I’ve had several discussions this week with those who decry the constant struggle of small independent presses to keep independent literature alive, despite the machinery of academic with its relentless careerism and New York publishing with its tunnel-vision on profit-margins. The debate about poetry reading fees goes on and on. Does charging a fee make you a vanity press? Is it ethical? I think anything that sustains a legitimate press is ethical. That doesn’t mean…
I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned MiPoRadio’s show The Countdown with Bob Marcacci. My poem “Wine Under a Fig Tree” was on it awhile back. It’s a delicious hour of poetry reading by various voices, usually the poet him/herself, but if (as happened to me) you can’t get your computer recording thingy to work, they will have someone read your poem for you. Listening to poetry while you work is very nice. Distracting if you…
I’ve been dismayed to read a recent discussion by poets who feel they don’t want their work in a forthcoming anthology to be promoted as “Internet-related.” This is, they say, because they fear damage to their literary reputations from being associated as “Internet poets.” As though it carries an actual taint, rather than just being a new form of publishing. Well, I never. And this discussion — not to mention the whole anthology coordinating project…
I can’t resist adding a few names to my list of poetry heroes: Franz WrightKay RyanA.E. Stallings And a list someone sent recently of presses that have open reading periods and no fees: Arktoi BooksAusable PressBkMk PressCarolina WrenCavankerryCoffee HouseEastern Washington UPGraywolfMelville HouseMilkweed PressOmnidawnPlain View PressRager MediaRed Morning PressSarabandeShearsmanSteel Toe Press (but not this year)University of Arizona PressWaveWordTech In case you’re wondering what to do with that ms. you’v been kicking around for some time. As…
Over at Jeannine’s blog, there’s a game going called Poetry Heroes. Your list of contemporary poetry heroes can’t include friends, dead poets, poet mentors (something like that, I forget the exact rules), but basically anyone with whom you’re in contact. I love this idea, as I woke up this morning thinking about who are my contemporary favorites, and this is a partial list of what came to mind: 1. Alice Oswald2. Seamus Heaney3. Mary Oliver4.…
I discovered many things in the poem-a-day exercise, but the prime discovery was that imagination is like any muscle. As any dancer or athlete knows, the more you stretch and tone, the more articulate that muscle becomes. Writing a poem a day, even a stinky poem, strengthened that muscle to the extent that I don’t fear the blank page or the need to write as much as I did at the start of April. I…
I have been very impressed with the daily poems I read from our little group. Also with the diligence and determination to finish the poem-a-day thing for April. I nearly made it — a few gaps, but I have good excuses. The dog ate my poem. I got a virus and the virus ate my poem. I got a virus and couldn’t think through the phlegm in my nose, throat, ears — pretty much everything…
I think it’s extremely unfair that there was major national news in the middle of poetry month. What we want is a nice, quiet period of time interrupted only by the odiousness of taxes in which poetry can shine like a subtle star brightening out of the dun end of sunset. Can appear larger than usual because of the earth’s curve. Can unfold what we thought was a fruit and fly away from the tree,…
That last blog was pure coconut cream pie and local anesthetic speaking — the giddy relief from back pain. I would like to retract it, but I just stated elsewhere that I’m very interested in rough drafts and the process of time in working out a piece of writing, so the sad thing is I am honor-bound not to delete that late-night gobbledygook. (And if you must indulge after reading thing, check out this healthy…
Nuff said. Oh, and don’t bother with sedation. It’ll just make you slow in getting to the pie. Try a light sleep aid instead, like Ambien, one that won’t interfere with your midnight dash — okay, shamble — to the kitchen. Oh, and be sure to leave the fridge door open while consuming same with knife — it counteracts the flushing brought on by the steroid. Happy painless dreams. Tomorrow you’ll see the poem about…