A friend and collaborator on many artistic projects, Shelley M. House is one of the finest graphic artists I know. Her mastery of the human body in simple line drawings creates complex anatomy studies and her use of color is breathtaking.
Recently I discovered that one of my poems, Cello, will appear next to her Hibiscus […]
This morning, as I was shoveling the sidewalk out from last night’s blizzard, I received an email from the “Acquisition Editor” at LAP Lambert Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG. saying:
While researching publishable academic papers at the Library of University of Nevada, Las Vegas University, I came across a reference to a work entitled “The […]
The Armenian Poetry Project is, in a word, amazing. Lola Koundakjian, who not only dreamed it into being but pours her time and love into it to keep it going, is herself a fantastic poet and translator. The APP gathers contemporary poets from around the world writing about the Armenian experience. Most […]
It is not often I read a poetry journal I like rather a lot and then have the opportunity to have something I wrote appear in its pages. The good people at Spine have published four sonnets based on the 1915 Armenian Genocide I wrote last November. I had been listening to a Hye […]
“the lanky locks
shaven short”
Kate Bernadette Benedict and the good people at Umbrella have just published a sonnet of mine, The Body at Play (Issue 10, Summer 2009). They have been tremendously kind to me over the years and it is an honor to be part of their publication.
Thank you very much!
“cast out of eden: zachary crying in the snow,
searching for his dictionary” ZJC (2007)
I am in desperate fix right now — the source of all my powers, the glorious Rhymer.com, is off-line! My poetry has ground to a halt, I am lost! I have no idea what I am going to do, I have […]
Suzan Abrams posted two poems from Grace like a Shadow by Islam Samhan, the Jordanian poet imprisoned in October 2008 for writing love poetry that incorporated verses from the Koran. According to her site these aren’t the poems that got Samhan in trouble. Since I do not know Persian or Arabic I cannot […]
a photo of Islam Samhan by Salah Malkawi (2008)
Since October, 2008, Islam Samhan remains in jail, accused of writing love poetry using quotes from the Koran. This BBC article:
Writers in Jordan are calling for the immediate release of a poet charged with insulting Islam in love poetry.
Islam Samhan’s recent collection, Grace Like A Shadow, […]
postcard of the 1988 spitak earthquake
Anahid Yahjian is a Հայ journalist and student who recently returned from a visit to Gyumri where she helped run a summer camp for disadvantage Armenian children. I had the luck of being able to talk to her and share stories about our individual experiences in Heyestan. Yesterday […]
cover of dongqin’s ye bai
he ye you chun tian (2006)
What a voice! Who in the world is Dongqin and where can I find some information about her?
Sometimes internet hunts can be frustrating. What I find often is that the people who are doing wild, new things with jazz or poetry thrive in corners of […]
Don’t miss the Poetry Slam this Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 PM on the MSU campus ‹ in the RCAH auditorium in Snyder Hall, see directions below. It will be an evening to remember! And it’s free of charge.
Hosted by the Old Town Poets and the new MSU Center for Poetry, this […]
One of my favorite journals, Osprey Journal (out of Scotland), has just published two of my sonnets, Ache and a C-Note and So Little Sober.
Thank you Graham! You are the best!
Oh happy days! Umbrella: issue 7, summer 2008 has a new sonnet of mine. Thank you Kate Bernadette Benedict!
“happy dance!”
The kind folks at 14×14 accepted the sonnet The Bluest of Lips for publication for their “Love and Lust” February issue. O Happy Days!
They say the proof of being a poet is when other people want to publish your work. In that case my friend Erin B. is poetry powerhouse! She has two books of poetry out this year:
My chapbook Body Of Water is now available from Thorngate Road. It was awarded the 2007 Frank O’Hara […]
So the book is done. There were a few snaggles that occurred along the way. For one, due to the complexities of U.S. copyright law, it is unclear whether all of Federico’s work is covered in the Copyright Term Extension Act or not. Technically, legally, are translations their own entity and the […]
One of the wonderful things about knowing talented people is promoting them so the world can see just how amazing they are! My friend Shelley (her motto is: Life * Love * Coffee) has some fantastic cards up at Cafepress, I urge you all to go look, drool over and buy!
For Aung san Sui Kyi and Burma’s Pro-Democracy Movement.
Friend, how will it be to lie
under the sky all eager and
quick as the wind beats
upon the door? Friend,
where will I sleep? tell me
how will I hide without roof
or door? the wind beats upon
our skulls.
The wind is everywhere.
Friend, I have given the […]
My friend Ruelaine sent this note, I pass it along to you all:
It will be “An Evening to Remember,” so bring your friends over to the Old Town Poetry Series, this Wednesday, Sept. 12t, 7:30 PM, at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner Street in Lansing’s Old Town (near the intersection of Grand River Avenue and […]
I am looking for a home for Ma Cat. Technically she is ex-Ma Cat since I took her to the Humane Shelter a year ago and had her fixed. Since I could not keep her (and still can’t) I released her back into the wild. She disappeared during wintertime but come spring […]
My friend Ruelaine just sent this notice to me. Now I share it with you:
It’s National Poetry Month, and the poetry scene in the Greater Lansing Area is hot! Join the Old Poets and the NuPoet Collective for a POETRY JAM on Tuesday, April 17th at Gregory’s Ice and Smoke, 2510 N. Martin […]
Today I see the importance of friends. It is good to have them and it is even better when a friend puts up with your pestering to have your poem translated into his or her language. So today’s Shout of Joy and Thanks goes out to my wonderful pen pal who goes by […]
Everyone should congradulate wm. rike. for having his poem crone on time appear on The Countdown #20, with Bob Marcacci.
Or better yet, you should go and listen to the MP3. It rocks!
On Valentine’s Day ‹ Wednesday, Feb. 14th, 7 PM ‹ the Old Town Poetry Series will host a Valentine’s Day Poetry Reading: an evening of love poetry guaranteed to take the chill out of the air and melt the ice around your heart. The event will take place at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner […]
Personal Letter No. 3
(Sonia Sanchez)
nothing will keep
us young you know
not young men or
women who spin
their youth on
cool playing sounds.
we are what we
are what we never
think we are.
no more wild geo
graphies of the
flesh. echoes. that
we move in tune
to slower smells.
it is a hard thing
to admit that
sometimes after midnight
i am tired
of it all.
In case you haven’t […]
Arlie, host of the XM satellite radio show Hand of Grandfather, … a cutting edge weekly program featuring the Music of The First Nations…ALL TRIBAL, ALL THE TIME! posted this on her blog:
South Dakota Indian Leader Wants to Build Tribal Abortion Clinic (Baltimore Sun)
Sunday, April 2, 2006
In South Dakota, where lawmakers last month […]
I thought about Hand Of Grandfather radio program yesterday as I sat on the grass at the The Nokomis Learning Center in Okemos, Michigan, listening to a friend of mine perform with Nswi Shkoden Nagamo Kwewag (Three Fires Women Singers) at the Nokomis Learning Center; an Anishinaabe hand drum trio.
(my friend Q in […]
There is far too much to tell you in one blog entry. Sunday morning, for example, I was in the mud and rain seeing Robert Bly and Coleman Barks help celebrate the Sufi mystic poet Rumi’s 799th birthday with a joint reading. I expected Barks’ Southern drawl spicing up the poetry but […]
she wants to write,
all bodies look good
by candlelight, the mood is right,
pen in margins, pen all night.
Melanie Faith
The delight of having friends who are poets is they always surprise you with their wonderful work and new ideas and new ways of seeing the world. My friend Melanie goes under the pen name of Writergal76 […]
When did Grand Rapids become the poetry mecca of Michigan? Well, at least this October. Grand Valley State University will be bring Sharon Olds and Sonia Sanchez and I just found out that The Grand Rapids Community College will be bringing Sherman Alexie for a lecture (October 18)!! Their “Diversity Lecture Series XII” […]
I need to have more conversations about poetry. Or, rather, I have been enjoying the ones I have had recently so much that I find myself wishing for more. I have a friend currently in a MFA program and we periodically talk about their pros and cons of such programs. A couple […]
Date: September 18, 2006
Time: 4:30 PM
Location: Rm 215/216, The Women’s Center, Kirkhof Center, GVSU, Grand Rapids, MI.
I urge all and every last one of you to take Monday afternoon off and go to this reading! I first came into contact with Ingrid not because of her amazing poetry but because I was looking […]
Whenever any writer or group of writers proves me wrong and attempts to fight unjust causes I must stand up and take note. I found this on Poets & Writers, Inc.:
Eighteen writers, including three who have won the Nobel Prize, recently signed a letter to the editor published in several newspapers around the world […]
My friend, Rina Risper, founder of the NuPoetry Movement, sent me these emails:
Enjoy Lansing’s longest running urban poetry scence. Everyone welcome every third Tuesday starting Tuesday, September 19, 2006, the NuPoetry Movement featuring the NuPoets $5.00 cover, Open Mic. begins at 7:30 pm
Gregory’s Ice and Smoke
2510 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. Lansing, […]
My dear friend, Ruelaine Stokes, the coordinator of the Old Town Poetry Series, sent me this email today, which I am passing on to you:
Right now in the Lansing Area, poets and musicians … are organizing a performance event to celebrate the life of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. and to raise money for his family. […]
This is fab-oo news!
My friend Erin posted this fantastic news on her blog:
I’m pleased to announce that my chapbook manuscript Alluvium will be published by dancing girl press in June of 2007. Alluvium is a collection of poems surrounding the necessary struggles of queerness, with the river as an overarching motif.
You rock, Erin!
It has been a long time since I have heard anything from my dear friend Eduardo (as in Mr. E. C. Corral, if you please) … but that has more to do with the fact I have not been keeping up with other people’s poetry blog for months and months. So today I clicked […]
a death a day
“In the first 27 days of June, 27 soldiers and marines were killed [in Anbar Province] . . . New York Times, June 29, 2006
Birdie Jaworski brought this to my attention recently.
For those of you who know or have a loved one in the military; for those of you who wish […]
Ruelaine Stokes, our coordinator of the Old Town Poetry Series, sent me this email yesterday that I am passing along to you. Whatever we can do to help, I am sure we will:
With great saddness, I am passing on the news that our beloved and enormously gifted poet Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. suffered a massive […]
For a fabulous evening of poetry, join The NuPoet Collective along with the Old Town Poets on Thursday, July 27th, from 7 - 9PM at the Michigan Women’s Historical Center (by beautiful Cooley Gardens) at 213 W. Main St. in Lansing. (If you are headed south on Capitol Ave., you will run right into it.) […]
Hi Gang …
… for about a week my computer system was down1 which I am sure is sad and whatnot but when I got my blog back I happened to notice that I had not updated my “Contests, Submission, Award & Deadlines” section for about four months … (oops!)
I have now fixed this […]
Tim Lane will join poets Tiya Kunaiyi, Logic and Pete Vargas in honor of National Poetry Month at the Old Town Poetry Series on Wednesday, April 12, at 7:30 PM in the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner Street in Lansing’s historic Old Town. The four featured poets will demonstrate what many of us already know to […]
Glassy eyed and ready to speak fire?
“Zack Holding Up Wall,”
March 15, 2006
Thank you Dick and Laura for your wonderful comments. I thought a quick, one-note response lost in the comment box would take away from the fun of last night … so I am writing to you both a fuller, heavily spell-checked, two-note response […]
Tonight I am calling upon the spirit of duende to help me through with this reading at the Creole Gallery, 7:30 pm. You know all about duende, even though it goes by many different names depending where you live. It is the soul of the Blues, the funk of “funkadelic,” it is the […]
Marion Stone’s sonnet, Petratch on West 115th Street won first place in the The 2005 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Contest. Congradulations, Marion!
Thank you, all my friends, for helping to make this life wonderful. Thank you!
Today is my birthday. I am 36 years old offically. How curious. I suppose I normally would go on a long ramble about life; how being 36 is both frightening and exciting … but today I will hold […]
Three of the first book contests I entered have sent out a list of their winners. While my name does not appear on any of them, the titles alone sound interesting and I hope to get my hands on the winning manuscripts and enjoy what the poets have to say. Congradulations, everyone!
A. Poulin, […]
You know, self-promotion has never been my strong suit.1 But I try, I try … which is better than being trying, I suppose. However, I will be featured poet of the month at the Old Town Poetry Series in March. The flier reads a little like this:
On Wednesday, March 15th, the Old Town […]
I was going to write a normal blurb about how Sam, Bob, Rue and I are going to perform this Sunday to promote our book, 4 Against the Wall … but I just found out Ruelaine fell earlier this week and fractured her femur/ femora in her leg. Poor Ruelaine!
So this is going to […]
Even though the deadline is a far from here, I liked the motto of this contest: to further understanding and goodwill through the universal language of the arts. Hurrah! Their blub runs as follows:
Three $100 grand prizes and a video of your poem being performed at the Dancing Poetry Festival in October, plus […]
In all the excitment that is the weekend, I seem to have forgotten to say anything about the poetry reading I attended on Sunday. While my friend Sam Mills has been the mastermind behind Burning Desires: an evening of erotic poetry, Lansing very own Rina Risper stepped up to produce the event this year. […]
My friend Erin just sent me an email with two bits of interesting things I want to pass on to you. One being a new composer I have never heard of, John Corigliano. She writes: I’m at the library, and when I leave I’ll be checking out John Corigliano’s Symphony No.1 on […]
The Old Town Poetry Series will present an Evening in honor of African American culture, this coming Wednesday, February 15th, 7:30 PM, at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St. in Lansing’s Old Town. Their flyer reads:
Featuring storyteller Charles Thornton and poets Rina Risper and Harry Reed, the evening will highlight a medley of stories […]
Burning Desires
February 12, 2006
1210 Turner St.
1:00 pm
Mark your calendars! If you were ever curious as to what I (or a dozen other local poets for that matter) sound like live, come join us next Sunday:
This Sunday, February 12, Old Town will burn with desire as passionate poetic rhetoric engulfs the area. The Old Town […]
I will be one of four readings from 4 Against the Wall at Schuler’s Books in the Eastwood Towne Center on Sunday, Feb 26. at 2 p.m.
Our flier reads:
Four poets, four voices. “4 Against the Wall” is a collection of poems from four poets living in Lansing, Michigan, but their voices speak well past the […]
Win Money — Eat Desserts — Love the Vibe of Entertaining!
I do believe there are only four people helping to keep poetry alive in Lansing, MI. Rina is two of them. She just sent me this note, which I pass on to you:
Calling all poets, MC’s and rappers currently enrolled in college […]
Happy Islamic New Year! It’s also the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year (year of the dog). Let the world revamp; they say change is painful but I’d like to see some “out and out” changes take place for starts. I want a little vamping.
Today I have been thinking about stories […]
Poetry Workshop, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2:40-3:40 PM, Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road in East Lansing — in conjunction with the Mid-Winter Singing Festival. Their flyer reads:
Want to make words jump off the page, stand up and shout? This workshop will show you how to infuse a poem, story or speech with vital energy, […]
This new WordPress isn’t letting me post photos. That is too bad. I have a brand new flier I want to show you. It is of our local Valentine’s Day poetry reading I will be attending, Burning Desires. A better review than I can give is here in an article I just […]
My friend Tim Lane, who hosts the monthly open mic poetry series at Magdalena’s Teahouse writes:
The next poetry reading is upon us. Well, not literally, like a weighted vest or a large rock, but you know what I mean.
Poetry at Magdalena’s
Tuesday
Jan 31st
signup 7:45
poetry 8:00
Come
on
out
Was anyone at the Rapp Saloon in the Hostelling International Building in Santa Monica on 1/20/06, which I believe was last Friday? How did the open mic go? Did you see Inspirachel?
I ask because, what was it, three years ago? Four? I cannot remember the date but at some point in […]
Poets seem to have unending advice to give. Not all of it is good or interesting or timely, but when it rings with you it tends to change your way of thinking.1 Or perhaps I should say this a little more personally; when poetry matters to me it is because it has changed […]
Wolfgang Saxon wrote a nice memorial in the NYTimes for Canadian poet Irving Layton. It goes as follows:
Irving Layton, a Canadian poet as quirky as he was prolific, died on Jan. 4 in Montreal. He was 93.
The death was announced on his Web site. Press reports from Montreal said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease, […]
Iowa State University is proposing a rather interesting literary anthology. Their flyer looks a little like this:
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Ever since Eve ate from the apple of the tree of knowledge and was forced from the Garden of Eden, humans have been tinkering with the science of creation and dealing with the consequences of […]
“The future of this world lies in the relationship we have with it. Poetry helps develop an understanding and appreciation of and a connection with the world around us.” — Kate Barnes, former Maine Poet Laureate.
Calling all poets with a bone for nature, here is a January contest you need to submit to. Their […]
Rina Risper just sent me the following:
“WHERE THE REVOLUTION WILL BE LIVE….”
The poetry revolution will be revived at Gregory’s Ice & Smoke located at 2510 N Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Tuesday, January 17, 2006 @ 7:30 p.m. The Nu Poets will host:
SING, SPEAK, or SPIT and Celebrate our 4th anniversary
For a $5 cover […]
Heh. I got a stick of celestial myrrh burning in the bathroom (no boring normal myrrh for this son of a Jewish pharaoh; I got celestial myrrh, baby!) and a copy of TimeOut’s Buenos Aires - 2005 to leaf through. One of the things I like to do is go down to my […]
My friend Sam just sent me this article, which I must pass on to you. While I enjoy some (key word: “some”) of the vast amount of word salad that lies between “text and context,” “sense and nonsense” and “mean and meaning,” to throw a bunch of words onto the ‘puter as if this […]
One of the perks of insomnia is that I can spend the dark hours of the wee morning culling through various on-line journals and magazines looking for interesting sounding contest deadlines and whatnot.
Under the idea that most people (like myself) get easily overwhelmed by dates and deadlines I try to keep the list […]
I am not sure who Lawrence Cosentino, of City Pulse fame, was in the audience last Wednesday night at our reading, but I am glad he liked the show. I rarely read reviews of poetry readings in mainstream press, let alone a review that takes you from A to Z through the thesaurus with […]
Shelby (who seems to have much more poetry information at her fingertips than I do, odd) just sent me this NPR link, concerning a story, in short, about The Poetry Archive, a hothouse for poetry recordings. Lynn Neary’s article looks a little like this:
The newest addition to poetry sites on the Web has the […]
tea is on the table, honey in the pot
bread and butter
even the radio wants
to be my friend …
– Ruelaine Stokes
There was a lot going on that could have made our book signing/ release party a disaster — snow, snow, snow were the top three on the list. December in Michigan is, at best, dicey. […]
The nice thing about self-promotion is that it is just that : the self in motion. Tonight I join two other members of this poetry collective, Ruelaine Stokes and Robert “Bibbit” Rentschler, and read flog our book. It should be giddy fun, if not for you then at least for us. Sadly, […]
Perhaps you failed to catch Harold Pinter’s acceptance for the Nobel Prize last Thursday night? As both poets and citizens of this country, for good, ill or somehwere in-between, we must be active. However, I must pause and ask: “what does active for poets mean?” I am not a fan of political […]
Mark it on your calendar, take time off work, put your snow boots on and stomp across town to: Book Signing and Release Party for 4 Against the Wall at Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St. in Lansing’s Old Town. The flyer reads:
On Wednesday, December 14, the Old Town Poetry Series is host to a […]
My second participant in the FREE POETRY GIVE AWAY arrived yesterday. The kind mail person dropped off Matthew Thornburn’s excellent book of poems, Subject to Change as I was heading off to work. I am always uneasy about getting someone’s work at first, since if I like the person I feel obligated to […]
An e-mail just arrived. It look a little like this:
“Since 2003, there has been rhythmic undercurrent slowing evolving on the Lansing underground art scene. Sing, Speak or Spit, a Nu poet Collective production, was born out of a necessity to let Poetry’s voice speak without interruption. This eclectic movement provides an open platform […]
I dug out my boxes of 45s and have spent a wonderful evening listening to the jumble of random songs I seem to have amassed over the last 20 years while working on this month’s Contests, Submissions, Awards & Deadlines.
One call for submissions that highly interests me is being run by Paula Sergi, a Wisconsin […]
(ATTENTION FRIENDS: ALWAYS CALL FIRST TO VERIFY VENUE)
There are always poetic things to do in Columbus, OH and Chicago, IL but what about here in the middle part of this mitten-like state? It is a good question so if you have any events that need a shout, drop me a line. Until then, […]
Now, all of you who actually have a copy of a 1st edition, 1st printing of a Faber and Faber (1965) Ariel by Sylvia Plath or an autographed Ted Hughes edition of his Janos Csokits translations (reading: “To Janos / from Ted / April 1967” … at a mere $12,995) raise your hand.
I thought so.
The […]
Another 3 to midnight shift of changing adult diapers and spoon-feeding my residents at the dinner table.
Tomorrow being November 30, a much more fashionable day and the deadline for many an award, I find myself getting two more manuscripts ready to be sent off into the void in hope of winning some kick-ass […]
In case you were curious, here is Kazakh TV Host Borat Sagdiyev’s homepage.
They say real life is stranger than fiction; unless real life is a fiction. A couple of weeks ago the news that Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry had threatened legal action against a certain British comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays the central […]
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones. John Cage (1912 - 1992)
Hurrah for Eduardo, who just e-mailed me asking for a free poetry book. He goes down in my blog-history as the first person to respond to the offer. As long as the post […]
Funny, I would have thought someone out there in the world of blogging would want a free book (*hint*hint*hint*) … or have a book of poerty they’d want to trade. Hmmm. Perhaps if I say it again, someone will write? Perhaps if I say it again, someone will write? Perhaps if I […]
Hey, you Lansing people, on Wednesday, December 14, we shall be having a book signing and release party for Four Against the Wall at Creole Gallery:
The Creole Gallery is host to a unique event: a book release reading and signing for “Four Against the Wall,” a collection of poems from four Lansing poets, published […]
Ah, the first sleet of the year!
This Sergei Rachmaninoff-person is on the stereo, some droll piano concerto, I am led to believe. I am not too sure what all the hype is about. You see, my local mega-mart, Meijer Thrifty Acres, has mega-discounted Classical CDs; it’s a great deal, since they must […]
As we all know, the absolute worst poetry in the Universe was written by Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings. The third worst poetry is written by the Vogons; frequently used as a form of torture. Yesterday Shelby suggested we invite poets to send in poems inspired by the subject line of spam e-mail but […]
Rue just wrote to remind me:
Don’t miss a fabulous “Evening of Poetry & Song” hosted by The Old Town Poetry Series this coming Wednesday, Nov. 9th, 7:30 PM at the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St. in Lansing’s historic Old Town. The evening will feature a local favorite, poet Joyce Benvenuto, plus Los Maestros, Miguel […]
(ATTENTION FRIENDS: ALWAYS CALL FIRST TO VERIFY VENUE)
I have yet to find a lot of poets from Detroit, Columbus, OH, Chicago, IL … even Toledo, who can keep me focused on the poetry events in their areas. I tend to drift easily. At first I was going to simply title this entry “In Memory: […]
Wednesday, November 2, 7:00 PM — I spent an entire day gathering Mid-Michigan poetry information and fifteen minutes after it starts I discover this (the long howl of irony is just me in the background):
Alice Notley & Ken Mikolowski reading from The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan.
Please join us at Shaman Drum Bookshop for […]
In Poetry News: Mark Irwin’s Bright Hunger has been awarded the 2005 Colorado Book Award in Poetry; Eduardo C. Corral be a Winter/Spring 2006 Fellow at The MacDowell Colony; C. Dale Young has a poem in this issue of Poetry; and I finally posted the November Up-Dates on my Contests, Submissions, Awards & Deadlines […]
Really, if it weren’t for Shelby, none of this would have happened …
Beethoven’s “9th,” Dvorak’s “New Word,” and Freddie Redd’s soundtrack, “The Connection,” have been on the stereo all night, endless looped playback. Shelby and I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, formatting the last touches my poetry so we could […]
Holy non-sequitur! I was wondering why I was getting so much sudden traffic on the ol’ blog visitor-counter. I thought it had something to do with this evening’s stupendous performances at the Creole, but then I realized that (a) I hadn’t posted anything yet; and (b) Lansing isn’t one of those swingadeadcatandhitapoetblogger kind […]
Tonight I walk on stage as that daemon of passion,Jalalu’ddin Rumi! I must go out and find myself a wooly beard … how hard can that be? It is Halloween week, after all. I asked my South African friend Sarah if she was going to dress up as anything. Sarah, who […]
Many interesting things are happening with the folks over at The Mississippi Review. They have extended their $1000 Poetry Prize until November 1; with the only restrictions being: “Fee is $15 per entry … poetry entries should be three poems totaling 10 pages or less.” That is easy. I think I […]
I found this morning a bit cold when I rose from bed; autumn, they say dismissively. It seemed logical then that I should add a new page to this blog-thingie of mine: “Contests, Awards and Deadlines” — under the idea that we all need awards and if other people are as bad as I […]
Grand Rapids lived up to the burden of potential. On re-reading yesterday’s blog and poem, I noted an air of disorganization, of rambling brainwork, of a lack of coffee; but today I feel great. A good sleep after a good poetry reading does that to me. And then, the icing on the […]
(ATTENTION FRIENDS: ALWAYS CALL FIRST TO VERIFY VENUE)
At first I was going to simply title this “Mid-Michigan Poetry Events,” since that is the distance I usually can push my auto to drive to a poetry reading or artistic shindig. However, that leaves out most of the actual poetry occurring all around me. Yes, […]