Cabbages, Kings, and Pigs with Wings

I don’t know what Lewis Carroll was smoking, but it must have been some pretty good stuff to come up with poetry like this…  The Walrus and the Carpenter The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright– And this [...]

Flash Fiction Story by Gay Degani – The London Eye

Ever felt like you’re being stalked, watched, plotted against?  Then you know how Gay Degani’s character feels in the new flash fiction story, The London Eye (warning, contains strong language), published recently at Every Day Fiction: “People insist the London Eye is nothing more than a tourist attraction, a Ferris wheel on steroids, a piece of [...]

Angels of Destruction, a Book by Keith Donohue

Author, Keith Donohue, sent me an email to let me know his new book, Angels of Destruction, is out (thanks, Keith!).  You might remember that name from a previous post I did about his book, The Stolen Child. If you’re interested in finding out more about this author, you can read his blog, called Pluck’s Bicycle.  [...]

Stephen King, Werewolves, and a Literary Meem

Grab the book closest to you.  Turn to page 31.  Count down to the eighth sentence.  Write down the next 5 lines (keep writing into the  next line, if needed, until you finish the last sentence).  “Later, no one will be able to say where the sound came from; it was everywhere and nowhere as the [...]

A Poem About Poems — Naomi Shihab Nye

Thank you to Amy Sorensen, a.k.a. The English Geek, for bringing this poem to my attention in her post, Why I Love April.  It’s by Naomi Shihab Nye and was written in response to one of the poet’s students asking her to write him a poem: Valentine for Ernest Mann by Naomi Shihab Nye You can’t order a [...]

Laguna Sunset (A Poem)

So this poem I wrote has been traveling around on a sticky note for quite some time now, and I figured I’d better post it before I lost it.  It’s a Sappho, a vastly underused poetic form that I love for its unique rhythm and that I’m single-handedly trying to make popular again (and when [...]

New Rock and Roll Poetry Book: Third Rail

The book, Third Rail, features poems inspired by rock and roll.  Guns N’ Roses is the title of a poem by Campbell McGrath which starts out: “Not a mea culpa, not an apology, but an admission: there are three minutes in the middle of “Sweet Child o’ Mine” that still, for all the chopped cotton of [...]

Van Halen (A Poem)

Some dude named Joe Cislo published this poem over at 3Hive.com.  I like it… “Leslie Erickson said she liked my Van Halen button. It was V-shaped just like Eddie’s guitar. I’d bought it at a flea market along with some tube socks that had holes in the heels and toes…” To read the rest of [...]

Someone Else’s Things

I read a lot of poetry I don’t like.  Some days I get lucky and find something good right away; other days, I have to plow through a mountain of bad poetry in my search for that one poem that will bring a smile to my lips.  Today was one of those “mountain of bad poetry” [...]

No Third Date

Okay, I wasn’t even sure I liked this online magazine upon first perusal, but now it is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  It’s quirky, strange, a little silly, and perhaps an acquired taste, but one I’ve now grown to love. Don’t miss the poem by Marilyn Letts called No Third Date at Feathertale.com.  The last [...]