Two poems submitted this week. That’s two more than last week, so we are in the positive direction. More to follow. Two rejections or two acceptances or… two no answers.
I enjoyed writing these poems, one a political poem and one simply bizarre–but inspired by a rather unique painting. Art can inspire art!
Have you had any luck lately publishing?
If you are a poet writing in English, you might/ probably know Rattle.com and its amazing print journal. Rattle is the online magazine, and information on how to subscribe to the fine quarterly print journal can be found here subscribe.
The magazine sponsors a weekly competition for poems written in response to current events. See here: Poets Respond.
But for me, a poet who has always been inspired by other writers and artists, one of the most fascinating aspects of this multi-faceted journal is Rattle sponsors an Ekphrastic Challenge each month, when poets respond to a work of visual art by writing poem inspired by this visual art. Details may be found here: Rattle’s ekphrastic challenge.
The poetry is, in my opinion, amazing. It is fresh and frightening, raw and refined. It’s really good modern poetry.
But the site says it best:
Rattle’s mission is to promote the practice of poetry.
We feel that poetry lost its way in the 20th century, to the point that mainstream readers have forgotten how moving language alone can be…The pure love of language is one of the most important experiences in the history of human culture, and somehow most of us have forgotten about it.
If you are a poet, you can learn from the best modern poets by reading Rattle’s online magazine, their print magazine, and even their Facebook page. If you say you don’t like poetry, I challenge you to read there for a few days and come back to me and tell me that again.
Rattle reminds us of the power of poetry.
I’ve written to fictional characters for many years; sometimes, I get replies. When very young, I used to write to Anne Frank to offer comfort, to seek comfort, to wish she had lived. Imagine what she could have written, what she could have become as an adult. I wrote to her when I was very young, before I really understood her history. I wrote to her as if she were a character in a book, and I just loved her.
I have written in characters’ voices to other characters, in the form of ekphrastic poems.
I have written poetry in the voices of Levin from Anna Karenina, of Macduff from Macbeth, of Simon from Lord of the Flies. I have written in the voice of Lucy Gayheart in Willa Cather’s fine novel of the same name. To characters in the novels of Thomas Wolfe–o, lost! To characters in the amazing novels of John Steinbeck. To characters in those many young adult novels I read when a teen–I wanted to tell them I understood.
Do many others do this? It seems such an incredible thing to me when a writer creates characters that truly speak to me; they help me grow as a person. They help me empathize, see things from other points of views.
From one mind to another, across the years and the miles? That’s such an amazing gift of literacy. Literacy means we don’t have to be confined to one place and time, and that is a priceless gift.
As promised, I will continue to post links to sites I find are good for teachers, writers, poets, and more.
Tuck Magazine
–an online political, human rights and arts magazine, because social justice and the arts are important.
From their site:
“Tuck Magazine is a political, human rights, lit, music and arts journal with a difference: we aim to entertain a wide variety of readers globally.”
Now don’t you want to go there and read? I feel it’s important to have creativity walk with compassion, which is the “slogan” of this site, after all. I like what they are publishing.
If you have some sites you consider worth reading and investigating, let me know!
Laura Lee
Creativity and compassion should walk together–what does that even mean? Thank you, students.I had no business entering teaching later on in life, and certainly had no business teaching where I did for my first full-time teaching job. I’d come out of business, gone to graduate school, and entered teaching in my middle years.
Prepared, but totally UNPREPARED for the great needs of the kids. My kids. Yes, I found teachers tend to refer to our students as OUR KIDS, MY KIDS. We love them.
My kids taught me so much, and among the many lessons learned is that it is better to be compassionate than talented. Does the world need another poet? Maybe, although I love poetry and would argue how important poetry is to the ever changing world. But does the world need better teachers? Oh, yes. (Poets don’t hate me. I love poetry! We need great poets of social justice and to keep poetry alive!)
I found my talents were challenged daily, hourly, even every minute I taught. I grew so much as a person in patience, humor, and love. Yes, love. Can we even use that word?
I found my talent for researching resources and creating lessons to engage even the most reluctant learners were challenged every day.
Some time I will write about what I lost by teaching where I did for so long, but for now I want to acknowledge something that has changed my life for the better:
Kiddos, my Kids, all the students even my college students–you’ve helped me become a better person. I had no idea the heart could grow so much. (Can we say heart?) I had no idea how much my talents that lay dormant when I worked in business would be needed as a teacher.
I know I am a much better teacher than I am a writer, and I am okay with that. What I’ve gained through teaching is immeasurable, even shocking. I had not expected that! I promise I will continue to improve as a teacher, even in retirement years.
Thank you, students past and present–I so hope you are doing well. Thank you.
This rough draft came out of a challenge to use the expression “an encirclement of birds”.
(First draft) Encirclement of Sparrows Roar like a train through the living room extra blankets on windows, surely frozen shut. Power lines down heat off, lights off, all shut down. Move away from the windows, he said. I want to be near when the sun rises, she said, You know me and sunshine-- I’ve got to-- I know he said, I know, and they huddled under yet another blanket and shut down. Listen, she whispered, hours or days or moments later, I hear the sunrise. Gray light through the curtains, and then tap, tap, tap on the tree branches scraping the windows an encirclement of sparrows.
For the students:
Okay, Laura, where are the poems?
Oh, yes. Not here. While I mostly write poetry, I don’t share it much since I am trying to publish poetry.
I write a mostly non popular genre of poetry, dramatic monologues and narrative poetry. It’s the story teller in me! I do branch out to nature poetry as well.
I’ll be posting some, however, that has been soundly REJECTED by the very best sites–some so in need of work that it won’t read the same once I am done with the revisions~!
I will also post links to some of my favorite sites. Right now, I don’t think any site publishes better modern poetry than Rattle.
And I’ve been rejected there for years, as have many of my poet friends and colleagues. Rattle is also a great site for beginners as well as major prize winners. They publish at least eight books a year, which is amazing, they pay their poets, and have numerous ways to be included in their site, which is outstanding. Their Facebook website Rattle Facebook page provides opportunities to not only read great poetry, but to try out publishing.
More to follow~!
First lines–I think of first lines a lot as the day goes on. Sometimes I imagine an opening scene from fiction. Often times it’s a first line of a poem. Something will grab me, a sight, a sound, a smell, a memory. And then the storytelling starts in my mind.
I grew up with parents who were quite the storytellers. I didn’t know until I was a teenager than many kids could ask a simple question and get a simple answer; I always got a story, and usually a long, convoluted, probably only partly true story.
All three of my siblings are storytellers. My students say I tell a LOT of stories.
I love stories.
But it all starts with a few words, a phrase, a line or two.
And these are going through my head, a sort of off fairy tale tale of some sort or a poem?
And the child asked, “It cannot get any worse, can it?” And the big one answered, “Oh, yes, yes it can. It can get colder.”
Who knows where the lines will go. Often they go nowhere, but they do become a part of me. These lines have been popping up for days now, so I think that child and that big one have a story to tell.
Some of my poems, short stories, and nonfiction articles are included in books published in the UK, Greece, New Zealand, and the United States.
*Tuck Magazine, 2018
* Southernmost Point Guest House (UK)
* Journal of Modern Poetry 21 (Volume 21)
JOMP Volume 21 Dear Mr. President
* Journal of Modern Poetry 20 (Volume 20)
JOMP Volume 20 Poetry Writer’s Guide to the Galaxy
* Journal of Modern Poetry 17 (Volume 17)
* Magazine (New Zealand) , Raewyn Alexander, Publisher
* Fiction in: http://staxtes.com/2003/ “Between the Sunlight and the Skipping” in English Wednesdays
* Illinois English Bulletin, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, nonfiction.
Laura Lee 