Sturgeon's Law

If you've read me long enough, you may know that poems-on-poetry are not generally something I like. There's enough navel gazing and narcissism in contemporary poetry anyway, so when a poem starts to go on about the power of poetry or (even worse) the process, my eyes start sneaking toward the door (or just about anything else, really). But there are a few poems-on-poetry/writing that I actually like, so I'm going to list all the ones I can think of and see if I can get to 13. You won't find Marianne Moore's "Poetry" (half good mean fun, half poorly edited blather) or Archibald MacLeish's wrongheaded "Ars Poetica" here.

1. "Teaching the Ape to Write Poetry" by James Tate. Funny-creepy is one of my favorite tones for poetry. I also like apes and hubris.
2. "The Joy of Writing" by Wislawa Szymborska. Killer first three lines. Szymborska does a lot of poems-on-poetry, doesn't she?
3. "Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov. Sharp lyric description put to good use.
4. "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" by John Ashbery. It figures that one of the Ashbery poems I like more (and feel like wanders off into space less) is one that seems to me is gently tweaking people who complain about his poetry. Was that "Every Ashbery poem is about poetry" line just a straw man Vendler made up to pummel, or can it be sourced to someone?
5. "Wrong Poem" by Mark Halliday. This one wins me over with the phrase "drooling gerbil." Oddly, the only place it can be found online is from when I posted it in the comments of A. D.'s blog (and it's a terrible fit for the kind of poem he was looking for--I probably posted it just because I thought it was fun).
6. "Ground Swell" by Mark Jarman. This was one of the first poems I discovered in contemporary poetry when I started following it in college.
7. "Lines" by Martha Collins. I'm going to interpret this one broadly and say it can be about writing too.
8. "Love the Wild Swan" by Robinson Jeffers. I'm a sucker for misanthropy if it's done artfully.
9. "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand. Apparently it helps you get on this list if your name is Mark.
10. "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara. This pretty much epitomizes New York School, doesn't it? Both the stuff I like and the stuff I don't like so much.
11. "Why the Prose Poem Will Never Get the Respect It So Richly Deserves" by Robert Perchan. From the Poetry West chapbook contest winner. Fun, crazy stuff.
12. "The Poem" by Ellen Kirvin Dudis. First published in The Eleventh Muse.
13. "Hello Thank You" by Jordan Davis.

Fine, I cheated at the end. If I ever write a poem that's blatantly on poetry (I think that theme can be found in some of my current poems, but it's not at the fore), I will call it "Arse Poetica." That's probably already been used, though. Sigh...

Labels: poetry, top 13

Today's edition was provoked by the fact that I actually liked last week's poem in Slate, much to my surprise. All too often they print mediocre poetry by poets I've seen much better from. But this one was good for me.

"I've Been Working on the Railroad" by Jeffrey Skinner (Slate)
"Still Life with all the Animals" by Joshua Marie Wilkinson (Meridian) (PDF File)

Labels: Best of Journals Online, poetry

Today's journal back issue is Gulf Coast, Winter/Spring 2006. As always, I'm listing all the poems I liked, bolding the ones I definitely would have wanted to publish, and italicizing any of those where I have a connection to the poet so you can see my conflicts of interest.

"Treatment," Robyn Art
"Rumination," Hadara Bar-Nadav
"Notes from the Boat Docks," Kristin Bock
"The Great Poet Makes an Offering," Eric Burger
"Manitoba Widow Flies," Lindsey Penelope Lewis
"White Room Dendrology," Lindsey Penelope Lewis
"Alba," Paul Muldoon
"Dry," Rachel Pridgeon
"Moonshine," Barbara Ras
"A Wife Explains Why She Likes Country," Barbara Ras
"Second Day of Autumn," Anthony Robinson
"Wilderness with Glowing Aperture," Tim Ross
"Trichotillomania Redux," Alison Townsend
"Loft," Ellen Wehle

That's 14 of 39 for 35.9%, a very good rate, and 4 of 39 I'd definitely have wanted to publish without a second thought, not bad either. Tim Ross's poem was particularly a standout--I'm not at all familiar with his work and may have to seek more now.

Labels: journals, poetry

The title of the poem comes from my friend Anissa and her grandmother.

Labels: drafts, poetry

So as a nice surprise on my birthday yesterday, I found out my poem "Sturgeon's Law" will be appearing in the next issue of Court Green. That's another of the fun journals I've really wanted to get into, so hurray!

Labels: journals, poetry, publication

I'm currently reading and enjoying Zachary Schomburg's The Man Suit. In addition to liking the poems in general, I love the fact that he has a subject matter index at the back. In fact, I'm going to steal the idea for my book (though to be fair, I've also had an Index of Fun Words in The Eleventh Muse the last three years). Anyway, here are some things that will definitely be in my index:

• Colorado
• alcohol
• fishing
• apes and monkeys
• guns
• fire (and smoke)
• cars
  

I'm also debating whether to include slightly more big-picture items like depression, as well as more stylistic items like epigraphs. It's really interesting how much doing something like this will make you think about your own manuscript, especially if you didn't write it while thinking of all the poems in terms of how they'd fit in a book.

Labels: books, poetry

I'm pleased to say that based on a conversation I had this week, it looks like someone good and trustworthy will be stepping up to take on The Eleventh Muse. More information as things solidify.

Labels: poetry, The Eleventh Muse

...for a journal to say they wouldn't publish poems that had been posted to online workshops, given that:

• Those poems are drafts that are almost always changed by the time they go out seeking publication.
• Good online workshops are search-engine-resistant.
• Good online workshops flush their old drafts after a fairly short amount of time.
  
• Most online workshops at least allow the poet to go back and delete the draft prior to submission or publication.
  
• Regardless of the limitless potential audience of the Internet, most online workshops have an actual audience well under 100.
• Most online workshop denizens are prone to posting about when and where their work is appearing, which will increase the profile of the journal, not hurt it.

I understand the desire to print(/upload) previously unpublished material: it's the desire for a scoop, and it also helps more non-name poets get published. But a "no online workshops" or "no blog drafts" rule doesn't fit that desire, plus is silly and unenforceable.

Seems to me a better rule would be "nothing I can find by Googling." This would allow posting and subsequent deletion of drafts on blogs, and posting to online workshops, but prevent "permanent" posting on personal websites and other such things the editors might not like. I've even printed a few Googlable poems in The Eleventh Muse because they were good poems--can't say that it hurt the journal's reputation or sales.

Labels: poetry, publication, workshops

Back from the mountains. My poem "Book Attacks" has been accepted for publication by Cimarron Review. More forthcoming.

Labels: poetry, publication

I like spleens, apparently.

Labels: drafts, poetry

1. Bob Hicok doesn't submit to literary journals. Literary journals submit to Bob Hicok.
2. Bob Hicok is a robot who can transform into a giant mechanical pencil full of poetry.
3. Bob Hicok heard that you should write what you know, so he wrote everything.
4. After a Bob Hicok reading, all the audience members are pregnant, including the men.
5. Bob Hicok rhymes with orange. And orange likes it.
6. Bob Hicok publishes children's novels under his pen name, J. K. Rowling.
7. You may have noticed Bob Hicok's poems turning up in the same journals where you publish. That's because Bob Hicok is stalking you.
8. Bob Hicok has earned the little-known but lucrative Wile E. Coyote Super Genius grant.
9. Bob Hicok isn't an unacknowledged legislator of the world because everyone realizes he's in charge.
10. When Bob Hicok flies into town for a reading, he actually flies himself.
11. Bob Hicok doesn't refer to himself in the third person. He refers to himself in the infinitieth person.
12. Bob Hicok travelled back in time and shot Wild Bill Hickok for spelling his last name differently.
13. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of Bob Hicok.

Please share your fun Bob Hicok facts in the comments or your blog!

Labels: humor, poetry

Just back from Dave Mason's reading in the Thursday series at Poor Richard's. He read from Ludlow, which I recommend highly if you're in the mood for some verse narrative. Had a nice time and a couple beers afterward too. Real post tomorrow or so, even though no one reads on Friday and Saturday.

Labels: poetry, readings

Won't you go and sign up for the Publication Database? It's up to 107 entries now. If you e-mail and let me know you signed up, I'll upgrade your account so you can add journals.

Labels: poetry, publication

It's been awhile since I did one of these, and I'm definitely feeling lazy today, so here we go with the bullet points.

• I realized I made reference to a big change a while back and then left you hanging, so here's that news: despite the fact that I didn't get into the grad schools there, I'm moving to St. Louis at the end of July. I'm not sure how long I'll be there or if I'll end up going to grad school there or elsewhere, but it just felt like time for me to shake things up. I'm looking forward to learning about the St. Louis poetry community and community in general.
  
• I got my (for now) final tattoo yesterday. I needed the symmetry of having one on each shoulder. I'll post a picture once it gets through the red-and-raw and crusty-and-itchy stages.
• I was asked yesterday to be part of what seems like an exciting new poetry venture. In addition to my own poetry plans, this should help keep me busy for a while. More information on this as it becomes appropriate. Right now the information isn't even mine to release.
• I really ought to embark on a big apartment cleaning project today. "Ought to" is the operative phrase there.
  

Labels: not poetry, poetry

I'm working on a poem whose jumping-off point came from a speculative fiction story I wrote shortly after I graduated college. As writing on the poem proceeded, I went back to the (definitely unpublished) story to see if I could pull any other ideas from it. Usually when I read old writing of mine, I cringe, but I was shocked to find that the writing in this story, which is now at least six years old (and I probably started it even earlier than that) is quite competent. The logical contortions the plot goes through to deal with its holes are ridiculous, but the writing itself is fundamentally readable and even sharp sometimes. The story itself isn't salvageable as such, but it's nice to know that I was already getting somewhere years ago, especially now that I feel like I may be trying some more prose of some sort (maybe flash fiction, maybe humor, I dunno) soon.

Labels: not poetry, poetry

Have you editors out there ever been looking at a journal and seen a poem you were really close to taking for your own journal, and you're glad it found a good home, and maybe you feel a little regretful that you didn't publish it?

Here's one. Here's another (the third one). And this.

Labels: poetry, publication

Based very loosely on an old poem. Shawn can probably guess the event that precipitated it. Also, 7 words that Word spellcheck refused to accept.

Labels: drafts, poetry

Damn, I've had such a hectic day (still ongoingly so) that I almost forgot to say congratulations to Larissa Szporluk, whose poem from The Eleventh Muse is up today at Verse Daily.

Labels: poetry, The Eleventh Muse

My friend Jenn has some poems up on the front page of Fickle Muses this week.

Jenn was back in town for Mother's Day last weekend, and at one point we went to an Asian grocery. Jenn bought good and sensible things because they don't have an Asian grocery in Laramie. I bought a package of a dozen imitation Moon Pies from China for $1.99.

Labels: friends, poetry

Dave Mason gave me some good advice when I asked him about how to kickstart my poetry writing: review, review, review. I filed it away, but as soon as I started actually doing it, I realized how right he was. That's one of my big suggestions for young/moderate beginner poets: pick up books of contemporary poetry, especially ones you like, and write about a thousand words on what they're doing and how they're doing it. It's amazing how much doing so will help you learn about poetry in general, how it will augment your own writing strategies (even if you don't necessarily use the techniques you write about in a review), and how much literary journals will love you if you write articulate, insightful reviews they can publish. I've found it's often difficult as an editor to get reviews from people--it really shouldn't be.

Labels: poetry, reviews

So my grandmother apparently has some old school papers and things of mine, and she managed to get this published in the newsletter at her retirement community (last year in November, though this is the first I've seen of it). I want to use the last part of her statement as a blurb on my first book, should I ever have one.

Labels: family, poetry

Just back from a reading by Kate Northrop and Jane Hilberry at Poor Richard's bookshop, which was a lovely time (with a fun afterward, as you may be able to tell from the timestamp on this post).

Anyway, I have a question: where does the convention come from for a writer to cross out their name on the title page when they sign a book for you? I've seen tons of writers do it, and I have no idea what it means. If I ever publish a book, I'll want to know why I should or shouldn't do that.

Labels: poetry, readings

As I may have mentioned previously, I keep a notebook on the nightstand in case I think of something while I'm nearly asleep so I can remember it without having to wake myself up too much. A few nights ago I was drifting off when I thought of very minor edits I wanted to make to two of my existing poems. I knew that all I had to do was write down the word I wanted to change/add to each, and I'd remember what it meant in the morning. I wrote them down without even turning the lamp on and went to sleep. I did remember what they meant in the morning, but because of the way I wrote just one word for each, I now had a page of my notebook that looked like this:
-


lemurs
growl


-
That is all.

Labels: poetry

I just found out that a review I wrote of Susan Tichy's new book Bone Pagoda will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Pleiades. Woohoo! The book is well worth reading, and I'm glad a journal I enjoy so much was interested in my take on it.

Labels: journals, poetry

That Aaron Anstett is a busy guy:

MAY 5, 2007, 10:00 a.m. to noon
"Throwing Your Voice: Writing as an Other": Poetry West workshop given by Aaron Anstett. People should bring writing materials and a sense of adventure. Location: Worner Center room 213 of Colorado College.

Aaron Anstett's collections are Sustenance, No Accident (2006 Nebraska Book Award and the Balcones Poetry Prize), and the recently published Each Place the Body's. In addition to appearing widely in journals, his poems has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer's Almanac. He lives with his children in Colorado Springs, where he runs a chapbook contest, organizes readings, and bides his time.

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Please attend a book launch party for Aaron Anstett's Each Place the Body's, newly and beautifully published by Ghost Road Press, Saturday, May 12, 2-4 p.m., Smokebrush Foundation, 218 W. Colorado Avenue (under the bridge in the Depot Arts District). A map. There will be snacks and (regrettably non-alcoholic as an alcohol license is pricey) beverages. Also, as Aaron's will be in tow, kids are welcome.

Labels: poetry, Poetry West

Jeff tagged me with this question (which is a good thing since I didn't have anything particular in mind to write about today):

Say someone asked me, "I kind of like poetry, but I don't know anything about contemporary poetry. Who should I read?"

Well, I'll try to give them a pretty good cross-section of poets I think are good right now. And it's restricted to American poetry because any attempt on my part to recommend writers in other languages (or even for the most part in other countries) would be laughable. And no personal friends, mentors, or blogroll buddies are eligible, sorry.

Off the top (more or less) of my head:
1. B. H. Fairchild
2. Bob Hicok
3. David Wojahn
4. Larissa Szporluk
5. Gabriel Gudding
6. Martha Collins
7. Major Jackson
8. Jeffrey McDaniel
9. Yusef Komunyakaa
10. Katie Degentesh
11. A. E. Stallings
12. Zachary Schomburg
13. Sherman Alexie

Wow, that list is damned inadequate in a lot of ways. Anyway, if you read this and want to do your own list, consider yourself tagged.

Labels: poetry, top 13

Note: this post is not intended in any way to bash Amy King, who is a good writer and editor.

That whole "Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere" farce really sort of confirms all the negative conceptions people have about poetry bloggers/blogs, doesn't it? (I'd usually call them misconceptions, but there they are in something that actually happened.) Trivial, navel-gazing, self important, badly run, and prone to pissfights. Some strong poets and online friends of mine got nominated, but that doesn't redeem the overall lousiness, sorry.

Labels: blogs, poetry

If you have "Quarterly" or "Review" in your title, it's a lot harder to get on this list. So sorry, Alaska Quarterly Review, but while I like your content, the name is a no-go (well, the Alaska part is nice). I do have to like the content to put a journal on this list, though. The list is in no particular order, except for #1.

1. Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety
2. Fine Madness
3. Crazyhorse
4. Shit Creek Review
5. Natural Bridge
6. Many Mountains Moving
7. Spork
8. The Dark Horse
9. The Bitter Oleander
10. Puerto del Sol
11. Unpleasant Event Schedule
12. Snow Monkey
13. Pleiades

There were a lot of honorable mentions on this list. What are some of your favorite journal names?

Labels: journals, poetry

Hurray, I updated Acrobat, and it works with Word again!


P.S. Yay, two drafts in April!
P.P.S. This is the poem I started based on Jeff's contest-winning exercise.

Labels: drafts, poetry

"Things That Get Out of Hand" by Paul Dickey (Swink)
"Landscape with Suicides" by John Gallaher (Pleiades)

Labels: Best of Journals Online, poetry

Writing itself is a marginal pursuit, and most of the people in it are strange at least some of the time: off-kilter or sensitive or blunt or depressed or what-have-you. Still, most of the people who read (and write) this blog are basically well grounded.

We've all seen the people who are marginal even by writer standards, whether in poetry groups or at readings or in classes--as open-mike participants, as students, as audience. There's the person with narcissistic personality disorder who can't stop hijacking the conversation. The person with no apparent social skills who never talks to anyone. The person with no inner censor, blurting out inappropriate comments. The man who seems to be having a Vietnam flashback every time he reads a poem. The stalker of teachers/classmates. The mean drunk. The drug user. And of course the person whose writing truly frightens you. And now one of those fringe individuals has murdered 32 other people in Virginia.

It seems like a sad truth that an abundance of people with mental disorders gravitate toward creative writing as some sort of release or cure, and it's definitely true that the illness becomes more obvious in their writing participation than it might be with the person just walking around in other areas of life. Most of these people are essentially harmless, and many of them are actually delightful people, and for them it's great if writing provides therapy, regardless of the quality of the writing. Unfortunately, creative writing is rarely going to be an answer for those who need help the most and who actually pose a threat, and few of them are willing or able to accept help when it's offered, either.

I sympathize with the non-dangerous marginal people, as I certainly could have been grouped there earlier in my life. I still can have an intense presence, and many of my poems incorporate guns, drugs, and death, but because the poems are generally either humane or humorous, and I'm much more socialized, and it's fairly easy to learn from talking to me that I'm essentially stable and decent, people tend to accept me and my writing pretty well. I do worry that creative writing is going to receive an unfair stigma as a haven for mental patients and murderers-in-waiting. Too bad many writers (or the community or the media or someone) tend to glamorize or romanticize extreme writer behaviors of drinking, pettiness, etc.

I realize there's not really a central argument or even a lot of coherence in this writing--it's more just me putting some of my thoughts out there after the Virginia Tech tragedy in the only area where I feel like I can really add anything to the discussion right now. There's a saying in poker that if you sit down at the table and can't spot the sucker, you are the sucker. The same may sometimes be true of a sizable poetry group: if you can't spot the person who goes beyond oddball, it may be you. Or you're just lucky to have a really good group.

Labels: poetry, poets

What features do you think are best (and most appropriate to the online setting) when you read your favorite poetry e-zines? What features would you like to see more of that either no or few places are doing?

Here's one answer each from me:
1. Places that add poets individually or have some other innovative publishing schedule that print would preclude (see: MiPO, No Tell Motel, Unpleasant Event Schedule, three candles, etc.)
2. I'd like to see an online journal with a "Read a Random Poem" feature.

How 'bout youse?

Labels: e-zines, poetry

As I've already told a few people, this 2007 Eleventh Muse is going to be my last as editor. I got tired of all the fundraising I have to do, and I need a break from it in general. If you have a submission outstanding with the Muse, that's in the backlog for the interim editors to look at. I'd like to thank all the officers and members of Poetry West, and all the assistant editors, for their support. Also, thank you to the many great poets who sent work. If I get back into editing, it'll probably be something online--the wider potential audience with lower overhead, and the opportunity for more innovation, seem like great ideas to me.

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I found out that my chapbook manuscript, Torched Verse Ends, was one of the finalists in the recent MiPOesias open chapbook reading period. Congratulations to the winner, Christine Hamm's excellently titled Children Having Trouble with Meat.

Labels: poetry, publication, The Eleventh Muse