Alyssa Cooper's Blog, page 2
January 6, 2017
365 Challenge : 004, 005, 006
Well… oops. I haven’t actually missed a day yet, but while I’ve been posting daily updates to Facebook, Tumblr, and Patreon, I’ve missed updating here on my blog! So, playing catch up, here are the poems written for days 4, 5 and 6.
What would my readers prefer? Daily updates for each poem that I write, or an update once a week with all seven poems included in the same post? Leave a comment and let me know! I know that in the past, this blog has been updated much less frequently – and I don’t want anyone to feel I’m getting “spammy.”
January 3, 2017
January 2, 2017
January 1, 2017
365 Challenge – 001
It is 4:29pm, and I am still
in bed.
The taste of vodka rots
on the back of my tongue,
and the sun has already begun
to set
outside my window.
It is 4:29pm, and my head is
pounding.
The new year is
upon us,
with its stack of unread books
languishing
beside my bed,
and its untouched spiral notebook
open
on my lap.
It is 4:29pm,
and on this first day of a new three-hundred-and-sixty-five
days,
I will not see
the sun.
This poem was written as part of the 365 Challenge – for more info and a full list of themes, please visit this entry.
December 29, 2016
365 Challenge
With the new year rapidly approaching, I’ve had resolutions in mind. As far as I can remember, I’ve never actually made a New Year’s resolution – but this year, I think, is as good a year as any to start.
Anyone heard of the 365 Challenge?
The concept is simple. Once a day, every day, you create a piece of art – be it a photo, a sketch, or a poem – for 365 days. So, starting on January 1st, I’m going to write a poem a day for a full year, and see what I end up with in the end. Not every one is going to be good – but putting pen to paper is the important part, and I’m sure I’ll end up with a few gems here and there.
To keep things interesting, I’ll be using a list of 365 themes to inspire my daily poem – I’m borrowing my list of themes from PoserFan on DeviantArt, who created the list for her own version of the 365 Challenge back in 2005. I’ll be including the list at the end of this post, and will be making regular updates tagged “365 Challenge” to keep you all posted on my progress – if you’d like to join me on this journey, please send me a message, and tag your own progress posts with 365 Challenge as well! It’d be great to have a few friends along for the ride.
4:29PM
67 %
Abandoned
Academic
Acrobatics
Advent
Advertisement
All That I Have
Anger
Anniversary
Annoyance
Anthro
Amazon
Archery
Are You Challenging Me?
Assassin
Baby
Ballet
Bandaid
Bird
Birth
Beach
Blood
Blossom
Books
Break Away
Breaking the Rules
Breathe Again
Broken Pieces
Brother
Bugs
Bunny
Caffeine
Can You Hear Me?
Candy
Carnival
Castle
Cat
Chains
Chaos
Cherry
Chibi
Childhood
Circle
City
Clone
Cloud Seven
Cold
Clown
Confrontation
Contrast
Convention
Creation
Creative
Curiosity
Cursed
Cut
Dance
Danger Ahead
Dark
Day
Death
Deep in Thought
Defender
Desert
Dinosaur
Dirt
Disco
Discovery
Discrete
Distance
Do Not Disturb
Dragon
Dreams
Drenched
Dress
Drink
Drive
Drowning
Duel
Earth
East Meets West
Eccentric
Edgar Allen Poe
Eerie
Effort
Elegant
Elf
Easter
Enigma
Ethnic
Expectations
Eyes
Eygptian
Fairy
Fairy Tale
Fall
Family
Fan
Fantasia
Fashion
Fast
Fate
Father
Fear
Fiesta
Flag
Flowers
Fluff
Fly Me to the Moon
Follow
Food
Foreign
Fortitude
Freedom
Friendship
Frivolous
Frozen
Fruit
Frustrated
Fun
Future
Garden
Give Up
Geisha
Glass
Gold
Gone
Goodbye
Goth
Graffiti
Gray
Guardian
Guilt
Gun
Halloween
Happiness
Harmony
Hunter/Huntress
Heal
Hearts
Heaven
Hell
Hero
Hidden
Hold My Hand
Holiday
Hologram
Hope
Horror
Horse
Hug
Hullabaloo
I Can’t
Ice Cream
Idle
Illusion
Imagine
Impish
In the Storm
Innocence
Insanity
Insomnia
Internet
Introduction
Jewelry
Jokers
Journey
Joy
Kawaii
Keeping a Secret
Keyboard
Kick in the Head
King
Kiss
Lace
Ladybug
Last Hope
Laziness
Legend
Lies
Life
Light
Lips
Leaves
Loneliness
Lost
Love
Lullaby
Luminous
Lurking
Luxury
Magic
Manga
Manger
Marriage
Marshmallows
Mary Poppins
Mask
Melancholy
Memory
Mermaid
Midnight
Minus
Mirror
Mischief Managed
Misfortune
Mistakes
Misunderstanding
Monster
Moon
Mother
Mother Nature
Movie
Multitasking
Music
Mutation
Name
Nature
Need
Night
Ninja
No Time
No Way Out
Noble
Novel
Numbers
Obsession
Old
Orange
Out Cold
Outside
Pain
Path
Peace
Pen and Paper
Petals
Phoenix
Photo
Pie
Pink
Pirate
Playing the Melody
Pleasure
Plus
Poison
Pentecost
Portal
Prayer
Precious Treasure
Pride
Prince
Princess
Promises
Protect
Puppet
Puppy
Puzzle
Queen
Questioning
Rainbow
Rated
Reflection
Rejection
Relaxation
Reporter
Rollerblades
Road
Robot
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Rocket
Rose
Ruin
Run
Sacrifice
Sadness
Safety First
Sandwich
Scar
Sea
Secret
Seeing Red
Seeking Solace
Sentinel
Shadow
Shopping
Silence
Silhouette
Silver
Sister
Skull
Sleeping
Smile
Snow
Soap Opera
Solitude
Sorrow
Space
Sparkle
Spellcaster
Spiral
Splash
Sport
Standing Still
Stare
Stars
Starvation
Stop
Storm
Stripes
Stuck
Study
St. Patrick’s Day
Sun
Surprise
Sword
Tattoo
Teamwork
Tears
Tease
Test
Thanks
Through the Fire
Time
Touch
Tower
Traps
Travel
Treasure
Triangle
Tribe
Trouble Lurking
Trust
Truth
TV Show
Two Roads
Umbrella
Under the Rain
Underwater
Underwear
Underworld
Unicorn
Urban
Vacation
Valentine
Vampire
Vengeance
Venice
Venus
Voodoo
Vortex
Waiting
Wish
War
Warmth
Waves
Western
Wind
Wings
Wood
Words
Xmas
Young
Youth
Zodiac
December 28, 2016
The Hellbox Press
Some of you already know, but in the new year, I’ll be releasing a collection of poetry with Thee Hellbox Press and Hugh Barclay – a true artist who creates beautiful, hand-bound books with letterpress printing and original artwork on acid-free paper.
As with all of Thee Hellbox’s titles, this book will have a limited print run – and that’s where I need your help! Before we begin the printing process, we’re going to need to know how many books to print to make sure no one misses out.
This collection will feature five poems that I perform regularly around Kingston – Protest Song, Things My Mother Doesn’t Know, A Boy Named Ruler, Sunset Skirts, and Gravity and Inertia – and will cost about $40-$50 (the actual price hasn’t been set quite yet). If you’d like a copy once the book is ready, please let me know! You can leave a comment here, or shoot me a quick email at alyssacooperarts@gmail.com. I’ll be keeping a tally of those interested to pass on to Hugh, to make sure that we print enough books for everyone.
Attached are a few photos of other Thee Hellbox Press titles, so you can take a look at the beautiful work that Hugh does with all his projects.
December 14, 2016
Performances, publications, and anniversaries.
Well, well, well. It’s been almost six months since my last entry, because as we all know, I’m really not all that good at blogging.
That said, there’s so much stuff to update my readers on!
Since making my way back to Kingston, I’ve been much more involved with the local poetry scene, and with the spoken word scene in particular. I attend monthly open mic events held by the wonderful Bruce Kaufman, nearly-monthly events held by the Kingston Poetry Collective, who bring in performers from all over the country, and recently I even started attending a monthly poetry slam held by the Queens Slam team.
Basically, I’ve been keeping busy.
In September, I also participated in an event called 100 Thousand Poets for Change – a three day event, with concurrent readings being held all over the world. It was a celebration of peace, social justice, the environment, and sustainability, with a goal of creating awareness and an advocacy for serious social and environmental change. Bruce Kaufman, who organized the Kingston branch of the event, also went the extra mile, and is putting together an e-book featuring all of the readers, and other local poets who couldn’t make it out to the event. This book will be called So What Are You Doing To Make the World a Better Place?, and upon it’s completion, will be available for free from the Thee Hellbox Press website. The book is full of local talent, including a poem of my own called Riverbanks.
On October 1st, I performed at the Union Gallery for an event called Th(read)s. At this event, I met Ashley Newton – the editor of a local e-mag called FreeLit Magazine. FreeLit is full of local talent, and last month, I applied to be a staff writer – and was accepted! My poem, Unfunny Things, was published in the most recent issue, and you can expect to see a new piece included in the next issue as well, in the new year.
On November 21st, I was invited to join Adèle Barclay, a poet based in Vancouver, at the Kingston stop of her book tour, celebrating the release of her first collection, If I Were in a Cage, I’d Reach Out For You. It was a wonderful event at the Novel Idea Bookstore in downtown Kingston, and it was an honour to read alongside such a talented wordsmith. After the readings had concluded, I met Hugh Barclay, a local letter press publisher, who showed an interest in my new pieces – we met the next week, and are currently in the process of planning a chapbook of my most recent work. Hugh’s press, Thee Hellbox, specializes in limited runs of unique books, which are printed with hand-set type on acid-free paper, and are hand bound – they are absolutely beautiful. He creates works of art, and I am so looking forward to seeing what his plans are for my chapbook.
And, in a last bit of news – yesterday, my first poetry collection, Cold Breath of Life, celebrated its third anniversary. Where has the time gone? This collection, and the people that I’ve met because of it, have honestly changed my life. And I’m so happy to be where I am now.
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July 30, 2016
A quiet courage
“A Quiet Courage is an online literary journal that publishes compelling, poignant, memorable, and well-written microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less.”
Short shorts have always held a special place in my heart, be they postcard stories, poetic prose, or short poems, and when I discovered A Quiet Courage, a literary journal dedicated to the art of brevity, I was absolutely tickled.
This week, editor Clara Ray Rusinek Klein has chosen to feature two of my short poems; Translucent and The Fountain. A Quiet Courage does not publish in issues, but updates whenever they find content that suits their theme – so be sure to check in often to see great new work!
July 27, 2016
Satellites
I’ve got a Tumblr account for advertising my poetry – I post an image once a day, as well as quotes from the work of other poets I love. Any other Tumblr users kicking around WordPress? I’m always looking for new Tumblrs to follow! Is this something you’d like to see more of on my blog here? Leave a comment and let me know!
July 26, 2016
Pulse: soon to be included in The Black Napkin Issue 4
I took a long break the last couple of years, both from submitting my work to literary journals and from performing it, while I taught myself the business of independent publishing, releasing Whispers in 2014 and then Switch in 2015. My last performance (until this month) was in July of 2015. My last inclusion in a journal was in Issue 8.1 of The Ottawa Arts Review, which was released in August of 2014.
This month, I’ve taken a turn back to my roots, and I couldn’t be happier. On July 2nd, I performed a poetry set at Poets @ ArtFest II, a wonderful event arrange by the ever amazing Bruce Kauffman. On July 18th, I attended the Poetry Show, arranged by Andréa Prins of the Kingston Poetry Collective, where I watched an amazing set by Kay Kassirer and participated in the open mic between sets. And just last weekend, I attended the Limestone Genre Expo, where I had the opportunity to participate in panels with other wonderful authors – some I know well, some I don’t see nearly often enough, and some that I met for the first time – on topics ranging from the Feminist Journey to the Evolution of the Young Adult Market to Horror Trends, as well as doing an hour long reading from Whispers.
I’ve also begun submitting the stories and poetry I’ve written over the last two years to journals and magazines – work that has been moldering in dark drawers for far too long. And, to my great surprise, I woke up this morning to my first acceptance. Pulse, a poem that is near and dear to my heart, will be published in Volume 1: Issue 4 of The Black Napkin Press. This issue is scheduled to be published in August – exactly two years after my last inclusion. Be sure to follow Black Napkin, so that you can see Pulse as soon as Issue 4 is released.
I feel like I’m headed in the right direction, and I want to thank everyone who has stuck by me along the way. It’s been quite a ride, and it’s only going to get better from here.
