Friday, August 6, 2010

Poetry Tips: Wreckage

This writing prompt comes from personal experience with a fender bender. This week write poems inspired by “wrecks” whether they be physical, emotional, mental, or both. For me, it was physical, for you it may be something else. Good luck to all who try it!

Thank you for dropping by, please stop by again next week…

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Right Hand Pointing Open Submissions

Straight from the e-mail I received:

2010 has been a busy year here in the editorial offices of Right Hand
Pointing/Left Hand Waving. We recently fought off a hostile takeover by Google
and are regrouping to crush that little outfit soon. Our newly formed RHP/LHW
umbrella company, Ambidextrous Bloodhound, just moved into an abandoned Home
Depot here in Birmingham, Alabama. I personally supervised someone supervising
the loading and unloading of boxes and furniture by our fresh team of young
interns. (I can’t think of a better way for these kids to spend their first
12-hour day of work. On their second day, I gave them a full 30 minutes for
lunch and, trust me, these young Megans and Bradleys earned it!)

If our current RHP publication schedule pans out, we’ll put out about a dozen
issues and chapbooks this year, more than any previous year. So, what better
way to celebrate than with a special extra bonus mini-issue?

Ten poems, under 30 words.

We’ll handle submissions for this one a little differently. Rather than our
usual rolling reading and acceptance practice, we’ll have a specified reading
period, a deadline, and after the deadline I’ll accept the poems for the issue.

It’ll be a quick read as it will consist of only 10 poems, each of which may be
no more than 30 words. We’ve done two under-30-words issues before and these
have been popular and quite fun to put together. It’s an A.D.D. sufferer’s
dream. The whole issue will be under 300 words.

So, here’s the deal.

Send your poems, 30 words or under, to righthandpointing@gmail.com by September
15th. Please format the subject line like this:

RHP<30 Your Name

where “Your Name” is your name.

Include a bio, also less than or equal to 30 words.

Sometime after the deadline, I’ll open the emails (actually, the interns will
open them for me when handing me coffee once I start my workday at about 1:30
p.m.), and select the 10 poems which will go in the mini-issue. The issue will
then appear in late September.

Ready, set, go!

On another very different note, please visit the main page at
www.righthandpointing.com. There you’ll find a beautiful poem by our friend
Allan Peterson. I remembered that Allan had published some beautiful poems
about life on the Gulf of Mexico and I wanted to create a little tribute to the
Gulf by featuring one of his poems. Allan sent this previously unpublished
work. See it, along with a fine photograph by Mark Meyer, at
www.righthandpointing.com/index.html

Dale”

Good luck to all who submit, please stop by tomorrow for more Poetry Tips...

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue34/sally-molini
Sally Mollini’s “Aside”

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21652
Wyn Cooper’s “Chaos is the New Calm”

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

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

David S. Pointer's Warhammer Piano Bar

David S. Pointer hails from Murfreesoboro, Tennessee, has a B.S. in Criminal Justice and an M.A. in Sociology and his latest collection of poems, Warhammer Piano Bar, is published by Thunder Clap Press by Editor Amanda Deo. The art on the cover and within the pages is by artist Justin Jackley and adds to the dark toned and fast-paced lines of the poems found inside. The poems range from the personal to the ethereal and I am happy to share a few with you below:


Driftermobile

Ice in a
cowboy bathtub
behind me in
the Nomad

road thoughts
detonate this day

a few bottles
of Most Wanted
whisper to
the gas pedal

oncoming cactus
start to costar

ping…ping…
szzz………..
the car conks
out of bounds

No I 10 5-0 out
but no ale house

whores who are
semi-certified

to wrench up
old cars either

This poem reminds me of road trips and crossing the Southwestern deserts. The language is unusual and catchy, I have no idea what “a few bottles/of Most Wanted/” means but I love the lines and leads me to think of outlaws. “Oncoming cactus/start to costar,” I take to mean that the car is passing cactus like most cars pass power lines on the freeway and that they are becoming the major part of the landscape. The entire poem is entertaining, and the ending is just as strange yet intriguing mentioning a lack of whores who are able to fix cars which could mean any number of things depending on your own perspective. I think of scantily clad women at gas stations who are tough broads who can also turn a wrench. Either way, this poem entertained me from beginning to end.



Small Press Loss

like a crash cart nurse
losing a brain injured boy

like an old prison coach
bear cage rolling to river

like a surfer bitchslapped
by his own good board

like the eerie Edison era
sounds of a phonograph

sold eighty years ago
on an antique wall phone

this is what it’s like to lose
someone in the small press


Yes! That’s the word that came to mind after I read the poem. A medley of strange and unrelated images yet all easy to picture in the mind’s eye, almost capturing the sound and fell of loneliness without coming out and saying so. For every small press poet that passes there is a medley of mixed feelings and memories and the sense of loneliness and loss that we are one less in number in our love and in our craft. Yes.



Inkville

all these poets
caught in
a minimally
successful
state at
the compliment
swap meet
continuously
reaching into
wallet world
for a green
launch pad
into paid
literary
appreciation

This poem has lines that are just plain fun to read, I love “the compliment/swap meet” which you could apply to almost any setting, and “wallet world” which seems almost like it could be its own actual store instead of a place for poets struggling to get by, hoping for a paid literary collection of their work instead of the typical free copies. If only more people in the world understood and appreciated poetry to make this a better paid profession, yes? That is part of why this blog is what it is, thank you Mr. Pointer, for hitting the nail on the sentimental head.


David S. Pointer has poems throughout the small press and has been featured previously on Poet Hound, you can find him at Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press as well.
If you enjoyed this short sample of poems, you’ll be pleased to know that the book, Warhammer Piano Bar, costs a mere $7.00 (not including shipping and handling) from Thunderclap Press at:
www.thunderclap.wordpress.com

and you can also e-mail Thunderclap Press at: thunderclap.mag@gmail.com


If you’d like to learn more about the artist, Justin Jackley, check out his website at:
www.justinjackley.com

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

Monday, August 2, 2010

10 Most Amazing Slam Poets on YouTube

Kaitlyn Cole e-mailed me about an article featuring the “10 Most Amazing Slam Poets on Youtube” and provided a link which features Youtube clips of slam poets at their best, I urge you to check it out at:

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2010/07/10-most-amazing-slam-poets-on-youtube/

The “What Teacher Make” poem had me clapping all by myself at home, and “Dear White People” made me laugh so hard I had to listen to it again to listen to the whole thing!


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