Working Toward Publication?

If you want support as you work toward getting your poetry published then check out Fertile Ground.

Dip into poetic grace

I skipped around our blogroll and found a few poems that I particulary enjoyed. Check them out and let their creators know what you think.

From Poetry in the Garden of Fire, She is What She is

From The Crimsonflaw Lived to Tell the Tale, Untitled

From Reality Bytes, Slumber

From Mad Kane's Humor Blog, Web Withdrawal Woes

From Poetmeister...on the road to Parnassus, Deadly glance

From Hues of Thoughts, Mind Game

Read Traveler

Today I was going through our blogroll and stopping in to read some of our poets' work, when I came upon a poem that really struck me as remarkable. The tone of it is personal and confessional. It leaves you feeling like you crawled under the skin of the narrator.

Read Cry Me a Bridge by Traveler at The Forward Earth- something in another city and see if you enjoy it as much as I did.

Anna is looking for poets who want to donate a love poem to be posted on her site.


Spread the beauty of romantic filled poetic verses and share your talent with new readers at the same time by taking part in her project. Head on over to Free Poems to read all the detials.


Your Blog Manager,

Sara from The Shores of My Dreams

Fall Carnival

It's not exactly warm outside, where I live, at this time of year but that doesn't mean we can't go to a carnival.

Deb is hosting a poetry carnival on November 24th. To find out all the details cruise on over to her her site.

Thanks to a suggestion from Brian, you can now find a list of some of the blogs on our blogroll that have been recently updated. It is located at the top of our sidebar.

Occasionally, I will change this list. It will not reflect every blog updated because I can only visit a few each day.

Your Blog Manager,

Sara

P.S. If you want to join Poets Who Blog, if you know about Poetry news, or if you want to write an article for this site on poetry please email me at IlovetowriteSMP@yahoo.com

I Promise Check In

Poets Who Blog has spawned three smaller communities- the I Promise Blogrolls. It has been a few weeks and I wanted to ask how it is going for the poets taking part.

Are you enjoying being part of the program so far?

Is there anyone who would like to drop out?

Read about the I Promise concept here.

If you want to sign up for the fourth blogroll, called The Pay It Forward- I Promise Blogroll, let me know.

Make sure you understand that this is a commitment to visit other poets on your list every Thursday.

Your Blog Manager,

Sara

Found Poems

I decided to try this, new to me, poetic form after reading about it at Stony Moss.

A few other poets jumped in and gave it a go, too. Read Mad Kane's work here - she is a genius at political satire!

And then cruise on over to Deborah Vatcher's site and read her lovely found words about poets and dreamers in her poem Undeniable.

Leave comments and let them know what you think.

Below is my found poem:

Moonlight madness
call to me,
come over me,
composing me.

Baffled dreams confound and confuse.

Aching beauty, lost at sea,
I'm young
I'm free

just broken, but really what's it to you?

Let me drown within these waves, let me scream out the Lord's name-
dying to a musical Hallelujuh.

Hallelujuh
Hallelujuh
Hal...le...lu...juh...




*The darkened words are all from this Leonard Cohen song

By Sara from The Shores of My Dreams

History Before Your Eyes

I'm excited to let all of you know that today a new poetry community launched. Not only will this bring poets together to share their work but it will offer many varied poetic visions to the blogosphere at large.

Head on over to Read Write Poem, sign up and meet the contributors.

I don't know about you but I think its a good day when more poetry enters the world. Best of luck to our friends at

Take my breath away

C. Delaleu is a true artist with an unique and bold poetic vision.

Her work is grounded in the earth, full of the spirit of woman throughout the ages. Though she is not on our blogroll, I do link to her at my personal poetry site.

Her poems can be found at Lyrically Speaking. My favorite piece from her is called Battle of the Flesh

Remember to support all poets who blog. Do you know a poet I should highlight here?

TRY THIS

Have you ever created a Found Poem? To read about how to take part in this style of poetry visit Deb and Whirling Dervish at Stony Moss.


If you decide to write a poem inspired by this post, feel free to leave a link in the comments so I can see what you come up with.

The Poem that Could

It made it back! For anyone following the story of our Poetry Tag Poem you know that it was not an easy journey for this creation to come to life and find its way back home.

But with the help of poets all throughout the blogosphere, this collabortive work of poetry was born. Some poets even put in double or triple the effort asked for and added more than one line to this work, helping to shepard it home to us.

When I posted this, I did not know if it would work, but I am thrilled that it did.

Much thanks to:


Line 1: Sara from Poets Who Blog
Line 2: Sara from The Shores of My Dreams
Line 3: RomanceWriter from Aspiring Romance Writer
Line 4: KM Ryan from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Solutions
Line 5: Fox from Chasing Shadows Again
Line 6: Jeremy Thomas from The Ravyn's Nest
Line 7: Daydreamer from Reality bytes
Lines 8-9: Christine, Mariacristina Maria Christina
Line 10: Jeremy Thomas from The Ravyn's Nest
Lines 11-12: KM Ryan from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Solutions
Line 13: Sara,my writing group blog,Fallen Words
Line 14: Derek from Eats Bugs
Line 15: KM Ryan from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Solutions
Line 16: RomanceWriter from Aspiring Romance Writer
Line 17: Derek from Eats Bugs
Line 18: Tom from - Fallen Verses
Line 19: KM Ryan from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Solutions


And now behold, Poets Who Blog Poetic Tag Poem Number One-


The sound shook his bones-
like a cymbal
crashing fast against his soul.

A soul detached from mind and body,
shivering in the dark
and fearing the coming light.

He fled to a dingy back alley
and waited. A wind rushed
to meet him at the end
with that terrible sound wound through it.

And all he could do was wonder if he remembered to lock his front door,
or if his memories would be taken away with his sanity?

He crouched down, curling into his grief,
and all he could do was fight for water memories and gas-lit stoves still on
and a cardboard castle, while an insensitive queen
did battle for the pawn of man, within his fragile mind.

Shiver-shake went the light, coming from the mind and body. Memories wet.
Like quicksand, the struggle pulls him tighter to the light,
and, tired of the fight, he let it pull him into the downward spiral.

Poetry Tag Poem

A Poetic Challenge

Jilly Poet has come up with a fun idea for a way to create a brand new poem. You take your inspiration from the random word prompt at Read.Write.Poem. and then write an eleven line poem and post it on your blog.

To read more about this challenge, go to Mom Trying to Write.

Looking forward to seeing if any members of PWB jump in and take part.

Come on in, the water is fine.

I don't know where you live but here around Chicago it is starting to get chilly, and right behind that will be downright cold. But today I have the luxary of being able to slip away somewhere tropical and warm. It's Tuesday, poets, have you been to The Writer's Island?

The following press release was sent to Poets Who Blog. If you have a poetry related event or site to promote, feel free to email Sara at IlovetowriteSMP@yahoo.com

I'm excited to be able to announce this new site:

Nov. 4, 2007 — Read Write Poem will be launching Monday, Nov. 12. The project is an online gathering place for those who love poetry — and for those who suspect that, with a little nurturing, they could grow to love poetry. All that's required to participate is an Internet connection, gobs of love for the P word, an interest in collaborative poetry, and respect for and generosity toward your fellow participants.

Whether you are new to writing poetry or have been writing for years, you are welcome at Read Write Poem. If you don't write poetry but love to read and discuss it, this is also the place for you. (And who knows: After participating for a few months, you might realize you want to try your hand at writing a poem or two after all.)

Also, who says all our writing has to be done alone? Sure, as poets we love and need our solitude, but it's nice to interact from time to time and reach out to a community of poets. That's why Read Write Poem strongly encourages participants to collaborate with one another. Working with a writing partner or a group of writers can be inspirational and educational. Collaboration might even get you out of a writing rut or help you work past that dreaded "writer's block."

Here's our plan:

Meet & Greet post: Monday, Nov. 12 @ midnight EST
Stop by and tell your fellow poets about yourself. You know: small talk, mix, mingle, be merry.

The First "Read Write Prompt": Wednesday, Nov. 14 @ midnight EST
Visit the site for an optional, but strongly encouraged, prompt to inspire you to read, write or poem. There will be a little impromptu collaborative writing element to this post as well that everyone can join in on. Although geared toward individual and collaborative poetry-writing, Read Write Prompts can certainly be adapted for those participants who enjoy reading and discussing poetry.

The First "Get Your Poem On" post: Nov. 19 @ midnight EST
Leave a comment with the permalink to whatever entry on your blog you'd like to share.

Regular Schedule
The first week at Read Write Poem reflects the regular schedule for the site:

Wednesdays = "Read Write Prompt" announcements.

Mondays = "Get Your Poem On" requests for links to your work.
(These posts will always remain open for a week, until the next week's Get Your Poem On post appears on the site. At that point, we will close comments so the comment-spam monkeys don't find their way into our old posts and make a big mess of things trying to peddle their rotten bananas and whatnot.)

So check out the site.
There's a ton of information there about how it works, what its about, what other resources are available — random prompts, ideas for collaboration, and poet bios (coming soon), for example — and who's standing in line already waiting for the doors to open. And, you can sign up now to be added to the list of participants.

******

Hope to see you all at Read Write Poem

Mayday! Mayday!

The Poetry Tag poem is in trouble. If it was a car trying to travel from New York City to LA, if would be broken down somewhere outside Vegas right about now. It's in the desert and if you don't help, it will never see the sunny shores of California.

To follow the story of the Poetry Tag poem, go here

You can motor through the blogosphere and see that it has traveled to the sites of many different poets already, some being nice enough to take it in twice even.But this vagabond needs your help now.

It is currently resting at Eats Bugs.



Go there and comment Tag. Then you can help shepard our little poem the last few legs of its journey home.

Your Blog Manager,
Sara from The Shores of My Dreams
Send email for me to IlovetowriteSMP@yahoo.com with Poets Who Blog in subject line.

New I Promise Bloggers

I've been having a great time getting to know the work of the bloggers in my I Promise list.

I hope the poets on this new list will enjoy the program as much as I have. Meet our

Poetic License- I Promise Blogroll:
Ananda
Betty
Jack
January
Kimberley

These five poets have now agreed to stop by each other's sites every Thursday and leave, at least, one comment.

Rules:

1. You do not have to gush over their work, if you don't truthfully feel that way. But kindness and respect is required.

2. You do not have to post new work each Thursday. If you get to a site and don't see a new poem, search through the achives and find one to comment on.

3. If you want to be removed from the list please let me know.

4. If you disappear for over a month you will be deleted from this blogroll.

For other poets if you would like to be added to the fourth group of I Promise bloggers, let me know. That will be called the



Pay it Forward- I Promise Blogroll