“Tygpress.com is temporarily out of service due to technical issues. will be back soon…
Tygpress.com was created with an intention to create a blog search site , but due to some techical issues, full contents of respective sites were being displayed instead of just excerpts as intended. We thank the complainants for bringing this issue to our notice and We are extremely sorry to the content owners.” tygpress.com
Tygpress.com was founded in June 2018 and is an aggregating site with posts from many of our blogs as its total content. At the time of this writing, the site is blocked and all you will see if you go to Tygpress.com is the statement I’ve included above.
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So many kind and concerned bloggers have sent me alerts, which I appreciate. Thank you! Every post of mine was appropriated. I know it’s disconcerting (angering) and frustrating. This is not an expert opinion, but I have to say first that I think our copyrights are intact. I don’t think that’s an issue, though understandably it’s a primary concern. I noted that wherever there was a copyright notice by the content originator, it was included. On my site, I make conspicuous use of copyright for my own work and that of others and for this very reason. I have no worries about my fellow poets, writers and bloggers, it’s these wild-cards that come up that are a concern.
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If you feel your copyright is compromised you can file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) Takedown. Details on that are HERE.
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I am as I write this awaiting an update from WordPress, which I’ll add to this post when and if one comes in. Having said that, Tygpress.com is not hosted by WordPress, so WordPress can’t take down the site. There are probably some things it can do. I hope we’ll find out. Meanwhile …
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Digital Ocean is the host and you can email them with your complaint at dmac@digitalocean.com and let them know you want your work deleted from the Tygpress.com and Tygpress.com blocked from stealing your posts in the future should Tygress.com become active again.
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The Domain Name is hosted by Go Daddy.
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The site is owned by a gentleman from Kamataka, Bengaluru, India. It purportedly earns $24.00 U.S. a day and has an estimated value of $8,640.00 U.S. according to a couple of website stat and valuation sites and who knows how accurate these are.
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I hope this is helpful. Feel free to add your thoughts and comments below.
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
“Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.” Mission Statement of Poets Against War.
Back around 2008 when I started blogging, Poets Against War, founded in 2003 by American poet Sam Hamill (1943-2018) in response to the war with Iraq, was still going strong and some of my poems were accepted for online publication. This was my baptism into socially engaged poetry. The thousands of poems that were contributed to the database from poets around the world are archived at a university, the name of which I’ve long forgotten. There were some other great efforts including Poetry of Solidarity, which made use of the easy and economical outreach the Internet offers. These two sites have gone the way of all things. The links I saved for them now get a 404 error code. Today we have 100,000 Poets (and friends) for Change, founded in 2011 by Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion.
Fortunately, I did keep notes on some of the poetry and activities I encountered in those early blogging days. What follows is a translation of a poem written by a child in Zimbabwe after the government made war on its own people in June 2005. 200,000 people became homeless. This poem was included in an article by American poet Karen Margolis in the now defunct Poetry of Solidarity.
nights with ghosts .
dear samueri, my friend
i will never see you again;
maybe i will.
but i shall not know
until father finds us a new address ,
addresses!
we have none anymore.
we are of no address. .
now that i have written this letter,
where do i post it to?
shall i say, samueri,
care of the next rubble
harare?
“I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, ‘Mother, what was war?'” American poet, Eve Merriam
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
“PEN declares for a free press and opposes arbitrary censorship. It believes that the necessary advance of the world toward a more highly organized political and economic order renders free criticism of governments, administrations, and institutions imperative.” PEN Charter, 1948
“The Iowa House’s decision to deny press credentials to influential political blogger Laura Belin (Bleeding Heart, A community blog about Iowa politics) is a disturbing limitation on her First Amendment rights,” PEN America announced in a statement earlier this week.
Laura Belin, a writer and blogger who has covered political news at the Iowa state legislature since 2007, recently applied for and was reportedly denied a formal press credential that would have allowed her to cover the 2019 legislative session. The press credential would have provided deeper access to lawmaker briefings throughout the session as well as a workspace to focus on her blog, The Bleeding Heartland, which receives more than 1,500 unique daily visitors when the legislature is in session. Belin has been touted as “one of the best political reporters in Iowa” by news executive Michael Gartner. In denying Belin’s application, the Iowa House stated that “press credentials are not issued to members of the public.” Belin told the Associated Press that other non-traditional news outlets have been issued press credentials in the past and suggested that the reason for the denial may be the liberal-leaning nature of her blog. Belin has attempted to appeal the House’s decision and is considering legal action.
“There is little obvious reason why the Iowa House might have denied Belin’s press credential application, and it would be deeply concerning if their decision was motivated by wanting to restrict the political viewpoints espoused in her blog,” said Nora Benavidez, Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs at PEN America. “The general lack of transparency around the House’s process for approving press credentials creates space for unfounded restrictions of journalist access. We caution the Iowa House that any content-based limitations on journalists’ ability to report on government business would be an affront to press freedoms.”
In October 2018, PEN America filed a lawsuit, PEN America v. Trump, that seeks to stop President Trump from using the machinery of government to retaliate or threaten reprisals against journalists and media outlets for coverage he dislikes.
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Photo credit: The State Capitol of Iowa, with its Golden Dome courtesy of Iqkotze under CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. It champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity,Hugh MacLeod
Creative writing programs – certificate, degree / residency or low-residency – available through colleges and universities are the first to come to mind, but I know these are not feasible for everyone. They’re expensive, as are conferences. You have to be able to carve time out from your day job and family responsibilities. Sometimes transportation is a challenge. You might be homebound due to illness or disability. If these are some of the barriers you face, there are lots of resources to explore. Not all require you to get your hot little body to a classroom. Some won’t cost you a dime. Some are moderately priced.
AUTODIDACTISM (SELF-EDUCATION) is education without the guidance of teachers or coaches. If your circumstances are such that this is the route you must go, don’t turn your nose up at it or feel in any way inferior. Don’t be tempted to think it’s not credible. You’re not going to do surgery on anyone. You are going to tell stories and write poems. Your best teachers are the other writers you read and study. Your best practice is writing every day. This is not to discourage people from aspiring to and obtaining higher education or to put that route down. It’s just an acknowledgment that some may not have the temperament and others may not have the resources.
“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for ten years.” Ray Bradbury.
Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer, essayist, and poet.
Truman Capote,novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.
Camilo José Cela, Nobel Prize for Literature
John Clare, poet.
Joseph Conrad, novelist.
Julio Cortázar, a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, scholar and poet of New Spain (Mexico).
Machado de Assis, considered a great Brazilian writer.
Mukul Deva, a well-known Indian writer, keynote speaker and coach.
Harlan Ellison, multi-award-winning speculative fiction author and screenwriter. Ellison attended Ohio State University for about a year-and-a-half. He was expelled for hitting a professor who criticized his writing.
William Faulkner, Nobel Prize for Literature.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a feminist writer, lecturer, and thinker at the turn of the 20th century
Hermann Hesse, Nobel Prize for Literature.
Maxim Gorky, writer.
Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize for Literature
Henry Miller, famous for breaking with existing literary forms.
Jack London,a novelist, journalist, and social activist; a pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, London was one of the first writers to earn a fortune from writing
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, primogenitor of modern horror fiction.
Nazir Naji, a Pakistani writing in Urdu, rose from poverty to progressive news columnist, intellectual, and a speech writer to former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Sir Terry Pratchett, a writer of science fiction, fantasy and children’s books. He is quoted as saying “I didn’t go to university. Didn’t even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did.”
José Saramago, Nobel Prize for Literature.
Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize for Literature. A Bengali who became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
Mark Twain, writer and humorist.
August Wilson, a playwright, attended school through ninth grade and then continued his studies at the local library.
George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize for Literature, left school in his teens. It is said he compared schools to prison.
Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize for Literature.
Louis L’Amour, known for his novels of the American West.
Alan Moore, graphic novelist, V for Vendetta and Watchmen.
ADULT EDUCATION: The cost for adult education is nominal or free. These tend to focus on remedial education (which some readers might feel they need) and work training. The roster of classes just might include art, poetry, memoir writing, and short-story writing. I encourage you to think outside the proverbial box as well. Many many years ago I took a bookkeeping class to help with the tax records and the business side of my writing. Computer classes might also be a worthy consideration if you feel you need to kick your skills up a notch. I know of only one publication that accepts hand-written poems by snail mail. Fewer and fewer accept submissions via the postal service. Most now want submissions by email or through a submission processing system like Submittable.
The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network provides seven keys to adult education.
Adults cannot be made to learn. They will only learn when they are internally motivated to do so.
Adults will only learn what they feel they need to learn. In other words, they are practical.
Adults learn by doing. Active participation is especially important to adult learners in comparison to children.
Adult learning is problem-based and these problems must be realistic. Adult learners like finding solutions to problems.
Adult learning is affected by the experience each adult brings.
Adults learn best informally. Adults learn what they feel they need to know whereas children learn from a curriculum.
Children want guidance. Adults want information that will help them improve their situation or that of their children.
COMMUNITY COLLEGE: In the US these colleges offer programs that are two years (generally associates degrees) or short-term education leading to certificates. There’s nothing that says you have to walk the degree or certificate path. You can create your own program focusing on literature, writing, communications, and technology classes that directly meet your personal needs and goals as a writer. For added convenience, some classes are available online.
“A community college is … a term [that] can have different meanings in different countries: most community colleges have an “open enrollment” with a high school (also known as senior secondary school) completion, but usually refers to an educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs.” MORE Wikipedia
LIBRARIES and INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKS: For the frugal there’s always the library, the best budget-wise book option. Many libraries have kind volunteers available to pick-up and deliver books to the homebound. Your local library may host book-clubs, writing clubs, and classes. The local library is a good place to start.
Type in “How-to Write” in the Amazon search feature and see how many books come up. Writer’s Digest and The Writer (to name just two publishers) have more books on writing than you would ever need. They address the subject every which way: poetry, novels, character development, plotting, revising, query letters, crafting the short story, ghostwriting, freelancing, and on and on.
LOCAL POETS AND WRITERS: Find established poets and writers living near you – it will take a bit of research and networking – and see if they teach classes or if they host weekend workshops. You may find listings in writer’s trade magazines. Often classes will be once a month or once a week and held at the writer’s home. This helps to keep costs low and therefore registration fees are low and perhaps affordable for you. Value added is that if the coach/instructor is impressed with your work, they are sometimes willing to use their connections to help you get published. Another value added is that you will make friends with other poets and writers.
DISTANCE LEARNING (REMOTE CLASSES)/POETRY SCHOOLS: I suspect there’s a lot of this around the world thanks to current technology. You’ll have to do some digging. Do an online search and network with other writers and you might find some good small schools in your area or region. As an example, the Poetry School in the UK sounds genius, “largest provider of poetry education, providing inspiring education and ways to connect with other supportive poets.” Poetry School offers downloadable courses for remote learning. Second Light Network offers remote workshops too.
YOUTUBE: This is a truly rich resource that includes writing classes, literature courses, poetry readings, and discussions with panels of poets and writers, which you can access for free and at whim. Often the “classes” are presentations made at those conferences you couldn’t get to or couldn’t afford. Literature courses are posted by such prestigious institutions as Yale University. Poetry readings come from a broad range of outlets that include, for example, Emery College and the Dodge Poetry Festival. Do a search by poet, school, or a more specific interest like ecopoetics. Here’s a sample:
I hope this helps you find the instruction you need or want. Good luck!
Often information is just that–information– and not necessarily recommendation. I haven’t worked with all the publications or other organizations featured in my regular Sunday Announcements or other announcements shared on this site. Awards and contests are often (generally) a means to generate income, publicity and marketing mailing lists for the host organizations, some of which are more reputable than others. I never attend events anymore. Caveat Emptor: Please be sure to verify information for yourself before submitting work, buying products, paying fees or attending events et al.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 