Then what? Say you write the best poem from the past 20 years. 50 years. 100 years. What would you even do with it then? So few venues accept previously published work, so you’d better pick the right one from the outset. Some venues would be closed to you no matter the quality of the work if you don’t have a name already.

So, what would you do?

I think the state of the poetry publishing world right now means that no matter how good the poem is, only a handful of people will ever see it. And they’ll only be reading it because it’s next to their poem in the same journal.

Yes, I am that cynical.

Nothing up yet, but Kitchen Press Reviews will be doing chapbook reviews. Please support them in this worthy endeavor!

Go listen to the poems here. It’s a sort of “viewer’s choice” for this episode. And it involved me getting tutored in the ways of Spanish accents. If you don’t listen, you can’t mock, and you know you want to mock!

Jude Goodwin has chosen pseudophakia as the prize for a poetry contest. Check it out!

I can’t seem to escape 70s music tonight. It’s everywhere! It’s everywhere!

I forgot to promote Miss Snark’s wonderful crapometer. She’s a literary agent and she’s giving insights on 100 query letters and first pages. This is valuable stuff. Go here. Read it all. And then pre-order Mind Blind and the one with the thaumaturgists!

I don’t know how many bobtail kittens are under the porch, but there are apparently some.

Must
resist
kittens

Which time of year is creepier, around Hallowe’en, or around Christmas?

Show your work!

Though I tend toward one-word titles, so I’m not in full agreement!

Art Durkee talks about titling poems.

I’m starting a new novel and a few of my characters need names. If anyone would like to, someday, see their name in print, email me your name and any of the attributes you’d like to have. F’rinstance, if you want to be a bad guy, a hero, especially tall, mustachioed, dreadlocked, one-legged, or all of the above.

It’s going to be a YA fantasy novel, but it’s set in Ohio, so nothing too exotic!