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LATE BREAKING NEWS: “RESIST” live and virtual events and “Artemis Poetry” calls for submissions

“On January 15, 2017, poets around the U.S., in cities, towns and villages, will gather on the steps of their local city hall to read poetry against the coming dictatorship of Trump.”

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Organized by Alan Kaufman and Michael Rothenberg.

Alan Kaufman is the Editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

“Outlaw poets” is a term of endearment used in reference to poets whose work is featured in the Outlaw Bible. The following is a partial list of the characteristics of such poets:

  • anti-authoritarian personality;
  • anti-Vietnam war activists known for their anti-war rhymes (many poets write about Vietnam who are by no means outlaw poets).
  • Elder poets that gained notoriety via unconventional forms
  • Poets deliberately not included in most academic curriculums
  • Often inspirational to or inspired by the so-called “Beat” movement in American poetry during the mid-20th century

and

Michael Rothenberg is co-founder (with Terri Carrion) of 100 Thousand Poets For Change. He is an American poet, songwriter, editor, and active environmentalist who recently moved to Florida from the San Francisco Bay area. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1993 he received his MA in Poetics at New College of California. In 1989, Rothenberg and artist Nancy Davis began Big Bridge Press, a fine print literary press, publishing works by Jim Harrison, Joanne Kyger, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Whalen and others. Rothenberg is editor of Big Bridge, a webzine of poetry. Rothenberg is also co-editor and co-founder of Jack Magazine

It’s probable that The BeZine January 15, 2017 issue will be devoted to this event. Save the date for both live and virtual events and prepare to submit your poems. Let them be both truthful and artistic . . .

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise

 

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind — Emily Dickinson

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The latest issue of ARTEMISpoetry (UK) just landed in the USA with its usual rich assortment of essays, book reviews, art, announcements and – Yes! – of course, a wealth of good poems. (Apologies for not getting a better photograph of the cover.) ARTEMISpoetry is the bi-annual journal (November and May) of the Second Light Network and published under its Second Light Publications imprint. The poetry is by women forty-plus or better. The poems are for everyone. You can order this issue and others through Anne Stewart‘s poetry p f and/or sign up for membership. Membership includes a journal subscription.

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CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Opportunity Knocks

Poetry Deadlines: Issue 18, February 28, 2017 and Issue 19, August 31, 2017. “Women poets only, of any age. Unpublished poetry only and not out in submission elsewhere.  Strict limit: max 4 poems; the total number of lines in all should not exceed 200 lines (i.e. you could send a poem of 200 lines and this would restrict your submission to just one poem).  Two copies, A4 paper only [U.S. standard letter paper – 8 1/2 x 11 is the closest we have in the US to A4], typed or neatly handwritten.  Each numbered sheet to bear the poet’s contact details (name, address, telephone, e-mail). Send to ARTEMISpoetry, ATTN.: Dilys Wood, 3 Springfield Close, East Preston, West Sussex, BN162 SZ.”

Response by April 30 for Issue 18 and October 31 for Issue 19.  Kate Foley is the poetry editor for Issue 18.

Artwork – Black and white photographs or line-art sketches are welcome for submission. Four max.

For new and emerging writers, Second Light also offers “remote” – i.e., distance – workshops.  Check out the website for details.

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HEADS-UP: December 7, 2016,

Poetry Now @ The Department of English and American Studies, The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University

Our own Michael Dickel is a featured.15289246_10154375245428557_1972176959953952764_o

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ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE WALDORF ASTORIA HOTEL, Langston Hughes

Langston Huges (1902-1967), American Poet, Writer, and Social Activist
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), American Poet, Writer, and Social Activist

Even as I sorted through books one day – including cookbooks – in preparation for a garage sale to be held before moving into disabled-senior housing, a new cookbook enters. A gift from my son, it’s Oscar Tschirky’s (1886-1950) recipe collection. Oscar Tschirky was the famous maître d’hôtel at the Waldorf-Astoria, which has some special meaning for me. Occasionally my mom liked to go to the café there for blueberry pancakes. It was as close as she could get to being an elegant respectable lady as the world defines such. The book reminds me of her and the poem that follows.

Langston Hughes wrote the poem after walking past the Waldorf during the Great Depression. I’ve read that it was originally published in New Masses magazine, a long defunct American Marxist publication that was the literary organ of the cultural left during and after the Depression.

“The hotel opened,” Hughes wrote in The Big Sea: An Autobiography, “at the very time when people were sleeping on newspapers in doorways, because they had no place to go. But suites in the Waldorf ran into thousands a year, and dinner in the Sert Room was ten dollars! (Negroes, even if they had the money, couldn’t eat there. So naturally, I didn’t care much for the Waldorf-Astoria.)”

ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE WALDORF-ASTORIA HOTEL

Fine living . . . a la carte?
Come to the Waldorf-Astoria!

LISTEN HUNGRY ONES!
Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the
new Waldorf-Astoria:

“All the luxuries of a private home. . . .”
Now, won’t that be charming when the last flop-house
has turned you down this winter?
Furthermore:
“It is far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the hotel
world. . . .” It cost twenty-eight million dollars.
The famous Oscar Tschirky is in charge of banqueting.
Alexandre Gastaud is chef. It will be a distinguished
background for society.
So when you’ve no place else to go, homeless and hungry
ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags–
(Or do you still consider the subway after midnight good
enough?)

ROOMERS
Take a room at the new Waldorf, you down-and-outers–
sleepers in charity’s flop-houses where God pulls a
long face, and you have to pray to get a bed.
They serve swell board at the Waldorf-Astoria. Look at the menu, will
you:

GUMBO CREOLE
CRABMEAT IN CASSOLETTE
BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF
SMALL ONIONS IN CREAM
WATERCRESS SALAD
PEACH MELBA

Have luncheon there this afternoon, all you jobless.
Why not?
Dine with some of the men and women who got rich off of
your labor, who clip coupons with clean white fingers
because your hands dug coal, drilled stone, sewed gar-
ments, poured steel to let other people draw dividends
and live easy.
(Or haven’t you had enough yet of the soup-lines and the bit-
ter bread of charity?)
Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner, and get
warm, anyway. You’ve got nothing else to do.

– Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’ photograph is in the public domain. The poem may be in the public domain too given when it was written. 

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THE BREATH OF SPIRIT – a response to last Wednesday’s Writing Prompt

spirit3This is Renee Espriu’s response to last Wednesday’s Writing Prompt. 

I use to pray when asking or wanting
was all I thought there was
when I used the energy of my being
as if kinetic magnetic waves
to bring me absolute truth

when now with years of searching
I find that closing my eyes
to breathe quietly within
the mist begins to clear as
though sun rays warm my spirit

the dew drops melt on blades of grass
to find me walking a deserted shore
where the ocean winds touch my hair
and the watery brine is lifted thus
to coat my skin with salty jewels

where words are not labels or script
but the beauty of butterflies laced
with birdsong and seeded with pearls
that transcend time and space
filling my soul with balm and peace

© November 2016 Renee Espriu

Renee is tenacious in her study and work and in getting her poetry out to a variety of publications. The charming illustration is hers: “Image Taken From Morgue File & Digitized by Myself.”

Here’s what she has to say of herself:

c796b9e96120fdf0ce6f8637fa73483cRENEE ESPIRU: I am a daughter, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and seeker of Spiritual Peace and Soul Filled Freedom. I have been to graduate school at Pacific Lutheran University and have a Bachelors Degree in Sociology. I have also been to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary from which I acquired a Certificate in Theology. I have eclectic beliefs that encompass many faiths and believe Nature to be the basis of everything that is and that everything that is is also a part of Nature.

Due to emergent open heart surgery in 2015 I am now retired and devoting more of my time to writing, which includes the writing of a fiction book and one that is solely poetry. I have a Blog site at reneejustturtleflight where I have been posting my writing since 2011. I have been a guest contributor to The BeZine and participated in The BeZine 2016 100,000 Poets for Change virtual event. I also have a passion for art. I draw and paint.

VISIT “THE POET BY DAY” TOMORROW FOR

THIS WEDNESDAY’S WRITING PROMPT

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Anne Stewart’s poetry p f … good resource for poets and poetry lovers

annephotoAnne Stewart’s poetry p f is a wonderful go-to place when you want to expand your reading to include accomplished contemporary (mostly UK) poets. Assuming you meet the membership requirements, it can also be the means to making your own collection/s more visible on the Internet.

“Membership requirements” might seem to imply a certain elitism, but the standard is in my opinion not onerous but reasonable enough to ensure that the poets represented have refined their craft and have a serious interest in and commitment to poetry.

As I write this post, there are some 300 top-notch poets on poetry p f  and their collections might be difficult to find without this resource. I’m not a member, but I do like to make purchases from poetry p f. It’s convenient and, unlike Amazon, the poet pages are uniform and you can count on them to be there. They offer you a sample poem, a photograph and contact information as well as information about the publisher.

There’s an event page, largely London and surrounding areas, with a schedule of readings, workshops and courses. Included is a useful “Favorite” sites page offering resources that will help you connect with other poets. A convenient listing of competitions and calls for submissions makes it easier to target potential markets for your work. The home page features one poet and the poet featured is rotated.

poetry p f offers a rich collection of feature articles and Anne also has poetry cards available for purchase.  Anne welcomes commissions to produce tailor-made Poem Cards for purchases of 100 or more cards.

Since Anne is affiliated with Second Light Network of Women Poets (SLN), I find it convenient to pay my SLN member fees through her site. When I wanted to gift a membership (a great gift for the women poets in your life), I just emailed Anne to let her know I purchased an SLN membership and to whom it was supposed to go.  No dealing with nameless service representatives and policy inconsistencies.

In the May 2010 issue of acumen, a literary journal, Anne was interviewed by William Oxley and explained the “p f'” in the name.

The p f was Monty Python inspired – I thought we poets needed to rage a bit and the People’s Front, Popular or otherwise, seemed to fit the bill.”

Opportunity knocks:  16 November 2016 is the deadline for the Barnet poetry competition for adults & juniors and Anne Stewart is the judge for the adult category.  Details HERE.

the-janus-hour-fullANNE STEWART is a poet, reviewer, and provider of services to poets and poetry organisations. In 2000, she began working towards a life with poetry at the centre of it, joining the Post-graduate Creative Writing programme at Sheffield Hallam University. In 2003, she was awarded an MA with Distinction and in 2005, was selected as one of the “Ten Hallam Poets” represented in the anthology published by Mews Press (eds. Sean O’Brien, Steven Earnshaw and EA Markham). The anthology attracted high praise from top-calibre poets (Don Paterson, Julia Darling, Helen Dunmore).

In 2008, she won the Bridport Prize for her sonnet, Still Water, Orange, Apple, Tea. Judge, David Harsent, said of it “…what marks it out is the way this emotional commonplace is adapted to language … no line lacked a surprise … I liked its briskness – celebratory, but never cloying – and liked too, the fine-tuning: … a tone of voice that promotes brevity … where the notes in question sing and tease and intrigue … ”

Her first collection, The Janus Hour (Oversteps Books, 2010), “is characterised by a view of the world that is quizzical, appraising, unflinching yet non-judgemental: this is how things look from here, it says; take it or leave it. Her poems address, with the same deft lightness of touch, both uncomfortable truths about our time and the surreal in the everyday, achieving a rare consistency of expression without ever being predictable.” – Jeremy Page, editor, The Frogmore Papers.

© Anne’s photo and book cover art belong to her; the bio is from her site and is also under her copyright