David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 138

Ted Kooser on Self-Indulgence in Poetry

“Perhaps there have always been people who took up writing poems just so they could talk about themselves, but self-indulgent poetry almost always disappears in time, a victim of its own failure to engage the needs and interests of others. It takes a grateful audience to keep a poem alive. Expression of feeling in poetry ought to be measured against the reader’s tolerance for such expression.” – Ted Kooser

IO Literary Journal has accepted my poem “Under a Belgian Sky” for publication in their next issue

IO Literary Journal
has accepted my poem “Under a Belgian Sky” for publication in their
next issue. This poem derives from my mother’s memories of her brother,
Tom, who died when his B-17 went down and is buried in Belgium.

My poem “Climbing the Red Dog Road” will be printed in From the Depths in the Fall Issue published by Haunted Waters Press.

My poem “Climbing the Red Dog Road” will be printed in From the Depths in the Fall Issue published by Haunted Waters Press.

Walloon Writers Review will publish 3 of my poems in their upcoming fifth edition

Walloon Writers Review will publish 3 of my poems in their upcoming fifth edition. All three poems, “Superior Night;”  “Dawn beside Black Lake;” and “Two-Hearted,” use upper Michigan in theme and imagery.

Thank you Editor Jennifer Huder

Seamus Heaney on poetry as service

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.” Seamus Heaney

40 Hard-to-Pronounce Words You Might Be Getting Wrong

With influences from Latin, Greek, and many other languages, English pronunciation isn’t easy. Here are some tricky words people often get wrong.

— Read on www.thoughtco.com/hard-to-pronounce-words-4156950

The Summer issue of Poetry Quarterly including 2 of my poems is available now

The Summer issue of Poetry Quarterly including 2 of my poems is available now from their bookstore.

The Poetry Society of Virginia North Central Region & Germanna Community College will cohost an Evening of Poetry on Oct. 24.

The Poetry Society of Virginia North Central Region & Germanna
Community College will cohost an Evening of Poetry on Oct. 24.

Go HERE for details.

Review: Tradition

Tradition by Daniel Khalastchi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In “Tradition,” Daniel Khalastchi does his best
to fulfill the aesthetic of shock–that is, that the quality of the
poetry depends on how shocked you can make the reader. Juxtaposing
disconnected actions and images suggests that the world does not make
sense, but also that, perhaps, the poet is trying too hard.

… An hour passed before
you asked if I was bleeding, and
when I couldn’t answer

you struck me again. Do you
think, you said later, our air
depleting while we shared

the last throat lozenge, that male
high school girls’ basketball
coaches feel their athletes are

the reason they have such distance
in their marriages? I don’t
know, I said. I do, you

said, and you began to
dig us a tunnel with your
teeth…

The
collection is filled with death and copulation, suggesting I suppose,
our lives. But it all seems overheated, strained. I respect the attempt
at the 21st Century version of the Surreal. But it does not work for me
here.

The exception is the long “Poem for My Father,”
which expresses deeper emotions as it suggest a biography we want to
know more about. Here the juxtapositions seem to fit a real life and
individuality. Here we experience poetry with some power. The rest of
the collection pales in comparison.

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Review: Hansel & Gretel Get the Word on the Street

Hansel & Gretel Get the Word on the Street by Al Ortolani

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bleeding with despair, dripping with contempt
for himself, his students, his fellow teachers, and whimsically rich
with snark, the protagonist of these poems is an unhappy man.

There are a few gems herein, including “Game Prayer,” “Tough Cookies,” and Daddy’s Car.”

View all my reviews