Poeisis Newsletter
2022–01–30
J.D.’s Jots:
So. Getting to this fairly late in the month. I’ve been exceedingly busy: I sold my house, moved to a different city, took on a new job…
I’m feeling pretty good, though, all said and done. Sure, this stuff comes with plenty of challenges and discomfort, some good; most good, actually. It’s exciting when you learn you can stay standing up under the weight of so much change. I believe it has strengthened my back. Also…ah, at some point, you’re probably hoping I’ll talk about writing. It’s connected, though. Indeed, my new environs permit far less time for writing, and, as you’ve no doubt noticed, far less time for me to be on the queue.
Similarly, though in a different country with different prospects, our editor, Melissa Coffey, is working on some other exciting creative projects off Medium, leaving her less time for the queue as well. We thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts, for the grace and patience you’ve demonstrated as we push through this time. It’ll smooth out, I’m sure. We’re going to keep putting up quality work and are working towards exciting things.
About exciting things…in my excitement, I’ve gotten the next theme month wrong: I’d indicated it would be February, but it’s actually in February when Melissa will let us know what that prompt will be for March! (Where’s your head, JD?? I think I left it hanging out with the ravens that are dotting the highways I’m driving most frequently these days. Go figure…)
I’m on my way to the queue shortly, excited to be reading yet more fantastic work from our contributors. And, because Medium doesn’t always tell you, you know there’s a TON of work in our archives that is always worth perusing, re-reading even! (I do!). Speaking of, one of the really exciting developments of the past month was the publishing of the first of Melissa’s installments in her prose poetry series. Do check it out It’s a truly incredible look at a form that stands out in our publication, written, as always, spectacularly well.
https://medium.com/scrittura/encounters-with-the-prose-poem-an-impressionistic-essay-aeff2f542df5
We keep going, yeah. Looking forward to what comes next!
Rock on, write on, and read on! So grateful for all your hard work!
Till next month.
Best,
JD
NB: Melissa has also just published an excellent article digging deeper into the ins and outs of tagging stories on Medium. Read here.
January Wonderful Words
Prose Poetry
Waving Goodbye to California by Jeff Langley
Velvet plumes of haze, ash-filled cigarette trays,
dingy motels like be-dimmed hipsters — just another roadside stay.Small hours rocking at the Filmore, that day at the beach,
think I found my morning glory, a quarter-mile beyond my reach.
https://medium.com/scrittura/waving-goodbye-to-california-5e4dbd650bb4
Prose Poetry
Surreal Synthesis by Laurie Perez
On my life. That night, at three years old I stood
Between an archer and embattled air. There I trenched
A future incongruity bent on re-casting wounds as art.
From my Benedictine cell, I ran from pain in single digit
Temps, barefoot on dark, rocky soil toward crumbling
Banks above a swollen river current, flowing bleached
Poetry
Marble Swirl Sky by Ann Marie Steele
lip smacking nimbus cotton candy shavings that scatter impressionistic intentions between the fingers of the sky — dusting glitter like an exotic
dancer upon stars that wish for more than shaping life’s vertical horizon stroking lollipop days into slick marmalade nights
shedding light like Eve’s lure — slithering neither here nor there
splitting atoms like my anima — a mitosis of minds
Prose Poetry
The Fine Print by Niki Madore:
Instant validation made us impatient and we forgot that we were not the only ones — lost, struggling, and alone. Technology promised to bring us together but I have never felt so far apart. We missed the fine print …
Prose Poetry
What Happens Happily Ever After by Danielle Loewen:
Telescoping eyes burnished with hope, I pilot towards undiscovered spheres, maneuvering through unmapped expanses in between stellar systems — transported by a feeling that is the absence of a feeling.
https://medium.com/scrittura/what-happens-after-happily-ever-9b02ae0fea3
Poetry
Is Your Poetry Inspired Madness by Connie Song
When all the world is running from the fire,
are you the one who sparked the flame,
until there’s nothing left to burn?
I am forever lost and found.
Never satiated with feasting
on the poetry
of illicit, inspired madness.
https://medium.com/scrittura/is-your-poetry-inspired-madness-1a35157cb26d
Poetry
Orpheus the Liar by Gary Chapin
You are Eurydice, on the road to some
Black Sea diamond dive. You
Don’t see Orpheus walking
Out of Hell. You can’t hear Orpheus mumbling
“Is she even behind me? I can’t hear footsteps.
He said don’t look back. Why don’t look back?
Why would that be a condition? Is he
Just fucking with me? I’m supposed to
Trust this bitch, after she already run
Off. I’m supposed to trust this bitch?
Poetry
Paperwhites: Feeling the Pressure by Erika Burkhalter
Like dragons’ claws, they clutch the soil,
scraping their way past flattened granite,
pushing into the pale light seeping through the eucalyptus
and pines and into my kitchen window. Forced into being
in a time that was never their own.
https://medium.com/scrittura/paperwhites-6e0d0227692e
Interview with a Poet — Rowen Veratome
by Zay Pareltheon
We all live differently. And we all live in different situations — and we all live differently than we did three years ago. Rowen Veratome speaks a kind of real truth about living and writing in The Pandemic Age. It’s a challenge of coping with whatever “the real world” means while trying to be creative in a new world. This was a provocative interview. We will hear much more from this creative and adaptive young person.
About the definition of poetry.
Poetry is a space of mind in which language can be both wielded and understood with heightened malleability. I say “space of mind” because it seems incomprehensible that something like poetry could be an array of marks on a page; what you write down can instead be thought of as akin to the sheet music handed out to an orchestra of diverse instruments. In other words, the poem is a mindset, and what is written down is a set of instructions for obtaining it.
Rowen extends that definition of poetry to include some border breaking observations on style and device.
Regarding these words, it’s tempting for me to bring up things like metaphor, rhythm, and the spatial positioning of words in relation to blank space. At the same time, I’m not sure that any specific qualities are necessary for a given conglomeration of language to count as poetry. For example, someone might write out an array of nouns without additional grammatical structure. Those nouns might evoke a vivid scene to the readers who give sufficient attention and be considered poetic for this unusual method of conveyance all while each individual noun is intended literally. Someone might argue that this collection of words inadvertently contains non-literal aspects (which is why we see them as poetic), but this isn’t obviously true.
And importantly, she concludes —
I don’t think that poetry has a single, definite purpose, and in correspondence with that, my motivations vary.
It seems Rowen acknowledges a kind of relativistic purpose behind the “poetic motivation.” Poetry is that which serves the needs of the time, the moment. We all have the capacity to write poetry if the situation, or the stimulus, creates an observation best reserved to language.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, the pressure from instability, severe PTSD symptoms, and the suicide attempts of friends was large to a degree that’s difficult to express. Within that came many individual moments that were both amorphous and up against the edge of what I believed I could tolerate. In moments like these, no single word was appropriate. But I was usually still able to write — not logically, or grammatically, or linearly, but poetically and absurdly.
There’s a lot in her interview. It is well worth a read; it is well worth several reads.
You can find the full interview here:
Interview with a Poet — Rowen Veratome
https://medium.com/scrittura/interview-with-a-poet-rowen-veratome-de2a821128ba
And some of her work here:
The Shape of My Guilt
https://medium.com/scrittura/the-shape-of-my-guilt-219a50e80413
Why Lot’s Wife Looked Back
https://medium.com/scrittura/why-lots-wife-looked-back-80a767e5e4
Notes — and Please Note
These Little Reminders Help
Hey writers, just some reminders about correct Tagging. J.D. and I are finding we often have to correct tags on submissions — so please take note of these to make processing your submissions easier.
- Prompt Responses: Regardless of genre, prompt responses MUST be tagged Prompt. The older tag system, which separated our Wednesday and Saturday prompt responses, is no longer applicable.
- Prose Poems: If you’re submitting a prose poem (as a prompt response or otherwise), a new mandatory tag for Scrittura submissions is now: Prose Poem. This ensures it shows up on the relevant Prose Poetry Menu in Scrittura .
- Poetry: If you are submitting poetry of any kind, please tag it Poetry. Once again, this ensures it displays in Scrittura’s Poetry Tab.
- Prose: All articles and other stories that are neither poetry or prose poems must be Tagged Prose. This allows it to display under our Fiction & Articles Tab Menu in Scrittura.
I’ve also just published a new article with more Tagging Tips and Tricks to increase visibility for your stories. You can read it here:
https://medium.com/curation-matters/tagging-tips-for-increased-visibility-e5a920db996a
