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Rays
Everything is fair game, open to us. We can reach doctoral levels of depravity
or fly celestial heights of angels, cloyish, coy, absurd. We can extricate
truth from its slumbers, wallow in the wealth of our gifts, or put all
b.s. aside and write it, not as a compensatory escape that pretends
to purge the scripturient burn within, but as a contribution to a world
literature sorely needed at this time.
Watch for poets who memorize (not performance poets) their favorite poems. They should take this time for more reading and far more writing. Personally, as an 84-year-old poet, I must guard
against literal-mindnessness (from years of 'loose' fiction writing). Guard against narrowness, loss of cerebral energy, comic energy, reinforce more breadth of reason, turn metaphor upside down, shake new magic in the bag, not just the professor's prosaic, Entrance, Signification and Revelatory Ending. Life isn't that well packaged, either, except, perhaps, the Entrado (I heard Octavio Paz champion 'the entrance' before he died in Mexico City).
I could use more magnanimity, make poetry richer, stronger, more accessible to people of all walks of life (knowing all the time it's poets who read the most to each other because that's where their interest lies). I must remember that narrative poetry, in particular, is crafted from sequence and consequence story lines, a reticulation of images, places, that shape their own beginnings and endings. Like most poets I must thaw out the cynical, strive for a more
radiant virtuosity, diversity, humanity, love of language. I must spice it with inventiveness, a fresh intellectual and emotional range - anything that works - double associations, triple internal rhythms, aesthetic complexities, because, after all, we live in a changing new world of images, ideas, and feelings. It takes a poetry to match.
Tu Amigo, Ray Clark Dickson
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Poet's Forum
The Poetry Page encourages a dialogue on poetry. Your mission, should
you accept it, is to participate. Do not be shy. In today's world, your
view about the definition, structure, content, etc. of poetry is as valid
as anyone's.
The forum permits threads (subjects) to maintain integrity and
containment of particular themes, dialogues, exchanges.
So, you can just read the discussion threads in the forum.
But you can also participate. You can use your own identity or an
alias.
The forum exists to encourage a dialogue on poetry. Because The Poetry
Page has a local focus, most of the participants are local. That's what we
are really after - a dialogue among local poetry lovers. This captures the
flavor of the central coast. Yet we don't exclude anyone from a poetry discussion.
All are welcome.
The forum is also a good place ask questions, get a reality check or
perhaps rather an imagination check, get some coaching, opinions. You name
it. The subject of the thread is up to you.
You will want to remember your user ID and password. Of course, you
might get a new one. Why you might even be several people. Hey, you could
even have a poetry discussion with yourself.
If you really have an interest in poetry we encourage your
participation.
Here are just a couple tips on use:
- This is extremely important and will prevent your taking a sledge hammer to your computer and sending bounty hunters after the forum administrator. IF YOUR ENTRY IS MORE THAN A PARAGRAPH, TYPE IT OFFLINE AND THEN PASTE IT INTO YOUR ENTRY. HERE IS WHY. FORUM HAS A TIMEOUT FEATURE TO THWART HACKERS. IF YOU TAKE 15 MINUTES TO ENTER A PIECE THE CONNECTION WILL TIME OUT AND YOUR PIECE WILL BE LOST. (Alternatively, always ensure you copy your entry to the clipboard before hitting the "add post" button.
- The above mentioned point has a side benefit. You will be away to switch back and forth between what you are writing and the entry that provoked you to write.
- When you reach the forum page the first thing to do is:
Register or login - you will get nowhere without this.
- Register if you have not visited before. Registration involves two data elements
- username - choose any combinations of letters and numerals; no need to make it tooooo long
- password - this prevents anyone using your username (alias);
- remember your password; we won't remember it for you. If you forget it then register again with a different username
- the password like the user name is a combination of letters and numerals. Keep it under ten characters.
- Sign in if you are already registered
- After signing in, choose the forum you want. Click "poetry".
- (One username, by the way, gets you into any of the existing forums (fora)).
- Then you can choose to start a new thread or follow and optionally add to an existing thread.
- When you finish, click "log-out". Logout may appear to reflect an error. Ignore this and click "home" in the top left of the window.
- If you have problems send a note to support@ourSLO.com. Explain exactly what happened in your user session.
- Thanks for contributing your time and energy to the poetic well-being of ourSLO's poetry community.
If you have any suggestions about using the forum, let us know. We're here to
help you. Send questions or suggestions write to editor@ourSLO.com.
ourSLO Poets Forum
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About the Abouts
This field in the table of contents is not
intended to be a poet's promotional bio. These are solely perceptions of
the editor. Also, heh heh, the "about" is a good place to store some information that might be required to successfully complete this edition's crossword puzzle, so check it out.
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The Poetry Page Archive
All previous editions of The Poetry Page can be searched.
Poetry Page Archive
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About The Poetry Page
The Poetry Page exists to facilitate the discovery and enjoyment of poetry, especially local poetry, among SLO-ling denizens.
We want the people of this region to be able to go to a website and find its poets and their works and where people can find poetry readings and where they can go to read their own work. The other thing is that, while The Poetry Page has a regional target, its presence on the web makes it available to the entire plugged in cosmos.
We appreciate your telling the people in your sphere of influence about The Poetry Page. We appreciate your suggestions and your support.
We present the poetry of the central coast of California. If you are looking for other poetry you will find it a plenty on our Useful Links page. That page is categorized and contains an astounding wealth of every kind of poetic source and resource.
We try to provide SLO county wide venue list with frequently updated content and features.
We present articles as well as poetry. Our content is not restricted to poetry although that is our major focus. We present related fiction.
We like to present articles, essays and discussions about poetry.
We provide pages for poets to present their bios, resumes, and poetry.
We present interviews with poets and artists and supporters of the arts in this region. We also present interviews and essays from such people from outside the area.
The Poetry Page exists to support the arts, not academic purism or bias. We are wide open to every voice that poetry can carry. We support poetry in and of the community.
We provide growing collections of local poetry on themes. For example, this year so far (April 2004) we have collected from the public collections on civil rights (January), love (February), and poetry on poetry (POP) (March and April).
Our vision had always been toward reporting the poetry of the present. While we had an interest in the past, it was more a subliminal hope than a tangible joy. From listening to poets of the present we awakened to a dream that the present poets are the middle of the sandwich, that a future that has a poetic record of the past could be the top slice of bread, the past that the future record reflects could be the bottom slice of bread but if in the present we don't preserve that past - then we won't have a bottom slice and thus no top slice and consequently no sandwich.
As I began to look around I found some of those present poets not only remember some of the past but are actively preserving it even as they are actively digging it up.
I thought perhaps The Poetry Page should present some of that past poetry, not only of the last century but reaching back into the really distant past, maybe even eight or ten thousand years. Since we archive each edition of The Poetry Page, as you can see from the archive links on this page, each edition could be actively contributing to the preservation effort.
So look for each edition to bring to the present some of the past.
I am grateful to Karl Kempton who has been so helpful in creating the vision and dropping the corn along the path toward fulfillment. Thanks also for introducing me to Norm Hammond who has done so much work toward reprising the past. Look forward with me to seeing the fruits of the poetic archeology of these local historians in future editions of The Poetry Page.
-------------The Editor
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The Poet Directory
We are building a poet
directory which will contain bios of all local poets. If you are a poet, please provide your bio and we will include it. Structure the bio the way you want, include the information the way you want. Provide it to us as text in the body of an email. Address your email to slomo@ourslo.com.
If you want to include your email address, you may.
If you worry about the junk mail email crawlers, we will provide you a pivot email address. Use the pivot address in your bio. When email arrives at your pivot address we will forward it to your real email address. That way, if you start to get junk mail we can just change your pivot address.
We have scheduled the directory's first appearance for mid July so get your bio in now.
If you have published your poetry, be sure to mention that in your bio and include the bookstores where your works can be found. Don't forget that our mother publisher, Winward Ways, can publish your works and provide them to the public in an "on demand" basis.
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Hacking Headlines
Beginning next edition we will present a poetry page feature that, as far as we know, is original. It appears on this page for two reasons. One, it is great practice for rewriting poems and for critiquing poems. Two, it is fun.
How does it work. We will present headlines garnered from local media. You rewrite the headline. With each edition we will present again the list of headlines together with the rewrites that have been sent in.
With each edition of The Poetry Page we will present a new list of headlines.
Hey, you are going to love it. We're having trouble doing meaningful work here at The Poetry Page because we can't tear ourselves away from Hacking Headlines.
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SPRING BREAK
With over a billion galaxies,
l00 billion stars,
I discovered you in my restless orbit
without one peek
through the Hubble telescope:
found you with my old birthday binoculars,
across the street
sunbathing in your family's yard,
scintillants of sun
dancing in the sunscreen
you were rubbing on your body -
looked up - caught me - waved to my window -
worlds whirled around me -
could we explore the future together? -
but more than anything on earth,
as you stood up, folded your towel, I knew
it was your signal, our space exploration
had begun!
Ray Clark Dickson
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We are building a poet
directory which will contain bios of our poets as provided by the poets.
If the poets provide bios, the bios will be included. Otherwise, the
poet's slot in the directory will be empty. We have scheduled the
directory's first appearance for mid July.
Reaching the poets
If you want to reach a poet and do not know
how, you can send a note to poetrypage@ourslo.com with a subject
containing the poet's name and we will forward the note.
Copyright Warning
All copyright laws apply - for the poetry
page and contributing poets. Violations won't be tolerated. Before using
any material found here, you must get permission from the poet.
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FOR DAVID OCHS AND OTHER BUKOWSKYITES
by Jean Gerard
Now here’s something: After I read David Ochs’ comment about Anonymous I got to thinking about my experiences submitting poetry – or trying to, and I thought the kind of people who read the Poetry Page and its addenda might be interested.
I write all kinds of stuff because there is so much stuff to write about that I can’t resist. That means I don’t have a lot of time left to submit poetry to choosey university journals, chapbook (where did THAT name come from?) publishers, contest officiandos, and snob magazines like Harpers and The New Yorker. Besides, it costs money when you have to not only pay the postage to submit your work but also pay to get it sent back in your face. The ironic cruelty of that borders on encouraging a baby to touch fire, and then when he gets burned, slapping his hands.
Nevertheless, I sometimes do submit some poems somewhere. After hours of research trying to find the exact spot most likely to take my work seriously and judge it fairly, I finally decide. But then I have another problem: How do they want it submitted?
Some require that it be sent via email, in the body of the letter. They don’t open attachments because they are afraid of catching a virus. Others want it emailed but not in the body of the letter. They require that it be sent as an attachment. Others don’t want it as an email at all. They ask you to send it by regular mail.
Of those, some require a Self-Addressed, Stamped return Envelope to be enclosed. Others don’t want an SASE (publishers’ special language meant to intimidate unpublished writers) because they are unwilling to return you work in any case. Still others want you to pay them to read your stuff, charging by the poem, by the page or some bulk rate like $15 for 5 poems. Like their time is more valuable than yours, considering that it takes them about a minute to read one poem that took you a day and a half to write – and you aren’t quite satisfied with it yet, but send it out anyway because you know that you are never going to write the perfect poem, no matter how hard you try.
After putting you through all this, the all-powerful publishers don’t even bother to respond nine times out of ten. In former days, when apparently there were not so many foolish people trying to write poetry, the publishers used to enclose a form rejection letter saying how glad they were to receive your work and how sorry they are that they can’t publish it. Or they would put a printed card in your SASE and shoot it back to you six months later with a word or two scribbled on the bottom to make it look personal, like “Keep up the good work!” or “Sorry. Not for us.” In that case you could file it away, use it for a bookmark, or scribble notes on the other side. Whatever.
I finally got tired of all this nonsense. Now I simply write my poems and take them to some coffee shop in the area and read them aloud to three or four of my best friends who also write poetry. We have an agreement that they will listen to me if I will listen to them. It works out pretty well. You ought to try it sometime.
-- Jean Gerard
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The Skywriter
by Lin Wood
Ekphrasis has been defined as, “a vivid description intended to bring the subject before the mind’s eye of the listener.” Ekphrasis has been rather popular lately around the central coast. Conventionally, a poet is asked to write a poem about a work of art.
Jack Mothershed and deAnn Goodwin have teamed up to, as the comic Gallagher says, "fully extend" the definition. The extension replaces the idea of a particular image with a number of images, then repeats the "one poem - multiple images" pattern through a number of poems each with multiple images to treat an entire subject. In the current presentation, the subject is paragliding.
Jack has been flying paragliders since 1990 when he managed to finally achieve his dream of residing near the Bavarian Alps; this after eying his dream for a number of years from various residences in the rest of Europe. In Erding, near Munich, Jack helped establish Amadeus, a consortium of several European airlines that provides common travel databases. Six weeks vacation per year and flight benefits facilitated his paragliding ventures beyond his home turf of the Bavarian Alps.
The result poetically is a body of work called Paraglider Poetry. deAnn Goodwin has compiled from earlier photographs collected by Jack and her own photographic work from the last couple years an impressive group of images. She optimizes photographs and then depending on her artistic impression modifies them, altering colors, textures, and light to produce a set of images that comprise reverse ekphrasis of poems.
The current presentation includes a dozen poems. The settings for the poems include various European locations, South America, and California. Three of the poems are reprised from a 1998 book by Mothershed entitled Knights Before Christmases.
These three poems present what is probably Jack Mothershed's greatest talent: a natural gift for simple cadenced rhyme. He uses that gift well in expressing not so simple glimpses of precious prismatics of thought. These Dr. Seuss like poems are balanced by poems like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, an essay like description of the joy of flying.
The content ranges from flying narrative to the capture of moments. The latter is represented well by a poem called "Hanging On" which describes how a glimse of a harness link in the eye's periphery pierces the mind with a sudden fear of catastrophe.
The experience of "Paraglider Poetry and Slideshow" is a joy. At times, however, the mind is denied the ability to unify the visual imagery and poetic expression. This unification must be the goal of the entire pursuit. Most of the time it works. Sometimes it does not. I suppose the goal of the artists is a one hundred percent unification of word and image. I hope they achieve it.
- Lin Wood
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Annual Poetry Revue 2005 - Final Report
A great time. How wonderful to Michael McLaughlin do "Drive" again. I never tire of it. It's a trip.
Ani Garrick, Dana Yudovin, Sharon Coleman, and friends made for a great time. The changing canvas of Dana's head was beautiful in the slides but on this night she was absolutely radiant in person. See our interview with Ani in a separate article in this issue.
We enjoyed Ken Solomon's ekphrastic presentation. His open mike work was great as well.
Evy Cole did for crappers what Buckminster Fuller did for dome houses. A unique perception.
The general category did not have the slide complement but was distinctive as well.
All in all, not a bad annual revue
Thanks to the committee for its patience. Thanks to all who made the enterprise worth doing. Thanks to David Mills and The Railroad Cafe for hosting.
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about us
poetry,poem,Ray Clark Dickson, Jack Mothershed, Deanne Goodwin, assonance, dissonance, rhyme, spoken word, free verse, emily dickinson, Poetry Contest, Poems, Poets, Prose, Poetry, creative writing competition, Poetries, Amateur poetry library, poetic devices, publisher links, writing contest, amateur writers, International Society of Poets, Literature, The International Library of Poetry, unpublished poets, cash awards, Poesy, Bard Anthologies, Sonnets, Odes, Laments, poetic terms, Archive, Meter, Rhymes, Love, Romance, Epic, Friendship, Readings, Haiku, Romantic, Cowboy, poetic expression, national, corner, hall, fame, Hall of Fame, society, Writers, Watermark Press, publish, resource, source, information, links, Gothic, manuscripts, Classical, free verse, Contemporary, Chat, ultimate links, spiritual, collection, international, original, win prizes, commentaries, prose, inspirational, anthologies, sonnets, odes, laments, rhymes, love, romance, epic, haiku, romantic, gothic, classical, contemporary, anthologies, literature, hall of fame, archive, meter, friendship, readings, poesy, bard, cowboy, poetry, fiction, essays, non-fiction, nonfiction book reviews, interviews, events, back issues, order, subscription, subscribe, advertising, news, art, sample, magazine, submission, guidelines, contact.
The Poetry Page exists to facilitate the discovery and enjoyment of poetry.
We want the people of this region to be able to go to a website and find its poets and their works and where people can find poetry readings and where they can go to read their own work. While The Poetry Page has a regional target, it has a www outreach.
We present the poetry, articles, essays and discussions about poetry. We present interviews with poets and artists and supporters of the arts.
The Poetry Page exists to support the arts, not academic purism or bias. We are wide open to every voice that poetry can carry. We support poetry period.
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