Thursday, September 23, 2010

SUMMERSET REVIEW poems by Denise Low and Commentary Contest: 50 dollars for 50 words

Here are the first lines of two of the poems Summerset Rev. was gracious enough to publish. See their site for the full poems. Also note their contest for commentary about any piece published in their online/print journal.

PHOTOGRAPHY
After a photograph by Terry Evans
"Great blue heron, Texas, 1922"

Its neck recurves
like a ladle handle
bends into its breast:
a still-life arabesque….

A SKULK OF FOXES

Like the cherm or charm of finches, so the skulk of foxes
confounds the twilight. Step-sidling, their auburn pelts shift
into shadows. Like cats they stalk mice. Lanky legs turn black.
Vertically slit eyes catch last yellow sunlight and hold it steady….

From Summerset Review's announcement page:
“Each quarter, we award $50 & complimentary print issue to one or more readers who submit the best feedback on pieces appearing in the current issue of The Summerset Review. The goals of this unique contest are to promote the awareness and visibility of literary magazines in our world and culture, and to get continued assurance that we have indeed connected with our readers." Deadline December 1, 2010. Comments must pertain to material in SR be over 50 words. They "are particularly interested in how the material affected you; what impact it had, what memory it stirred, what idea it precipitated." Email your feedback to editor@summersetreview.org.” A second interactive Summerset Review program is: “Readers and reading groups are invited to discuss the topics below relating to some of the material presented in this issue. Send answers to editor@summersetreview.org and you will be eligible for a complimentary copy of Volume Two of The Summerset Review. All questions must be answered and received by December 1, 2010.”

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

"Concrete Particulars" by Sally McNall: Sample Poem from WHERE ONCE

Main Street Rag Publishing Company (www.mainstreetrag.com) is publishing my friend Sally McNall’s book ( Where Once ) as part of its Poetry Book Award selections. The book is scheduled for release November 8 and will sell for $14, but you can get it now for $9 + shipping by placing an Advance Discount order at
MSR Online Bookstore's Coming Soon Page: http://www.mainstreetrag.com/SMcNall.html
or, if you are more inclined to pay by check, they are $12.50 each including tax and shipping. Mail to Main Street Rag.  Here is a sample poem:

CONCRETE PARTICULARS

     for A

Yes, but in this book of horrors you refuse,
this documentation of systematic, categorical death,
writer and reader must step back, if only a step,
or tenderness could not touch the dead, as it must.

Remember the green eyes of the Afghani girl
on the magazine cover, at the beginning,
and how when they found her again,
well before the end, she was already old.
Remember the picture on the Internet?
We never saw her in the midst of life,
remember? So what do we have to go on
but the effort of thought in the unmapped darkness?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sally Allen McNall has written and taught in Oregon, Arizona, Kansas (thirteen years), New Zealand, Ohio, and California. She was invited to be a member of Denise Low’s writing group in 1981, and began publishing poems regularly in 1985, when her youngest child left the house. She has published steadily since then in a wide variety of journals and magazines, off and online. Her chapbook, How to Behave at the Zoo and Other Lessons, was a winner of the State Street Press (Brockport, NY) competition in 1997, and her first book manuscript, Rescue, won the Backwaters Press Prize (Lincoln, Nebraska) in 1999. A chapbook, Trying to Write a Poem without the Word Blood in It, came out in 2005 from PWJ Publishing. Her new book is called Where Once. You will see sample poems and comments if you go to Main Street Rage and follow the above directions, or click on her Author’s page.