I stumbled on an article about solar flares whose language captivated me for its resonances with the pandemic, mood swings, and other natural cycles. I wanted to write a poem whose allusions worked on multiple levels and contrasts how we trivialize cosmic phenomena yet still manage to stop ourselves in wonderment. The end references a gorgeously strange painting by Gala Porras-Kim titled “What the Sun Looks Like with Your Eyes Closed.” Mónica de la Torre on "Flip Side" |
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"Ten Questions for Cindy Juyoung Ok" "I had understood a first book to be all one’s successful poems put into a manuscript as though a shrine to a period or a portfolio of competence. Only once I gave up the urge to stuff individual pieces into a document as an archive of the ego could I write the book. The phrase “ward toward” came late but felt like receiving a revelation, upon which I formed a shorter manuscript that was a wholly separate entity from the storage unit I had accumulated." via POETS & WRITERS |
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What Sparks Poetry: David Keplinger on "The Ice Age Wolf That Love Is" "Dogor was discovered in 2019 beneath receding permafrost in this coldest region of Russia. The delight I felt (beholding his small face, seemingly glistening wet nose, whiskers, closed puppy-eyes, tufts of hair and preserved tongue) was tempered by a certain grief, the recognition that it was climate change that had made this vision of our deep past possible." |
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2024 Able Muse Contests Submit Now WRITE PRIZE (poetry & fiction): $500 each + publication Final Judges: Hailey Leithauser (poetry), Nina Schuyler (fiction). $15 entry: deadline: March 15, 2024 BOOK AWARD (poetry): $1000 + book publication Final Judge: Timothy Steele. $25 entry: deadline: March 31, 2024 Enter Now – click here for details |
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