Anthony Doyle, poet, and author of HIBERNACULUM, is one of the ten founding members of the Old Scratch Press Short Form and Poetry Collective. A person of many talents, he writes a great story. Check out his short story on Spillwords. If you enjoy Anthony’s work as much as we do, please give him a LIKE. The most LIKES will give him the coveted honor of #1 story of the month. Thank you.
Welcome to Week Two of National Poetry Month. The four seasons of the year are the subjects of many different types of poetry from traditional sonnets to exuberant free verse sprawled out across the page. So to start this week we are sharing two poems by American poets from the past.
The first poem is by Amy Lowell (1874-1925). A Pulitzer Prize winner for her poetry collection, What’s O’Clock, Lowell is associated with the early 20th Century Imagist Movement, which sought to use precise, colloquial language and concrete imagery in lieu of traditional poetic diction and meter. Compared with the second poem we’re posting by E.E. Cummings, however, to our twenty-first century ears it sounds very traditional, until you compare it to last week’s poem posting by William Shakespeare.
By Amy Lowell
Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring!
Thou herald of rich Summer’s myriad flowers!
The climbing sun with new recovered powers
Does warm thee into being, through the ring
Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling
Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers
Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers,
Till ripe and blossoming thou art a thing
To make all nature glad, thou art so gay;
To fill the lonely with a joy untold;
Nodding at every gust of wind to-day,
To-morrow jewelled with raindrops. Always bold
To stand erect, full in the dazzling play
Of April’s sun, for thou hast caught his gold.
The second poet, E.E. Cummings ( 1984-1962) was one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century. Challenging the established approach to words on a page, Cummings experimented with form and language to create a distinct personal style. The exhilaration of the change in seasons is transmitted by his merging certain words together and distancing others in a poem that shouts out to be read aloud.
By E.E. Cummings
in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
whistles far and wee
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it’s
spring
when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
it’s
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee
Do you have a favorite poem to greet the season? Share it with us and share it by posting it on your own social media account as well. Poetry is not only meant to be read aloud, it is meant to be shared.
Thank you for reading and don’t forget to follow us on WordPress, Facebook , Instagram, and Twitter.
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Wanna submit to the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for their horror book of poetry? If you are published in HALLOWEEN PARTY, you can. Gravelight Press is part of the Old Scratch Press family, and we pay every author in HALLOWEEN PARTY $25 (and give each author a free copy of the anthology), and that $25 check is enough to qualify for membership in the HWA.
The HWA is currently soliciting for a volume of poetry. Why not submit?
Here’s a little horror ditty (I’m not saying it’s very pretty…).
Little Bo Weep (by D.Pearce)
Now I lay me down to sleep
and thinking ’bout dismembering sheep.
No hooves to leap
no baaaaahs to bleep
just nightmares in the meadow’s deep.
Like a tea with too much steep
the blood into the wool will seep.
I chopping chopping as she weeps
that simpering whimpering
dopey BoPeep.
Then I round the herd will creep
for bones and fuzz and tails to sweep
And when the sheep are in a heap
what will be the reap I reap?
At lastly long and blissful sleep.
Horror poetry. See? It’s easy. 😉
And fun!
C’mon, write a horror poem and submit!
April is the month for poetry, and in the part of the United States where I live, I’m fortunate to have a hiking trail where years ago small signs were posted with quotes from poetry. What a delight, to only hear the sounds of my shoes crunching into the dirt and the twitter of birds and insects, blue sky overhead, surrounded by green. I pause and read the poem painted on a wooden sign. If I am with a friend, I read it to them aloud. If I am alone, I still read it out loud to myself, because poetry is meant to be heard.
National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. According to the Academy, it is the largest literary celebration in the world. Listening to a poet read their own work is a treat. Click on the previous link to see and hear Joy Harjo read one of her exquisite poems.
One of the earliest poets I was introduced to in school was William Shakespeare. Today, due to the evolution of the English language, his works are not as frequently read. Some of the words and phrasing may seem “odd” to your modern ear, but listen to the phrasing and the selection of vowel sounds and consonants. Read him aloud and his work may start to grow on you.
Discovering new poets and rediscovering forgotten favorites, is part of the fun of National Poetry Month.
Writer and Artist Morgan Golladay, a founding member of the Old Scratch Poetry and Short Form Collective, created this beautiful piece of artwork featuring a flower found in many spring gardens, Impatiens.
From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight
Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those.
Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play.
IF you have a favorite poet or poem you’d like to share, let us know. Follow us on WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter.
Thank you for reading.
What calls you to write? How do your words help you embrace… yourself?
Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.
This week we are introducing Robert Fleming. His chapbook White Noir will be published in the fall of 2023. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, as we’ll be introducing the contributing editors, member of the collective, one by one each week. You’ll also learn about poetry events, publishing opportunities, and new ways of approaching the genre of short form.
MEET ROBERT FLEMING
Robert Fleming is a word-artist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In his work, Fleming explores masculinity, sexual orientation, sin and virtue, and dystopia in words and graphics on earth and beyond.
Since 2017, more than 400 of his works were published internationally in more than 95 print and online publications, art galleries and online mic features. His style is influenced by the writers Robert Frost, Dr. Seuss, and the Beats and his graphics by surrealistic artists like Salvador Dali. A Member of the Rehoboth Beach and Horror Writers Association, nominated twice for the Pushcart Award and twice for Best of the Net, Robert Fleming’s is the winner of the 2022 San Gabriel Valley California Poetry Broadside Award and is in the 2021 Best of Mad Swirl.
Robert’s chapbook, White Noir, a Black and white visual poetry exploration of human birth to death and beyond on earth, is scheduled for publication in the November of 2023. He says about the book, the vibe is dark, goethe, and dystopian, but I lighten it up by including humor. And,” he adds, “ it offers a hopeful ending.”
Follow Robert on https://www.facebook.com/robert.fleming.5030 .
Learn about the other writer/poets in our collective in the upcoming weeks, or click on their links here:
Ellis Elliot
Gabby Gilliam
Janet Holmes Uchendu
Morgan Golladay
Nadja Maril
R. David Fulcher
Robert Fleming
Virginia Watts
In just four more days April will be here, and you know what that means?… National Poetry Month! If you have a favorite poem, we’d love to hear about it and possibly post it ( if it is in the public domain). Please use the comment space to get in touch, We’ll be sharing favorite poems and pieces we admire along with writing prompts, thoughts and musing about poetry, short form prose and other hybrid forms.
Do you have an idea for something you’d like to read about in this space? Let us know. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.
To launch, we’ll be introducing the contributing editors, member of the collective, one by one each week.
MEET ELLIS ELLIOT
Ellis Elliott is a writer, ballet teacher, and facilitator of online writing groups called Bewilderness Writing. She has a blended family of six grown sons and splits her time between Juno Beach, FL., and the mountains of Crozet, VA. She has an MFA from Queens University, is a contributing writer for the Southern Review of Books, and an editor/workshop teacher for The Dewdrop contemplative journal. She has been published in Signal Mountain Review, Ignation Literary Magazine, Literary Mama, OPEN: Journal of Arts and Letter, Plainsongs Poetry Magazine/Award Poem, Sierra Nevada Review, Women of Appalachia Project Anthology, Delmarva Review, The Rail, Spotlong Review, Euphony Journal, and others.
Old Scratch Press is delighted to be publishing Ellis’s first chapbook, a collection of poems entitled A Break in the Field. In her poetic statement about herself on her Bewilderness Writing website, Ellis says,
“I am a perennial student of nature, inner realms, and the wisdom of the body, and write to bear witness and disentangle the world as I perceive it.”
Approximately fifty pages in length, the poems in A Break in the Field grapple with the concept of how human perception can change, depending on the vantage point. Target month for the book’s release will be June 2023.
In the upcoming weeks we’ll be introducing the other members of the group
Alan Bern
Anthony Doyle
Gabby Gilliam
Janet Holmes Uchendu
Morgan Golladay
Nadja Maril
R. David Fulcher
Robert Fleming
Virginia Watts
And we’ll be sharing favorite poems and pieces we admire along with writing prompts, thoughts and musing about poetry, short form prose and other hybrid forms.
Have something you’d like to read about in this space, let us know. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Congratulations to OLD SCRATCH PRESS founding member Morgan Golladay, whose poem “The Day Arose Cold,” featured in Solstice, was a Delaware Press Award winner.
The Day Arose Cold
The sun rose
into a pink sky,
pausing
to gain strength
before entering this frozen day.
Yesterday’s snow
is untrodden
by the small ones,
searching for food.
Even squirrels
have forsaken their branches
for warmth and safety
in their leafy nests.
Would that I, too, could stay,
snug and cozy,
but there is snow to move,
feed to put out,
animals to tend.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 