Squirrel Porn! (And baloney...)

Colette Jonopulos, co-editor of Tiger's Eye: A Journal of Poetry, writes:

Calling All Poets,

Geri Doran has stopped me in my tracks, at least long enough to read her book, Resin. I recommend her book to anyone who enjoys poetry that is deeply felt and gently written. Geri is winning awards and traveling...and making me think of what it means to be a poet.

We're inviting you (yes, you) to send us a poem (or two) about what it means to be a poet. Themes are hard to write to, but don't feel restricted. Write about the time you couldn't afford new shoelaces, because you'd used your last dollar to buy Manila envelopes to submit your poetry to a magazine you knew would never, never in your lifetime (or anyone else's) publish you.

E-mail us your serious poems, satirical poems, sensual poems, or even your super-rants; we all need a good rant now and then. Send poems to: tigerseyetracks@yahoo.com

No snail mail. No bio, just your incredible poetry. The top three poems will be posted in blog-land and you'll receive a one-year subscription to Tiger's Eye. Deadline: September 30, so you have time to haggle with your muse, no excuses.

A link to Geri Doran's book:
http://www.poets.org/npmbookdetail.php/prmMID/18904

_________________________

Thanks, Colette! She also reminds us that the next deadline for Tiger's Eye, both the contest and the journal is August 31. Click on the Tiger's Eye link to the right of this column for addresses, etc.

Which reminds me of a poem of mine which appeared in Vermont Ink, 2003:

THE AGGRESSION OF CHANGE
—Kathy Kieth

Cold fingers of an October morning
crawl down my back, waken me
with an alarm of chilly clouds
and a layer of dampness on
the baloney.

________________

Yes, that's right—baloney. It was supposed to be BALCONY, you twit! Anyone who's been published, poet or otherwise, has had typos appear in their work. I found this one (a) frustrating (2) anger-fying (3) humiliating, and (4) hilarious. But it goes with the territory. My very first published poem had the letter, "p", right in the middle of a line for no discernible reason—somebody peed in my poem. I've also been rejected by journals I never sent to, and had a poem rejected which I never wrote. (I never have, however, had a poem ACCEPTED which I never wrote...)

Anyway, I think Colette is talking about what it means to be a writer in the purest sense, but being a published writer has its quirks and sentiments, too.

Which brings us to Katy Brown's new column, "Snake Charmer's Bazaar", in Rattlesnake Review. Here's a wee excerpt from her first column, which will appear in Snake 7:

Once you have chosen to write a poem, you have made one of the hardest decisions you will ever make. Choosing to expose yourself in a poetic form is a truly risky business; taking the poem to a workshop and sending it out for submission is the next most critical and difficult step. You will most likely not become wealthy writing poetry, but the joy of seeing your work in print is tremendous.

As Marketeer-in-Residence, Katy will cheer us on, give us venues to try, clean up our publishing etiquette, and generally shove us in the right direction toward displaying our hard-won work. We can't control what happens once we send it out, but hell—what's a little baloney between friends?

Since autumn is in the air, here is my complete poem, by the way, in an effort to clear its poor little name. (Or not...)


THE AGGRESSION OF CHANGE
—Kathy Kieth, Sacramento

Cold fingers of an October morning
crawl down my back, waken me
with an alarm of chilly clouds
and a layer of dampness on
the balcony. Valley autumns bring

invading forces that set my skin
on edge, send me scuttling to shut
windows, lock the doors. Here,
winters move in quickly, aggress
upon us like the heavy footfalls

of a foreign army—icy troops
of change chasing ghosts of plastic
bags and paper cups ahead of them
down windy, empty streets lined
in amber and gold. . .

_______________________

Oh, and as for skwerl porn: check out this website: www.scarysquirrel.org/hta.html. If the prose, the graphics and the typos seem familiar to you, you're spending far too much time on That Part of the Net...

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets.