Places to read poems

Two of my favorite places to read poems are Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. I like these because every day there is a new poem uploaded and I am constantly introduced to authors, journals, and presses. What are your favorite places online to read poems and why?

Trethewey and Linked Poems

I just read Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard and it was remarkable. I'd read poems from the collection before, but this was my first time reading it straight through, which was a completely different experience. Trethewey's poems are in four unnamed sections (including a one-poem section that functions as a prologue) that are introduced by telling epigraphs. However, they could easily (to the detriment of the collection) be named Prologue, Mother, Mississippi, and My Life in Mississippi because the sections themselves are so cohesive.

This cohesion (and the cohesion of the book itself) led me to think about the propensity for books of poems to contain an overarching narrative. I often enjoy books that employ this method, because it leads to an even greater meaning and to reading ease. I think that if the poems can stand alone (and these certainly can), having a book of linked poems can increase the reader's joy because it is a continued unfolding instead of a segmented or choppy read (as is sometimes the case with books of poems that have no narrative or stylistic link).

I could be wrong, but I think books of linked poems are a relatively new phenomenon (perhaps begun by some of the confessional poets). There have always been book-length poems that have a continuous narrative, but that is really not the same thing. Linked poems are similar to a novel in which each poem constitutes a chapter (though linked poems tend to be less linear than novels and can repeatedly discuss a single aspect of a subject in a way that would stunt a novel's movement).

To be honest, I don't think that I could create a book around this model. I am working on a chapbook of How to Break Up poems, but I think a book-length manuscript from that same material would be boring to read (of course, the HTBU poems don't have as much power as Native Guard in either subject or skill).

I wonder, however, if books of linked poems will become the new standard in poetry books. I know that there are contemporary books that do not follow this model, but I think that linked poems are becoming more and more prevalent — and are also very well-received. What do you guys think? Are linked poems the future?

Catching Up

About a month ago I started a new job. I'm now an editorial assistant in the English editorial department at Bedford/St. Martin's. And yes, I'm writing this blog at my desk in my cubicle that I have decorated with 8 pictures of my cats and one picture of my girlfriend and baby nephew. Yes, I love my cats.

So far at my new job I've been coordinating review programs while we decide how to revise current books for future editions, or whether to even have future editions. I hate trying to find professors to take the questionnaires, but I like talking to those who say yes, reading their completed reviews, and keeping track of it all with a color-coded spreadsheet. I also use color-coded maps to insure geographic diversity in my reviews. I love to color-code almost as much as I love my cats.

A few weeks ago, I gave a lecture at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on the poetic influence of Wordsworth and Coleridge on each other and on poetry in general. The lecture was only an hour long, so I kept it limited mainly to their use of nature as a holy entity and to their reduction of formality. The audience chimed in about imagination, nature as educator, etc. Needless to say, I was impressed by their knowledge and willingness to share. It helped me get through the lecture (I have semi-debilitating stage-fright). I was able to leave the lecture knowing I had done a good job, which in itself is an improvement. Usually after a round of public speaking, I remain agitated for hours and never think I did well. Ever. So, I was proud that I could recognize my own accomplishment.

Yesterday, The National Gallery of Writing went live. Bedford/St. Martin's is involved, so I wrote a short piece about a bookshelf that I used to discuss poetic tradition. I was going to include "Narcissus pseudonarcissus," but the line about masturbation is not terribly appropriate for the high school kids expected to be the main audience. I wanted to use the poem because I thought it was a clear demonstration of my point: taking something old (a myth) and making it new (a vapid punk-rocker). I didn't really have time to find something else, so the write-up went in poem-free.

I never know how to end these things. It feels like a conversation or a letter, but I never know who (if anyone) is reading. Do I say, "Hope all is well with you" or "Better get back to work now"? How's this: Blogging is awkward.

Sorry Sorry Sorry

I don't know what it is — the end of summer, the endless work cluttering my desk, the new job, purring cats — but for some reason I have no attention span. Trying to write something that takes any thought is like digging through my skull with a safety razor. So this is my apology post. I am so sorry that I haven't written anything in 6 weeks or so.

To make up for it, I'm going to link to a few of my favorite blogs so that you can read something about poetry by people who actually write about poetry.

Drawn Curtains is written by ex-pat Harold Haller. It contains original poems and a new feature of online poetry reviews. My poem "Narcissus pseudonarcissus" was reviewed in August. I also guest-blogged about poetics in May. This is not why I'm sending you there. I'm sending you there for poems like this and this.

TransVerse is Erica Mena's blog mainly about poetry translation, but also about language in general. It is undeniable that translated works have hugely impacted poetry since its advent. It is nearly impossible to look at a major poet and not find that he or she seriously studied a non-English form or poet.

OK, that's it for now. Time to make dinner. Happy reading!

Personal Statement equals

quiet terror

Something incredible has happened — when I say "incredible," I mean "unbelievable." James Connatser, current editor of Soundings East and arguably my biggest fan, has somehow managed to make me the featured poet of their next issue. Why is this unbelievable? Because I am so new to being published that it seems far beyond my level as a poet.

I just don't feel ready to write and make public a personal statement describing themes in my work and my poetic philosophy. The idea makes me feel very vulnerable — it's a fine line between intelligence and pretension. It seems silly to be worried about vulnerability when I am currently writing a blog about poetry and being a poet. But the format of this blog or Drawn Curtains is fluid, changeable. I can make some crazy statement like, "The goal of poetry should be to move outside the self and into the universal," and then say in the comment section or in the next post, "Of course the universal is something that doesn't really exist." And yes, I can say both of those things in my personal statement (and I plan to), but when I'm done writing and I send it off, I really have to let it go. I can't add to or subtract from what I've said. I can't continue to work things out for myself; they have to be decided. There is no room for uncertainty.

The poems themselves have been written and rewritten; shaped by what I want them to say over a long period of time and multiple revisions. I think the youngest poem Soundings East is publishing is almost two years old — a toddler running around the living room, knees to the ears. I have less than a week to FINISH a statement.

I know I'm just being self-conscious. I know I should just be grateful to James for his faith in me (I really really am); I should just write the statement, find a picture (did I mention there will be a picture?), and send them both off with a smile. And so I will. Here I go. Right . . . now.

Duotrope

Charlotte Smith is definitely in the public domain, but I can't find the full text of Beachy Head anywhere (except in google books but there it is a bit garbled). I thought about typing it in for my illustrious readers, but it spans 35 pages of The Poems of Charlotte Smith. So I'm scrapping the idea for now. Maybe I'll choose one of her much shorter Elegaic Sonnets to share later.

Instead, I thought I'd call your attention to an excellent resource for poets (and fiction writers) who actively submit their work for publication. Duotrope's Digest makes submitting easy by helping you to research markets, meet deadlines, and organize your submissions. Close friend and translator Erica Mena-Landry told me about the website a few weeks ago, and I owe her a huge thanks. At first I was resistant—But I already track my submissions in Excel. I made a spreadsheet. It's colorcoded. Erica politely told me that there is no way my spreadsheet could do what Duotrope can do.

I didn't sign up for a free account right away. Instead, I searched to see what kind of markets (print and online magazines, small and large presses) they link to. They claim to list "over 2525 current Fiction and Poetry publications," but I wasn't sure whether these would be legitimate or get-published-in-our-anthology-and-you-and-all-your-friends-should-buy-one-for-$50 publications. Using their search function, I clicked the poetry tab because I'm a poet, then the theme GLBT because I was applying for the Astraea grant and it would limit my results, and finally the electronic sub type because I'm saving the environment one submission at a time. My results were mixed: markets like Manic D Press I'd heard of before, Breadcrumb Scabs I'd never heard of but looked really promising, and some listings were labeled ADULT and irrelevant for my purposes (but maybe not for yours).

To find out how Duotrope profiles the markets, I clicked the first listing, in this case 42 Magazine. I found a blurb discussing what kind of submissions the market is open to, the different lengths of work they accept, the medium the market is published in, payscale, how to submit, and how long it usually takes them to respond. This last field might also contain information on how many of Duotrope's members who have submitted have been accepted or rejected (not all markets have this information). In the top right corner is a link to the market's website where you can do what you normally do when looking to submit: read online work or order a sample copy if you're not familiar with the publication, read about the magazine, see who else has been published there, and closely read the submission guidelines. Think of Duotrope as a tool—it helps but you still have to do the work.

Another function is the site's deadline calendar, organized by the date the market is closing to submissions in general or that a particular theme the market wanted (for example "Genre Benders") is ending. Duotrope also lets you know how many days are left until the deadline, in case you can't do math; lets you link to their profile for the market; and, if you're a Duotrope member, gives you the option of tracking the deadline. So, say you really want to submit to Post Road Magazine and they stop reading submissions at the end of July, but you have no idea what to send in, Duotrope will put that market and its deadline on your control panel.

Your control panel also has your submission stats—how many poems you have out, how many you've sent this year, and how many this month. This information is obviously contingent on whether or not you use their submissions tracker. The control panel also has a favorite markets section (markets you indicated as your favorites; mine has Shampoo listed), ignored markets, and saved searches, neither of which I've used yet . . . but maybe if Shampoo rejects me again. . . .

The submissions tracker is easy to use. You just type the market into a search so Duotrope can find that market's profile, enter in the dates you've submitted, the genre (poetry or fiction only), how you submitted (electronic or postal), the status of the submission (pending response, accepted, and so on), and the titles of pieces you've submitted. The catch here is that if you haven't entered a list of your poems, you have to keep saving titles and going back to enter more. But by saving each title individually, you can see each piece you have out and if one is accepted and the rest are not, you can indicate that in your tracker. One cool thing the tracker does (after you've entered your submissions) is tell you how many days the submission has been out and how many days the market usually takes to respond. If you are past that number of days, it turns your pending response label red, meaning it's time for you to contact the publication and politely as where the heck your rejection is.

There are of course limitations to the site. One is that it only follows poetry and fiction, so if you write creative nonfiction, drama, reviews, or even poetry and fiction in translation (like Erica does) this site may not meet your needs. (I know Erica contacted them about the translation oversight and maybe when she's settled somewhere and reads this blog, she can fill us in on what happened.) A minor limitation is that its submissions tracker doesn't list whether the market accepts simultaneous submissions, so you can't tell at a glance if your poems are off the table or if they can be sent elsewhere in the interim. I've contacted them about this and if I'm lucky they'll add the field to their tracker.

I'd love to hear feedback from some of you who have used this site or others like it — what do you love about it? what drawbacks have you discovere? what did I miss?

Day-to-day

Already I've been blogging less than I hoped. Why? Work deadlines, went camping for the fourth, and of course laziness coupled with a lack of inspiration. Before I hit the woods, I tried to post the poem Beachy Head by Charlotte Smith to discuss this week, but I couldn't find the text easily enough and couldn't remember Project Gutenberg (though I used to proofread for them) and kept going to Bartleby instead. After all that discouragement (I know, poor me) I thought I'd reintroduce myself with a little "day-to-day" journaling.

Good news last week: I had a poem, "Narcissus pseudonarcissus" accepted in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, which I am really excited about. After five months of rejections, having a poem picked up is something to dance in my underwear about. Also, James Connatser, editor at Soundings East told me that instead of two of my poems (accepted last winter), they want to publish three. The end of June almost caused cardiac arrest—how much excitement can one young poet take?

Today I must finish the paperwork for the Astraea Foundation grant (wish me luck!) and possibly do some very non-poetic laundry (if the rain rain goes away). Check back later in the week for text and discussion of Beachy Head.