Monday, June 20, 2016

365 Days of Writing at Writing Knights

logo for Writing Knights
Azriel Johnson, at Writing Knights, has started a year-long series of exercises for how to write poetry (but also somewhat applicable to other types of creative writing), with a post every day, starting the beginning of May. (The series is also reposted at NEOpoets.org).  So far, the series has gotten to week eight.
If you want to learn poetry-- or if you're already a poet, but might like some exercises as a tune-up-- or if you just like to read about poetry-- check it out.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Words from Jane Hirschfield

“How do we live in the great meanwhile, in which all our lives take place?”


JANE HIRSHFIELD


Interviewed By: Kaveh Akbar

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

On The Hatred of Poetry



On The Hatred of Poetry
"The thesis of The Hatred of Poetry is as clear as it is counter-intuitive: people hate poetry because they hold it in such high esteem—and poems fail to fulfill their lofty promise."


Saturday, June 4, 2016

RIP to Ali


Rest in peace to poet Muhammad Ali.  Possibly better known as a boxer, it is a little-known trivia that Muhammed Ali was a member of the old Poet's League of Greater Cleveland.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

An Erie poet visits Cleveland's Barking Spider Tavern for the first time to attend the 2016 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest and writes a poem about the experience



MY FIRST VISIT
by Chuck Joy

not my last
the same parking ramp

I made my way to the shrine
no madonna, not even a grotto
a tavern, a drinking place
named after a species of jungle arthropod
limited food options

it’s midafternoon
the joint soon to overfill
maybe only one guy without his poem included in the anthology
selling like hotcakes, a woman at the griddle

I sat at a table in the back
three of us: me, a guy like me
white tee-shirt, him with no jacket
and a poet from Erie

my turn came around halfway
I gave an honest reading
maybe that crowd would have preferred their poet
wearing a visor and hunched over the microphone
delivering his message in an antique drone
yellow glow pouring from a lamp with a metal shade
they liked me okay

the host, experienced, kept us to our agenda
the judges completed their work
winners were chosen
I might have toasted them with more porter
if I weren’t a designated driver


Chuck Joy [photo by Chandra Alderman]

Chuck Joy is the author of Said the Growling Dog (Nirala Publications). From Erie, where he frequents Poets' Hall, Chuck has brought his poetry to Mac's Backs, Mahall's 20 Lanes, and has appeared at every Snoetry. His poem "The Call of The Water" was included in the 2016 Hessler Street Fair Poetry Anthology published by Crisis Chronicles Press.

The Barking Spider Tavern is located at 11310 Juniper Road in Cleveland.

Cited...

The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau