Tag: Poetry

Punk Dives and High Fives

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I’ve been thinking  a lot about the notion of community, community in the poetry world and the community I grew up in as a teenager, the punk rock scene at the turn of the 20th Century in Pennsylvania. There used to be a number of venues across the state where under 21ers could hang out on a Friday and Saturday night and listen to their best friends’ bands bang away on the snare drum and hammer power chords for a sweaty, sloppy 40-minute set. I had a number of venues that I went to as a teen, Café del Soul in Scranton, Homebase and Café Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre, and after I migrated to Philadelphia, I caught shows a the TLA, the First Unitarian Church, and a number of other venues across the city. I can’t count how many bands I’ve seen over the years, and I can’t say one power chord-charged set stood out to me the most, but what I do remember the most are sidewalk conversations before or after shows. I remember the first time my friend mentioned Emma Goldman outside of Café Del Soul when we were in high school. I know that conversation sent me to the library, where I researched Goldman’s activism and learned that there is indeed a different, better way to live. I remember discussing the first time I heard the Clash, and I remember mourning the untimely deaths of  Joey Ramone and Joe Strummer with friends.

NEPA Scene noted that this week marks the five-year anniversary of Café Metro’s closure in Wilkes-Barre, which was really the last venue standing in the area, and also the longest running, at 14 years. They posted a link to a short documentary about the venue, which you can watch here, and I encourage you to do so.

Following the recession, so many venues nationwide have closed and funding for the arts has dried up. Programs have been slashed from school budgets. I worry about this because where do all of the young writers, musicians, and artists go? Where do they find community? Sure, they are interconnected, thanks to social media, but interaction behind a screen does not compare to curbside conversations and meeting people face to face.

I feel fortunate that as a poet, I get to read in different spaces. I’ve visited a lot of communities where things are happening, where people have taken it upon themselves to really invest in their local art scene. I have seen friends all across the tri-state area and beyond expend energy building something. Due to their inspiration, I started a reading series four years ago that is still going.

But what about all-ages venues for younger folks? What about their scene and community? There are no venues left here, and that is the story of a lot of towns across the country. My hope is that they will start something new and they will grow up to take energy and pour it into something positive.

New Review/Final Review at [PANK]

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, [PANK] magazine will close its doors at the end of this year. They had one hell of a 10-year run and quickly became one of the most influential lit. mags on the scene, publishing diverse writing and offering a platform for women’s voices early on. In their farewell statement, posted on Facebook, the editors did leave open the possibility that the magazine could return in some form one day, maybe just online.

For the last five or so years, I’ve been a consistent book reviewer, and doing so has allowed me to keep track of what was happening in the contemporary poetry scene. My final review is of John Amen’s latest collection, Strange Theater, published by New York Quarterly Books. Read the review here.

Big thanks to the editors for allowing me to be part of the [PANK] family for so long. I’m also appreciative for the reviews of my two books that the magazine ran. Here’s hoping that [PANK] returns in some form or another one day.

New PQ is live!

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If you’re into poetry, and you haven’t been paying attention to Poets’ Quarterly, then you should be. It is one of my favorite journals in terms of content, especially the interviews and craft essays. Check out the newest issue, and my review of Neil Shepard’s latest book, Hominid Up.

My personal favorite in the new issue is the essay on Baudelaire and the madness of love.

Writer’s Showcase: August Edition!

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I just want to give a quick shout-out to the fine folks at Electric/Diamond City for the wonderful write-up on the August edition of the Writer’s Showcase at the Old Brick Theater in Scranton. I’m thrilled we got to sit down with them for an interview and photo shoot. This reading series continues to grow, and I couldn’t be more proud. Check out the article here.

The reading will take place this Saturday from 7-9 p.m. Admission is $4. The Old Brick Theater is located at 126 W. Market Street in Scranton. I couldn’t be more excited about this edition’s line-up! Check out their bios:

Carrie Reilly is a genderqueer poet from Philadelphia and host of Wild Mischief: A Reading Series & Literary Gathering. Carrie earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and has had poems published in Apiary Magazine and My Favorite Bullet, as well as the collective chapbook, “Bodies of Fire,” with poets Julia C. Alter and Julia Perch.

Raymond P. Hammond served over twenty-five years as a law enforcement officer at the National Park Service. He is editor-in-chief of The New York Quarterly Foundation and the author of Poetic Amusement, a book of literary criticism. He is also an adjunct professor at Keystone College and is the faculty advisor for Keystone College Press.

William Black’s short fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, Crazyhorse, The Sun Magazine, Harvard Review, and more than twenty other journals and magazines, and a collection of stories, Inheritances, came out in the spring of 2015. He lives in Scranton and teaches creative writing and world literature at the Johns Hopkins University.

Sarah Zane Lewis is a poet and science geek from Scranton, PA. She is the recipient of the Delta Epsilon Sigma National Writing Prize in Poetry, the J. Harold Brislin Medal for Distinction in Creative Writing, the Sister M. Charitas Loftus Medal for Excellence in Poetry, and a National Science Foundation Research Experience in biochemistry. The author of two chapbooks and several limited edition graphic poems, her work has also appeared in Pulp, and the recent SwanDive Press anthology, Everyday Escape Poems. Sarah Zane founded Seattle’s Word of Mouth poetry series, and featured at the Seattle Poetry Festival, the Seattle Poetry Slam, the National Poetry Slam, the Bumbershoot Music Festival and was the 2001 Bumberslam Champion. Sarah Zane served as Scoring Director for the National Poetry Slam, has coached a youth slam team at Brave New Voices, and mentored young writers through the Emerging Voice program. She holds a B.S. in Biotechnology and a lifetime membership to Trapeze School New York.

Kaylie Jones is the author of the acclaimed memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me (2009). Her novels include A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, which was released as a Merchant Ivory Film in 1998; Celeste Ascending (2001); and Speak Now (2004). She is the author of numerous book reviews and articles, which have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Paris Review, the Washington Post, Confrontation Magazine, and others. She is the editor of the anthology Long Island Noir (2012). Her latest novel, The Anger Meridian, was published in July 2015. Kaylie has been teaching for more than 25 years, including at Southampton College’s MFA Program in Writing, and in the low residency MFA Program in Professional Writing at Wilkes University. She co-chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 yearly to an unpublished first novel. Her latest endeavor is her imprint with Akashic Books, Kaylie Jones Books, a writer’s collective in which the authors play a fundamental part in their own publishing process.

What’s Behind a Poem?

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Recently, I got in a conversation with a friend about Donald Hall’s life and long career. This occurred after I blurbed her forthcoming book and drew some resemblance to her collection and Hall’s poetry, at least in her treatment of everyday subject matter and rural scenes. My friend then noted that Donald Hall, now 86, has stopped writing poetry and is only writing prose. In fact, his latest book is a prose collection, Essays After 80.

I had already known that Hall stopped writing poetry. Prior to the release of his latest book, he gave a lengthy interview in Poets & Writers in which he confessedthat he has stopped writing poetry and joked that it’s because he no loner has enough testosterone. Hall, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, did admit, however, that he keeps revising old poems. I still wonder to what end.

In an interview with NPR, Hall was more specific regarding his inability to write new poems. He confessed, “Prose is not so dependent on sound. The line of poetry, with the breaking of the line — to me sound is the kind of doorway into poetry. And my sense of sound, or my ability to control it, lapsed or grew less. I still use it in prose, but the unit is the paragraph.”

My writing process is similar, in that, for me, poetry often begins with sound and rhythm. I may have an image, but the structure of the poem is dependent on sound, especially the breaking of the line and the progression of the image or extended metaphor. I write and rewrite to stretch the language of a line and to play words off of each other for rhythmic effects.

In the same interview, however, Hall admits that he didn’t see the essays coming, but they did come. We can hope that new poems will come, too, but his statements regarding his inability to write new poems raises questions about what composes a poem and what is needed. Is it possible to still compose once the senses start to dull? Poetry is so dependent upon the senses and the structure is so reliant on sound that it seems inevitable the process will become more difficult with old age.

Building a Manuscript/Building a Set

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Lately, I have been working on my third books of poems, tentatively titled Waiting for the Dead to Speak. Right now, it’s nearly 90 pages and split into three sections. I spent several summer mornings and evenings putting the book together and ordering the poems. I recalled a conversation that I had with poet Patricia Smith when I was teaching at Keystone College and some of us had dinner with her prior to the reading. She encouraged an undergraduate student who was putting together her senior project poetry chapbook to let the arc of the book build. She recommended not front loading the book with all of the strongest poems, but save those for last.

I agree with Smith’s advice somewhat. I don’t like books that are front heavy and fall flat at the end. That said, I look at a manuscript like a punk rock set. Pummel the audience with a few two-three minute songs one after the other. Give them a taste of your strongest material. Engage them immediately, prior to slowing down, and after the halfway mark, step heavy on the gas again.  I think a poetry collection should start quite strong. Hit the reader immediately, with the first poem, and let the first few poems set the tone and style for the book, and then it may be okay to slow down some. But by the end of the book, like Smith said, the reader should be left with something memorable.

The same advice could be said about a featured reading. Think carefully about what you’re going to read, and this is just as important as thinking about the order of poems in a collection. Engage the audience immediately. Hook their attention, and then it may be okay to slow down in the middle of the set, or perhaps even read something new. By the conclusion of the set, end with something strong.

These are just some thoughts. Does anyone else have any advice about ordering a manuscript of preparing a reading set?

Another Lit Magazine Closes Its doors

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Last night, the editors/founds of [PANK] shared some sad news. The magazine will close at the end of the year. Here is the official statement shared on social media:

Dear friends and family,

Please accept this brief note as PANK’s formal notification of resignation, effective as of the end of this calendar year, 2015. We’ll publish one last print issue and two final online issues of PANK Magazine; look for those in the months ahead. We are immeasurably proud of our publications and have boundless gratitude for all the staff, contributors, and each and every reader who has labored alongside us over the last decade. It’s been an immensely gratifying ride. PANK loves you.

Yours sincerely
M. Bartley Seigel, Roxane Gay, & Co.

Over the last several years, [PANK] has been one of the edgier and influential literary journals in the country, whose following grew from year to year. It should also be noted that when the magazine started, Roxane Gay did her best to feature several female voices, which is important to note, since the literary world is still very much dominated by men, even in 2015.

I’ve had the pleasure of writing book reviews for [PANK] over the last five years or so, and I’ll always be grateful for that opportunity, and for the reviews that they did of my first two poetry collections. RIP, [PANK]. Oh, and before any assumptions are made regarding funding cuts or someone dying, here is what Seigel said in response to the comments on Facebook:

This outpouring of support is humbling. Thank you. But three points: 1. No one died, no one yanked our funding, there’s no scandal, we just decided we were ready to move on to other things. 2. Who knows, maybe PANK will be back one day, new, better. 3. Translate some of this energy into going out and supporting the wonderful litmags that are still at it and will still be at it when PANK closes its doors. -M. Bartley Seigel

Let’s hope that the magazine does return even new and improved. In the meantime, go read it!

A Call for a Change in Habit and Routine

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If you do a Google search about the writing process, you will find numerous articles that preach the importance of routine, habit, and discipline. Those are certainly important characteristics, and in any writing course that I teach, I begin by addressing the writing process. Specifically, I tell students that everyone’s process is different, but you have to find a routine that works for you. You have to show up and do the work, not expect inspiration to merely find you. It never works that way. Sometimes, I share this link/article with them about the routines of famous writers, everyone from Ray Bradybury to Susan Sontag.

I’ve had the same writing routine since college. More specifically, I write in the morning, often starting with journaling or a recording of dreams, and then moving to a draft of a previous poem or new poem. I either sit at my writing desk, in the bedroom, or at the dining table. I’ve had an affinity for writing at dining tables since college, when I had no other place to write because I shared a cramped apartment with three of my friends. In college, I developed the routine of writing in the morning, before my late morning/early afternoon classes. I hustled to finish drafts of poems or short stories before my afternoon and evening workshops. Beyond location, I have other specific aspects of my routine. I journal and write all drafts of poems by hand. There is something to be said about breath, rhythm, and writing by hand. Revisions are later done in Word, printed out, and then written over in pen, before revised in Word again. This is what works for me.

Lately, however, I’ve needed to clear my mind and sweep away some dead energy. I felt confined to a space. While routines and specific habits are important, so the writer gets in the habit of sitting down in a chair and showing up for the muse, there is also something to be said about breaking out of habit. For four days, I ventured to Cape May and used the time not only to see the town again, but also to write. In that span of time, I wrote seven new poems. n addition, I plowed through some books that have been stacked on my shelves for weeks, even months.There is something to be said about a simple change of scenery, and it doesn’t have to be a mini vacation. It can simply mean visiting a new cafe or walking through different parts of your neighborhood.

If you are stuck, try breaking the routine, at least for a day or two. Take the journal and laptop and go to a new cafe or park. Take a long walk through unexplored territory. It will help, trust me.

June Events/Readings

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June has been a busy month for me in terms of readings and literary events. This month is also important because Wilkes University is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of the M.A./M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program. I can’t say enough positive things about that program and the community it fosters among writers from across the country. Because of the program, there are reading series happening in various pockets of the country, started by current students and alumni of the program. Next week, alumni will return to campus to read.  The readings are free and open to the public. I’m sharing the schedule below, as well as an event happening tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 17 7:30 p.m. Wild Mischief: A Reading Series & Literary Gathering, Washington Square Park, Philadelphia

I’ll be reading with Carrie Reilly, Kate Budris, Die Dragonetti, and Dawn Leas. Admission is free, and there will be a short open mic after.

As promised, here is the list of the readings happening on Wilkes University’s campus all next week.

FRIDAY, JUNE 19:

7:30-9:30: Opening reading, Maslow Salon Reading Series, Theater, Dorothy Dickson Darte Center

Special opening night—faculty w/new books and opening celebration of program alums:

(poetry, fiction, nonfiction)

Lori A. May, Cecilia Galante, Gregory Fletcher, Kevin Oderman, Dawn Leas, Lauren Stahl, Bill Landauer, Stanton Hancock, Phil Brady

SUNDAY, JUNE 21:

7:00-9:00: Maslow Foundation Salon Reading Series at Dorothy Dickson Darte Center

(poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction)

Donna Talarico-Beerman, Chris Bullard, Monique Lewis, Jim Scheers, Jen Bokal, Tara Caimi, Barbara Taylor, Nisha Sharma, Laura Moran

MONDAY, JUNE 22:

7:00-9:00: Maslow Foundation Evening Reading Series, Dorothy Dickson Darte Center/bookfair:

Celebration of alums (film night):

Jonathan Rocks, Christina Aponte-Smith (Phoenix Ash), Kevin Conner, Autumn Stapleton-Laskey, Shawn Hatten, Heather Davis, L. Elizabeth Powers

TUESDAY, JUNE 23:

7:00-9:00 Maslow Foundation Salon Reading series, Dorothy Dickson Darte Center/bookfair:

 Celebration of alums (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction):

 Lori Myers, James Craig, Amye Archer, Ginger Marcinkowski, Gale Martin, John Koloski, Laurie Loewenstein, Brian Fanelli, Sandee Gertz

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24:

7:00-9:00 Maslow Foundation Salon Reading Series, Dorothy Dickson Darte Center/bookfair

Celebration of alums (playwrights night):

Matthew Hinton, Dania Ramos, Rachel Strayer, Adrienne Pender, Dane Rooney, Kait Burrier, Cindy Dlugolecki

THURSDAY, JUNE 25:

7:00-9:00: Maslow Foundation Salon Reading Series, Dorothy Dickson Darte Center

(poetry, fiction, and nonfiction)

Celebration of alums and special thanks to Kaylie Jones:

 Jim Warner, Joshua Penzone, Salena Vertalomo-Fehnel, Heather Harlen, Richard Fellinger, Taylor Polites, Morowa Yejide, Kaylie Jones

 

 

A Call for Poetry in English Composition

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Like most English faculty members, I always have to teach English composition each semester, along with my literature courses. For adjunct instructors, the English comp load is much heavier, sometimes, at multiple schools. While the course may differ from school to school, at least slightly, it does have some common features. A research paper is generally always taught, along with the three appeals, MLA, and APA. But surrounding the research project are shorter writing assignments, and composition instructors do have some flexibility in terms of those assignments.

For years, I’ve included a poetry unit in the course, usually after the research paper, as we drive towards the final weeks of the semester. I do this for a number of reasons. First, I hope to reset their views on poetry. A lot of students groan about having to study poetry again. They return to their 10th grade high school classroom and the Emily Dickinson poem they just couldn’t understand, especially when they had to dissect its meter. By their first year in college, a lot of students are convinced that they’ll never understand poetry, which is why it should be taught! During their first year in college, students have the opportunity to reset, to try something new, to challenge their notions about various subject matters.

Immediately, I tell students not to worry about form, meter, rhythm, and other textbook elements so much. Instead, I’m more interested in having an open discussion about the poems. What works? What doesn’t work? What are the figurative and literal readings? How do they relate to the poem or not relate? By opening the discussion this way, I find that students are much more comfortable talking about poetry. A little later, I give them some of the terminology to use, so they can write the required lit. analysis.

I’ll also add that my poetry lists for my composition courses are contemporary. This year, I taught Donelle McGee, Meg Kearney,  Kevin Coval, Natasha Tretheway (four poets under 50), and then reached back to the mid-20th Century in Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke, before reaching back to the early 20th Century in covering some of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago poems.

I do this because I want the students to be able to understand the language. I also believe that if they REALLY take an interest in poetry, then they will go back to see who influenced those poets. But for students just encountering poetry again, or even encountering it for the first time, I want them to be able to understand the language. If they take my literature courses, they’ll have a chance to read works much earlier than the 20th Century. First, however, I need to ensure they don’t have poetry phobia.

I encourage any composition instructor comfortable teaching poetry to teach it because it enhances a student’s ability to closely read a text and critically analyze a work line by line. Once the class wraps up, there just may be a few comments on the class evaluation that state a few students really disliked poetry going into the class but their views changed.