Page 4 of 5

Posted on

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Calls for Submissions

img_1061The gremlins (Priscilla Galasso, Steve and me) are busy behind the scenes, getting ready to bring you the September issue of “The BeZine,” which is focused on Environment/Environmental Justice as it is part of our 100TPC effort. Deadline is looming, so if it is your intention to submit, please send in your work on theme to bardogroup@gmail.com – today would be great as we are reading … let us know your status in the comments here. Thanks!

Note: Since I am working under two heavy-duty deadlines these next few days, I won’t post here again until Sunday.  J.D.

RELATED:

Posted on

THAT WHITE WATCHUNG HOME, a poem … and your Wednesday writing prompt

img_1167I wonder if that old Watchung home still stands
or has it been demolished by developers building
rows on rows of barracks-like housing where
big maples used to rise to line the roadway
·
Driving up to that sprawling place, soundly built
and well-loved, a kaleidoscope of colors greeted us –
The burnished bronze of our uncle’s skin and the
brown-black of his doe eyes and dense curly hair
The azure sky and snowy clouds tumbling down to
top the perfect juicy purple of ripe Italian plums
and the brisk reds of beefsteak and plum tomatoes
The true-green of the too-long grass feathering the
rich chocolaty shades of the well-mulched earth
·
That antique home was pristine white with green trim
and such a busy, welcoming, wrap-around porch,
often with bushels of fruit and vegetables standing
in the company of freshly cut flowers piled and tossed
All waiting . . . for what and for whom?
The airy rooms were waiting too with windows
and doors thrown open to children like me breezing
in from the The City with our pallid skin and eyes
burning to see our uncle and some untouched nature
·
Well-worn carpets, Persian and Arabian, brushed bare feet
as searching room-to-room for hidden treasures and history
I marveled at the accoutrements of other decades –
the water pump, the dumb-waiter, the pull-chain water closet
Each room was a marvel of furnishings, fine wood and hand-turned
Drawers lined with newspapers, yellow and dissolving with age,
advertising corsets, questionable cures, and other ephemera of this
same place in times mostly forgotten except for stale news
telling its stories to the silence in chests mostly empty and untouched
The mammoth tables in the large white high-ceilinged kitchen and
the stately dining room with its chandelier and heavy drapes spoke of
more formal multi-generational dinners before these days of greater
mobility and the tech distractions of i-This and smart-That

The peaceable, sturdy safe-haven of that white Watchung home
matched the steady embrace of its woods and orchards
where a child like me could lie on the hardy ground,
sun blinding bright, browning spindly arms and legs, small body
soaking in rich damp earth, mind yawning, stretching, awakening
Imagination rising in mists of violet-grey shot with silver stories
and flaxen poems finding their way into the pages of a notebook
Such plum-sweet visions set free by that mystical place –
I wonder if it still stands in Watchung, if it remembers me
And how I loved it – I still do

WRITING PROMPT

I think a lot about houses and housing these days. Here in Silicon Valley there’s a critical shortage of housing in general and especially of affordable housing. I know several families who lost their homes when the housing bubble burst in the later part of the last decade. I have a neighbor who ended up on the street for two years . There are too many folks who make their way by couch-surfing or living out of their cars or trucks. We read in the papers about homeless children here and abroad and think and pray and do what we can for all those people sleeping in the rough, escaping violence in their homelands. I’ve always appreciated our homes, never anything fancy but definitely safe, clean and functional, and I remember warmly the homes and hospitality of friends and relatives with whom I stayed at different times when I was a child.

I’m sure you too have memories of the houses or apartments in which you grew-up or stayed when you were young. Maybe those memories are good. Maybe not. Either way, they probably remain vivid in your mind. Perhaps there was one thing – like the tree in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – that had special meaning or gave you hope. Outside the complex where my mother lived there were two berry trees, Mulberry perhaps, that I thought of as guardians of the building.

Write a poem or creative nonfiction piece about the house or apartment that most stands out in your memories of childhood and tell us what it meant to you, what was special or loathsome, what dreams you may have nurtured there, or how it might have fixed your vision of the home you’d have as an adult. Take your time and enjoy the process.

© 2016, words and photograph, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved

Posted on

THE SUNDAY POSEY: Opportunities, Events and Other Information and News

fullsizerender-11

CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Opportunity Knocks

INKITT, Story Peak Novel Contest: “Win one of three publishing offers from Inkitt! No submission fees!

“Submit your finished novel, 40,000 words or more – no fan fiction, no other limitations on genre! It’s time to bring your manuscripts into the light and show them off to the world. We are once again looking for three novels to publish!

“The three winners of the StoryPeak² Novel Contest will be determined by Inkitt based on how their novels perform amongst their readership. All authors will be given 100 copies of their novel to distribute to their readers. Authors have a dashboard where they can see how many people have ‘reserved’ their novel and the current level of their readers’ satisfaction.”  Details including terms HERE.  Deadline October 2. 

However: there have been some complaints: Inkitt spam.

THE CITY QUILL celebrates “new writers from all walks of life, no matter their age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, ability, income, weight, height, education level, favorite color, or whatever. If you’re an unpublished writer, we want to hear from you. If you have been published before, we love you, but please don’t send us your work. Your submission will not be read.” Accepts poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Details HERE.

THE BROKEN CITY “is currently accepting submissions for its winter 2016 edition: Life of the Party. We’re looking for work that revolves around parties and celebrations, from the sophisticated to the debaucherous: soirées, shindigs, galas, cotillion balls, beer busts at The Moontower—if someone’s raising a glass, we want to know about it.”  The Broken City (Toronto) publishes poetry, fiction, essays, illustrations and photography. Deadline is: November 1, 2016. Details HERE.

HEADLAND, Literary Frontiers & Emerging Voices accepts submissions year-round. Deadline for Issue 8, closes on 7 October 2016. Publishes short fiction and creative non-fiction, not poetry. Details HERE.

THE McGUFFIN, a publication of Schoolcraft College, accepts poetry, fiction, nonfiction and images. Poetry may be “traditional, formal, free verse, and experimental poetry. Poems can be up to 400 lines. There are no subject biases.” Details HERE. Info on their call for art HERE.

SCHOLARSHIP

Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship established by the American poet Amy Lowell in her will is an annual scholarship to support travel abroad for gifted American-born poets. Deadline October 15. Details HERE.

EVENTS

THE FRENCH CONNECTION 2016, Friday, October 7th, 12:00 PM–1:00 PM, Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street, Chicago. Free admission: “To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the relationship between Chicago and Paris, the Chicago Sister Cities Paris Committee invites Chicago Slam Works to showcase the work of Collective 129H, poets/performers Rouda, Neobled, and Lyor. Together with Marc Smith, founder of the poetry slam, and Chicago Slam Works poets, they create a dynamic interpretive performance which can be easily understood, in real time, by both French and English speakers.” Details HERE.

POETRY IN DOWNTOWN BAY SHORE, Long Island, NY, September 10, 7 p.m. Join posts Matt Pasca (The Raven’s Wire) and Terri Muuss (Over Exposed) when they host every second Saturday at Cyrus’ for the kind of poetry, coffee, treats and open mic experience you’ve been looking for!!! Our features will move and inspire you with their honesty and scintillating presence. Open mic follows features, so bring your ukulele, cello, double bass, guitar, sonnets, spoken word, villanelles and more! This gathering will feature LIV MAMMONE and RICHARD JEFFREY NEWMAN. Details HERE.

PAUMANOK POETRY POW WOW, Long Island, New York Saturday, September 17, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. “The Nassau County Poet Laureate Society and the WWBA invite all the “poetry tribes” from the city’s five boroughs and Long Island for an afternoon of poetry readings from the tribes. There will be music, readings, workshops and refreshments ($10 admission fee).”  Details HERE.

NEIL STEINBERG “A Box Full of Darkness: Poetry, Addiction and Family.”  Thursday, September 8th, 7:00 PM, Steinber reads from his latest book, Out of the Wreck I Rise: A Literary Companion to Recovery Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, Chicago. Free admission. Details HERE.

13TH ANNUAL PALM BEACH POETRY FESTIVAL is scheduled for January 16-21. (Sounds fabulous!) Details HERE.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

STANFORD PROFESSOR PUTS HIS ENTIRE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE ONLINE FOR FREE, D/Y Photography

PHOTOGRAPHS, COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES, U.K.

PHOTOGRAPHS, COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES, U.S.

PHOTOGRAPHS, COPYRIGHT GUIDELINES, CANADA

TIDBITS:

VOICES ABOVE THE CHOAS: FEMALE WAR POETS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, The Guardian

Happy Holiday to everyone celebrating Labor Day and to those in Kerala celebrating Onam.

When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people were equal-
Times when people were joyful and merry;
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Deaths of children were unheard of,
No wicked person was in sight anywhere
All the people on the land were good.
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no false words or promises.
Measures and weights were right;
There were no lies,
No one cheated or wronged his neighbor.
When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people formed one casteless race

Thiruvathira_Kali_During_Onam

Photograph in the pubic domain. Photo and poem courtesy of Wikipedia.

THE POET BY DAY SUNDAY POESY

Submit your event, book launch and other announcements at least fourteen days in advance to thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Publication is subject to editorial discretion.

Posted on

POET, PLAYWRIGHT AND AUTHOR, Joyce Carol Thomas died

Joyce Carol Thomas, (1938-2016), poet, playwright and the author of more than 30 books for children and youth
Joyce Carol Thomas, (1938-2016), poet, playwright and the author of more than 30 books for children and youth

Joyce Carol Thomas was one of nine children born into a cotton-picking family in rural Oklahoma. She died last month on the 16th in Berkeley, California.

Ms. Thomas started out writing poetry and plays and then moved on to young adult fiction. Her first young adult novel,  Marked by Fire, was published in 1982 and won the National Book Award in 1983.

51AuPEhdTIL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

She said in one interview, “I know of black boys and girls who squirm uncomfortably in their desks at the two-dimensional, unrelenting portrayal of young people as either victims of slavery or perennial do-rag wearers hanging out on a stoop next to a garbage can. There are black American stories somewhere between slavery and ghetto that also deserve telling.” Her work explored issues of identity and the experience of black lives in rural areas.

In addition to the National Book Award, she won the American Book Award, the New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year Award, Outstanding Woman of the 20th Century Award, three Coretta Scott King Honor Awards, the Center for Poets and Writers’ Poet Laureate Award, Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice, the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, Book of the Month Club Selection, and others.  She received her undergraduate degree from San Jose State and a master’s from Stanford University and taught at several colleges.

Because I am dark, the moon and stars shine brighter.”

Her poetry collections included The Blacker the Berry and Brown Honey in Broom Wheat Tea, which both received the Coretta Scott King Book Award.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When the berries in the jar
Are biscuit ready
I fix a cup of tea
Then spoon out biscuit jelly
For biscuit brown me
Joyce Carol Thomas

With the holiday’s coming sooner than we’d like to think: her books make great gifts for children and youth. Her board books are charming.

Photograph, courtesy of Ms. Thomas’ Amazon page.