Category: Literary

Delaware OSP Founding Members Honored With Multiple Awards

Published on by DPP1 Comment

By Robert Fleming

Two OSP Founding Members, Morgan Golladay and yours truly Robert Fleming, won awards at the Delaware Press Association professional communications contest 5/1/2024 in Newark, DE. Escorting Morgan through the entrance, she answered my dress question: “my Old Scratch Press T-shirt is not fancy enough for a banquet, best black only.” I wore a tight shirt to accentuate my pecs, in-case there was anyone looking for a date. At a banquet, you must send the right signals.

Here is the low-down on who won which awards:

Morgan Galladay won first and second place in short stories: single story for “Under the Rhodendrons” published in Halloween Party ’23:
Halloween Party ’23: Keeten, Jeffrey, Heron, Robert Lewis, Goodridge, James, Golladay, Morgan, DeCicco, Kim, Dickerson, Marc, Howd, Eric Machan, Machan, Katharyn Howd, Paige, Michael, Cantu, Juan: 9781957224503: Amazon.com: Books

“Second Christmas” published in Solstice, volume 3:
Solstice: A Winter Anthology (The Solstice Winter Anthology Series): Pearce, Dianne, Doyle, Anthony, Golladay, Morgan, Watts, Virginia, Johnson, John, Fitzgerald, Christian, Aakaash, Buffy, Fulcher, R. David, Crandell, William F., Pearce, Dianne: 9781957224039: Amazon.com: Books
and honorable mention in creative verse: single poem for “March Wind” published in Instant Noodles: MARCH WIND – Morgan Golladay – INSTANT NOODLES (instantnoodleslitmag.com)

What’s next for Morgan: At the banquet Robert spilled ranch dressing on Morgan’s black skirt. Morgan screamed she will immediately send her suit to the dry cleaner. Robert agreed to pay for his stain. While Morgan is waiting to pick up her dry cleaning, she is promoting her upcoming book Song of North Mountain, published by Old Scratch Press:
DPP CATALOG – Devil’s Party Press, LLC (devilspartypress.com)


Robert Fleming won third place in creative verse: single poem for “Cheese Sonnet #263” published in Four Feathers Press: rhythms of Southern California


Honorable mention in Graphics and Design for “Timothy Gager is with Ellis Elliott at Boston Harbor with the Dire Literary Series.”

DPP CATALOG – Devil’s Party Press, LLC (devilspartypress.com

Robert Fleming won third place in creative verse: single poem for “Cheese Sonnet #263” published in Four Feathers Press: rhythms of Southern California

honorable mention in Graphics and Design for “Timothy Gager is with Ellis Elliott at Boston Harbor with the Dire Literary Series.”

(2) Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223029934604316&set=gm.1347430896144791&idorvanity=518428889045000

What’s next for Robert?

At my club house gym yesterday, a neighbor approached me to purchase my book White Noir:

After showering, I delivered my book to my neighbor who invited me inside and paid me, after I signed my book. That was the end of the neighborly encounter because the neighbor’s husband, watching tv on the couch, sneered at me. I promptly departed my neighbor’s house, as the husband rose and walked toward his pistol.

Unwounded, I created three graphic images for Four Feather’s Press upcoming publication: Landmarks of Southern California. Learn more about the author here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOAb33t1NFc

Small Independent Presses Provide Opportunities for New Voices

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

By Morgan Golladay

Five major publishing companies pretty much cover the market for books. But it’s the indies that take more risks on new authors, like me and my fellow writers at Old Scratch Press (an imprint of Current Word Publishing {CWP}). We write because we have something to say, not necessarily for fame and fortune (although that certainly wouldn’t hurt).

If you find a book you like, ESPECIALLY if it’s from an indie publisher, give it a review on whatever national website for books that comes up. Just that small bit of verbal support that says “I like this book” means a great deal to the writer, and the publisher. And it doesn’t have to be my book (but it’d be great if it were!).

So let me tell you about my book. There are fifty-five poems, 8 black and white full-page sketches, several smaller sketches, and other material in the book. They are all original I hope you’ll buy it, either in Kindle or print form.

Hot Off the Press: The Song of North Mountain an Amazon Top 100 Bestseller 8/17/24

For those of you who don’t know me, there are a few things that are important. I am 77, and I have retired from two jobs. I started publishing only in late 2019, and this truly is my Very First Book that is by myveryownself. At times I feel like it’s awfully late to start a new career, but then again.

I live in a community where many people move to when they downsize into their own retirements. THIS part is important: there’s no reason to stop just because we’re retired, or older, or more physically limited than we were when we were 35. We still have the ability to create, whether with words, paint and brush, whisks and casserole dishes, pottery wheels, or needle and thread. There really is nothing we can’t do, just some things we may not do as well as when we were younger (like blacksmithing, or crawling under vehicles).

Available here for pre-order  on Kindle with delivery May 1st, I hope you like The Song of North Mountain. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D1P64FHC soon to be available in softbound print as well.

This post was adapted from an essay on Morgan’s own blog and you can read more of her words at https://morgangolladay.wordpress.com/ Don’t forget to follow this blog and our facebook page for the latest news.

HAY FOR THE HORSES

Published on by dpearcewritesLeave a comment
gary snyder

I want to share with you today, as I do my 9-5 job, one of my favorite poems ever, “Hay for the Horses,” by Gary Snyder.

Gary Snyder reading Hay for the Horses

Hay for the Horses

by Gary Snyder

He had driven half the night
From far down San Joaquin
Through Mariposa, up the
Dangerous Mountain roads,
And pulled in at eight a.m.
With his big truckload of hay
behind the barn.
With winch and ropes and hooks
We stacked the bales up clean
To splintery redwood rafters
High in the dark, flecks of alfalfa
Whirling through shingle-cracks of light,
Itch of haydust in the 
sweaty shirt and shoes.
At lunchtime under Black oak
Out in the hot corral,
—The old mare nosing lunchpails,
Grasshoppers crackling in the weeds—
“I’m sixty-eight” he said,
“I first bucked hay when I was seventeen.
I thought, that day I started,
I sure would hate to do this all my life.
And dammit, that’s just what
I’ve gone and done.”

I like to think of this poem periodically, to make sure I am doing what I want to do with my life.

It’s tax season. That’s a time I also always wonder if I am doing something worthwhile, or at least not onerous, for my daily bread.

Are you a writer or artisit who’s been bucking hay for 51 years instead of making?

Time to create!

See all about “Hay for the Horses” and Gary Snyder here.

APRIL is National Poetry Month. Time to Start Celebrating and Sharing Our Favorite Poems!

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

April is almost here, time for National Poetry Month, an entire month to celebrate poetry. Do you have a favorite poem or poet? Let us know and we’ll try to post a story about the poet or the poem on the Old Scratch Press website.

National Poetry Month was launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to promote educational events that encourage students to interact with poets and poetry.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

One of these programs sponsored by the Academy of American Poets is called Dear Poet. Designed for students in grades five through twelve, participating students can write letters in response to poems this year ( 2024)  read online by Patricia Smith, Ed Roberston, Mara Pastor, John James, Nikky Finney, Nicole Cecillia Delgado, Marilyn Chin, and Chen Chen.The submission period for Dear Poet 2024 is now open until April 22, 2024.

If asked, who is my favorite poet it really very much depends on the time of year, time of day, and my mood because I was lucky to have grown up in a household filled with poetry books.

My mom was an English major and she enjoyed reading me her favorites. At a young age I listened to Gerald Manley Hopkins, T.S. Elliot, Robert Frost and Emily DIckinson.

Children love repetition, and when they discover a favorite story they like to have it read to them over and over again. Many Many times I’d ask to be read my two favorite poetry books in pre-school: A.A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young and Robert Louis Stevenson’s, A Child’s Garden  of Verses.

I remember reading to myself “The Swing” at age eight.

The Swing

Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.com

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

How do you like to go up in a swing,

             Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

             Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

             Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

             Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,

              Down on the roof so brown—

Up in the air I go flying again,

              Up in the air and down!

I found all the poems in When We Were Very Young to be irresistible, but my constant favorite was the one about that difficult girl named Mary Jane.

Rice Pudding

By A.A. Milne ( 1882-1956)

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s crying with all her might and main,
And she won’t eat her dinner – rice pudding again –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I’ve promised her dolls and a daisy-chain,
And a book about animals – all in vain –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s perfectly well, and she hasn’t a pain;
But, look at her, now she’s beginning again! –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I’ve promised her sweets and a ride in the train,
And I’ve begged her to stop for a bit and explain –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s perfectly well and she hasn’t a pain,
And it’s lovely rice pudding for dinner again!
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

If you have school children, don’t forget to check out all the poetry programs this month and whatever your age make a point of reading a poem a day. The Old Scratch Press is trying to make new poetry more available by publishing several chapbooks each year, so check out what’s in our catalogue and what is about to be released by following us here as well as following our Facebook page. Thank you for reading.

The Song of North Mountain by Morgan Golladay features Poetry and Art

Published on by Nadja Maril1 Comment

Old Scratch Press is pleased to announce the upcoming release of The Song of North Mountain, by Morgan Golladay. Slated for May release, the book includes original artwork by the author to accompany her poems. The collection is now available for pre-order.

Founded in 2023, Old Scratch Press is a cooperative of poets and short-form authors who have come together to promote the publication and appreciation of poetry and short-form writing. The Song of North Mountain will be the third chapbook, published by the small independent press.

Break in the Field by Ellis Elliot was their first book, nominated for the National Book Award, followed by avante-garde wordsmith and artist Robert Fleming’s poetry collection, White Noir.

The Song of North Mountain, says Morgan, “is about my relationship with this Earth, focusing on one small mountain in one small chain, in one small part of this vast world.

This book is about a connection – my personal experience sitting in stillness on this mountain, as well as many other mountains. North Mountain is, for me, a symbol of my relationship with this Earth. The permanence of the land, regardless of how it changes; the cycles of life, the quiet continuation of change. It has been a long time since I personally was able to sit quietly and listen to the tree branches and leaves speak to each other. I cannot scale the trails as I once did. But the magic of place is still in my memory, whether it’s the rocks in the rivers, the trails on the mountain tops, or the joy of sharing ripe wild berries.

“…my personal experience sitting in stillness on this mountain, as well as many other mountains. North Mountain is, for me, a symbol of my relationship with this Earth.”

Morgan Golladay

The cover design, an original painting, and the 10 black and white interior illustrations were created specifically for the book. Pre-order availability on Amazon and on the Old Scratch catalogue page will be coming soon.

To keep up with the latest news, please follow our blog here for free and also follow us on Facebook. Later this year look for more chapbooks penned by Gabby Gilliam, Alan Bern, and Nadja Maril. Thank you for reading. Special note: the deadline for Instant Noodles LIterary Magazine submissions has been extended to the end of the month.

What Books Are You Reading? Author Gabby Gilliam Shares Five of Her Favorites

Published on by gilliampoetLeave a comment

By Gabby Gilliam

Author of Drumming for the Dead, Black Hare Press and founding member of Old Scratch Press

Every year, I set a goal of reading 52 books before the year ends. In 2023, I went well above my goal, and read 74 books. I’ve made it a personal goal to read more collections of poetry, and I think that helped boost my number.

One of my top reads for the year was a collection of poems, Unshuttered, by Patricia Smith. An ekphrastic anthology of poems inspired by vintage photographs of Black men, women, and children the author collected, Smith’s poems give the photographs’ subjects a voice. The collection is powerful. I highly recommend it.

 The remaining books in my top five are fiction, and have at least a taste of magic in them.

When I was younger, one of my favorite Disney films was The Sword in the Stone. In high school, I read The Once and Future King by E.B. White as an assigned novel for English class. So, when I came across The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, I borrowed it from my local library.

I wasn’t disappointed. There’s magic and wit and the tangled storylines of three sisters that slowly converge. The youngest sister, Juniper reminds me of Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett’s books (who is one of my favorite witches of all time). In Once and Future Witches, Harrow gives us a feminist adventure story full of magic, and I devoured every page of it.

I only picked up Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher because I was trying to read all of the Hugo Award nominees. I didn’t expect much since it’s such a short read. The heroine of the novella is given three impossible tasks and, through stubborn determination, begins to make her way through them. What I liked about this fairy tale is that the princess didn’t wait to be saved by anyone. She didn’t even want to marry a prince. Instead, she does her best to kill one.

I’m more than a little late to the party, but I started the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan last year. I decided to give the first book a try after watching the first season of the television series. The show left me with some questions that I hoped the book would answer. I was right. And the book was so good that I decided to dive into the rest of the series, even though I suspect it will be a few years before I make it through them all since the hold list for the audiobooks is rather long.

My favorite read of the year came from one of my favorite authors, Sarah Addison Allen. Allen is a master of magical realism. While her novel, Other Birds, wasn’t my all-time best-loved book of hers (that honor belongs to Garden Spells), I still loved this story of complicated grief and the bond formed between found family.

I’ve set a goal of 52 books again for 2024. I’m off to a slow start, but I really enjoyed Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (I recommend the Graphic Audio version. A full cast really enhances the experience.).

The year is still young, and I’m looking forward to chipping away at my growing to-be-read list. What was the last great book you read? I’d love to add it to my list! Please leave a comment on this post on the Old Scratch website or on our Old Scratch Facebook page.

Robert Fleming’s Valentine’s Day Advice

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

By Robert Fleming

On Valentine’s Day, write a sonnet. A sonnet is for love. In the 13th-century, the sonnet was invented by Giacomo da Lentini, a member of the Italian Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily.

William Shakespeare popularized the sonnet. William lived 1564–1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.

The original sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter with endline rhyme with the sequence: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The last two lines, GG, are a change, called a Volta. I still confuse iambic pentameter with the Olympic Pentameter event where a shepherd guides lambs over hurdles.

Perhaps, William’s most famous sonnet is #18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

                So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

                So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Where is William’s poetry title? Don’t poems have to have a title? Some poets don’t give titles and when published the publisher makes the first line the title.

As a poet for fifty years, I have written many sonnets and teach a two-hour workshop on how to write a sonnet. I am proud, at the end of my workshop, many participants write a first draft and complain they are exhausted. Beware of the sonnet sweat.

My writing which responds to William’s sonnet #18:

William does this frock make me look fat?

Why should I compare you?
Shall my rating do good?
Will it make me want

you more than what I had,

nor worse than what I can’t get?
Your score will be my score.

Shall there come a day when you won’t ask?
Oh no, no, not that frock, take it off!

Robert, your poem does have a title, but only nine lines. It is not a sonnet. As a tribute to Cole Porter, who composed Anything Goes in 1934, the less taxing American sonnet was invented which is a fourteen-line poem that does not demand iambic pentameter nor endline rhymes. If the American sonnet’s fourteen lines is still too sweaty for you, write a monostich-1 line poem: I Love You.

The author, Robert Fleming is a founding/contributing editor of Old Scratch Press (OSP). To read more of Robert’s work:

What I Learned from Poet and Essayist Artress Bethany White

Published on by virginiawattsLeave a comment

By Virginia Watts

Artress Bethany White is a poet and essayist I met during a summer writing conference at Rosemont College. I was fortunate enough to attend her poetry workshop where I learned so much about the craft and art of poetry. Artress is the author of the essay collection Survivor’s Guilt: Essays on Race and American Identity (New Rivers Press, 2020) and My Afmerica: Poems (Trio House Press, 2019). Her work is unique and unflinching. She is forging new ground. It is at one turn poetry that leaves you dead in your tracks and in another historical documentation. She is an unfailingly brave writer willing to wade into the complex racial dilemma of our country. She is the kind of writer that can make a difference. Read one of her poems or essays and you will want to read them all. Then you will never forget them.

Her personal story adds another layer of interest to her work. She herself is descended from one of the largest slaveholding families in America and she is raising her own transracial family. What I remember about her most is how encouraging she was to her students, fledging poets. She had a way of making us believe in ourselves and that we too had something importantly human to say.

Pancakes Keep Coming to Mind: A Sestina Commemorating the Demise of Aunt Jemima on the Pancake Box 

BY ARTRESS BETHANY WHITE

June 2020

I invoke my great-great-grandmother’s name on exhaled breath,

the vowels arranging themselves in shorts and longs,

syntax and semantics duking it out.

Mima, that could have been birthed from an African tongue.

Enee, meene, mima, mo, respectable marriage of village,

continent, and town, without a diabolic Je like a pendulum swing

to the scarlet kerchief blooming in my brain, pancakes on my tongue,

unwilling to utter that name over black families now living out

their American dream. Like reinvention, how the heart longs

to reconcile past and present, within a village

raising a newer child clawing out of epicureal stink to swing

free from stereotypes, auction block, and Aunt Jemima’s mealy breath.

Instead, pancakes every time my forebears’ syllabics touch my tongue.

Mima sans  Je, not Meema, or Mi’ma[e], coy notes stepping out

of a history where grits and flapjacks were birthed in a village

to skirt my teeth or strut ’cross my lips on exhaled breath,

that ample bosom and backside mocking me, she who longs

to rear up and bark Breakfast! and Brunch! on a revolving door swing.

You are not my Auntie or Aunt pronounced like the creature crawling out

over cadavers of supermarket boxes choking my breath

on a collapsed lung of shady marketing to keep bodies bound in a village-

cum-ghetto of stranger than strange imagined black things, girl-on-a-swing

dreams culled from western imaginings of what that colored gal longs

to do over a hot stove, flipping and flapping ’cause the griddle got her tongue.

Names as revenue monikers on revue, line dancing on a hip swing.

Oh, how daring to cogitate on destiny, each syllable a village

of preferred ubiquity, once the Ghanaian name Afua translated out

to first girl child born on a Friday, sonic genealogy on the tongue,

but changed to post-baptismal Mary, a rigid catechism of colonial breath

blowing across centuries of arid longing.

Food me, fooled me, sold me, told me, held me, bled me, tongue

afire with dreams of love, life, and freedom a profusion of days swinging

between something and more. My village compound, my village

quarters, my village a city block, each century censuring my breath.

What I seek is what I speak, not handed a script of nostalgic longing.

Jemima wrenched from shelves, but a litany in my brain still playing out.

Ain’t nothing but a jonesing to tweak culinary history so my village

knows my branches are thick, swaying and swinging with longing and breath,

rolling descendancy off my tongue, blessing consumption out. 

Source: Poetry (May 2021)

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post from Old Scratch Press, written by collective member VIrginia Watts. Her collection of short stories Echoes From the Hocker House just won the Bronze Feathered Quill Book award fro Best Anthology. You can purchase a copy here.

Bam, Crack, Klunk: Why Sound Matters in Poetry

Published on by Ellis ElliottLeave a comment

“Bam!”, “Crrraack!”, “Klunk!” are just a few on the list of words used in the 1960’s TV show Batman, usually held within a colorful cartoon bubble. We immediately conjure what is trying to be conveyed, and part of that understanding is because of the sounds of these particular words. In any writing, the sounds of words can produce not only feelings, but physical effects on the body. In poetry specifically, sounds become even more important because words must be carefully chosen in order to “say the most with the least”. We must pay attention to the vowels, consonants, stresses, etc. in the words we choose dependent on the idea or tone we are trying to convey.

Take a look at the information about vowel and consonant sounds pictured above, courtesy of Cathy Smith Bowers, Queens University., (excuse my notes and shadow!)Then, look at these two examples below. Read them aloud and ask yourself if it feels like flow and glide, or stop and start? Is there an emotion or physical reaction you can sense as you read?

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-

            dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his

            riding.

                                                -from The Windhover,by Gerard Manley Hopkins

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight.

                                                –from We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

That was pretty easy, huh? Now, go to one of your favorite poems and see if you can see how the word choices the poet made regarding sound serve the tone, subject matter, and larger themes of the poem. Then, look at one of your own.

Sound is just one of the many devices poets use, and it is a powerful one. A poem that uses short lines with high-frequency vowel sounds will sound very different than one with long lines using low-frequency sounds. And remember, the importance comes from not just the reaction to the words in your ears, but also the subsequent emotion or felt reaction in the body, and there is music to be found in all of them.

Thank you for reading. Don’t forget to sign up to follow our blog as well as follow us on facebook.

Ellis is author of the National Book Award nominee poetry collection Break in the Field published by Old Scratch Press.

Political Poetry, New Year’s Resolutions & Publishing Opportunities

Published on by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

Writing poetry is a personal, introspective experience, a way to communicate our innermost feelings as art.

Enter politics. Around the United States, around the globe humans are in conflict. It doesn’t matter which side you agree with, we all have our opinions, even if our opinion is to try and ignore the chatter.

Poetry, for centuries, has been a way for artists to convey their opinions. Attend a political rally and you’ll hear speeches, chants, songs. A number of poems have become beloved “classics” and they just might inspire you to write a few of your own.

Claude McKay
Claude McKay

If We Must Die

By Claude McKay

Claude McKay, 1889-1948 was born in Jamaica who later moved to the U.S. and lived abroad for a number of years., was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s. His published work included poetry, essays, a short story collection and several novels.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

*

Beat! Beat! Drums!

By Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman,1819-1892, is regarded as one of America’s important 19th century poets. During the Civil War, while working as a desk clerk in Washington D.C., he visited wounded soldiers in his spare time.

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,

Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,

Into the school where the scholar is studying,

Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride,

Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,

So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.

*

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;

Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,

No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would they continue?

Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?

Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?

Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.

*

Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!

Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,

Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,

Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,

Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,

Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,

So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.

London

By William Blake

William Blake, 1792-1827, was an English visionary painter, engraver and poet of modest means who lived in London. In June 1780, Blake found himself in the midst of a riot calling for an end to the war on the American colonies. Often in his work, he questioned the status quo of the traditional order of society.

 I wander thro’ each charter’d street,

Near where the charter’d Thames does flow. 

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

*

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,

In every voice: in every ban,

The mind-forg’d manacles I hear 

*

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls, 

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls 

*

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse

Blasts the new-born Infants tear 

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse 

If one of your resolutions for 2024 was to write more poetry, there’s never a better time than now.

Maybe wake up a little earlier, take a mid-day break, any time of the day will do, but just write a first draft without censoring your thoughts. For tips on revisions and the submission process, click here.

And to get you a little more hyped, here are a few places that are open for submissions this month, January 2024.

Opportunities for Poets in January

Rock Paper Poem

https://rockpaperpoem.com/submit.html?fbclid=IwAR3hbef037kzvt0BbN3r64V2EDIZXtOrloRXAcvrIM8nkDR66_s0BOw7cSE

Poem Alone

https://poemalone.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR2njw45cL46szMDrDeBWN9qv0UnZgEJT8bNLeicL-5stZdVv3_KqWKyMps

Beakful

https://beakful.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR2dqEQh7rE2bq_StnfndCKnfSN4YmwoXQnCSeVdSLXbvmR-PhMJTqEU3xQ

Raven Poem Competition

Submit

Strix.  (no simultaneous submissions)

https://www.strixleeds.com/submit

Black Iris

https://www.blackirispoetry.com/new-page

Lascaux  Review

Submissions

Acumen

https://acumen-poetry.co.uk/submissions-guide/

Allegro Poetry Magazine

https://www.allegropoetry.org/p/submit.html

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