Writing the Life Poetic

You're invited to submit to the "The Life Poetic iPoem Contest"!

With the advent of the iPhone, a whole new world of iPoetry is possible. I'm excited to dip my pen into those waters, and I hope you'll join me!

Welcome to the "Life Poetic iPoem Contest"! You are officially invited to submit up to three, unpublished poems that you feel represent the spirit of "the life poetic" for consideration. I'll be choosing my favorite 365 for inclusion in a "Life Poetic" iPhone app that features a poem a day for a year. 

Following are the prizes and submission guidelines:

ENTER TO WIN:

First prize (value of more than $295)

• Free tuition in the September Poetry for the People online class with Sage Cohen (non-transferable)

• Signed copies of three books by Sage Cohen: WRITING THE LIFE POETIC: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry, THE PRODUCTIVE WRITER: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success, and LIKE THE HEART, THE WORLD poetry collection.

Second prize (value of more than $125)

• A review of your 10-page poetry manuscript + 1/2 hour editorial consult with Sage Cohen

• Signed copies of three books by Sage Cohen: WRITING THE LIFE POETIC: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry, THE PRODUCTIVE WRITER: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success, and LIKE THE HEART, THE WORLD poetry collection.

Life Poetic prize (exposure = priceless!)

I will choose 365 winning poems, including first and second prize winners, to be published in the "Life Poetic" iPhone app, which will feature one poem per day and give users a panoramic experience of the "life poetic". Winners will receive one free copy of the "Life Poetic" iPhone app.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Poem specs:

• Please submit up to three unpublished poems.
  
• Each poem should have NO MORE THAN 20 lines.
• Poems should express the poet's interpretation of the theme "The Life Poetic."

Submissions specs:

• Submission should be a single Word doc that includes: cover letter + one poem per page (for a maximum total of four pages).
• Please include your name, email address, phone number and birthday (Month and day) on every poem.
• Cover letter should include one URL you'd like to appear as a bio credit after your name.
• Please name Word doc with your first/last name. For example, mine would be: sagecohen.doc.
• Send submissions to: Sage(at)sagesaidso(dot)com. You will receive confirmation within 48 hours of receipt.
• One submission per poet, please.

Deadlines:

• NEW DEADLINE: Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. PST on August 8, 2010. 
• Winners will be announced by October 16, 2010.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please ask them in the "comments" section here, and I will answer them for everyone. I can't wait to read your poems!

Poetry for the People Student Poem: TERRI CONNELLAN

 

Narrative

By Terri Connellan

 

She starts up high, facing north

towards slow mist,

watching the sea wash

into the rain’s drift below.

 

She is called to the beach

as if to a baptism, bride-like,

white as the air, stepping

down the rough rock stairs.

 

She narrates her life,

writes as she walks,

as if the sand and shells are

the bones of her story.

 

And the pieces connect her:

an imperfect white oval shell,

a fig leaf from a canopy,

the sketched black lines

of a creature’s moving home.

 

Cool and tight limbed,

she ends in another place,

as if washed by waves,

her contours, clear and shell-lined

as the Borromean grottoes

of Isolabella,

her white shining lights

coming home.

 

 

 

Terri Connellan lives and writes in Sydney surrounded by beach and bush. She has been an avid student in Poetry for the People Levels 1 & 2 in 2009-10.

 

Poetry for the People Students Tell All!

As the next wave of Poetry for the People Levels 1 and 2 are about to begin next week, I though it would be fun to recap some of the feedback I've received from some of my January 2010 students. There's nothing better than satisfied students!

Your time commitment was above and beyond what I expected. I was surprised that we’d get so much one-on-one with you. Impressive--made this a great course. Also, you are really good at this instructor stuff. You are not only a good poet, but a thoughtful and insightful instructor—hell of a combo that not many possess. Thanks for sharing the gift. -- Steve H.

Sage is the kind of teacher you dream about… writing for most people is a very personal and reflexive act. It’s the way some of us get to know ourselves. Sage’s kindness, skill, and guidance with her students honored not only us as students but her as a teacher. I always felt respected and encouraged during the class and if the most important thing I learned was how to listen to my inner poet, then Sage has done her job- beautifully! -- Regina G.

Oh, I loved that even in a surreal piece of writing that the logic or intentions were understood. Sage, you are a great reader! I love that you're able to see each poem for what it is without imposing stylistic bias or pressure on the pieces!  -- Lisa B.

Thank you for your input and comments and all the time you invest in the feedback!! And your sweet, gentle style felt so reassuring and kind. It is well appreciated! It also proved a great gift for me to see the feedback you offered to the others on their work. -– Polly H.

Wednesdays are beginning to feel like Christmas as I anticipate a new week's worth of lessons and the poems of my classmates. Thursdays are full of anticipation, awaiting your feedback. I am afraid that the end of February will come all too soon! – Maureen C.

This class is showing me a way past that helpless feeling of not knowing when poems are finished or what to focus in on to make them better. – Elizabeth E.

So grateful for all the inspiration, resources, and feedback you’ve offered.  It’s a treasure trove of information for me to study and work with.  Your lessons are generous with advice. I am honored to have the opportunity to take your class, and I am indebted to you for encouraging me to follow the golden thread.  Thank you.   -- Thuy Vi G.

 

Poetry for the People class scholarships announced

Thank you so much to everyone who applied for the May Poetry for the People scholarship! It is an honor to read your stories and witness your passion for the life poetic. The worst part is having to choose just one winner for each class. So, this time, I didn't!

Because times are tough for people everywhere and because there were so many fabulous applications, I am delighted to award two scholarships each for the May-June 2010 Poetry for the People classes:

Level 1: Ryan Hack & Sandra de Helen

Level 2: Kat Logan & Cathy Wilson

If you weren't awarded a scholarship this time, I hope you'll try again. I'll be offering a scholarship for all future classes, and there is no limit to how many times you can apply. You can even submit the same application if you'd like. To learn about upcoming scholarship opportunities and get a bi-monthly dose of poetic information and inspiration, you can sign up to receive the Writing the Life Poetic e-zine in the top right corner of this blog.

With gratitude for poetry and for you,
Sage

When in doubt, take poetry

"What would you do if you could do anything you wanted to," asks James Martin, Jesuit Priest and author of The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything in this brief conversation.

When at Wharton School studying business, the priest says he shared his desire to study poetry with his advisor, who responded, “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Martin disagreed, went on to study poetry, and says it's what he remembers best from his education.

Of course, there are dozens of "practical" reasons not to pursue poetry. It won't pay the rent or mortgage, after all, and no one at your corporate blah-bla-dey-blah job may give a whit about your affinity for Whitman.

The good news is this: no one needs to care about poetry other than you. And though inspiration may not directly fill your bank account, it will fill your sails. Who knows -- passion may have an even greater, untapped earning potential than that predictable paycheck.

I was extremely fortunate to have parents who understood that it matters less what you study in school -- and matters more that you are passionately engaged with what you are learning. So, you may as well study what interests you; it will teach you how to think, and thinking works best when you care about the subject matter.

When I was studying comparative literature in college, a friend's father badgered me about what I would "do" with such a degree. I went on to create a successful marketing consulting business. When I took a break from that to get my graduate degree in creative writing, he jumped in again to remind me how useless such an education would be in the "real world." I assured this well-meaning man that I'd take care of such unpredictable circumstances by marrying his eldest son and letting him support me...and that was the last I ever heard of my wasted time studying what I loved.

In my experience, when we let love lead, our lives and our work become far less confusing. We don't end up in business school (because we "should") when we are far better suited to teach composition, author books or join a tap dancing troupe. When we trust our passions to steer us where we are intended to go, we may find ourselves in a less prescribed career track. And it may take some exploring to determine exactly how and where we fit. Good thing creative people are good at exploring!

Studying poetry may not lead to your next, big career move. But it just might make you happy. And there's no better compass than happiness.

What would you do if you could do anything you wanted to? When in doubt, take poetry.

Poetry for the People Student Poem: AMIE HOLLMANN

About Time
By Amie Hollmann
 
We walk in rooms of broken clocks
and have forgotten the reflex to check their faces
for the status of our situation
 
But have grown accustomed to marking time in other ways
how many cars are parked on which side of the street
how wet are the hand towels
how ripe are the avocados
what color is the bruise
Downstairs our neighbor keeps time by
yelling at her cat on the hour
half hour
 
Our clocks lie broken
a bit unbecoming
inefficient O’s
like the empty mouth of
the mounted moose head
at our favorite Greek restaurant
peering down at plates of oblivious souvlaki
perpetually hungry in a land of salted plenty
You catch me
starring at my bare wrist again
a hair past a freckle
and remind me to replace my broken band
 
At the watch shop I eye
the dusty Rolexes under glass
and remark about how foolish
someone could be to pay so much
to capture something everyone already owns
 
 
Amie Hollmann writes and creates in New York City. Her urban explorations have yielded some delicious design and food finds and the occasional poem. She blogs about creativity at http://amiehollmann.com
 

Poetry for the People Student Poem: KRIS BECKER

Dear One

By Kris Becker

 

If only you would

Be revealed to me, no more

Windows, no more opaque.

 

If only your skin

When I touch it would submerge

My doubt. Why do I doubt?

 

Because we kiss.

Because everything happens at once

(The rain, the fruit which splits in the rain).

 

Kris Becker lives in Port Townsend, Washington where she’s a community volunteer and consultant to non-profit organizations. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University and enjoys grant writing, literature, gardening and traveling.

 

This is the sound of me doing nothing

A book deadline is an incredible gift of a burden: my own, invented boulder that I pushed uphill for six months before lobbing it across the ether to my beloved editor. This book (The Productive Writer: Tips and Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating Success, due out this December) has had a life of its own, possessing my (way too) early mornings and later-than-I'd-like-to-admit evenings. It has been a relationship with the possible coming into form. The tyranny and the bliss of the blank page, day after day, after day.

And in parallel, I've also been teaching two classes, working a very demanding "day" and often "night" job, dealing with some challenging family health stuff, playing with my son, walking the dogs, and occasionally showering. It's been many months since I've sat still, with unstructured thoughts pooling like fresh water into my empty hands. 

Until now.

My taxes are filed, my deluge of documents have landed in my editor's email box on-deadline, my clients have everything they were expecting today, and I am...still. Looking out a sunny window, at a tidy desk, a gigantic cat in my lap. This is the sound of me doing nothing...almost.

To celebrate, I will take a shower, let my toddler son pat me on the back (one of his latest intimacy favorites), and then eat sushi with my husband and mother in law. Later tonight, I will take a bath and contemplate how grateful I am to have spent these many months meditating (through writing) on topics that I am passionate about, so I can then share those thoughts with others.

I have learned so much about my own approach to -- and opinions about -- productivity as I've been writing. Mostly, I am simply grateful that I have kept at this writing life of mine over the years. I think that's what it all boils down to in the end: being committed enough to the word to keep moving toward it; then discovering along the way where we're headed -- and finding creative ways to get there.

Tomorrow, I'll be back at it -- I owe some big writing deliverables to some big clients -- and I'll be packing up for my reading and teaching extravaganza with the Manzanita Writers Series on Saturday. If you are in the area, it would be so much fun to see you.

Wherever you are, dear reader, I hope you will celebrate with me by taking a moment to appreciate whatever boulders you are pushing and naming the gifts they have given you. Then, I invite you to sit somewhere sunny with your hands in your lap (or on a fat cat) and listen to the sound of your own brilliance pooling in your inner ear.

April 21: Figures of Speech Reading Series features Eileen Elliott and Henry Hughes

FIGURES OF SPEECH READING SERIES & OPEN MIC
Wednesday, April 21, 7:00 p.m.
100th monkey art studio at 110 S.E. 16th Ave., PDX

Come on out to enjoy the fine poetry of Eileen Davis Elliott and Henry Hughes. Plus, you are invited to participate in the open mic (two page max). 

Eileen Davis Elliott recently retired from her career in counseling and psychology after 42 years.  She grew up on a farm in the Midwest and knows milk does not come from a carton, having been on the business end of a cow more than once.  She has traveled and lived all over the world and plans to  continue to do so, learning, making art and writing about what she sees daily.  Her first book, Prodigal Cowgirl, was released last summer, and her new manuscript, Miles of Pies is in the works.

Henry Hughes grew up on Long Island, New York. After completing an MA in creative writing at Purdue University in 1990, he spent five years working in Japan and China. Hughes finished a Ph.D. in American literature at Purdue in 2002 and now teaches at Western Oregon University. His poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Carolina Quarterly, Malahat Review, Queen’s Quarterly, Southern Humanities Review, Seattle Review and Poetry Northwest, and are represented in several anthologies including Long Journey: Contemporary Northwest Poets published by Oregon State University Press. His first collection, Men Holding Eggs, received the 2004 Oregon Book Award. His second collection of poems, Moist Meridian, was published by Mammoth Books in July 2009.  Hughes’ commentary on new poetry appears regularly in Harvard  Review.

Learn more about the Figures of Speech Reading Series.

Poetry for the People Student Poem: KIM KLUGH

What the Obituary Didn’t Say

By Kim Klugh

 

was that she preferred a tidy life, uncluttered,

with all the crumbs and dirt swept

up and out the door

all surfaces scrubbed free of grime

and gleaming with no traces of her being left

upon the counters nor the floor.

 

Few were those she drew close

they who knew her said--

no surprise that when her heart-beat stilled

no funeral was unfurled.

She’d not endure a corporal viewing

no line of gawking mourners

no final glimpse she gave

of burial she’d have no need

since she spurned the grave.

 

Down by the river-side a small assembly waited

while her wishes they carried forth as ashes

each scooped a palm-full and released her

among the ripples, among the rocks and water

she’d abide down deep amid the sand and silt

well below darting shadows cast

by trawling marble-eyed catfish

sifting, scavenging

through bone dry ash.

 

 

Kim Klugh writes from Lancaster, PA. Her publishing credits include the Intelligencer Journal, BusinessWoman, “b” magazine, Susquehanna Life, Central PA Magazine, Byline and Lancaster City Living. An essay of hers is included in the Adams Media My Dad is My Hero anthology. Her poetry has appeared on vox poetica and in Eclectic Flash.