Prose Poem № 123559
Birmingham gardens
It is good that I have come early while
spring is still serene. I know how outrageous
and demanding she can be. Listening, I hear Whitman running
through the tall trees like a small child playing
hide and seek with the birds and I can just barely
smell the death of fall. I'm still too quick to
pay a fountain for something it cannot give until
a hot summer day while I wait for the exchange
of stone to grass. At thirty-seven, I'm now aware
of the specific gravity of my footsteps on the
gravel path and I notice the veins running through
the bark of the trees and I look at the veins in
my arm. It's good to be like moss, the forgotten
undergrowth, or a fanning pinecone next to a
joking oak. Before I go, I take the time to watch
the Koi eagerly gulping in the sliced-tomato sun's
color as it warms us both.
39 comments
The Stock Exchange on weed...that would be something worth seeing
Also, I feel a need to express my rage at the uselessness of this disk, upon whose digital memory I inscribed my latest masterpieces, and whose incompatibility with my computer was almost predictible enough to be amusing. Almost.
Listening, Whitman => 'Whitman, listening,'
stone to grass => stone for grass
Oak => oak,
suns => sun's
This IS really nice. You're my vote for next poemranker richa, minus the temperment. I mean, you write great poems about small things.
1) Get a recent poetry collection, like Poetry Daily's 366 poems or Billy Collins' anthology of American poems, Poetry 180. It should show a bunch of poems published in different books and journals in the last ten years, and what journals they were in. Also check Poetry Daily's website: www.poems.com . For one, you'll find that you're as good as half the poets there. For another, when you find a poem whose style, length, subject or anything looks like what you write, note the journal it got published in.
2) Get the 2005-6 edition of Poet's Market. It has all the submission details of the journals you just noted. Look especially for journals that accept simultaneous submissions. Pick your 5 best poems and submit them to all of those. You can, of course, try submitting a whole book or chapbook, either to a publisher (again, see Poet's Market) or to a reputable contest like New Century Writer Awards. I wouldn't trust 90% of the contests you'd find online, though. If you know a local contest (and one that won't end up owning your book, if chosen,) go for that. But I think submitting small batches of poems to journals is the best way to start, personally.
Nothing in That Drawer
by Ron Padgett
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
Nothing in that drawer.
here's a great tool to start to find markets for your work:
http://www.duotrope.com/digest/index.asp
These are excellent. It IS good to be like moss.
Are you still in transit? How do you find time to write so much? Do you drive around with a phrase in your head all day until you get to take a break, then scramble to get it on paper?
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