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99th Virtual Poetry Circle

May 28, 2011 by

Welcome to the 99th Virtual Poetry Circle!

We’re getting down to the 100th Virtual Poetry Circle and it is likely to coincide with my 4th blogiversary next month, so I’m soliciting suggestions for a grand giveaway.

Please leave your suggestions along with your impressions of today’s poem in the comments.

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the growing list of 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions, visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April.

You may have missed my Facebook and Twitter posts about the latest poetry discovery.  But today’s poem from E.E. Cummings is that poem recently discovered among some archived letters of The Dial.  I’m providing a snippet of the poem here, but to read the full poem, click on the link above.

(tonite
in nigger
street

the snow is perfectly falling,

the noiselessly snow is
sexually fingering the utterly asleep

houses)

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

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98th Virtual Poetry Circle

May 21, 2011 by

Welcome to the 98th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the growing list of 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions, visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April.

While I’m off enjoying the Gaithersburg Book Festival, I’m going to leave you to discuss the following poem from David Livingstone Clink‘s collection Monster:

The Soldier (page 35)

If he could speak he’d ask for some food, some water, and you’d invite
him in. Taking off his boots and putting his feet up, he’d sip lemonade
with you on the back porch. He’d talk about where he grew up, which
sports he played, and the women he knew. He’d say this place is very
much like the place he grew up in, but the sky seemed bigger in his
hometown. You’d ask if he wanted to stay for the BBQ, and he’d surprise
you by saying yes. He’d eat his fill, wash it down with a few beers. Before
it gets dark he’d say he lost his map. Can you tell me where the enemy
is? he would ask, and you’d point beyond the trees, and he’d thank you
for your hospitality, and he’d be off, walking in the direction of those
trees. But no, the faceless soldier cannot speak, you don’t strike up a
conversation, you don’t invite him in. He passes your house and you
get a sense of relief as you watch him become some distant memory, become
the landscape, the soldier as much a part of the world as that distant
mountain that draws everything in, even the clouds.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

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97th Virtual Poetry Circle

May 14, 2011 by

Welcome to the 97th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the growing list of 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions, visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April.

Today’s poem is from Deborah Ager‘s Midnight Voices:

Alone(page 38)

Over the fence, the dead settle in
for a journey. Nine o’clock.
You are alone for the first time
today. Boys asleep. Husband out.

A beer bottle sweats in your hand,
and sea lavender clogs the air
with perfume. Think of yourself.
Your arms rest with nothing to do

after weeks spent attending to others.
Your thoughts turn to butter and will it last
the week, how much longer the car
can run on its partial tank of gas.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

Also, please visit and enter the National Poetry Month giveaway.  The giveaway is international.  Today’s the last day to enter!

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96th Virtual Poetry Circle

May 7, 2011 by

Welcome to the 96th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions, visit the stops on the National Poetry Month Blog Tour from April, and check out Holocaust Remembrance Week.

In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Week, hosted by The Introverted Reader, we’re going to look at a Holocaust related poem from Holocaust Poetry compiled by Hilda Schiff:

Shipment to Maidanek by Ephraim Fogel (page 57)

Arrived from scattered cities, several lands,
intact from sea land, mountain land, and plain,
Item: six surgeons, sightly mangled hands,
Item: three poets, hopelessly insane,

Item: a Russian mother and her child,
the former with five gold teeth and usable shoes,
the latter with seven dresses, peasant-styled.

Item: another hundred thousand Jews.

Item: a crippled Czech with a handmade crutch.
Item: a Spaniard with a subversive laugh;
seventeen dozen Danes, nine gross of Dutch.

Total:  precisely a million and a half.

They are sorted and marked — the method is up to you.
The books must be balanced, the disposition stated.
Take care that all accounts are neat and true.

Make sure that they are thoroughly cremated.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

Also, please visit and enter the National Poetry Month giveaway.  The giveaway is international.

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95th Virtual Poetry Circle & Giveaway

April 30, 2011 by

Welcome to the 95th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions and check out the National Poetry Month Blog Tour.

For today’s poem, we’re going to look at Andrew Kozma’s “Agoraphobia” from City of Regret, which I reviewed this week:

Agoraphobia

Look up and a nutshell carves itself into the sky,
wormholes draining light
like a car dripping oil.  Under this coffee-shop roof,

surrounded by glass and the pop
of empty air, concrete is quicksand.
But your hand lies there

like a painted anchor, a string of fishhooks
dulled with wear,
a twin I cannot name, a gag,

a one-way mirror, a mannequin
on a thin lattice of steel, a trellis
for thorns, a cupped nest,

there, on your side of the table, prepared.
A mug steams between us
like a wall merging with air.

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

***For the giveaway, I’m offering one of the poetry books I’ve reviewed during National Poetry Month up for grabs.  The winner can choose from the following books (click the links for my reviews):

1. The Poets Laureate Anthology edited by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt
2. City of Regret by Andrew Kozma
3. Bone Key Elegies by Danielle Sellers
4. City of a Hundred Fires by Richard Blanco
5. White Egrets by Derek Walcott

To enter leave a comment about why you would choose one of those books if you win the giveaway.

Deadline is May 14, 2011, at 11:59 PM EST; This giveaway is international.

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94th Virtual Poetry Circle

April 23, 2011 by

Welcome to the 94th Virtual Poetry Circle!

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

Also, sign up for the 2011 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry.  Please contribute to the 2011 Indie Lit Award Poetry Suggestions and check out the National Poetry Month Blog Tour.

For today’s poem, we’re going to look at Luke Rathborne’s “Calypso”:

CALYPSO

I am slipping
who is slipping
blue rips in the sky
I am sleeping through
an unbelievable dream
where a man rips through
my throat
I re-imagine you in my
faintest dream
you are never disappointed
I see California clearly
like Colorado sees mountains
I cherish silence more than music
Calypso, Mediterranean,
I write you thousands of end-
less letters about the fur-
thering from love
I read the same lines over
and over, completely entranced
You cannot see me, because
I disappear the parts while
you are looking
I am overly looking rea-
ching into you
but I have never gone deep
enough
to puncture in
do not remind me of myself

Let me know your thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions. Let’s have a great discussion…pick a line, pick an image, pick a sentence.

I’ve you missed the other Virtual Poetry Circles. It’s never too late to join the discussion.

**Check out the giveaway for Luke Rathborne’s poetry and music as part of National Poetry Month.

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