It’s the weekend! Time to share an American Sentence. It’s only 17 syllables — why not give it a whirl, or two, or three? Instead of sharing our sentences over at the American Sentences group this week, I thought we could try sharing them in the comments for this post. Let’s see how that goes.
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by Dave JareckiAnother Pennsylvania sunset spraying the colors of a streetfighter’s face The fragment comes from the poem “The Homeowner’s Prayer,” in David Berman’s collection, Actual Air (Open City Books, 1999). I’ve been addicted to this book since 2001, gave my copy away to a friend, tried living without it for a short time, then had to go get a new copy. Reading “The Homeowner’s Prayer” recently, I found myself being pulled into the scene of the boy in the bedroom. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in Pennsylvania and can remember the way the sunset would inject light into my western-facing windows. This week, I encourage you to find the “narrative wallpaper” that resides in your home, apartment, memory, etc. Maybe you’re the child in the bedroom watching stories burn in the sun. Perhaps you can wander into a remembered or even fictional place and let the poem jump off from there. Or maybe you’ll take this fragment of Berman’s poem and run with it. Whatever you do, have fun stripping and repapering the walls.
by Nathan MooreDid this week’s image prompt have you staring at a three-legged chair? Did you linger with the mystery? Or did you build some symbolic architecture? Tell a story? Write about something completely different? Now’s the time to show off your work. Leave a link in the comments section. I’m excited to read what you’ve all made! Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work. Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing. If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar. If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.
by Deb Scott A Walk Through the Memory Palace by Pamela Johnson Parker “As you walk through a memory palace, each room holds a category of recollections assigned to the various objects lodged within.”
Welcome to the February Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour. If you are new to this series, take a look at this post for more information. About A Walk Through Memory Palace We are pleased to feature A Walk Through Memory Palace in February’s Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour. Follow the tour throughout the month with your own copy of the collection. The work is available in print, digital and podcast formats. Dinty Moore, the chapbook contest judge, had this to say about the manuscript: The language is textured, clear, and sometimes disquieting, the images both sensory and sensual, and each line crafted with painstaking care. Whether writing about rich gardens, sagging breasts, or the ink of a tattoo, this poet sees through the obvious to something radiant on the other side, painting a startling portrait of an intimate world. Not a wasted word here: the nouns are like gemstones. Read Write Poem member Elizabeth Switaj had this to say about Parker’s collection, in her review of the chapbook: As you walk through a memory palace, each room holds a category of recollections assigned to the various objects lodged within. Pick up a vase, and you remember the meaning of stamen. Pick up a jar, and you remember the smell of a rose. The marbles in the jar hold each time you’ve smelled one. A memory palace is not a physical place but, rather, an elaborate mnemonic device in which imagined concrete objects help you to organize and recall that which you do not wish to forget. Finally, Read Write Poem community director Nathan Moore recently interviewed Parker for our Member Spotlight series. You can read about her process and habits and other things, such as her opinion on the likelihood that poetry can save the world. Tour stops for A Walk Through Memory Palace Get involved! Want to get your book on the tour? We’ve already set up partnerships with a number of presses, and we’re booked out several months. We also do the tour only once a month, which means we’re extremely limited in terms of what we can include. With that in mind, feel free to have your publisher send a query to virtualbooktour (at) readwritepoem (dot) org. Next month, the Read Write Poem Virtual Book Tour will feature Maged Zaher’s book, Portrait of the Poet as an Engineer, recently released by Pressed Wafer.
by January O’NeilAccording to a recent CBS Sunday Morning news report, “In 2009 there were about two billion physical books sold in the United States. Sounds like a lot — but that’s down nearly five percent from 2008. In 2010, that number is expected to drop another two percent.” The report goes on the assert that there is no better time to be a reader, because of the many ways readers can access books — not only the amount of books available, but by the delivery system itself. Electronic books (e-books), print-on-demand and online/downloadable books are helping to make reading far more accessible than ever before. But where does that leave poetry, a genre that, by most estimates, has as many readers as it does writers? Welcome to the new normal. If we concede that the delivery systems for receiving poetry are expanding, then poets need to respond proactively with new and innovative ways to reach a wider audience. Fortunately, there are many more ways that you can reach your readers. Whether you are trying to publicize a poetry event or promote your chapbook or new collection, a little marketing never hurt anyone. Here’s a list of basic things you can do — high tech and low tech — to market your poetry. High Tech:
Low Tech:
We tend not to make waves in the time-honored tradition of poetry. But why not capitalize on tapping into the largest readership possible? Why not try to spread the net across the widest possible audience? Why not poetry — if the goal is to find the widest distribution for the work? It’s clear that the old publishing model is in flux because book publishers and print journals are no longer the only delivery system for poetry. How can writers — the content providers — be on the forefront of this seismic change? I believe expanding the market is key. Poetry will never be mainstream, nor do we want it to be. But there’s nothing wrong with trying to reach a broader, more diverse readership to support this art that we love. In the end, poetry is about the writer connecting with the reader. It’s about community. This is your opportunity to share best practices. How do you connect to your audience? What methods for promotion work for you, and what doesn’t work?
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