David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 142
May 22, 2019
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2019 Poetry Society of Virginia Student Contest.
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2019 Poetry Society of Virginia Student Contest.
You can read their winning poems HERE.
Two of my poems are included in Issue 30.1 (May 2019) of december magazine.
Two of my poems are included in Issue 30.1 (May 2019) of december magazine.
I wrote “Ghazal: Clarity of the Absolute” after assigning the ghazal to my creative writing students in Fall 2018.
“Fragments of Color” had its inception as I was cleaning up after Hurricane Ivan caused major damage to Pensacola and our house near there.
May 21, 2019
Join me and other Local Authors at the Local Authors Reception this Thursday May 23 @ 7:00 p.m.
Join me and other local authors at the Local Authors Reception this Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Porter Branch of the CRRL
2001 Parkway Boulevard
Stafford VA 22554
Local Authors Reception
Thursday, May 23, 2019 (7:00PM – 8:30PM
Porter Branch
Description
Mix and mingle with local authors during this open house event. Writers from a variety of genres will be on hand to share their stories and experiences. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Refreshments will be served.
May 20, 2019
I am honored to have my Rebecca Lard Award-winning poem “First and Last” along with five other of my poems as a special feature in Poetry Quarterly
I am honored to have my Rebecca Lard Award-winning “First and Last” along with five other of my poems as a special feature in Poetry Quarterly. Thank you Editor Glenn Lyvers.
Copes may be purchased from Prolific Press:
POETRY QUARTERLY
LARGER IMAGE
POETRY QUARTERLY SPRING 2019
$24.95
Our Spring 2019 Prize Winner issue includes a special feature by David Anthony Sam, including a fine sampling of Sam’s poetry, along with the 2018 Rebecca Lard Award Winning poem. Also in this issue, world-class poetry by Nate Alaska, Duane Anderson, Pat Anthony, Donny Barilla, Michele Baron, Roxanne Bogart, Marcus Benjamin Ray Bradley, Sarah Cannavo, Eleanor Cantor, Len Carber, Suzanne Cottrell, Julie A. Dickson, Ralph DiGennaro, John Elliott, Elisabeth Eriksen, Lynette G. Esposito, Isaac Eustice, Mary Crane Fahey, Amy Fletcher, Richard Fox, MacGregor Frank, Annette Gagliardi, Louis Gallo, Richard Grannis-Vu, Stephen Gretzer, Max Gutmann, Matthew Harris, Tim Heerdink, Heather Hill-Vasquez, Cynthia Hilts, Ellen Hirning Schmidt, D. R. James, Jeanne Julian, Martin Knabe, Esthru Kusru, Jody Larson, Melissa Laussmann, Bruce Levine, Patricia Anne Lind, Chad W. Lutz, Michael Lyle, Laura McGinnis, Lynda McKinney Lambert, Sydney McQuoid, Stephen Mead, Joshua Medsker, Alan Meyrowitz, Caroline Parkman Barr, Simon Perchik, Karen Poppy, Samuel Prestridge, Mary Rogers Knowles, Patricia Rossi, Donna Roy, Denise Segal Umans, Derek Devereaux Smith, Heather Teague, Jesse Thompson, Doug Van Hooser, JR Vork, Penny Wilson and Rod Zink.
May 19, 2019
Cutthroat – A Journal of the Arts has accepted my poem “The Politics of Prayer” for publication in their upcoming issue #25.
Cutthroat – A Journal of the Arts has accepted my poem “The Politics of Prayer” for publication in their upcoming issue #25.
Thank you Crosswinds Poetry Journal for including my poem “An Old Chaos (Sunday Morning)” in their Volume IV – 2019 issue.
Thank you Crosswinds Poetry Journal for including my poem “An Old Chaos (Sunday Morning)” in their Volume IV – 2019 issue.
This issue also includes “Residential” which was an honorable mention written by my dear friend Allan Peterson. Congratulations Allan and the other winners and honorees.
May 10, 2019
Review: Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction
Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction by Chris D. Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Without being pollyannish or denying any of the damage climate change and habitat destruction are car=using and will cause, Chris Thomas presents a realistic and yet optimistic long view of the impact of humans on our planet. Change is constant and trying to preserve or resurrect a mythic Eden of ecological perfection is a waste of time and potentially harmful. Yes, we should preserve as much diversity of all species and habitats as possible, he writes. But we are part of nature, not separate from it. We are a conscious part of nature, so we do have choice. But as thoughtful and data-drive Noahs, we should continue the revolutionary distribution of species that has increased diversity around the world, and saved some species from extinction.
This is a hopeful book and a good antidote to the spate of end-time writings. He does not take us off the hook, but rather enlarges our stewardship pf the natural world we came from, live in, and will always be a part of.
View all my reviews
May 8, 2019
Review: See Me Improving
See Me Improving by Travis Nichols
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Travis Nichols writes “A poem needs a reader—how will I seduce you?” There are moments, lines, images when Nichols nears his goal of seduction. But overall this collection fails. Nichols often writes overweening attempts at a kind of surrealism that simply strain or even approach the inane
One of the title poems tries hard but strains:
Tomorrow in a kindergarten of trees
a carrot will spurt
from a small hole in the ground
and pin the berserk heart
of a rabbit to the sun
“A Poem from Bled” is one of the better attempts.
His poem, “New England,” seems to be Nichols version of Dickinson’s definition of poetry: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” But Nichols version is a bit silly, including such lines as:
When my scalp retreats
to the back of my skull
and my intestine fires flare
Through their tubes, I know
I am beginning….
“Ding Dong!”
I yell…
With some editing and rewriting, there is promise here. I hope future work by Nichols lives up to the title and shows improvement.
May 6, 2019
Review: The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A profoundly depressing work that is profoundly convincing. It is an ice bucket to wake us up with a bit of hope that we may wake up:
“This goes beyond thinking like a planet, because the planet will survive, however terribly we poison it; it is thinking like a people, one people, whose fate is shared by all.”
“The emergent portrait of suffering is, I hope, horrifying. It is also entirely, elective. If we allow global warming to proceed, and to punish us with all the ferocity we have fed it, it will be because have chosen that punishment—collectively walking down a path of suicide. If we avert it, it will be because we have chosen to walk different path, and endure.”
View all my reviews
Our Placebo Screens
“Staring into the screen so we don’t have to see the planet die.” Poet Kate Tempest
