David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 149

From February 3 through February 7, three of my chapbooks will be available FREE from Amazon in Kindle format

From February 3 through February 7, three of my chapbooks will be available FREE  from Amazon in Kindle format. All I ask if that you give them a read and review them on Amazon and Goodreads.

My Amazon Author Page:

amazon.com/author/davidanthonysam

My Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/dasam

Thank you editors at Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine for accepting 4 of my poems to be published in the March 2019 issue.

Thank you editors at Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine for accepting 4 of my poems to be published in the March 2019 issue. This is the 4th time SBLAAM has accepted my work.

The Big Windows Review will publish my poem “The Orphan” online in February and in their print issue #15 in May

The Big Windows Review will publish my poem “The Orphan” online in February and in their print issue #15 in May. Thank you, Editor Tom Zimmerman. This is the second time they have featured my poetry.

You’ve got to be taught To hate

You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught

“South Pacific” Richard Rodgers

You’ve got to be taught

To hate and fear,

You’ve got to be taught

From year to year,

It’s got to be drummed

In your dear little ear

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Mourning Mary Oliver

One of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, rejoins the earth she celebrated in her wonderful verse.

Academy of American Poets obituary

In an era of snark and cynicism, of delanguaged and prosaic poetry, Oliver wrote emotionally powerful poems that lived and breathed in this world. We do well to live as she did and advised:

“So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.”

Poets make much less

The median income from writing for full-time authors, according to the Authors Guild, was $20,300 in 2017. For part-time writers, it was $6,080. That’s 42 percent lower than in 2010, a decline driven in part by the costs to publishers and authors of paying for promotion on Amazon.com

Thank you Suzanna Anderson at The Magnolia Review for reviewing my book, Final Inventory

Thank you Suzanna Anderson at The Magnolia Review for reviewing my book, Final Inventory, available from Prolific Press.

She writes:

“Every time I read a poem by David Anthony Sam, I am filled with his im- ages and strong language, people I can connect to, and a voice that propels me to the end (and often back to the beginning to read the poem again.) His collection Final Inventory is no different, except it is about his dying mother and the years without her….

“Death is truly not the end for the ones we love. Sam’s mother may be gone, but the poems here remember her memory. Her presence will pen more words about her life and the love a son has for his mother.”

Read the entire review HERE along with a sample from their latest issue that also includes 6 of my poems or read the review on Goodreads.

Six of my poems have been published in The Magnolia Review Volume 5, Issue 1

Six of my poems have been published in The Magnolia Review Volume 5, Issue 1, available for only $2.00. 

“Charitable Erasures,” “Love Loss,” “Lost and Found,” “On Finding an Abandoned Firepit,” “A Pipe of Ghosted Smoke,” and “alt-right killer” — all on the theme of “Loss.”

Thank you december magazine for accepting two of my poems for publication in 2019.

Thank you december magazine for accepting two of my poems for publication in 2019. 

“Ghazal: Clarity of the Absolute” was written when I assigned the ghazal to my creative writing students last fall at Germanna Community College. “Fragments of Color” was originally written in 2004, immediately after experiencing first-hand the devastation of Hurricane Ivan. That poem has been revised significantly five times. 

December previously published my longer poem “Psalms in Pieces” in 2016. 

Thank you Artemis Journal for accepting my poem “Nejma – Last passage” for publication in the June 2019 issue.

Thank you Artemis Journal for accepting my poem “Nejma – Last passage” for publication in their June 2019 issue. This poem deals with visiting the grave of my father’s mother and is part of an unpublished collection.