David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 183
December 13, 2016
Vine Leaves Literary Journal in Australia has accepted 4 of my poems for its final issue in Spring 2017
Vine Leaves Literary Journal in Australia has accepted 4 of my poems for its final issue in Spring 2017
December 12, 2016
If you’re the only one taking your work seriously, you can do whatever you want.
“If you’re the only one taking your work seriously, you can do whatever you want. If no one expects anything from you, you can do whatever you want. If you’re underestimated, then potential is your greatest asset. Your art could be anything and everything. Your writing could be about anything and everything. No one expects a certain style or outlook.” – Josh Spilker
December 10, 2016
The latest Issue of The Hurricane Review includes my poem “Formulary”
The latest Issue of The Hurricane Review includes my poem “Formulary”
December 9, 2016
An anthology by Into the Void contains 2 of my poems and supports a good cause.
An anthology by Into the Void contains 2 of my poems and supports a good cause.
December 7, 2016
Latest print issue of Literature Today is on sale until Dec. 25 & contains my poem “The Nostalgia of Frisbees”
Latest print issue of Literature Today is on sale until Dec. 25 & contains my poem “The Nostalgia of Frisbees” (also in Kindle edition)
December 4, 2016
Dublin-based Into the Void has accepted 2 of my poems for publication in an upcoming anthology.
Dublin-based Into the Void has accepted 2 of my poems for publication in an upcoming anthology.
December 1, 2016
Four of my poems are featured in the inaugural issue of Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry
Four of my poems are featured in the inaugural issue of Light: A Journal of Photography & Poetry. Audios of my readings are included in the online edition.
November 28, 2016
The One Problem
Good writers are monotonous, like good composers. They keep trying to perfect the one problem they were born to understand. -Alberto Moravia
November 27, 2016
A Book of the Dark Soil
Work and Days by Tess Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So often when I read a book that won an award or came from a celebrated new poet, I am disappointed–often amused to try to imagine the criteria for selection. Not so with regard to Tess Taylor and her collection “Work & Days.” There are many fine lines and some fine poems in this gathering of verse inspired by hands-on farming and the reading of Virgil, Hesiod and Clare. The imagery of scent and sound and sight demonstrate Taylor’s knowledge of gleaning from the soil:
Cold Trolls
the hills even as
frozen lakes grow cloud
***
Unearthing rocks is like dislodging anger
***
Las night I woke
to wild unfrozen prattle.
Rain on the roof–a foreign liquid tongue.
She weaves her biography including a miscarriage into the soil of her reading of old poetry and the daily news and the hard working of the land.
The baby I planted this year
was only tissue….
[I}ts sac
was empty, soil black.
I bow into the absence.
***
broadcasts poppy harvests and bombings,
limbs shattering in another country–
Taylor’s work is vital, in language that is not forced although sometimes choppy. Her emotions are not forced but as real as the mud and green and dying into winter. For here, planing words or seeds is the same faith and duty:
We bow to the work:
same & not same–our scattered arts–
removing, removing the stones from our soil.
November 25, 2016
Dark for Darkness’ Sake
Kill The Dogs by Heather Bell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A collection of angry poetry, bitter to the point of hate. While I have no problem with darkness in poetry (after all there is much darkness in life) this is poetry the way Tarantino does movies. If you like his movies you may like these poems.
