The Music In It: Adele Kenny's Poetry Blog

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:33:00 +0000

Wishing you love and a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

– William Shakespeare

Love Poems for Valentine's Day - Click Here & Enjoy!

Poetry Prompt #90 – What Haunts You?

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:12:00 +0000

We all have “ghosts” in our lives – people, places, experiences, mistakes, regrets – metaphorical “apparitions” that haunt us. This week, face one of your “ghosts” and translate “it” into written language. For this poem, I’m not talking about ghostly apparitions or things that go bump in the night but, rather, realities that inhabit our hearts and refuse to let us forget. Dig deeply, think hard. Meet your ghost face-to-face. Invite your ghost to inhabit your poem. Give your ghost words and a form. Write a poem you’re afraid to write.

Possible Ghosts:

1. Deceased loved ones …

2. Former friends or family members …

3. People we’ve hurt or treated unfairly …

4. People who have hurt us ...

5. Something we should have done but didn’t …

6. Something we shouldn’t have done but did …

7. Lost loves ...

8. Wartime Experiences ...

9. Houses or special places …

10. Unwise decisions …

11. Words we’ve spoken …

12. Lies we’ve told, lies of omission, truths we’ve withheld …

Example Poems:

"Ghost" by Paul Mariani

"The Ghost Has No Home" by Jeff Clark

"The Haunting" by Alan Shapiro

"Lenore" by Edgar Allan Poe

"Shaking the Grass" by Janice N. Harrington

And an excerpt from the title poem of my book Chosen Ghosts:

Always in autumn, when the backyard thins

and the brittleness starts, I go back to my griefs.

I bury the last chrysanthemums and pray for my

sorrows, wishing it was still summer when

the sky traveled in a thousand directions at once

or years ago when every season was spring

with its risings and promise. But now, here

and now, in the whirl of this brief, sad season,

I call my ghosts home and gather them around me.

Like the flock of geese that sleeps in an open field

near the river, they rise in a rush of wings

that remembers the victory of flight.

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Prompt #89 – Choices

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:33:00 +0000

With everything that has happened to you,

you can either feel sorry for yourself

or treat what has happened as a gift.

Everything is either an opportunity to grow

or an obstacle to keep you from growing.

You get to choose.

– Dr. Wayne Dyer

Choices can be like walking into a candy store and trying to figure out which sweet we want the most. Like items on a menu or flavors in an ice cream parlor, we have options. We choose “things” all the time, but not all choices are easy. We choose one job over another, we choose where to live, we choose our friends, we choose our life partners, and we choose the ways in which we deal with life experiences.

Have you ever thought about the ways in which a particular choice impacted your life? For this week’s prompt, begin by thinking about choices you've made. One option is to reflect upon the Wayne Dyer quote above before writing a poem about a choice that you’ve made and the ways in which you acted in response to that choice. An alternative suggestion is to write about any major choice that you’ve made; and a third option is to write a humorous poem about choices. You might even try a poem with the title, "You Get to Choose."

Sample Poems:

"Choices" by Tess Gallagher

"Choices" by Nikki Giovanni

"Choices" by Carl Sandburg

"The Choice" by William Butler Yeats

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

"The Long Hill" by Sara Teasdale

"The Choice" by Dorothy Parker

Prompt #88 - Muse-ing

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Erato, Muse of Poetry by Sir Edward John Poynter, 1870

Have you ever thought about what drives you to write? In Greek mythology, the Muses, in ancient Greek αἱ μοῦσαι (hai moũsai), were minor goddesses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, believed to inspire music, song, dance, and poetry. At some point, nine Muses were assigned to specific arts: Kalliope, epic poetry; Kleio, history; Ourania, astronomy; Thaleia, comedy; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, religious hymns; Erato, erotic poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; and Terpsikhore, choral song and dance. On Mount Helicon, home to the Muses, were two sacred springs: the Aganippe and the Hippocrene. The Hippocrene spring (Ἱππου κρήνης) was considered a source of poetic inspiration (Tennyson referred to it in his poem “Ode to a Nightengale,” and Longfellow mentioned it in “Goblet of Life”).

With Muses in mind, I've chosen an inspiration poem by William Stafford for this week's prompt:

When I Met My Muse

I glanced at her and took my glasses

off – they were still singing. They buzzed

like a locust on the coffee table and then

ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the

sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and

knew that nails up there took a new grip

on whatever they touched. "I am your own

way of looking at things," she said. "When

you allow me to live with you, every

glance at the world around you will be

a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.

The key notion of this poem is one of self-awareness and our ability to express individual ways of seeing things. Stafford speaks to the importance of accepting who we most truly are. To live with your Muse, then, is to live comfortably with yourself.

Before writing, let’s “muse” a bit on what inspires us. What inspires you to write poetry? What’s your Muse like? Is she ever-present or does she favor three martini lunches and long vacations in the south of France? In what kind of surroundings or landscapes do you find your Hippocrene spring? When you first started writing poetry, what inspired you? What inspires you now? Is there a person or place from which you draw inspiration? An emotion? Are you inspired by other poets? A particular poet? Is there a spiritual “place” to which you return repeatedly for inspiration?

Let your musings and Stafford’s poem serve as inspiration for this week’s poem. Take the cues from your Muse and choose one of the following:

1. Write a poem about your Muse (serious or funny).

2. Write a poem about your “Hippocrene Spring” (your best source of inspiration – one to which you return often in your poems).

3. Ray Bradbury wrote, “In a lifetime we stuff ourselves with sounds, sights, smells, tastes, and textures of people, animals, landscapes, events, large and small. We stuff ourselves with these impressions and experiences and our reaction to them. These are the stuffs, the foods, on which The Muse grows.” Write a poem about the ways in which you “feed” your Muse.

4. Write a poem about living comfortably (or uncomfortably) with yourself.

P.S. Here's the link to another "Muse" poem that I hope you'll enjoy: "A Muse" by Reginald Shepherd.

Prompt #87 - The Memory of Water

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:18:00 +0000

A couple of nights ago I watched a DVD of my favorite British detective series, “Rosemary and Thyme.” I’ve watched all the episodes more than once, and the show I watched that night is my favorite: “The Memory of Water.” As I lay in bed thinking about the show, I segued into thoughts of this week’s prompt. Wide-awake, I reached for the top book on my bedside pile of poetry collections and opened to Mary Oliver's "Beside the Waterfall." The next book in the pile was Diane Lockward's Temptation by Water (click link to read the title poem: http://www.valpo.edu/vpr/lockwardtemptation.html).

While wading in "water poems," it occurred to me that people have long sought the physical, psychological, religious, and spiritual healing powers of water – at the River Ganges; in the ancient Roman baths; in the spa waters of Bath in Somerset, England; at Mecca's holy spring of Zamzan; in Christian baptisms; at Lourdes in France; and throughout the world at various healing water sites. Continuing to think about water, I remembered reading somewhere that about 70% of the world is covered in water and about 75% of the human body is water. There I was, completely “immersed” in water thoughts and tempted by water (a la Diane's book) to write a "water prompt."

A few ideas:

Write a poem about a water “experience” you’ve had.

Write a poem about a time that water touched your life in a special/dramatic/exciting way.

Write a poem about a time that water was healing for you.

Write a poem about a memorable rainstorm or hurricane.

Write a poem about the importance of protecting the earth’s water sources.

Write a poem about a landscape in which water is prominent.

Write a poem about a time when you were “transformed” by water.

And on the lighter side:

Write about a time that you went skinny-dipping.

Write about your earliest memory of being in water.

Write about a beach or pool party you attended.

Write a bath poem or a take-off on the old song "Splish Splash."

Write about your life as a fish in a bowl.

Write about a water cooler.

Write about a water fantasy titled “Alice in Waterland.”

Sample Poems

"And Water Lies Plainly" by Laurie Sheck

"Dishwater" by Ted Kooser

"Going for Water" by Robert Frost

"Water Music" by Robert Creeley

"Water Picture" by May Swenson

"Well Water" by Randall Jarrell

"Portrait of a Figure near Water" by Jane Kenyon

"New Water" by Sharon Chmielarz

And, by way of sharing, here’s a “water poem” that I wrote as an elegy for a friend.

Black River by Adele Kenny

In the almost-dark of a late spring

evening, the air still holds a scent of

moss on dampened stone, the bitter

tang of bluebells.

You are with me because I remember

(the sense of you just over my left

shoulder), a shadow that follows

the light.

This was your place, where the world

should have let you go – here where

the river turns, a fishing pole in your

hand, the back of

your brown flannel shirt slipped from

your belt, your old shoes worn, as

they always were, on the insides

of their heels.

I have come to touch your death with

the palm of my hand, clench my fist

around it, and fling it upstream –

bone ash into space.

Go! Go now! I call down the stars

for your ransom. One by one they

fall into the river, which carries

them all away.

(from What Matters, Welcome Rain Publishers, New York, NY, 2011)

Click Cover for Info and Orders

Prompt #86 – Hope

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,  

And sings the tune – without the words,  

And never stops at all …

– Emily Dickinson

This week, I thought it would be interesting to write about hope and the ways in which it manifests itself in our lives. As an emotional state, hope is the opposite of despair. Everyone hopes for something, and it is hope that often sustains us through challenging times. Hope is also about anticipation and looking forward to things we want. Many believe that hope can become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Hope literally opens us up. It removes the blinders of fear and despair and allows us to see the big picture. We become creative, unleashing our dreams for the future. This is because deep within the core of hope is the belief that things can change. No matter how awful or uncertain they are at the moment, things can turn out for the better. Possibilities exist. Belief in this better future sustains us. It keeps us from collapsing in despair. It infuses our bodies with the healing rhythms of positivity. It motivates us to tap into our signature capabilities and inventiveness to turn things around. It inspires us to build a better future.” (Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/positivity/200903/why-choose-hope)

Example Poems:

"Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson

"Hope is a strange invention" by Emily Dickinson

"Hope" by Emily Bronte

"Love Without Hope" by Robert Graves

"Hope Holds to Christ" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

"Bird of Hope" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"To Hope" by John Keats

Poems on Hope by Sri Chimnoy

"Hope Wanted Alive" by Terese Svaboda

For Reflection Before You Begin Writing:

1. What do you hope for?

2. What have you hoped for?

3. How have your hopes been realized?

4. How have your hopes ended in sadness or disappointment?

5. How have you dealt with the fallout of ruined hopes?

6. It’s been written that lies shatter hope. How has a lie shattered your hope?

7. How do you “live in hope?”

8. How can you relate the term “be careful what you hope for” to a personal experience?

9. What metaphor can you create for “hope,” and how can you work it into a poem?

10. How can you express what "hope" means in the context of your personal faith system?

Poetry Prompt #85 - Through the Looking Glass

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 13:35:00 +0000

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (the sequel to Alice in Wonderland), Alice goes through a looking glass into a world that is identifiable but strangely “sideways.” Has there ever been a time in your life when you metaphorically went “through a looking glass” to find your world askew? In what ways has your “looking glass” been a source of revelation?

This week, let’s think about “looking glass” reflections of ourselves – the past, and what we see when we look into reflectors of any kind. The poem this week will be a kind of reflection on your reflection. As you write, be sure to focus on content, imagery, and a strong emotional center. Engage your readers with language, meaning, and opportunities for them to identify with you through your poem.

Here are a few “reflection” options for you to explore.

1. Write about a time in your life when you metaphorically went “through a looking glass” to find your world “turned around.”

2. Write a poem in which you use the term looking glass either literally or symbolically.

3. Write a poem about what you see when you look into your mirror. (Look deeply … who and what do you see? Do you see something in your own eyes that others may see? Do you see a reflection of your mother or father in your own face? Do you see eyes that hide or express emotion?)

4. Write a poem about seeing your own reflection in someone else’s eyes.

5. Write a poem about seeing your reflection in a lake or pond or in a window (house, store, car, train, computer screen). Where are you? What are the circumstances of your being in that place? What do you see when you look at your reflection? You may choose to start with the present scene (looking at your reflection) and then go back to the past; bring the poem full circle with a return to the present.

6. Write a poem about someone else who looks into his or her mirror and sees a reflection of you. What does the person see?

7. Write a complete fantasy about a mirror, a looking glass, a reflection of yourself, or a reflection of someone else. How about writing a fantasy dream to parallel Alice’s experience in Through the Looking Glass?

8. Write a poem in which you look into a mirror and see the past or the future. Look at your younger or older self and create a monologue or dialogue.

Sample Poems:

"In the Bathroom Mirror" by Ralph Burns

"My Brother's Mirror" by Donald Pratt

"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath

"Mirror Image" by Stephen Kampa

"A Hand-Mirror" by Walt Whitman

"Blue Dementia" by Yousef Komunyakaa

"To Be Written On The Mirror In Whitewash" by Elizabeth Bishop

"Words of Comfort to be Scratched on a Mirror" by Dorothy Parker

"The MIrror" by Robert Creeley

"Mirror, Mirror" by Spike Milligan

And ... by way of further inspiration ... Through the Looking Glass music. Enjoy!

Emily Dickinson First Book Award

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:50:00 +0000

For readers who have their first book length manuscript ready to submit, the Poetry Foundation announces the 2012 Emily Dickinson First Book Award. This is an occasional contest (not held annually) intended to recognize an American poet, aged 40 or older, who has not yet published a collection of poems. The winning book will be published by Graywolf Press, and the winner will receive a prize of $10,000. Manuscripts will be accepted from January 16 through February 17, 2012. The winner will be notified by April 30, 2012 and publicly announced at the Pegasus Awards ceremony in 2012. There is no entry fee.

Click Here for Complete Submission Guidelines

Poetry Prompt #84 - Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:16:00 +0000

For last year's words belong to last year's language

 And next year's words await another voice. 

And to make an end is to make a beginning. 

– T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding" 

On this last day of 2011, I send each of you my warm and heartfelt best wishes for good health and happiness throughout 2012.

As we start the New Year with poetry (our first poems of 2012), let’s think about newness and things in our lives that are (or have been) new. One option is to write a poem inspired by the T. S. Eliot quote above or to use this quote as an epigraph. Your poem may be about an ending that became a new beginning for you. Another suggestion is to write a poem about New Year’s resolutions or old year reflections.

By way of inspiration, I share with you Alfred, Lord Tennnyson’s  famous lines from “In Memoriam”:

Ring out the old, ring in the new, 

Ring, happy bells, across the snow: 

The year is going, let him go; 

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

And this haiku in which Kobayashi Issa approaches the New Year with reverence and humility:

New Year's Day –

everything is in blossom!  

I feel about average.

Other New Year’s poems:

"A New Day" by Phillip Levine (audio)

"At the Entering of the New Year" by Thomas Hardy

"A Song for New Year's Eve" By William Cullen Bryant

May the end of 2011 be the beginning of a new year

filled with abundances of good health, happiness, and poetry!

Happy New Year, my friends! God bless you!

P.S. Love, licks, and good puppy wishes from Chaucey!

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:50:00 +0000

Chaucey’s First Christmas, 2011

Regular prompts will resume on December 31. In the meantime, I wish you all a blessed and joyous Christmas and light-filled remainder of Chanukah! May the light, love, and peace of this special season be yours!

Be filled with wonder!

Be touched by peace!

Believe!

Poetry Prompt #83 – Winter

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 14:21:00 +0000

With winter beginning in a few days, I thought this might be a good time to write a seasonal poem. For your poem this week, focus on any aspect of winter or several aspects, and work on using good, solid imagery. Think about things unique to the season, and think about what particular light winter offers us.

Before beginning, read the following poems to get some ideas of places your winter poems might lead you.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15465

“A Winter Without Snow” by J. D. McClatchy

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22693

“Approach of Winter” by Willian Carlos Williams

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22694

“An Old Man’s Winter Night” by Robert Frost

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20526

“Winter Distances” by Fanny Howe

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22050

“Winter Trees” by William Carlos Williams

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20938

“Return to Winter” by Elaine Terranova

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19217

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

Poetry Prompt #82 - What's in a Title?

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:53:00 +0000

I think we’ll all agree that while we’re wary of judging books by their covers, we often “judge” poems, at least at first blush, by their titles. Sometimes, an amazing title is just what a poem needs to draw readers in.

This week, let’s “play” with an old prompt idea in which you think of a few well-known poems that you especially like. Reflect on the titles and see if there’s one that you can change to keep the “sense” of it similar but the meaning completely different. After you’ve made a change that works for you, write a poem that “goes with” the new title.

Here are some examples:

Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20519

might become “Stopping by the Park on a Summer Morning”

Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Graveyard”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19371

might become “Elegy Written on a City Street”

John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20325

might become “Ode to a Sparrow”

Carl Sandburg’s “Fog”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15263

might become “Smog”

T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20220

might become “The Love Song of __________ " (you fill in the blank)

Now, here’s the important part: your finished poem needn’t bear any resemblance at all to the inspiration poem. In fact, the goal is to make your poem entirely different and entirely your own. You might even want to change the title after you’ve written the poem.

The goal this week is to have some creative fun with the prompt idea and, more specifically, to think about how important your poems’ titles can be. Remember that a good title gives your prospective readers a hint of what’s to come without giving too much away. It introduces readers to the heart or emotional center of a poem and invites readers to enter the poem and spend time with you.

Poetry Prompt #81 - Submission Etiquette

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:38:00 +0000

Many poets with whom I’ve worked have asked about “submission etiquette.” The following info was prepared for one of my private workshop groups, and I'm happy to share it here. It's not exactly a "prompt," but here's hoping that it will "prompt" you to send some of your work to journals.

It’s important to note that each journal has its own submissions guidelines, and the editors expect submitters to follow them. There are, however, a few general suggestions that might prove helpful (with the caveat, of course, to follow the specific guidelines for any journal to which you submit your poems).

A good place to begin is to thoroughly research the market. You need to find out which journals would be suitable vehicles for your work. The best way to conduct your “market research” is to start buying poetry journals.

Aside from buying poetry journals, you can conduct some of your research via the Internet. Many poetry journals have strong web presences, so check out the web sites of journals that interest you. You’ll usually find submission guidelines, and many journals post sample poems on their websites. Searching the Web be time-intensive, but it will save you a fortune in stamps and may considerably reduce the number of rejection slips you accumulate. You can also do further research in libraries, but most libraries don’t subscribe to small press journals. Invaluable resources are books like Writer’s Market. When you’ve decided which journals you’d like to target for possible publication and have obtained copies to “study,” be sure to check the journal’s submission guidelines and follow them! I mean, really follow them. (I can’t say this enough times!)

Always present your work in typescript (never hand-written), using a simple 12 point font like Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier. Fancy fonts will not impress editors. On the contrary, they suggest that the sender is a novice writer. Poetry should be single-spaced with the title at the top (in the same font that you use for the text of the poem).

Retain a copy of any material you send. Most editors receive hundreds of submissions and it’s possible for submissions to go missing. The mail service, too, sometimes “loses” items. Always keep records of which poems you’ve sent out, which journals you’ve sent them to, the dates of submission, and the results.

Use a plain #10 envelope for hard copy submissions, and always include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (s.a.s.e.) for the editor’s reply. This is a basic courtesy – most journals will not reply to a submission if the s.a.s.e. is not included.

For hard copy submissions (and most electronic as well) type one poem to a page unless you are instructed to do otherwise. For hard copies, it’s better to use a paper clip than a staple as clips are easier for editors to remove during the assessment process.

If you include a cover letter, it should be short, including only your name, contact details, and titles of work submitted. In general, most editors do not want to read your life story, nor do they want to know your hobbies or your marital status.

It isn’t necessary to include a bio unless the guidelines specifically ask for one. Most editors aren’t impressed by previous publication credits and judge submissions on their own merits. Many editors request a bio at the time of acceptance. Whatever you do, never invite an editor to visit your web site or blog by way of introduction or bio. Most editors don’t have time for that sort of thing, and your invitation can be a little like chalk scraping on a chalkboard.

Make sure each poem has your name and address on it, as cover notes can and do get separated from submitted material. Unless journal guidelines specify otherwise, your name, address, phone number, and email address should appear in the upper left or right hand corner. Setting this info into clever text boxes at the top or bottom of the page isn’t necessary and can look amateurish.

Refrain from using copyright symbols – this can and does offend some editors (they are not going to steal your work and pretend it's their own).

Be careful not to over-submit. Journal editors are usually more dismayed than pleased when they receive large numbers of poems from a single poet. As an editor myself, I can testify to that. Never submit more than the number of poems noted in the guidelines, usually no more than five poems, and DON’T follow up with another batch during the same reading period. Once, I received two entire manuscripts via our Tiferet submissions manager. The poets both suggested that I read the manuscripts and choose from among the poems they contained. Each submission contained over 40 poems! Aaaargh! I have a strong commitment to reading every submission at least three times, but this was a bit much.

Many print journals don’t accept email submissions. There are good reasons for this, the potential transmission of computer-destroying viruses among them. Some journals, however, do welcome email submissions. If this is the case, be sure to read the submission guidelines carefully, and follow them. Some journals will accept submissions in attachment form; some require the poem text to be copied and pasted into the body of an email. Many journals now use electronic submissions managing programs. Make sure you know the preferences before submitting, and follow the guidelines (there, I've said it again). Some journals require that each poem be electronically submitted individually. If that’s the case, send each poem individually via the electronic manager.

At one time, simultaneous submissions were a major no-no. Today, however, journal editors recognize that huge volumes of submissions mean long response times, and they extend the courtesy of allowing poets to submit the same poems to more than one journal at a time. Be sure to read journal guidelines carefully (have I just said that again?). Usually, if simultaneous submissions are allowed, editors ask that you contact them when a poem you’ve submitted has been accepted elsewhere. This is a simple return courtesy that should be observed. Journals that don’t allow simultaneous submissions often take many months to respond, which means that a poem may be “away from home” for a long time before you know if it's been accepted or rejected.

Don’t query editors about the status of your work! Editors work as quickly and as carefully as possible, but hundreds of submissions can mean that you’ll have to wait for a response. Similarly, it’s not a good idea to include self-addressed, stamped postcards that you wish an editor to send back to let you know that your submission has been received. This means extra work for an editor and most editors don’t have that kind of time. Many journals indicate response time in their guidelines – if that response time has long passed, then (and only then) might you query.

You shouldn’t expect editors to make individual comments on your poems, accepted or not. Editors are not critiquers in that sense – they often read several hundred poems during a reading period, and they just don’t have time to make individual comments. Occasionally, an editor will suggest edits, which, if made, will result in publication. As a poet, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you agree to the changes.

Here’s a hint: if a journal has a specific reading period, be sure to submit early. Unless you're submitting to a themed issue in which all poems accepted deal with a particular subject, when a poem on the same subject as yours is accepted before you submit, yours won’t be accepted even if it’s a better poem. So, send your poems sooner rather than later.

Many poetry editors work countless hours and earn nothing for their efforts. Some journal publishers subsidize their journals from their own pockets. Most of them do it for the same reason that poets submit their poems to journals – love of the art. So please, respect the editors to whom you send your poems. This doesn’t mean that editors are the ultimate arbiters of what is and isn’t good work. Selection is often a subjective process. If your poems are rejected, don’t take it personally. Move on. Send the poems elsewhere. It’s not uncommon for poems to be rejected by numerous journals before finding a home. It’s a process of persistence. So, persevere.

Beware of vanity publishing in which you pay a fee for your poems to be published. There are unscrupulous people out there who will happily fleece you if you are desperate enough to be published at any cost. Don’t be fooled by their flatteries. If you have to pay to be published, think again. This is not the same as paying an entry fee for a contest, which is not only credible but often necessary to fund the prize monies.

On vanity publishing and publishing scams:

Publishing Scams: Six Red Flags That Scream "Rip off"

Vanity Publishing

Poetry Prompt #80 - Who Would You Be?

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:54:00 +0000

Have you ever thought about changing roles with someone or just being able to live someone else's life? Have you ever thought about becoming someone other than yourself? If you could become anyone (alive, dead, fictional), who would you be?

This week, step out of your skin, become someone else, and write a poem about it.

Some things to consider before writing:

Who am I?
Who am I meant to be?
Who would I like to be?
Who would I choose to be if I could become someone else?

Alternative ideas for this week:

Write a poem about a poem that you’d like to “inhabit” (enter a poem, become part of that poem by writing about changing places with a character from it).

Write about becoming a character in a song or a movie.

Write about becoming the subject of a famous sculpture or a famous painting. (Ever wonder what life would be like for the woman in DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” or what the Venus de Milo might be like if she were flesh and blood instead of stone? What would you be like if you were the Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo?)

Write from the perspective of your avatar, doppelgänger, or alter ego.

Write about why you don’t wish to change places with someone else.

Poetry Prompt #79 - From Painting to Poem

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:15:00 +0000

"Il Penseroso" by Thomas Cole (1845)

Ekphrastic poems are based on other forms of art, most often paintings, but may also include sculpture, musical composition, dance, etc. You can read more about ekphrasis if you click on fifth tab in the page bar above. You will also find the following informative: Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art and Notes on Ekphrasis.

This week, I thought it would be interesting to move from painting to poem by writing about a painting (with an invitation to post your poems for sharing). I've chosen "Il Penseroso" by Thomas Cole, one of my favorite painters and the founder of the Hudson River School. Interestingly, Cole's "Il Penseroso" was inspired by a poem of the same title written by John Milton in 1631 ("Il Penseroso" by John Milton)

Keep in mind that ekphrastic poems do more than offer textual descriptions or verbal interpretations of visual art. Take a good look at Cole's "Il Penseroso" and see where it leads you. (Click on the image for a larger view.) Notice details.

You may want to begin by jotting down your impressions, images inspired by the painting, and feelings, memories, or experiences that the painting calls to mind. Think in terms or your emotions and your spiritual response to the painting.

Some questions to consider before writing:

What is happening in the painting?

Who or what is the subject of the painting?

What mood does the painting suggest?

How do you relate to that mood?

You may want to create a dialogic in which you journey in "conversation" between the painting and your text. Or you may avoid referring to the painting at all (other than, perhaps, a mention in the title or subtitle).

If the Cole painting doesn't work for you, feel free to work with one of your own choosing!

Famous Ekphrastic Poems:

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats

" Musee des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden

Poetry Prompt #78 – Home

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:15:00 +0000

This week’s prompt invites you to write a poem about “home.”

“Home” may mean many things to us – it may be a physical place or it may signify the center of our world (the heart of our immediate reality). “Home” may be the brick-and-mortar of childhood homes, homes in which we’ve lived as adults, places in which memories were made, or places in which joys were shared and hearts were broken. “Home” may be imagined or mythical locations, dreamscapes, or the metaphorical geography of a particular place. “Home” may include specific attachments, relationships with others, things we said and did, and experiences that helped or hurt us.

“Home” has long provided inspiration for poets. In William Stafford's "One Home," a childhood home is remembered; in "Home Again Home Again," A. F. Moritz reflects upon time, aging, and family.

“Home” may represent both place and people as in Gerald’s Stern’s "The Dancing," and relationships may be revealed through “home” as in Adrienne Rich’s "Living in Sin."

W. H. Auden’s collection About the House (1965) is an extended analogy between the house as a building and the building of the self. For Auden, “home” becomes an extension of “self” through poems that look into physical rooms as well as into their metaphorical equivalents. Click Here to Order About the House

Other Examples:

"Home" by Bruce Weigl

"Home Is So Sad" by Phillip Larkin

"9773 Comanche Avenue" by David Trinidad

"This Room" by John Ashbery

Some things to think about before writing:

What memories do you have of a childhood home?

What’s your “dream home?”

If a genie granted you the wish to go home for a while, where would you go?

When you think of “home,” what people do you think of?

How has a particular home impacted your life?

What memories of a home can you express through attachments within and to that home?

Does where you live (or where you have lived) define you in any way?

How does a home have two inner spaces – physical and metaphorical?

Is there a “home” in your life that isn’t a physical structure?

Is there a person in your life who represents “home” to you?

By way of sharing, here’s a poem from my book What Matters about the day I sold my childhood home:

Selling the Family House

I didn’t plan to be undone

by a catbird crying, irises in

bloom where a cherry tree stood,

the baby, born dead, buried there;

or those ovals on the wall where

our pictures were hung, holes

from the nails that held them.

The house – empty or nearly

empty – crumbles into itself.

I leave a few books on their shelf.

Some shimmer, the others are rags.

What voice do I hear (or want to

hear)? The catbird cries; the earth

turns on wing-boned fingers.

Bijou

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:04:00 +0000

Bijou

September 15, 1994 - November 3, 2011

Sire: All Star's Rambo

Dam: Lucy At All Star

Derivation of Name: From the French,

meaning a small, dainty, exquisite jewel;

something infinitely special, precious,

and delicately beautiful.

AKC Registration #TN160180/01

January 16, 1995

With much sadness, I write this morning that my dear little Yorkshire Terrier, Bijou, died on Thursday evening. She was seventeen and to her last moment the "personification" of her name. Her passing was very sudden and a great blessing to have happened quickly and peacefully at home and in my arms. Bijou was the last of my Yorkies. I miss her terribly.

There's an Irving Townsend quotation that touches me deeply and expresses what I believe many pet lovers feel about the "little creatures" with whom we share our lives and our love. In memory of Bijou, and in memory of pets you've loved, I offer the quotation as the prompt for this week's poem. (If you write or have written poems for beloved pets, please feel free to post them.)

“We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own

live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached.

Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way.

We cherish memory as the only certain immortality,

never fully understanding the necessary plan.”

– Irving Townsend from “The Once Again Prince”

Poetry Prompt #77 – Wilderness

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:14:00 +0000

In his most recent chapbook, Kicking the Rain, R. G. Rader included a poem entitled “Let There Be A Wilderness.” The poem immediately struck me because the dialectic of the poet’s observation is so immediate and direct, and so filled with metaphorical meaning. Clearly, R. G. wasn’t thinking only about “wilderness” in a literal sense, but, rather, in a context of implied meanings that suggest relationship, tension, and the conflict between “safety” and risk-taking.” It’s a love poem that’s not exactly a love poem, it’s sensual and passionate in its defense of romanticism, and it tosses out a challenge to those who are afraid to explore the wilderness (or wildness) within themselves.

Let There Be A Wilderness

by R. G. Rader

Let there be a path leading out of sigh

And at its other end a temperate zone:

woods devoid of beasts, roads that please the foot

From “Against Romanticism” by Kingsley Amis

Let there be roads that hurt the feet

at places I travel – exotic

outside the temperate zone.

Let there be a wilderness

where I taste the pleasure of wild food

where the winter cold is cause for no clothing

and the soft cushion of summer grass

is softer still when you and I fall upon it.

Avoid the temperate zone

where little is safe from each hour’s boredom

and all the words are neatly packaged

into the pages of a book.

Let there be time to share

and to lose our passion

and a way to find it again,

a space where wingless birds can fly

a place filled with beasts

who dare do battle.

From Kicking the Rain (Finishing Line Press, 2010)

Click Cover to Order Kicking the Rain

Many see “wilderness” as a path to awakening, and it is deeply present in many of the world’s “wisdom” traditions. Wilderness is transcultural and transpiritual – shamans and mystics, sages and saints have gone into the wilderness to find inspiration and enlightenment. Jesus Christ and the Desert Fathers went into the desert; Buddha and Lao Tzu went into the forest. Thoreau went to Walden Pond, and in Emersonian transcendentalism, nature was created by a transcendent god for the benefit for humankind. These examples all beg the question, “What is it about wilderness (in any of its forms) that draws humankind to it?”

Wilderness may be understood as a way and as a tradition, and throughout history, “wilderness” has been strongly symbolic. Importantly, wilderness is never merely the untarnished forest, the crystal stream, the field of flowers; it is also tangled vines and exposed roots, rain and mud, rocky places and poisonous berries. Wilderness is wild nature in all of its aspects, and it may be expanded to include human nature.

Okay, I’m sure you see where I’m going this week. Our prompt is “wilderness,” and the challenge is to write a poem that focuses on a personal wilderness experience, a wilderness insight, a wilderness “therapy,” or “wilderness” as a metaphor. What we’re not looking for are “nature” poems (which I love dearly but not this week).

Examples:

"A Table in the Wilderness" by Li-Young Lee

"Wilderness" by Carl Sandburg

"Across a Great Wilderness without You" by Keetje Kuipers

"If a Wilderness" by Carl Phillips

Before beginning to write consider these questions:

What’s your wilderness?

What has a wilderness taught you?

Where has a wilderness taken you?

What life experience can you describe in wilderness terms?

What does wilderness offer your senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)?

What specific wilderness images will you incorporate into your poem?

Poetry Prompt #76 – Phrase Play

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Have you ever listened to someone who uses a particular phrase so often that you expect to hear it whenever you speak with that person? Are there certain phrases that you use often in everyday conversation? Think of the “trendy” phrases that become (for me anyway) like fingernails on a chalkboard; for example, push the envelope, I hear you, piece of cake, I could care less, my bad, just sayin’ (and a new one that I heard recently – totally salinda meaning peacefulness, or a peaceful state of mind).

Interestingly, every language has well-used colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions; for example, in Italian in bocca al lupo literally means "into the wolf's mouth" but, rather like the strange English expression "break a leg," this phrase is used in Italy to wish someone good luck.

Choose a phrase (not a cliché but a common idiomatic expression) and write a poem "around" that phrase. Alternatively, you might try using that phrase as much as possible within your poem. Turn the expression over and around, spin it, repeat it, extend it, give it new meanings, mock it, praise it, see how far you can stretch it. You might even consider using the phrase as a metaphor.

Begin by making a list of expressions that you or friends use often, and then choose one for your poem. Another idea is to use several phrases throughout your poem, or perhaps even compose an entire poem of “phrase plays.” Try taking a humorous approach – have fun with this!

Virtual Poetry Salon

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:41:00 +0000

Please visit Diane Lockward's blog (Blogalicious)

to "attend" a virtual poetry salon in which I'm the guest poet!

Click here: Virtual Poetry Salon

Interview Excerpt:

Diane: How did you select the title for your book?
Adele: Strangely enough, What Matters had a title several years before it became a book. Like many images in the poems, the title came to me late one night. It literally “popped into my mind” before I’d even begun to think of the poems in terms of a collection. I woke up the next morning knowing that What Matters would be the title of my next book. That day I took a long look at my newer poems (revised, written, and in process) and began to see them arranged in sections relative to the experiences that drove them. The title powered the long process of writing, editing, tweaking, and selecting.

Diane's virtual poetry salon is such a creative and fun idea complete with an interview, reading, and virtual food (see above)! Enjoy!

Poetry Prompt #75 – WHY?

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:07:00 +0000

Why? How often do we ask that question in regard to a cause, reason, or purpose? “Why?” is arguably the most common question we ask others and ourselves (and, at times, one of the hardest to answer).

Newspaper reporters begin by asking six questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Of the six questions, five may be answered easily. Think for a moment of the game (and the movie) called “Clue.” In answer to a reporter’s questions, the answers might be that (who) Professor Plum (what)  murdered Miss Scarlet (when) early in the morning (where) in the conservatory (how) with a candlestick. The most difficult question is “Why?” because asking why calls the rational, analytical, conscious mind into action. “Why?” needs an explanation – it isn’t based on purely factual information, and there may be different, equally acceptable ways of understanding the question. For example: Why did Professor Plum murder Miss Scarlet? Why did he use a candlestick instead of a knife? Why did he commit the murder in the conservatory? “Why?” has much to do with motive and meaning.

I know you can see where I’m going with this: the prompt for the coming week is to write a poem in which we consider an important “why?”

Examples

"Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara

"why must itself up every of a park" by e.e. cummings

"Why Regret?" by Galway Kinnell

"Why They Went" by Elizabeth Bradfield

"A Light Says Why" by Karen Volkman

Five “whys” to reflect upon before you begin to write:

an unanswered question in your life,
the reason someone hurt your feelings or the reason you hurt someone else’s feelings,
the cause behind your feelings about a particular person, issue, or idea,
how “Why me, why Not me?” fits your personal experience,
the reason you have avoided making a decision.

Think hard about a “Why?” experience. Remember the details of time and place. Remember other people (if any) who were part of the situation. Or, alternatively, think about a “Why?’ question that troubles you and focus on the question rather than on an experience.

Consider a light approach and make this a humorous poem (for example, a list of funny “Why?” questions).

You might even make the timeless “Why?” question – “Why is the sky blue?” – the foundation for a poem.

Another possibility is a poem titled “Why I Write Poetry.” Or, how about a poem entitled, "Ever Wonder Why?"

Here’s the challenge: avoid becoming overly psychological or philosophical and work to create strong, effective images. Show, don’t simply tell.

Poetry Prompt #74 – Words, Images, Sounds

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 11:41:00 +0000

A friend recently told me about a workshop he attended in which the leader gave the participants a list of words and asked them to write a poem that included those words. This is an old technique and one that can work really well. Having been reminded of it, I thought we might try my adaptation of the basic prompt, which focuses on the things that are most important in poetry: words, images, and sounds. And … because it’s autumn, let’s write autumn poems.

Some autumn poems for inspiration:

"A Single Autumn" by W. S. Merwin

"Blackberry Eating" by Galway Kinnell

"Autumn Leaves" by Marilyn Chin

"Autumn Evening" by David Lehman

"Autumn Grasses" by Margaret Gibson

"Autumn Movement" by Carl Sandburg

"Leaves" by Lloyd Schwartz

"Home" by Bruce Weigl

"A Vagabond Song" by Bliss Carmen

Below: "October" by Robert Frost

Now for your poem!

1. To begin, read each word in the following list:

autumn

pumpkins

frost

cider

harvest moon

spider’s web

leaves

2. Next, write an image for each word.

Example: for spider’s web – the dewdrops strung like crystal beads inside the spider’s web

3. Then, write a poem that begins with one of your images and includes as many others as you wish. Try to include some appropriate sensory details (sound, sight, taste, touch, smell).

4. To extend this prompt, and to add an extra element of challenge, deliberately create an iambic meter in your images that you will continue throughout the poem. (Keep in mind that this is about meter; rhyme isn’t required, though you may include rhyme if you wish.) Take a look at the image example for step #2. This image is written in written in iambs (a pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables) and is actually iambic heptameter (7 iambs in the line). A good example iambic pentameter (five iambs in each line) is “To Autumn” by John Keats.

Click either of the links to read and listen to Keats’s “To Autumn.” Be sure to listen carefully to the audio to get a sense of the poem’s sound.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15565

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173749

Note that the iambic pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables is rather like a human heartbeat.

Look at the iambic pentameter in a line from “To Autumn” (da indicates an unstressed syllable, dum indicates a stressed syllable)

To swell the gourd and plump the ha- zel shells

da dum da dum da dum da dum da dum

Give it a try, then listen to the sonic impression you’ve created to underscore your words and images.

Of course, and most importantly, use the words given to prompt an autumn poem in any style or form that works for you!

Poetry Prompt #73 - Anaphora

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:23:00 +0000

In a recent workshop that I led, one of the participants spoke strongly against repetition in poetry. Admittedly, there are times when using a word or phrase more than once weakens it’s impact; however, there is a poetic technique (one of literature’s oldest, in fact) that raises the bar for repetition to create parallelism, enhance rhythm, intensify emotion, and strengthen sonic impression. This technique is called anaphora.

Anaphora derives from the Greek for “a carrying up or back” and is characterized by repetition of single words or phrases. In poetry, anaphora occurs when several lines or successive clauses begin with the same word or phrase.

A good example of this is Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 66” in which ten lines begin with the word “and.”

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,

As to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,

And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honour shamefully misplac'd,

And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,

And right perfection wrongfully disgrac'd,

And strength by limping sway disabled

And art made tongue-tied by authority,

And folly – doctor-like – controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill:

Tir'd with all these, from these would I be gone,

Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Another good example is Emily Brontë’s "Remembrance," in which the opening phrase, “Cold in the earth” is repeated.

Other examples:

“The Tyger” by William Blake (repetition of “what”)

“What the hammer? what the chain? 

In what furnace was thy brain? 

What the anvil? what dread grasp 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?”

“Birds of Passage” by Walt Whitman (repetition of “O”)

“O you daughters of the West!

 O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives! 

Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united, 

Pioneers! O pioneers!” 

Whitman used anaphora extensively in his poems. Here’s another example: "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

And, of course, by way of example, there is "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg

This week, try to write a poem in which you use anaphora. For starters, you may want to limit the poem to fifteen lines or less. Clearly, anaphora effects a poem’s sound and how it is read, sometimes creating a kind of chant or litany effect. There is, however, a fine line between heightened effect and boring reiteration – the trick is not to overdo. With good anaphora the poet creates a kind of tension that is released into “wisdom” with a “punch” at the dismount.

Blog Talk Radio Interview

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:12:00 +0000

Last night (September 26, 7-7:30 PM EST), I was interviewed with Deborah LaVeglia by Melissa Studdard for Tiferet Talk on Blog Talk Radio. Tiferet Talk is a bi-monthly radio show hosted by TIFERET: A Journal of Spiritual Literature. Melissa is a superb interviewer, and I really enjoyed sharing thoughts about poetry with her and with Deborah (a long-time friend and colleague).

Here's the link for any readers who might be interested ...

Click Here: Blog Talk Radio Interview

Poetry Prompt #72 – Stuck in the Middle

noreply@blogger.com (ADELE KENNY) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:37:00 +0000

Have you ever started the day with a tune that pops into your head unbidden and repeats throughout the day as if it’s stuck on a continuous loop that won’t quit? Yesterday morning, an old song called “Stuck in the Middle with You” popped into my mind and stayed with me well into evening. It was never a favorite of mine, I don’t know all the words, and there was no good reason why that song spent so much time haunting me.

(Here's the song if you'd like to give it a listen.)

This morning I did some research and learned that the “offenders” behind songs getting stuck in our minds are earworms (ohrwurms, as they’re called in German). Earworms! Egad! Sounds like earwigs, but they’re not parasites that crawl into our heads through our ears and plant song-eggs. Earworms create a kind of compulsive experience (some say “brain itch”) that causes a tune to repeat in our minds. Various theories explain why this happens and, whatever the cause, it’s a common occurrence. In fact, Mark Twain used it as a plot device in his story "A Literary Nightmare."

All of that notwithstanding, yesterday, between choruses of “Stuck in the Middle with You,” it occurred to me that a poetry prompt about being “stuck in the middle” might be an interesting idea. So, this week, let’s make some poetry-music that will stay in our readers’ heads!

Think about:

being in the middle of a relationship gone sour
being in the middle of a family conflict
being in the middle of a loss, a grief, or an illness
being in the middle of a divorce
being in the middle of making an important decision
being in a middleman/middlewoman (intermediary) situation
being middle aged

Has there been a time in your life when you felt "stuck in the middle" of something? Use that time as the "historical" background, and tell the story in a narrative poem. (Caveat: Be sure not to get so caught up in story-telling that you neglect poetic techniques: imagery, figures of speech, line breaks, and sound quality.)

Examples:

"Henry Lichenwalner: Living in the Middle" by Dave Etter

"Lament of the Middle Man" by Jay Parini

Extension:

In literature, in medias res (in the middle of things) is a technique in which the narrative starts in the middle of the story rather than at the beginning. This allows the writer to open with “dramatic action” and/or flashback to establish setting, characters, and situation. For an added challenge, you might want to try this technique in your poem about being in the middle of something.