Thursday, July 30, 2009

Boxcar Poetry Open Submissions

I copy-and-pasted their guidelines below:

Boxcar Poetry Review seeks top quality poetry, artwork, photography, interviews, and reviews.
poetry
Email 3-5 poems as a Word or RTF file to boxcarpoetry@gmail.com with "POETRY-SUB: your name" in the subject line of the email. Include a brief bio in the text of your email. Simultaneous submissions ok with immediate notification. Please wait for a response before sending a second submission. We do not consider previously published material. While we currently are unable to pay our contributors, published work is eligible for Peer Awards ($25 for best poem of the issue) and the end of the year Oboh Awards (top three poems of the year).

You can check them out at:
http://www.boxcarpoetry.com/main.html


Good luck to all who submit! Please stop in next Tuesday for another featured poet…

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Poems Found by Poet Hound

http://righthandpointing.com/Issue27/murdoch.html
“Cut the Blue Wire” by Jim Murdoch


http://www.blossombones.com/winter09/bashaar_w09.html
“The Giraffe Woman” by Margaret Bashaar



Also, Talia Reed recommended that I sign up for August Poetry Post Card Fest where you write and send 31 poems on post-cards throughout the month using the mailing list on the site where you register for this brilliant project and I recommend you check it out as well:

http://poetrypostcards.blogspot.com/
*Note that you need to sign up right away BEFORE August 1st if possible so you can mail your first postcard in time for your first recipient on the list to get their postcard on August 1st. Counting today, that gives you four mailing days for the postcard to reach its destination. Good luck, have a blast, hopefully see your postcard!

Join us if you dare, hope to see you there!


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

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Dave Tickel's Snow In The Forecast

David Tickel’s chapbook, Snow In The Forecast is published by Alternating Current:
http://alt-current.blogspot.com/
This is a collection of dead-pan true to life poems by Dave L. Tickel. While the chapbook doesn’t provide much information about Mr. Tickel I imagine these poems come straight from his experiences and I am happy to share several poems with you:


SEAT BELTS

Cousin Mike
And I played your
Drums.

You and Aunt Sandy slept as me and
Your son

Wandered through
Hungry
Hippie beads, through your apartment.

You sent me a
Christmas gift
A year and a half later, when I was
eleven, the Allman Bros’ Eat A Peach.

Still
A Chiropractic student, you
And your second wife Pam

Scaled the Sears Tower,
Gave King Kong a
Free exam.

You liked Brautigan
I liked Jack Kerouac.

Your mom
Died on the first day of spring. You
Were likewise fatally injured on
December 7th.

The title is confusing until you get to the end and I love it when a poet can title a poem in this way. Also, Mr. Tickel pieces together memories in a way that make it sound free-form and then ties it up neatly at the end.



WRITERS’ CONFERENCE DECEASED

I attended a
Yearly writers’ conference for
More than a few years.

I submitted
a play
- an outline for a novel

-unsavory characters/impeccable
Punctuation
-a
Joycean short story.

I submitted poems that
Lacked punctuation, that were
Poundian, that were
- I learned something – incorrect stanzy-wise.

I didn’t win any
Awards, I wasn’t a
Teacher/student at the college. Kurt
Vonnegut and
Ken Kesey

In
The night auditorium, on
The rock & roll stage.

I enjoy the story-telling of this poem. While Mr. Tickel keeps it fairly bare you can envision the writer’s conference/workshop he was involved in and get a sense of his less-than-thrilled attitude about the whole thing.



SHE’S MY BEST FRIEND

She calls me Temporary Trash. I
Want to get in her pants,
I’m a virgin.

We
Wear leather and plastic pants, go to all
The
Punk clubs. She taught me how to

Dance
Down and up, up and down, how to
Walk the dog, how to do the frog.

We met at
Community College.
Our first date: she gave me a fat lip

This poem is just plain entertaining. A memory revealed by its skeleton in which we fill in the rest. The ending leaves you wondering how the fat lip transpired: concert mishap or something he said?


If you enjoyed these sample poems, you may purchase this chapbook for an astoundingly low price of $1.00 at http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#snow_in_the_forecast
through Propaganda Press. Remember that Alternating Current is one of the few small presses where poets are able to be paid for their work so definitely check them out!

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