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Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was the quintessential American poet who sang of individual freedom, democracy and the brotherhood of man in the many editions of his compendious masterpiece, Leaves of Grass.

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Bob & Margery's Poetry Blog

Winter: Time to Sit by the Fire and Prepare Your Manuscript

Sunday November 8, 2009

For poets who are spending the long winter evenings reading, revising and combining their poems into collections, here’s an updated list of upcoming contest entry deadlines:

Required reading before you submit to any contests:
"What's Really Wrong with Poetry Book Contests?," by David Alpaugh
How to put together a poetry manuscript for publication
"A Word To the Wise: On entering your poems in competition," by Kurt Heintz
"You Do It Because You Love It," by S.A. Griffin

Related resources:
More contest links

Poets and Musicians Pounding on the Rockpile Together

Wednesday November 4, 2009

Our friend Michael Rothenberg is involved in an interesting journey this fall: Rockpile, a collaboration with David Meltzer “in the tradition of the troubadour and with the spirit of improvisation and collaboration,”—the two poets have been travelling across the U.S. performing poetry composed on the road “in a spontaneous fusion with local musicians.” They started the tour last month in Los Angeles & Albuquerque, and this week they’ve made it all the way across to Washington, D.C. and New York City—if you can’t make it to any of the cities where they are performing, you can follow the tour on the Rockpile blog, which has the poets’ road musings, performance videos, and more. The whole thing is meant to conclude with “a final grand performance” in San Francisco. Keep on truckin’, poets!

More postings on poetry/music collaborations:
Poetry and Music, Sister Arts Allied (2007)
Listen to the woodlark’s song: “Lullula” (2006)
Jazz & poetry on the road together in Copenhagen, Amsterdam & London (2005)
Are songs poetry? (2004)
Poetry + music, an inspired collaboration (2004)
Caught in the Act, The making of a live poetry + music CD, by Whitman McGowan (2004)
Ngoma: Entering the Dreamtime with Music and Poetry (2002)

InterBoard Poetry Competition Update

Monday November 2, 2009

IBPC judge Majid Naficy recently announced his choices in the October competition—once again, none from our Poetry Forum, but as always, interesting reading:

  • In first place, he selected “Rain” by Anna Yin, a poem that infuses elemental natural forces with life, chosen by Naficy because “That’s how beauty prevails itself.”
  • In second place, he chose “a smooth satirical poem about a ‘forbidden’ love, “Forbidden Lullaby” by Walter Schwim.
  • In third place, Majicy put “Without Salt” by Mandy Pannett, a poem that “rests on memory.”
  • He also awarded an honorable mention without commentary to one poem: “Bills and Yet More Bills,” a light piece of word-play by Christopher T. George.

And for the November competition, we’re proud to announce three very fine poems entered representing our Poetry Forum:

  • “On Preparing to Play Bach Again” by Guy Kettelhack (GuyBlakeKett), a poem that captures the musician’s experience of great music with both subtlety and energy.
  • “Johnny Two Bows” by Abigail Weatherspoon (mapovia), an elegiac tale of a man destroyed by the experience of war that sounds like a country western song but has nothing in it of cliche.
  • S. Radhamani’s “A Long Wait,” a poem that leaps from the momentary sensations and observations at a bus stop to a symbolic analysis of its society.

Kudos and luck in the judging to all three poets! Please remember to keep your nominations coming in. Any time you see a poem on the Forum that you think would be a worthy envoy to the IBPC, go right to the InterBoard Poetry Competition folder and post it. Address your post to the poet whose work you are nominating—this ensures that the poet will be notified of your nomination, and can post the required permission and information before it’s time for Poetry Guide Margy Snyder to choose the next month’s three entries.

More on the IBPC:
General information
Requirements for IBPC nominees
Anthology of the monthly IBPC winning poems
Archive of poems entered in the IBPC from our Poetry Forum
Background information and reading links for October - December IBPC judge Majid Naficy

Seize the Shortening Day!

Wednesday October 28, 2009

I’ve spent the last month in St. Andrews, Scotland—a much more northerly latitude than my home in San Francisco—and the turning of the season has been that much sharper. The days are hours shorter now than a month ago, and especially since Britain set the clocks back with the end of summer time last weekend (the US doesn’t go off daylight savings time until next weekend), I’m experiencing the carpe diem impulse every afternoon. Grab hold of every single daylight hour, because it will all too soon pass into darkness! So I’ve gathered a collection of classic poems on the theme of time’s passage and the impulse to seize the day, intensify your living as the days shorten into winter:

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