into her. That’s certainly an entertaining headline compared to which celebrities are getting married vs. getting divorced, don’t you think? Find something in the news that makes your eyebrows rise and write about it.

Good luck to all who try and please stop in Monday for another featured site…

Blue Hour Chapbook Open Submissions

Send between 10-40 pages of your chapbook manuscript to submitATbluehourpressDOTcom and in the subject line of the e-mail please put in Caps Lock the following: Last name, First Name, and the Title of your project. Their example is: ASHBERRY JOHN SOME TREES

Include a small bio and a restricted version of your publication history. For further details please click the link below:

http://www.bluehourpress.com/


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

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/019/bunting_rachel_002.html
Rachel Bunting’s “The Apiary”

http://www.coconutpoetry.org/clarkj1.html
Jackie Clark’s “The Never Ending Shredding Project”


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

Michael Kriesel's The Light of Fields

Michael Kriesel’s mini chapbook, The Light of Fields, courtesy of the Pocket Protector Series by Alternating Current is a mere $3.00 at Propaganda Press. I think it is interesting to note that this collection is a reprint originally published by Jump River Press, Inc. in 1982 when this author was 20 years old. What would you say to re-printing something you wrote 20 years ago? I think it would be an enlightening experience as to how you’ve changed as a writer since. This collection exposes fresh experiences of love and life throughout the pages and there are several poems I enjoyed in this collection and as always I will share them with you below:


Breaking Silences

For days
I have watched each cloud in the river
broken into speech against the rocks

I will break many silences
to tell you this.


Personally, I love the imagery of “each cloud in the river/broken into speech against the rocks” because it is unusual and imaginative. I also wonder what kind of silences are broken in the last stanza, an awkward first meeting or simply an interruption of quietness together?



Walking From Funerals

Unconsoled I see the light of fields

the bursting red dyings of leaves
clutch my hair and my feet
with the hands of small children

Unmoved I continue

although I have hands like their own
and veins swell as theirs do

Look back
and the fires are stars

We are not ours
but those we cannot hold

I am a universe alone


I like the way Mr. Kriesel uses leaves as comparisons to hands clutching him despite his feeling so alone after loss, the idea of anyone clutching him being unable to comfort him.




The Lean Tree

To wake
to snow’s still soul

easing the bent stems
from memory

Rising
to still limbs of pine
become white as the eyes of the blind

I trust to the green underneath

and abandon my tracks
to the snow.


If it were still winter, I would recommend reading this poem and comparing it to your own surroundings. It’s a beautiful poem in which you can feel the silence and picture the beauty of the landscape knowing that there is the promise of color and spring to come.



If you enjoyed this short sample please visit The Propaganda Press Catalog to snap up a copy of your own and remember that with any purchase through the catalog a bonus book is included from archives. Not only will you be supporting the small press but the poet as well since poets can set royalties through Alternating Current and I am always an advocate of poets getting paid for their work.

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

Blogging Along Tobacco Road

If you love reading interviews as much as I do, you’ll be overjoyed to read the weekly interview features by following the blog link below and you’ll find some familiar names from this blog (such as M. Kei). Check it out at:

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/


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