Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack...

Let's talk about team sports for a minute. Let's set aside the Indians' tugging of our playoff hopes back and forth. Let's forget about the Browns' draft picks. NEO's Lake Effect Poetry Slam Team is heading to Boston for Nationals in a few weeks, and they need our full attention.

When I first started dipping my toes into the poetry reading scene, I didn't know anything about slam other than what I could glean from the comments of other poets and snippets of Def Poetry Jam I might have caught once or twice. I filled in the blanks with a lot of misconceptions.  Such as:

Poetry slam is for teenagers. Slam is like hip-hop. Slam is for street poets. Slam is not for little, Catholic, white girls. Slam poets need to rhyme their poems. Slam poets need to improv their poems. Slam poets need to memorize their poems. Slam poets...need to...recite their...poems...like this... Poetry slam is about pitting one artist against another in a mean-spirited fight. Poetry slam isn't "real" poetry.

I quickly learned that slam was none of those things I used to think it was.

Slam is a poetry performance competition. Some poems lend themselves more readily to performance competition than others, but there is no defined genre for slam. Slam showcases a skill that every poet in every venue needs:  the ability to not only write an effective poem, but to then read/perform it in an engaging manner. Yes, there are some bad slam poems, but there are also some bad academic poems. And some of the best slam poems I've heard were on page.

Fast forward six years from those first open mics, and I found myself in Charlotte, NC for the 2012 National Poetry Slam, as Northeast Ohio's Grand Slam Champion. It was thrilling, terrifying, and inspiring to be around so many poets, to hear so many different voices, to be in front of so many different people.  Writing is a solitary activity, but slam is a team sport--a team sport with a national community.

National Poetry Slam is a chance for poets to stand in front of people from across the country and show off what we're doing here at home. And with this year's team--AKeemjamal Rollins, Caira Lee, Ariana Cheree, and Christine Howey--Boston's going to be buzzing about Cleveland.

But Lake Effect is still short of funds needed to get to Boston. The good news is that they have a handful of fundraiser events coming up in the next couple weeks before they leave. The better news is that you still have a chance to hear their poetry before they leave. Check out the schedule of Lake Effect fundraisers and readings, wish them well on their trip, and root root root for the home team!

Help Wanted! You Wanna Be a Blogger?

Help Wanted!

You wanna be a blogger?
We need you! Yes, you!
 You could be famous in the neighborhood! 

The clevelandpoetics blog needs new contributors.  This blog is not a one-person show, it's a collaborative effort of a raft of volunteers, and we're short on help.  We rely on you-- the poetic community of Cleveland-- to contribute.   Every year I see new voices beginning to speak in the Cleveland poetry community, and we need to hear what you have to say.  Join us!

You got something to say?  We're waiting to hear it!  You go to poetry readings, want to make comments on the local poetry scene, want to share your opinions on contemporary poetry?  Join us!  You think that the blog sucks rocks, and think you could do better?  We'd like to see you try!

We want you! We need you!   We can't live without you!

Tell us about the Cleveland poetry scene, about your muse, about trying to write in a cold-blooded city, about asphalt and poetry; tell us about our sports-obsessed, poetry-infested, hot-blooded city,

Do I need to say it again? Well, we want you! Yes, you!  You know who you are.

If you'd like to join the blogging team here at clevelandpoetics, we're open: leave a note in the comments, or drop me an email and say so!

No pay, just glory, and the chance to express yourself. Join the team!

Haiku at Haiku

... Three Views of Love in 5-7-5

Last weekend we went to Haiku ("poetic food and art) in Columbus, a restaurant featuring (among other things) a box filled with pieces of colored scratch paper on each table, for the people in the restaurant to write their own haiku as they ate.  The restaurant had a stacks of the writings people had left behind pinned with clothes-pins to pillars.

Most of the contributions, of course, weren't haiku, but just little memos with the date and names of the people, or notes saying "I love this place," or doodles of cats or fish.  A few, though, were rather charming.  A Valentine request asking a multiple-choice response in 5-7-5 form:

 

Or a somewhat scarier vision of love:

 

But then, this one seems to gets more directly to the point:

Cowper the damned

Robert Pinsky asks, "Why are William Cowper's poems so witty?"

and answers himself: because Cowper was convinced he was already damned.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", although he seems rather quaint and forgotten today.

Still, in these days when so many people seem to speak for God, it seems to me that Cowper's admonition in "Abuse of The Gospel" is as cogent as ever:

  Too many, Lord, abuse Thy grace
  In this licentious day,
  And while they boast they see Thy face,
  They turn their own away.

• Poems of William Cowper
• William Cowper bio
• William Cowper

Contest Opens Monday

Details here...

Happy summer, everyone.

Experimental Poetics Manifesto!

Artist/poet B.M. Stroud first came to my attention when his performance of his experimental visual/audio poem won the Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest in 2012.

Now he's published a manifesto: "Experimental Poetics: Where are the Poetic Pioneers?"

Sound interesting?  To keep up with what he's up to, check his page Stroud: experimental artist.

A Fiery Flying Roule

 http://www.z2ogalleria.it/opere-ekaterina-panikanova

Poems Retrieved by Frank O’Hara

 

 Sherman Alexie Versus Grammar Cops

 

 Posted  to the tumblr A Fiery Flying Roule is a new poem from Tom Raworth in response to the U.S. security breach; he calls it “Just a quick doodle with some of the trigger-words in the Department of Homeland Security ‘Analyst Desktop Binder.’”


Carlos Fuentes' FBI file

Inside Coach House Press

 

Mystery book sculptures still sprouting across Scotland

 

 Land lies in water; it is shadowed green.
Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edges
showing the line of long sea-weeded ledges
where weeds hang to the simple blue from green.
Or does the land lean down to lift the sea from under,
drawing it unperturbed around itself?
Along the fine tan sandy shelf
is the land tugging at the sea from under?

 Some Realms I Owned: Elizabeth Bishop in Manhattan

POET ON NEW YORK

A newly translated interview with Federico García Lorca by Luis Méndez Domínguez from 1933.

Thomas Pynchon Returns to New York, Where He's Always Been

The Public Life of Poetry: An Interview with Natasha Trethewey

Support the Lake Effect!

Lake Effect Poetry is the Cleveland Akron and Canton slam poetry team.

The new Lake Effect Poetry 2013 Team Anthology has been printed -- spread the word! This anthology features poetry from your 2013 Lake Effect Poetry slam team: AKeemjamal Rollins, Christine Howey, Caira Lee, and Arianna Cheree, and also poems from the local greats such as Redd's, Eris Zion Venia, Theresa Göttl, Carla Thompson, Skylark Bruce, Joshua Gage, and Azriel Johnson, not to mention a cover by, uh, that would be me. And, the money raised by sales of the book goes towards a good cause-- getting our team to National Poetry Slam in August!  Boston, look out: the Lake Effect is coming!
Only ten dollars, including shipping-- order it now.

(and, for the full set-- order the 2012 Lake Effect anthology for only $6.00, or buy 'em both for $15!)

Harper's asks: Why is Modern Poetry so Bad?

Why is Modern Poetry so Bad?

According to Ron Charles in the Washington Post's style blog,  Harper's magazine just hit the stands with a 6,000 word essay by Mark Edmondson, "Poetry Slam, or, The Decline of American Verse" asking that very question.

“oblique, equivocal, painfully self-questioning . . . timid, small, in retreat . . . ever more private, idiosyncratic, and withdrawn.”

Hit 'em, Professor Mark!  “They simply aren’t good enough. They don’t slake a reader’s thirst for meanings that pass beyond the experience of the individual poet and light up the world we hold in common.”

“'You must play the game that is there to be played,' Edmundson writes. To get the fellowship, the first book, the teaching job, the new poet 'had best play it safe, offend none.'”

I don't think he's been to Cleveland, but hey, can't be everywhere.

With their insistence on the impermeable barriers of race, gender and class, these liberal post-modernists keep anyone from saying anything about anything but his own private world. “How dare a white male poet speak for anyone but himself. . . . How can he raise his voice above a self-subverting whisper?” 

So, are modern poets bad?  Or just the ones published in the reviews that Edmondson reads?

-and, ha!  Barely has the Charles article hit the web, then the huff responds with an article by Seth Abramson,  "Why Is Contemporary Poetry So Good?"

Olbviously he must read different poets than Edmundson!

Let's fight!

• The Style blog: Why is Modern Poetry so Bad?
• Huffington Post: Why Is Contemporary Poetry So Good?

Third Thursday Poetry in Cuyahoga Falls

Poetry Video

With a personal video revolution that's been ongoing for years now, there is a heck of a lot of video of cleveland poetry out in the world, and being loaded up on the web.

The Literary Cafe in Tremont has held a reading series for years (now they're the host for one of the Writing Knights events).  They have whole pages full of videos, including a page of older videos of readings and slams dating back to the '90s. 

Poet's Haven has also taken a lot of video, and check out John Burroughs' Crisis Chronicles for yet more, or John Burroughs' youtube channel.

And the Lake Effect Poetry slam team has some video on the web-- check out their videos of the slam team qualifiers on Ustream, or watch the Lake Effect team perform at the Rustbelt Poetry Slam in Columbus.

It's not the same as being there, but there sure is a heck of a lot of video of Cleveland poetry out there.

Savage Chickens!

"Savage Chickens" by Doug Savage

www.savagechickens.com/2008/10/poetry-blog.html

Can a Robot tell whether a Poet's a Pro?

Man, I doubt it.  But when I saw this, I had to try it out:

Poetry Assessor
The application is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem or, alternatively, an amateur poem... To score your poem, copy and paste the poem into the text box and click the Calculate button. Positive scores indicate that a poem has characteristics of a professional poem while negative scores indicate that the poem has the characteristics of an amateur poem. 

First one I tried pasting in, a rhyming poem about Leprechauns, got a +0.12 -- barely on the "pro" side of neutral.  I tried a non-rhyming poem, and got a 2.2 (almost as pro as Sylvia Plath!), then another rhyming poem (about death), getting a -1.5.  One more, not rhyming, and I beat Sylvia with a 2.5.

So I gave up.

Give it a click and try it yourself!

The method the computer program uses to analyze whether a poem "has the characteristics of a professional poem" is described in a pdf here. (Actually, if you're interested in linguistic analysis, their discussion of how they did their analysis to determine what characteristics successful poems had compared to amateur poems is quite fascinating.  Even if the "Analyze my Poem" application is more of a party game for poets than a real tool for telling good from bad.)

One Mic Open: An Imitation of Live

An Open Mic Session for youth across Cleveland and surrounding areas.

Participants: 13-19 years old
Audience: 0-Eternity

$3.00 for Students
$5.00 for adults

Friday, June 7th @ Negative Space Art Gallery (3820 Superior Avenue. Cleveland, Ohio, 44114)

Doors Open @ 6pm
Performances: 7:00pm-9:30pm
After party: 9:30pm-11:00pm

One Mic Open: An Imitation of Live is a 45-minute choreopoem and Open Mic. session presented by the Concrete OrKids, a performance poetry group from the Cleveland School of the Arts Creative Writing Department.

One Mic Open is one of the only events of its kind in Northeast Ohio because it is written, produced, hosted, marketed, and promoted BY youth FOR youth ages 13-19.

For more information visit the Concrete OrKids Facebook page.

Leave us a message if you or someone you know would like to sign up early for the Open Mic.

YOUTH SPEAK!!!

The Epic of d.a. levy

Vertigo commented, of the "underground" style of poets, that "They are inspired by the beat generation, Ginsberg, etc. Most of these poets here in Cleveland worship at the altar of d.a. levy."

Well, it's true-- despite all the poetry activity in Cleveland, the poet whose name is most closely associated with the city is still d.a. levy.  It's worth reposting a link to Cleveland Magazine's "The Epic of d.a. levy".

Levy: epic rabblerouser, or self-centered jerk?  You decide.

More?  Try:

• Cleveland Magazine's list of d.a. levy links.
• d.a. levy collection at Cleveland Memory Project 
• d.a. levy home page at thing.net

 & everyone knows
sleeping with the muse
is only for young poets
after you've been kept impotent
by style & form & words like "art"
after being published by the RIGHT publishers
and having all the right answers
after youve earned the right to call yrself
a poet      yr dead & lying on yr back
drinking ceremonial wine, while
the muse, who is always a young girl
with old eyes into the universe
suddenly remembers necrophilia
is an experience shes had before
& shes not interrested
in straddling corpses anymore

--d.a. levy

The hardest working man in poetry?

Vertigo XX
photo by GL

I just ran across Carla Thompson's post in vatic muse, saying our friend Vertigo Xi'an Xavier is "the hardest working man in poetry."  Yeah, I can believe that-- the guy started the poet's haven website back when he was in high school (it's now the second-oldest poetry site on the web)-- and only took of from there.  Horray for Vertigo.

"Vertigo Xavier just finished publishing a chapbook, copy editing for a second chapbook, making a promotional poster, organizing a fundraiser, and updating his website. All while you were sleeping last night...."

Some Amazing reviews

A couple of Cleveland poets who write poetry toward the speculative direction in the geography of poetry have recently gotten reviews from Diane Severson in Amazing Stories.

Cleveland's haiku master Joshua Gage's new chapbook, Inhuman: Haiku from the Zombie Apocalypse (OR Inhuman: Zombie Haiku in Four Acts) (just out from The Poet’s Haven, as No. 18 in the Poet’s Haven Author Series) was reviewed in the most recent issue.  Diane writes:
"This is a volume to enjoy as a brief diversion on a stormy night and also to pull out each October in preparation for Hallowe’en."

At six dollars for a copy, it's a bargain for any poetry fans with an interest in haiku, or in horror.  And it's not too early to start thinking of gifts to give your friends and family for World Zombie day!

And Mary Turzillo's book Lovers and Killers (which has been mentioned here before) also rated a good review from Diane in the April Amazing: 
"I really like Mary Turzillo’s writing style. It’s less formal than many poets in her syntax and word choices, which makes it easy to read.  It’s a book that could be ripped through, it’s so easy to read, but its many-layered nature benefits from a bit more leisure."

Ten bad poems for every good one.

Kathleen Flenniken says, "ten bad poems for every good one."

Sounds right.

What's Your Day Job?

On NPR, David Orr points out that, since (mostly) poetry doesn't pay the bills, poets have day jobs. 

"No man but a blockhead," Samuel Johnson famously observed, "ever wrote, except for money." This is tough news for poets, since the writing they do is often less immediately profitable than a second-grader's math homework (the kid gets a cookie or a hug; the poet gets a rejection letter from The Kenyon Review). Poetry itself is tremendously valuable, of course, but that value is often realized many years after a poem's composition, and sometimes long after the end of its author's life.
In the meantime, everyone has to eat. So unless you win the lottery, being a poet means finding a job that can support the writing of poems.

From banker (T.S. Eliot) to undertaker (Thomas Lynch), working at a job has in one way or another influenced their poetry, for some quite obviously, and for others more subtly.

• David Orr, "From Dissections To Depositions, Poets' Second Jobs."

"Day Jobs of the Poets"
from Incidental Comics:
words and pictures by
Grant Snider

Few Dollar Man

and now, here's the winning poem:
Best Cleveland Poem 2013

Dianne Borsenik reads
photo by Tim Misny

Few Dollar Man

Dianne Borsenik

my Cleveland, I don’t mind him

being a blue collar, few dollar man

don’t need him all prettified,

gentrified, riverwalked,

starched, pressed and lean

I like his urban sprawl

his sports bars,

sports cars,

Ford trucks,

Great Lakes brew

and bratwurst,

his rib fests and bare chests

he can put on a suit and tie

if the occasion calls for it

he cleans up real nice

he’s no “playhouse square”

he’s a comfortable fit

I like his long hair, level stare,

acting like he doesn’t care,

blue jeans and boots swagger,

his never-say-die attitude,

his rock and roll hammer

I dig the punk, pensive,
ponytailed poet in him

I like it when he shows his

ethnic roots

and I don’t mind his often gruff speech,

his questionable grammar

don’t mind his broken english,

city slang

or down-home twang,

his sometimes breach

of political tact

and cultural fact

we have an understanding

I don’t mind his tough sidewalks,

his callused highways,

the clumsy fumble of his

tumbledown neighborhoods

don’t mind the times his rough

streetlighting catches at my clothes

in the heavy dark

when he’s running his transit

through my hair

at least he’s reaching out for me,

wants to feel me close against him

I don’t mind the stubble

on his troubled street corners,

cold Lake Erie steaming his breath,

his bleary neon eyes,

his wasted wallpaper billboards

too many nights of revel

after long days spent

in steelwork,

car shops,

west side markets

and east side offices,

orange-barreled highway construction,

Clinic halls

and University malls

working,

giving all he’s got,

just making a living

I trust him; I know he has my back,

I know he’s looking out for me

my Cleveland, I don’t mind him

being a blue collar, few dollar man.

Best Cleveland Poem

Ray McNiece opens the show, accompanied by Al Moses on guitar
(photo by Geoffrey A. Landis)

On Sunday night ten poets read at the Willoughby Brewing Company to compete for the Best Cleveland Poem Contest, with an evening of poetry (and a little music) MC'd by Cleveland's indefatigable Irish-Slovenian poet Ray McNiece.
The finalist poems for the Best Cleveland Poem were:

• "A Clevelander in Paradise" by Katie Daley
• "Arriving in Cleveland from the East Coast" by Jack McGuane
• "Dreams and Iron Ore" by Geoffrey Landis
• "Shimmer" by Mary A. Turzillo
• "Spring Tease" by Catherine Criswell
• "Hunger" by Theresa Gottl
• "Few Dollar Man" by Dianne Borsenik
• "Cicada Song" by Jeffrey Bowen
• "Waiting For the Muse in Lakeview Cemetery" by John Donoghue
• "Cleveland Poem" by Martin Snyder

And super congrats to poet (and publisher) Dianne Borsenik, who knocked the socks off from the celebrity judges and takes the title of "Best Cleveland Poet" reading her poem "Few Dollar Man."

Dianne Borsenik blew away the judges, and the audience
photo by Tim Misny

Runner-up honors went to Katie Daley for "A Clevelander in Paradise," with Martin Snyder right behind her with "Cleveland Poem" and Mary A. Turzillo in fourth place with "Shimmer."  Great job to all!

Ray McNiece writes: 

It was really wonderful evening, thanks to the judges,  Mike Polk, comedian; Mike McIntyre from the Plain Dealer; Elisa Amigo from Fox 8; and Russ Borski from CSU, and to Celina Colombo and Sarah Johnson LaBarbera for helping to organize, and of course to our sponsor Tim "I'll make them rhyme" Misney... special thanks to Al Moses for backing me up on Love Song for Cleveland.

Publisher Seeks Guest Judge Applications For Summer Contest

Burning River Press & Blog is currently seeking applications far and wide for 2 guest judges for it's annual summer open...

More information can be found at their site, http://www.burningriver.info

So, what's poetry and why should readers read it? How to Read Poetry 101

Over at tor.com, fantasy poet Amal El-Mohtar gives a reader's guide: How to Read Poetry 101

1. How to Read Poetry 101: Whys and Wherefores 

 "Over the next four weeks I want to transform you from a sheepish non-reader of poetry into a curious appreciator of it."

The interesting part, though, is that she invited readers to read a sample poem ("Moral" by Alicia Cole, from Goblin Fruit) and then leave their opinions.  An interesting discussion showing just how different people read different things from a poem I don't think I've seen this deep a discussion of a single poem for quite a while!

Ohio Poetry Day Contests open for submissions!

The third Friday of every October is Ohio Poetry Day, and every year the Ohio Poetry Day Association sponsors a series of Ohio Poetry Day Contests, with prizes from five dollars to sixty dollars.  This year there are thirty-two contests, ranging from "Deadly Sins," sponsored by Pig Iron Literary and Artworks of Youngstown,  to the Crème de la Crème contest, open only to previous winners, sponsored by OPD itself.


Closing Date: May 31, 2013 (postmark)
Eligibility for all contests consists of payment of a single $10.00 fee sent with the poems and entry blank, which is required of all entrants. All poems must be mailed with fee at one time in one envelope. If more than two poems, mail flat in a 9x12 envelope. All poems should be mailed to Bill Reyer, Contest Chairman, Department of English, Heidelberg University, 310 East Market St., Tiffin, OH 44883.
Entries must be original, unpublished in any form and must never have won a state or national contest prize of over $10, or be submitted for publication elsewhere. Poems must be in English, typed, photocopied or computer generated; single spaced (except between stanzas); on one side of 8 1/2 x 11 white paper. No artwork except for contest #2.
All poems must be titled, and title should not be the same as contest/theme title. Two clear copies of each poem must be sent, both containing number and name of contest in the upper left corner, and the second copy only containing in the upper right corner the name and address of the contestant. Ohio only contests should add "Ohio native" after out of state address if relevant. Address labels or rubber stamps may be used.
Poems should be separated into first (judges') and second (ID) copies and stacked in numerical order with judges' copies on top. Only one poem may be sent to any contest (except #s 26 and 29), and no poem may be entered in more than one contest. No poems or artwork will be returned, so keep copies of your work. Entrants retain all rights to their work, except that money winning poems and art will be published in a copyrighted Best of 2012 book which will appear at Poetry Day and be for sale at and after that date. Any entries in contravention of these rules will be disqualified and fee forfeited. Awards will be made at the Ohio Poetry Day weekend, October 18 & 19, at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio.
Winners lists will be made available in late summer if #10 SASE is sent with poems. No other prior notification will be made. Those not present at Poetry Day will have awards mailed to them. Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you wish verification of your entry packet. You may photocopy these rules.

The list of contests is here.

Sh!tty poetry month!

I'm almost embarassed to admit it, but Chizine, in honor of April being national poetry month, is holding "sh!tty poetry month" on their Chiaroscuro: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words page, and have invited all the poets they know to send them the poems that they're too embarrassed to publish.  They just posted the final week (at least, I hope it's the final week!), and OMG, some of these are pretty awful.  Makes you feel pretty good, to see how awful other peoples' poems can get.
So, you want to see awful poetry, check out:

• Introduction: April is Sh!tty poetry month
• Sh!tty poetry, week 1
• Sh!tty poetry, week 2 
• Sh!tty poetry, week 3
• Sh!tty poetry, week 4 

I'm even more embarassed to admit I have a poem (it's in week 3)... but not as embarrassed as I'm going to be if I  discover somebody ever read it.

• Check their Facebook page