Children Participate in 31st Annual Children and Poetry Day
I love seeing this!!!
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
August Poetry Updates
Over at my main blog, I’ve just posted an entry with updates in the field of speculative poetry. Stop in and have a look at the news.
Friday, July 11, 2008
New Poems Published
In a recent post, I talked about my friend’s newly opened online lit mag, Sloth Jockey. The site is under way now, and is shaping up very nicely.
I have sent in some work that might be of interest, and you can view these poems on the site there now:
I’ve also got a review of Kafka on the Shore there. There is a nice author page available at the site too, a feature that is a real plus for writers who submit and have work accepted at the site.
Two of the poems that have been published at Sloth Jockey grew out of the dictionary games I’ve mentioned here and there on this site. Those two are “Temenos” and “Spectrophotoelectric.” I am satisfied with both of those poems, and am especially pleased to have them appear at Sloth Jockey. I think it is a good medium for both pieces.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A funny thing happened while I was reading some poetry
A funny thing happened while I was reading a poetry collection today. Some of the pages had gotten reversed when the book was put together, and so the end of one poem was attached to the beginning of another. I read the first, and just thought the poem was either badly written or else that I missed something. Then I started reading the next one, and realized the ending I’d just read fit better with this beginning. Suddenly I noticed that the pages weren’t put together properly.
I managed to remove the wrongly inserted pages and turn them the correct way, but the experience made me smile. It kind of made the poem I first read, when it was oddly put together, seem like a surreal piece, with oddly pasted together images that hinted at something more than what you could quite put together logically.
At the end of the day, even the oddly put together poem wasn’t the worst piece I’d ever read. Just goes to show how a well constructed piece of verse can make the reader think twice before assuming that there is something wrong with the poem.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Looking at Old Journal Entries
I’ve just taken out an old writing journal spanning from the end of 2005 to the middle of 2006. I wanted to look back over some of the things I’ve been working on in the past 2 years and see what progress I might have made, and how I might have met or failed to meet certain goals.
The first entry in the journal is from 21 December 2005. I talked in that entry about wanting the concepts in my poetry to grow out of language, instead of trying to force language to fit what I already had in mind. I hoped that this would generate more creativity in the themes of my poems, instead of rehashing the same ideas in different forms.
I have to say that this is an area that has really improved in my poems since that entry 2 and a half years ago. It began with a conscious effort, and has become something more or less natural to me now. It is very common in my reading that I come across a word that hits me differently than it ever had before, or perhaps a group of words that I had not formerly seen as connected, but now see some new connection between them. This often grows into some poem or another, and the results are usually much better than when I have an idea and somehow try to find (or force) words to fit it.
One of the things I started doing at that time was the dictionary game. The first poem that came out of that game, “Temenos,” is one of my favorites. It is a complex piece, rather intricate in how it fits together. But what is interesting about it is that it grew out of the connections between the three words chosen at random from a dictionary, rather than me first having an idea in mind that I wanted to explore.
It is fun revisiting this journal, and I will probably spend some time doing so over the next few months. I’ll post interesting ideas I find here, from time to time.
One thing I hope to find is a record of a poet’s growth. It will be rewarding if I see that.
Monday, June 2, 2008
One Summer a Thousand Days
I recently finished reading the haiku collection One Summer a Thousand Days by Charles Albano. It was a very good read, and had a great chapter of scifaiku that I especially enjoyed.
I’ve reviewed it on my main blog. Take a peek over there if you are a fan of minimalist poetry. I think you’ll find the collection enjoyable. Albano really understands what makes a haiku work, and that makes for a good collection.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Spring Cleaning
I’ve been doing some “spring cleaning” with my writing the past week or so. Having spent the past 3 months away from home (a great source of material for writing!!), I had a lot to update on my printed versions of my poetry and essays. I’ve been redoing a lot of the paperwork, not just on making clean copies, but also updating the database and all. I’ve restructured 2 collections, done away with a couple of others, and regrouped certain poems to see if they might form the basis for a new collection.
I actually am not much of a detail person, and usually hate taking time to look into all of this kind of thing. But it seems to me that it has been a very good exercise this time around, and it is helping my work to take better shape. It is looking better, at the moment (though there is still a bit more work to do). Most importantly, it helps get it all organized in my head when it is more orderly on my desk.
It isn’t my favorite part of writing, but the discipline is well worth the time invested.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Talk about good things happening….
After my most recent entry about good things happening, I got some GREAT news today!
I will be the featured poet in the November 2008 issue of Scifaikuest. I just got a letter from the editor there asking if I would be willing to be the featured poet… and of course said “YESSSSS!!!!!!”
I should have about 8-10 poems appearing in the November issue of the magazine. I’ll post a link here when it is out, if anyone is interested in purchasing it.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
June Cotner’s Call
June Cotner is looking for submissions for several poetry anthologies.
Earth Blessings has a deadline that is a bit tight now (April 30), but there are others coming up too:
Parents’ Blessings
Birthday Blessings
365 Blessings
Everyday Inspirations
Family Traditions
Girls’ Night Out
What is Love? (seeking submissions from kids)
All of these have open submission dates.
The poetry sought here is pretty much inspirational poems, fitting into the various themes listed. You can visit the link for more details on what Cotner is looking for with each volume.
The pay per poem is not bad, so this is a market you might like to check out, even if it is not the sort of place you most often submit.
Remember to read the guidelines carefully!
