Why Poetry Matters

I found an interesting article by Jay Parini at the blog of Denise Low, an American poet who lives in Kansas.

The article appeared in The Chronical Review and discusses poetry and its importance thoughout the ages and in modern times.

Click here to read Why Poetry Matters by Jay Parini.


Joe Parini is a novelist, poet, and professor of English at Middlebury College. His latest book, Why Poetry Matters, was published in April by Yale University Press.

Congrats, Norbert Krapf!

Poets Who Blog sends out our congratulations to Norbert Krapf , who was recently appointed Indiana's newest Poet Laureate by the Indiana Arts Commision.


Krapf was born in Jasper, Indiana but is currently a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana. He's a retired professor and author of several poetry collections, including Somewhere in Southern Indiana:Poems of Midwestern Origin. In 2003, he was also named the first poet laureate for the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.


His reign as Indiana Poet Laureate will include the duties of promoting poetry in schools and libraries throughout the state. PWB wishes Mr. Krapf a productive term. He succeeds Joyce Brinkman in this position and will hold the title until the end of 2009.

Happy Anniversary Arc Poetry Magazine!

PWB sends out best wishes to Canadian based Arc Poetry Magazine as it turns thirty this year.

To read more about this momentous event click here.


PWB wishes Arc Poetry Magazine another 30 more years of success.

Poetry Challenge

Scot Young, from Be Not Inhospitable to Strangers, has a poetry challenge up at his site.

Click here to read the challenge which is based on Charles Bukowski’s Bluebird.

Playing with Poetry

Gary R. over at PoemofQuotes Blog started a group poem. You continue it on your own blog but let him know you added the next line.

It starts here and, as far as I can tell, the last person to play is here.

I'll play along next to keep the game going:


The forest sang of moans from years past,

while crumbling leaves of sorrow the blackbirds pecked for morsels--what luck!

Hidden among the knots and gnarls of bygone woes,

centuries of secrets stitched like a patchwork quilt.

Congrats, Nicole Nicholson!

Great news, Poet Who Blog members, one of our poets is having a fantastic month. She has been featured at Word Catalyst Magazine, Poetry Dances and Poetry Friends.

Way to go, Nicole!

Stop by and check out her work by clicking below, and do your part to support all PWB.

Click here for Poetry by Nicole Nicholson at Word Catalyst Magazine

Click here to cruise on by Poetry Dances and read Feline History by Nicole Nicholson

Click here to read Hush by Nicole Nicholson at Poetry Friends

To check out more of her work click here to visit her blog, Raven's Wing Poetry.

If you have poetry news feel free to email me at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com but make sure you put something about poetry in your subject line or else I may never read it.

Thank you for visiting PWB today.

PWB Business Post

I'm planning to do an overhaul of the blog list, when I have time, and break down the blogs into some slightly different categories.


Poetry Blogs- eighty percent or more of the content on this blog is poetry. (Blog must be updated within last 30 days.)

Poetry and Life- posts about everything but also the occasional poem.

Supporters of PWB- blogs that have nothing to do with poetry but link to us.

All About Poetry- poetry resources.

This could change or be expanded once I get started on it.

The 48 Hour Poetry Challenge

Check out this post. Donna Williams has an innovative way to find inspiration for her poetry. She challenges her readers to send in topic ideas and then she writes poems about those ideas- and she does all this with a 2 day span each month. Wow. That is quite a challenge to undertake. I haven't even worked up the nerve for 30 Poems in 30 Days on my blog yet, so a poetry blitz in 48 hours won't be happening for me anytime soon. But I think its an interesting idea all the same and thought I would share it will you all.

Listen to the latest edition of Poetry Please from BBC Radio by visiting here.

Friends of PWB

Have you checked out Poetmeisiter 4 Poets lately?

The site recently profiled Asphalt Sky, and the journal's editor Jo Hemmant, whose blog Florescence is part of our PWB blogroll.

Head on over to Poetmeisiter 4 Poets and show some love by commenting.

Want to review a book of poetry?

Head to this blog to read details.

Passager seeks poetry from writers over age 50.

Include cover letter with bio, name and address on all pages, SASE, previously unpublished work only.

Deadline:Sept. 15.

Write to:
Passager, 1420 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-5779.


Learn more about passager by clicking here.

Cabaret Voltage Online just debuted their first issue. Please head on over and support them, as one of PWB's very own members is featured in it. Read Trash Day by Deborah Vatcher, who blogs her work at Snake's Poetry, by clicking here

Congrats to Deborah Vatcher and best of luck to Cabaret Voltage Online!

Have you checked out Word Catalyst Magazine this month yet? PWB's very own Scot Young is featured. To read his poems in this issue, click here.

Congrats, Scott!

Lines + Stars seeks poetry and short fiction for its Summer 2008 issue.

Deadline: July 1.

Click here for submission details.

Poetry International Web

Poetry International Web provided in-depth coverage of The 39th Poetry International Festival, which was held between June 7th and 13th, 2008 in Rotterdam Schouwburg. Click here if you want to check out poetry clips made during the festival.

Congrats to John Ashbery and Robin Blaser

PWB sends our congratulations out to John Ashbery and Robin Blaser who both won the Griffen Poetry Prize. The Griffin Poetry Prize Awards give $50,000 to the best book of Canadian poetry and $50,000 to the best book of international poetry published in English the preceding year.


John Ashbery won for Ashbery's Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems and Robin Blaser won for The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser.


Congrats, poets!

Poetry Dances Made the News!

The brand new poetry showcase site Poetry Dances, a place where the best of the best online poets can have their work brought before the eyes of a greater audience, has been profiled in a recent news article for the Courier Mail- out of Brisbane, Queensland Australia.

Click here to read the article.

Would you like to check out what poems they featured already? Click here to see the Featured Poetry from April.

The PWB Poetry Collection- June, 2008

This is a new feature at PWB. I’m not sure for how many months it will last.

The idea is to list twenty poems, from different bloggers on our blogroll, that I have found enjoyable.They are not listed in any particular order. Do not submit poems to me for this feature.

Please check out some of these poems and leave comments. If there is a positive response to this then I will try to keep it going throughout the end of the year, at least. If there is no response then it will be onward to other ways to try and promote poetry in the blogosphere. Since this took a few hours to put together I won't be countinuing it unless the members here find it a worthwhile way to discover new poets.

Thank you for visiting PWB today.

1.Untitled by johemmant
2.Lost Cause by Robert Cameron Hazelton
3.Vague by Shakir Hasnain
4.Caged Bird by Fenny
5. a cigarette burn by Paisley
6. Senryu by Jack
7. sanity by Jade
8.Experimentation on Pretty Things by Brian
9. A Sunny Wreck by Corinne Elizabeth
10.Ode to Soul by Janet Leigh
11.Waterlike by Sarayu
12.INS Gallery by Tiel Aisha Ansari
13.Without You by Noah
14.Tidbits by UL
15.Speechless by Lissa
16.If I had a minute to speak my mind by Adeleke Adesanya
17.One Deep Breath- Adventures by This Girl Remembers
18.The Window and the Burning Church by Square Traveler
19. Doughnuts by Sandy Carlson
20. how your soul might slip away 2 by Mariacristina

Have you stopped by Poetry Dances yet? They seek to highlight the truly standout poems posted in the blogosphere. To learn more about Poetry Dances you can click here and read their press release.

Check out this post by Robert Lee Brewer, the Poetic Asides columnist for Writer's Digest On Handling Criticism and Critique Groups.

I found it useful to read his prespective. I remember when I joined my first writer's group and the stomach churning feeling before I submitted my work to be critiqued. I could have passed out right before I heard the comments. But I also remember that after about six months nothing negative anyone said really stung anymore. I had grown my writer's thick skin- and it felt like a badge of honor. I'm not saying it doesn't affect me to hear that something in my writing doesn't work but I now have the abilty to quickly move past that and get back to working to make the piece better.

I do recommend writer's group. But, like without anything else, it is all about finding the right fit for you.

From one of our bloggers-

"Due to recent copyright violations by a certain blog, [my] site will be made private starting on June 17th (a week from today). If anyone is interested in continuing to read the works in this blog, please send me an email at kmryan31@gmail.com with your username for wordpress and I will add you to the list of allowed users."

KM Ryan from A (De)finite Problem with In(de)finite Soultions

In Memory of Al Purdy

Toronto-

A statue was unvieled on May 20, 2008 to commemorate the life of one of Canada's most loved poets- Al Purdy. Click here to read a press release about that event.

Margaret Reid Poetry Contest

The Margaret Reid Poetry Contest seeks poetry in traditional verse forms such as sonnets and free verse. Both published and unpublished poems are welcome.

Fourteen cash prizes totaling $5,250 will be awarded, including a top prize of $2,000and the entry fee is $6 for every 25 lines you submit.

Submit online or by mail. This contest is sponsored by Tom Howard Books and assisted by Winning Writers. Judges: John H. Reid and Dee C. Konrad.


Click here for more information.

Poets Who Blog recieved a new press release, which you will find below. If you have a press release you would like to share with PWB then email me at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com


BWP Press, Los Angeles, CA.....Filmmaker Bob Bryan has proudly unveiled his seventh powerful installment in his multi award-winning Documentary Series entitled GV7 RANDOM URBAN STATIC: The Iridescent Equations of SPOKEN WORD. He is releasing two (2) versions:



An Unofficially Rated G Version for General Audiences, Schools and Libraries and the Original Unedited Version for those who do not mind some “raw street vernacular.” Both versions will have a Running time of 2 hours.



Released under his BRYAN WORLD PRODUCTIONS indie label, GV7 returns to the enigmatic world of Poetry. This time around he retrieves the perspectives of fifteen (15) uniquely talented poets involved in the world of SPOKEN WORD. From Grand Slam Champions to Open-Mic Veterans, GV7 crosses all philosophical, racial, and social lines becoming the quintinessial SPOKEN WORD documentary.



Bob Bryans’ last documentary GV6 THE ODYSSEY explored the point of views of 31 contemporary Literary Page Poets and de facto became Americas' Number # 1 Indie Produced Poetry Documentary. Bob is very, very confident that poetic magic will strike again with GV7 his brand new feature-length foray into the uncompromising world of SPOKEN WORD.



"GV6 THE ODYSSEY deals with those Poets who write words for the page, while GV7 RANDOM URBAN STATIC probes the reality of those Poets that write for the stage. SPOKEN WORD has really connected with today’s’ youth, primarily because the poetic artform speaks intimately to their love for performance art, suppressed passion, subjective psycho / social issues and cultural attitudes concerning the world in which they live. Poetry is an invaluable tool that helps them to unravel, clarify, articulate & document their experiences. Of course, Hip-hop has allot to do with the flavoring of this SPOKEN WORD communication paradigm.”



“I was thrilled to be able to get the Poets to decode and discuss their intimate hopes & desires, as well as their deep personal disappointments and frustrations with the current state of hip-hop. Not all the poets shared a deep abiding love for hip-hop in its current incarnation. Many of the Poets feel that Hip-hop has within its grasp the potential to be a positive catalyst for massive personal & social change. They feel unfortunately that its potential has been severely underdeveloped and in some cases perversely denigrated by some of its commercial practitioners.”



“But at the same time other poets in GV7 openly discuss issues of date-rape, the courage to be an artist, the psychological repression of women, How Hip-hop can help or Hurt, HIV-AIDS & homosexuality, image vs. reality, obsessions, race-consciousness, anorexia, self-love, the high-jacking of black men’s masculinity & vunerability, disappointment with God, insanity, self-loathing, inspiration and salvation. Noone can say these poets tread lightly or try to avoid issues that we all, in some way or another grapple with. It's what makes this expression so relative, ” says Filmmaker Bob Bryan.



Sure, the dialogue can be ruff, confrontational and passionate; but their intentions are real. These artists are desperate to get through to you!



“Your voice is your power; don’t ever let anyone take away your voice.”

--Two Time Grand Slam Champion Bridget Gray



“If you don’t cut deep…you don’t make a difference.”

--Mollie Angelheart, Co - Los Angeles Slam Champion



“What you say, may just save my life.”

--Two Time Grand Slam Champion Poet Sekou (tha misfit)



It is a commitment with vast transformational possibilities & connection between the poet, the audience, and the unrealized future.




“Black men’s strength & redemption lies in their vulnerability.”

Tim’m. T. West, Poet, Author, Educator



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Anyone wanting to be a DVD Film Reviewers should contact Loida: bryworld@aol.com

Video Clips of GV7 can be found on Youtube (More From Bryanworld)


Click here to view the GV6 Teaser Trailer
Contact:

To Book GV7 for Special Screenings or Festivals please contact Loida at 323/856-9256

The Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize

Established in 1983 as the Grolier Prize, the Ellen LaForge Poetry Prize is open to all poets who have not yet published a book of poetry, including small press, chapbook or trade book. The winner receives $1,000 and two copies of the poetry prize Annual. Up to six poems by the winner and four by each of three runners-up are chosen for publication in the Annual.

Submit your manuscript, in duplicate, of up to six poems, no more than 12 double-spaced pages. Your name must not appear in this manuscript. On a separate cover sheet, provide your name and contact information, including email address and poem titles. Entry fee: $10, payable to The Ellen LaForge Memorial Poetry Foundation. Please mail your entry by June 30th to:

The Ellen LaForge Memorial Poetry Foundation
1770 Massachusetts Avenue, PMB 345
Cambridge, MA 02140-2808



Submissions must be unpublished elsewhere. No simultaneous submissions. Winner and runners-up are notified by October 1. Copies of the Annual are available from the Foundation at the above address.

Congrats to B.T. Shaw!

Poets Who Blog sends our congratulations out to poet B.T. Shaw whose first poetry book, This Dirty Little Heart, has been named the winner of The Blue Lynx Prize. Click here to read a news article and interview with the poet.

B.T. Shaw is an English instructor at Portland State University. She has been published in The Seattle Review and Field: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. This Dirty Little Heart , is published by Eastern Washington University Press and can be bought online at Shop.com among other sites.

Do you have poetry related news to share with PWB? Email me at poetswhoblog@yahoo.com with the word poetry in the subject line.

Have you visited Simply Snickers- a new poetry prompt site- yet?

PWB Business

Quick check:

Have you linked to us but not recieved a link back?

Is your link outdated or wrong in some way?

Is the name of your site spelled right and is that the name you want listed?

Are you misclassified on the blogroll?

Let me know so I can make the changes, pending my approval.

Alexa Cohen from Rebel Poet's Weblog shares her jigsaw poem with us today. I found it quite lovely. What do you think?




I wake up at six
wishing
for a reversal of time
I close my eyes
slipping
peacefully into a silent mist.

My mind still bent
on chasing
slowly vanishing visions,
sailing
on fantasies in shades of grey,
resisting
misty reveries-
precious silvery slumbers.

Volatile dreams flutter
seeking
to clarify my drowsy mind.

Today's poet Robert Bennie from Ideas exchange shares his jigsaw poem with us. This is the first time Mr. Bennie has participated in a prompt at PWB so lets show him how we support all poets who blog by giving him a great welcome.

Reality Rules OK!



Gale bent branches lash

not quite shattering windows

to a volatile soul

where my precious passes

our winter reading in silent hope

as a flutter in each shadowed

longed for fantasy clashes

with short term reality revealing

that after each and every reversal

peace will reclaim our time

More Poetry on You Tube

Urban Epiphany is an event in the city of Buffalo, New York that annually celebrates National Poetry Month. You can read about it and check out the 78 poets who read their work by clicking here.

I'm happy to be able to share with you another Jigsaw Poem.

Pershing by Jane Doe from Jane's Writing

Time is precious

Silent memories

Of wasted years

Days gone by.


Peace never found

A life never lived

Memories bent and fractured

What is real, what is fantasy?


Volatile emotions

Remembrances of past deeds

Flutter by,

Confusion abounds,


Can not clarify

The truth from lies,

Reversal of time

Is impossible


Withering soul

Dying inside,

Dry and brittle,

Like the leaves of fall.

Rhyming Christian Poetry Contest

The deadline for the Rhyming Christian Poetry Contest has been pushed back to June 15so get your poems in if you want to take part.

Total prizes: $1,000. Entry fee: $15 per poem. Enter up to 10 poems.

Click here for all the details.

You can download a free e-book of poetry, titled Sentience with Kinesthesia by Joshua Dodson by visiting his site.

Need More I Promise Bloggers

The Pay It Forward I Promise Blogroll needs 1 more member. Would you like to sign up to take part? You must agree to visit these three blogs every Thursday and comment. You must have 20 poems on your blog and update at least once a week.

The Rambling of Angelica
Firmly Rooted
Epiphany: Amour Habito Intus Vos
Screened Innocence



Leave a comment if you are interested.

Another poet has jumped in with a jigsaw poem. I'm thrilled this second round of poems have been such a success.

Click here to read Precious is the Peace of the Silent Drummer by Phillip Thrift