Lit Rag Roulette

Flashback: Two poems in TAPJoE

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That time The Anaprocrustean Poetry Journal of Enumclaw (TAPJoE) published two of my poems in their Spring 1988 issue. “Tshotsholoza Kylezondawo, Vyabaleka” is an isiZulu phrase meaning “Work steady, the train is coming,” as mentioned in Athol Fugard’s play Siswe Banzi is Dead. I wrote this poem while attending a performance of the play back in the 80’s at Virginia Tech. Double flashback! The other poem they published is “Seed” (below). These were the first of my poems accepted for publication outside Tech’s student lit rag, Silhouette.

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Flashback: One poem in Exquisite Corpse

img_1959That time my poem “Christmas is Over” was published in Andrei Codrescu’s Exquisite Corpse, No. 50 1994/95. This was my second appearance in the journal. Very bummed it doesn’t exist anymore. I love the closing image of Santa Claus jumping up and down in a chimney on fire. That’s what happens when you’re in the zone.

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Flashback: One poem in Chiron Review

img_1949That time Chiron Review published one of my poems, “Thought He Had the Skinny,” in Issue #46-47, Spring/Summer 1996. Looking at this now, it’s funny how it has that Bukowski type horse racing thing going on, which is possibly why it got accepted. I definitely was reading a lot of Bukowski back then, but I’ve never been to a horse track. Ridiculously amazing issue, though (see cover below).

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Flashback: Five poems in Articulate

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That time Articulate published a big two page spread with all five of my “circus poems” in Vol. 2, Issue 1, March 1996: “The Last Scarecrow,” “Fall of the House of Usher,” “Under the Big Top,” “Neomi Said ‘Love, Who Are You” (the correct title), and “Operation Clean Sweep.” The journal must have retyped my original manuscript, introducing the errors in the title and body of the fourth poem. I’d have to check my originals to see who misspelled “you’re” in the last poem.

All the poems were based on my experiences as an usher for the Cirque de Soleil’s run of Saltimbanco at the mall parking lot in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This was their Washington, DC, performance, running from Oct 14, 1993 to Nov 7, 1993. David Craig and I signed up together; I’m not sure I would have stuck it out if it wasn’t for him. As I recall, the best part was the free meals, which were actually very good.

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Three poems accepted by Otoliths

Lately I’ve been involved in revising some poems, focusing on some line spacing and line break issues. There are also problems with transitions between sections that make the meaning more cryptic than it should be. Revision is usually a tough slog, but these revisions have been particularly problematic. Usually, the solution involves stripping out all the indents and starting over with arranging the lines. The poems getting this treatment have been rejected a few times by various literary journals, like Deluge, Rattle, Arsenic Lobster, Blackheart, Up the Staircase, and Gobbet; that seemed an indication they needed more work.

On Saturday, July 9, I heard back from Mark Young, editor of Otoliths, that he would use three poems for issue 42: “The Eggshell Skull Rule,” “The Dark Night,” and “Code within the Code.” The happy news came at a good moment, because I had spent many hours that day wrestling with revisions, and I needed the encouragement to stay in the game. You can find the poems on this page in the online journal. It’s especially nice because Otoliths is one journal I’ve enjoyed reading and find inspiring. There’s a big selection of visual poetry and other experiments to create a dynamic mix of styles.

Browsing the Otoliths site while preparing this post, I discovered they also have print versions available, including a copy of Issue 41 which also contains some of my work.

Two poems published in Otoliths

The latest issue of the online poetry journal Otoliths–issue 41, the Southern Autumn Issue–includes two of my poems, “Contract Expiry” and “A Blind Dog Leading the Blind.” You can read them on this page.

Otoliths comes out of Australia, so that’s the reference to a southern autumn. It contains some great experimental work, including lots of visual poetry, which I’ve been finding really inspiring. So many great contributors–Carla Bertola, Richard Kostelanetz, Steve Dalachinsky, John Bennett, to name a few of the bigger names I recognize–I’m really proud to be a part of this issue.