tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50261445641795301722024-03-13T19:49:48.767-07:00The Black Telephonepoetry's callingMichelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-45974285246102486532011-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:21:49.014-08:00The Poetry Chain Gang (Volume 3)<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size:13px;"><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin-top: 0.25em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(204, 102, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Volume 3 of the poetry chain gang can be found </span></span><a href="http://poetrychaingang.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">here</span></span></a></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin-top: 0.25em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(204, 102, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://poetrychaingang.blogspot.com/"></a></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Check out the first installment of volume 3 with poet </span></span><a href="http://poetrychaingang.blogspot.com/2011/01/poetry-chain-gang-volume-3-jose-gouveia.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jose Gouveia</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">.</span></span></span></h3></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-39966448177479426092010-11-25T05:02:00.000-08:002010-11-25T05:15:13.565-08:00On Poetry<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy_i1CXfB_ceHf1TT_blFNKtOpRuTIy0maN0Gh0APe1IKROIsByRsx1ma9042DWkk4pspPHJcXTJtUZTY7-nw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>This video is a result of being asked by poet Michael Parker to speak about poetry for an assignment for his daughter's class.Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-56127204032229858632010-10-05T18:56:00.000-07:002010-10-05T18:57:38.926-07:00Poets & artists paired!<div><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=78&documentId=101006005848-998bb74545694866853b797e0e985519&docName=pa21&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=Poets%20and%20Artists%20(November%202010)&et=1286330112712&er=6" style="width:420px;height:272px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed><div style="width:420px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/pa21?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=78" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=poetry" target="_blank">More poetry</a></div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-90149934043040165072010-09-26T18:59:00.000-07:002010-09-26T19:13:04.235-07:00It's MiPO, Yo!Winter 2010 issue of <a href="http://issuu.com/didimenendez/docs/mipoesiaswinter2010">MiPO</a> <div><br /></div><div>featuring me on the cover as well as between the pages (pages 4-5, that is)</div><div><br /></div><div><div><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&documentId=100927012212-abb284e4c1984b2db320946c128799fd&docName=mipoesiaswinter2010&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=MiPOesias%20(November%202010)&et=1285552962266&er=41" style="width:420px;height:272px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed><div style="width:420px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/mipoesiaswinter2010?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com/" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=poetry" target="_blank">More poetry</a></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-64955944623794283882010-09-16T16:37:00.000-07:002010-09-16T16:44:34.157-07:00Trouble (an e-chapbook by me)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TJKrCloMndI/AAAAAAAAAY0/vfRLM_1-vaY/s1600/TroubleCover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TJKrCloMndI/AAAAAAAAAY0/vfRLM_1-vaY/s320/TroubleCover.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5517660554431077842" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.echapbook.com/stories/mcewen/">Trouble: Selected short stories</a> <div>published by Wordrunner</div><div><br /></div><div>"In Michelle's work, there is no wall between reader, writer and characters; we all mesh into a place and time that we feel we are living in, not reading about." ~Walter Bjorkman, poet/writer and co-founder/editor of the online literary community <i><a href="http://fuddyduddyfan.wordpress.com/">Voices</a></i>.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-89255841797572539162010-08-21T08:01:00.000-07:002010-08-21T08:10:46.620-07:00The Poetry Chain Gang (Volume 2)Volume 2 of the poetry chain gang can be found <a href="http://poetrychaingang.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<div><br /></div><div>Check out the first installment of volume 2 with poet <a href="http://poetrychaingang.blogspot.com/2010/08/poetry-chain-gang-volume-2-walter_21.html">Walter Bjorkman</a>.</div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-79812635398843178812010-08-21T07:32:00.000-07:002010-08-21T07:33:30.618-07:00Delicious Dangerous by Michelle McEwen<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; ">Chapbook of poems published for the MiPOesias Magazine chapbook series 2010.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&documentId=100821142358-85879e853d8b481393823f5e49434da2&docName=mcewenchapbook&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=Delicious%20Dangerous%20by%20Michelle%20McEwen&et=1282401159650&er=89" style="width:420px;height:272px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed><div style="width:420px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/mcewenchapbook?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=poems" target="_blank">More poems</a></div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-20691841466096830552010-08-10T09:44:00.000-07:002010-08-10T09:54:17.037-07:00The first five of the MiPOesias Chapbook series for 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TGGDL0RbayI/AAAAAAAAAWw/Jcu2Zy6lZ2I/s1600/chapbookseries.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TGGDL0RbayI/AAAAAAAAAWw/Jcu2Zy6lZ2I/s320/chapbookseries.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5503824458657000226" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(56, 49, 49); line-height: 24px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:16px;"><h2 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(131, 124, 124); line-height: 24px; text-transform: none; font-weight: normal; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:18px;"><span style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: block; line-height: 27px; color: rgb(56, 49, 49); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Check out my chapbook "</span><a href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/100904"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Delicious Dangerous</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">" featured in the </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(131, 124, 124); line-height: 24px; "><strong style="margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; line-height: 27px; color: rgb(56, 49, 49); "><a href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/104202"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">MiPOesias Chapbook Series (Volume 1)</span></a></strong></span></span></h2><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 21px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br /></p></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-70773413894298674962010-07-31T12:28:00.000-07:002010-07-31T12:31:49.477-07:00Delicious Dangerous (chapbook by me!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TFR6DfbJVOI/AAAAAAAAAWo/8sS6-OPBBe0/s1600/dd_chapbook.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TFR6DfbJVOI/AAAAAAAAAWo/8sS6-OPBBe0/s320/dd_chapbook.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500155245319771362" /></a><br />Check out my chapbook <a href="http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/100904">Delicious Dangerous</a>.Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-84697468924906574112010-06-26T09:35:00.000-07:002010-08-29T12:15:54.742-07:00More me on the World Wide Web:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TCYtHSpLqqI/AAAAAAAAAWg/wMmdyAA-ysQ/s1600/michie_bw_libraryreading.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 170px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/TCYtHSpLqqI/AAAAAAAAAWg/wMmdyAA-ysQ/s200/michie_bw_libraryreading.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487122799284431522" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 15px; font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><b>Any great news to share with us since you were last published in Poets and Artists? </b><br /><br />Uh huh! First of all, and this is not poetry related, I am due any day now with my first baby. I'm so excited! Also, I'm excited about finally being published in <i>Naugatuck River Review</i> (the summer 2010 issue)...</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 15px; font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px;font-size:11px;">Read the rest <a href="http://orangesandsardines.blogspot.com/2010/06/michelle-mcewen.html">here</a></span></span></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-40639488471103662512010-02-25T15:14:00.000-08:002010-02-25T15:35:28.919-08:00Saturday Pie by Melissa McEwen<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/S4cHl6LOcBI/AAAAAAAAAWY/2hEtAEErijU/s1600-h/satpieimage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/S4cHl6LOcBI/AAAAAAAAAWY/2hEtAEErijU/s200/satpieimage.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442327022553427986" /></a><br />Please purchase a copy of my sister's chapbook "Saturday Pie"<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><div><span class="Apple-tab-span"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 12px; ">https://www.createspace.com/3433676</span><br /></span><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Tahoma, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: -webkit-xxx-large; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Tahoma, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></span></div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-71948306503577770782010-01-22T07:56:00.000-08:002010-01-22T07:57:46.832-08:00Ocho #29: featuring my poem "Peach Juice"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'MS Shell Dlg'; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre; "><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&autoFlip=true&autoFlipTime=6000&documentId=100122153417-1ec8d577d86e4d0b8e33f93928d33bf8&docName=ocho29&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=OCHO%20%2329&et=1264175805824&er=83" style="width:420px;height:315px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-34012361289754365762009-12-14T06:06:00.000-08:002009-12-14T06:18:54.041-08:00Me, Interviewed:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Tahoma, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, 'BitStream vera Sans', Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: normal; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); line-height: 17px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "></span></b></p><b><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://goss183.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/michelle-mcewen/#comment-26">What is your poetic statement?</a></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://goss183.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/michelle-mcewen/#comment-26"><strong style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "></strong></a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://goss183.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/michelle-mcewen/#comment-26">I think writer Sam Rasnake said it best when he said that one of my poems was “…a strong meeting of lyric mode and narrative mode and that’s not easily done.” I never could get a grip on how to sum up my writing style, but I was aware that I had a writing style because... </a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br /></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br /></p></b></span><b></b><p></p></span></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-24950977788550343662009-11-22T06:39:00.000-08:002009-11-22T06:41:52.570-08:00O&S 2009 Pushcart Nominations<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin-top: 0.25em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; color: rgb(255, 146, 24); "><a href="http://orangesandsardines.blogspot.com/2009/11/o-2009-pushcart-nominations.html" style="text-decoration: none; display: block; font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'MS Shell Dlg'; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre; ">I'm nominated for my poem "Sucker." </span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'MS Shell Dlg'; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; white-space: normal; color: rgb(255, 146, 24); line-height: 28px; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'MS Shell Dlg', 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span></div></span></span></span></h3><div class="post-header-line-1"></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; "><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/o_ssummer09net?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=52" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Alan King for "The Meek" </span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/o_s2009_issue1?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=78" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Daryl Rogers for "Visiting Hour Dream"</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/o_sapril2009?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=59" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><b>Michelle McEwen for "Sucker"</b></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/o_sapril2009?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=100" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Sean Patrick Hill for "When This Rose Parade Burns"</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/osdec2009?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=40" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Tony Trigilio for "Sunday Morning"</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/poetsandartists_self-portrait?mode=embed&viewMode=presentation&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&pageNumber=26" style="text-decoration: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">Bob Hicok for "self-portrait of a self-portrait"</span></a></div></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-28945548933960780302009-11-06T07:36:00.000-08:002009-11-06T07:37:06.343-08:00OCHO #27!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre; "><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&documentId=091106002144-e88b500b688a4212a83ad2537e969e29&docName=ocho27&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=OCHO%20%2327&et=1257521757018&er=46" style="width:420px;height:315px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed></span>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-65319267078336465982009-09-06T08:32:00.000-07:002009-09-06T12:46:06.242-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 15 w/ Jennifer Chang)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SqPXScr3hNI/AAAAAAAAAWM/Um4bdcZegrg/s1600-h/jchangpoet.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5378379091948307666" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 134px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SqPXScr3hNI/AAAAAAAAAWM/Um4bdcZegrg/s200/jchangpoet.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Jennifer Chang.</strong><br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I would love to write a poem about a poet. Have you ever written a poem about a poet? If not, what poet could you see writing a poem about? </div><div><br /><strong>JENNIFER</strong>: I recently put Frank O'Hara in a poem about looking at a field and thinking about the death of my friend's dog, Tammy. I was mad at myself for writing yet another poem about a field, even though it was about my friend's loss, but then it was about what draws artists to our subject matters and I started incorporating an exchange about art<br />between O'Hara and Motherwell. "Shut up, and just paint the pictures," Motherwell says at one point, frustrated with all their navel-gazing.<br /><br /></div><div></div><div>Anyway, I feel better when I think about Frank O'Hara and he's in there because he's a hero and a specific word like "Gauloise" and what's weirder than a nature poem with Frank O'Hara in it? I also have a poem with Andres Breton in it. It's about not wanting to leave the house. Clearly, neither of these are good poems, but other poets appear in my poems when I'm feeling the anxiety of influence, which is really the anxiety of self, in an especially keen way. I'd like to write a poem with Gertrude Stein in it, but Lynn Emanuel's already done that so exceptionally well. Her poem's kind of about anxiety, too.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Pick a poem, any poem…<br /><br /><strong>JENNIFER</strong>: "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I love your poem <em>Pastoral</em> where you say: "dirt and chant" and "roar and bloom." I love when poets throw together words that aren't usually thrown together. What made you put "dirt" and "chant" together?<br /><br /><strong>JENNIFER</strong>: Thank you! I wrote that poem while I was staying with a flower farmer in Napa Valley. One morning I was watching her from the window working in her fields of flowers. Even though I couldn't see her face, I could tell she was so very happy out there in the dirt and in the wind. I hadn't known one could farm flowers. And there were so many flowers! Most of the poem's images and word play emerged from that experience. I liked the sound of "dirt" and "chant; they share a similar concluding consonance and yet have such different denotations.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I am a logophile which is a lover of words. Do you have a favorite word at the moment?<br /><br /><strong>JENNIFER</strong>: Lately, I've been thinking about, a little obsessed with, words whose roots don't quite match their current meanings, and because I just taught <em>Heart of Darkness</em> (Joseph Conrad was another logophile) I keep wondering about the repeated use of the words "absurd" and "unsound" at the end of the book. Neither word is about sound, even though both words' roots are related to hearing. So this week, I've thought about both "absurd" and "unsound" at least once a day and I know I'm going to eventually find a way to use them in a poem.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><br /><strong>JENNIFER</strong>: Jennifer Kronovet<br /><br /><br /><em>Jennifer Chang’s first book, The History of Anonymity, was an inaugural selection of the VQR Poetry Series and a finalist for the Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in A Public Space, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, The New Republic, and Northwest Review and she has received recent fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. A Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Virginia, she is writing a dissertation on race and pastoral modernism. </em></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-48377615047825473032009-09-04T18:33:00.000-07:002009-09-04T18:41:57.635-07:00Poets & Artists<div><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" flashvars="mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&autoFlip=true&autoFlipTime=6000&documentId=090905003824-6f10ccc12af64bd78478882a75c4d533&docName=poetsandartists_self-portrait&username=DidiMenendez&loadingInfoText=Poets%20and%20Artists%20(O%26S)&et=1252114867531&er=47" style="width:420px;height:265px" name="flashticker" align="middle"></embed><div style="width:420px;text-align:left;"><a href="http://issuu.com/DidiMenendez/docs/poetsandartists_self-portrait?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true&autoFlip=true&autoFlipTime=6000" target="_blank">Open publication</a> - Free <a href="http://issuu.com" target="_blank">publishing</a> - <a href="http://issuu.com/search?q=poets" target="_blank">More poets</a></div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-74198261420790474782009-09-03T14:15:00.000-07:002009-09-03T14:24:01.690-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 14 w/ Cecily Parks)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SqAzhFMCIAI/AAAAAAAAAWE/59i9cFjeYxI/s1600-h/cparkspoet.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377354598501720066" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 124px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 166px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SqAzhFMCIAI/AAAAAAAAAWE/59i9cFjeYxI/s200/cparkspoet.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Cecily Parks </strong><br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: It’s 9 p.m., are you…<br />a.) just putting the finishing touches on a poem?<br />b.) just beginning a poem?<br />c.) reading a poem?<br />d.) not even thinking about poetry?<br /><br /><strong>CECILY</strong>: d<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: After I've read a really good poem, I always find myself in a writing mood. How do you feel after you've read a really good poem?<br /><br /><strong>CECILY</strong>: A really good poem makes me feel like I might cry. I get that tingly feeling on the backs of my eyeballs.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: In a 1970 interview with poet Robert Graves, he had this to say: "…Writing a poem is…like finding the top of a statue buried in sand. You gradually take the sand away and you find the thing, whole— that is what poetry is, rather than building something up. It's rediscovering what you've known inside yourself the whole time, what you've foreseen." Would you agree or beg to differ?<br /><br /><strong>CECILY</strong>: I agree that writing a poem allows you to rediscover something inside yourself, but I don't think that the process is as pristine as Graves suggests. Because I'm obsessed with swamps at the moment, I've come to think that writing a poem is a little bit like wading into a swamp. Maybe it's the swamp of the self, or the swamp of the mind— either way, it's messy and dark and fluid<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I love the idea of found poems ("Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and [turning] them [into] poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines…"). That said— how do you feel about found poems?<br /><br /><strong>CECILY</strong>: I think that in the game hide-and-go-seek, the hider secretly wants to be found. So, I like found poems because they remind us that poems want to be found, even though they may be elusive and elliptical, or hiding in a block of prose.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><br /><strong>CECILY</strong>: Jennifer Chang<br /><br /><br /><em>Cecily Parks is the author of the poetry collection Field Folly Snow, which was a finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award and the Glasgow / Shenandoah Prize for Emerging Writers. She is a PhD candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center and teaches in the undergraduate creative writing program at Columbia University.</em><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-74703453231480656902009-08-28T13:52:00.000-07:002009-08-28T14:04:16.291-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 13 w/ Leigh Anne Couch)<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SphE-F2BETI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NIucsusX1qA/s1600-h/poetforblogleigh.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375121988778004786" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/SphE-F2BETI/AAAAAAAAAV8/NIucsusX1qA/s200/poetforblogleigh.jpg" border="0" /></a><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Leigh Anne Couch.</strong><br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: What triggered your interest in poetry?<br /><br /><strong>LEIGH ANNE</strong>: My inability to write a lucid essay in college and falling in love with an artist. Since there was no way I could paint, I tried to fake it with words, so we'd have dreamy things to talk about. When he left, I didn't want to fake it anymore and decided to read what living poets were writing. That was exciting to me and as humbling as it was, I wanted to try to be a part of that community.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Is there a topic you haven't covered in your poetry that you would like to cover?<br /><br /><strong>LEIGH ANNE</strong>: Mother-love, both ways. I can hear the deep sighs out there and I feel it, too. Poems about mothering are set-ups for sentimentality and kitsch. But raising a person from complete dependency to their successful abandonment of you is such a powerful thing and, handled in the right way, has deep roots in the body, the culture, the society, and of course the self.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: What poetry book are you currently reading?<br /><br /><strong>LEIGH ANNE</strong>: I'm currently reading a fabulous manuscript of poems by April Naoko Heck. It's her first book and it's called "Shelter of Leaves." I've read it three times now just trying to figure out why and how it works the way it does for me.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Is there a poetry book on your bookshelf that you think is a "must have" for poetry lovers?<br /><br /><strong>LEIGH ANNE</strong>: This question, as simple as it is, is really giving me fits. I can't name just one. I have really enjoyed seeking out first books by poets I love— I'm going with "Summer Anniversaries" (Donald Justice), "Lies" (C.K. Williams), and "Colossus" (Sylvia Plath). In addition, anyone who loves poetry because it makes them feel weird must read "The Orchard" by Brigit Pegeen Kelly.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><br />LEIGH ANNE: Cecily Parks<br /><br /><br /><em>Leigh Anne Couch lives in Tennessee and is the managing editor of the Sewanee Review. Her poems have appeared in the Western Humanities Review, Shenandoah, 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review, Carolina Quarterly, and other journals. Her book, Houses Fly Away (2007), was the co-winner of the Zone 3 Press First Book Award.</em>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-41315079187493740112009-08-07T19:11:00.000-07:002009-08-07T19:47:18.084-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 12 w/ Erica Dawson)<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Snzl_D6RDiI/AAAAAAAAAV0/jVwk4NAXwfc/s1600-h/dawsonE.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367417727463001634" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Snzl_D6RDiI/AAAAAAAAAV0/jVwk4NAXwfc/s200/dawsonE.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Erica Dawson.</strong><br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I love the title of your book "Big-Eyed Afraid" (winner of the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, 2006); I would have bought the book on the title alone. What made you ultimately stick with that title?<br /><br /><strong>ERICA</strong>: First, thanks so much for the compliment. There were plenty of naysayers when I initially proposed the title. I stuck with it because I thought it provided a true trope for the entire book. Though there are moments where I seem quite sure of myself, some say, there's, to me, always an underlying current of self-consciousness and fear. And, my mom loved the title. Her opinion counts a lot.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Did you ever buy a poetry book just because of its title?<br /><br /><strong>ERICA</strong>: Definitely. Cate Marvin's "World's Tallest Disaster" was one of those buys. Barbara Ras' "Bite Every Sorrow" also caught my eye.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: When poet Juliana Gray suggested I interview you next, she said, "Erica…[writes] in meter and form…and she has a dexterity with these musty old forms that I really envy. She can handle something like a crown of sonnets…with such dexterity and sass." So what is it about these musty old forms that draws you to them?<br /><br /><strong>ERICA</strong>: Ah, Juliana is so sweet. I'd say it's the "must." I love the fact that people consider the forms old and dusty. I have a little mission to prove that things from the 17th century and earlier were pretty damn sexy and sassy in their day, and still can be sassy today. I love any mix of old and new, anything from new songs that sample 60s music to an outfit that combines something vintage with something very contemporary. The poems work the same way for me. There's something unexpected about the combination of the older forms with modern language. I like catching people off guard.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: As an undergraduate, I didn’t care too much for the poet Sylvia Plath; now, I can’t get enough of her work. Is there a poet that you didn’t like too much at first, but enjoy now?<br /><br /><strong>ERICA</strong>: I had that same relationship with Plath, actually. I think I was too caught up in her biography to give her poetry the attention and work it deserves. Also, my biggest love right now, the British Renaissance, was not a love of mine in undergrad. Not at all. It came later in graduate school. But now I can't get enough of "Paradise Lost," for example. No lie. It's amazing. Frightening, really sexy, and incredibly dense yet completely readable like a novel.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><br /><strong>ERICA</strong>: If you haven't already, ask Leigh Anne Couch. She's an amazing poet whose work has this kind of charm I've never seen before. You read or listen to Leigh Anne reading her work and you are utterly mesmerized by the sounds you hear, the words you digest, the rhythms and pictures she creates in your mind that stick with you, deliciously, long after you've closed the book or the reading has ended. Her voice, literal and figurative, is hard to shake, in a very good way. And, she's one of my favorite people in the world.<br /><br /><br /><em>Erica Dawson’s book Big-Eyed Afraid (winner of the 2006 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize) was published by Waywiser Press in 2007. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2008, Southwest Review, Harvard Review, Raintown Review and other journals and anthologies. She lives in Ohio where she’s completing her PhD in English and Comparative Literature at University of Cincinnati.</em> </div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-64256537186362091632009-07-19T14:48:00.000-07:002009-07-19T14:52:16.855-07:00Michelle McEwen (that's me!) will be reviewing your poetry journal/zine soon!Please visit for more details: <a href="http://orangesandsardines.blogspot.com/2009/07/michelle-mcewen-will-be-reviewing-your.html">http://orangesandsardines.blogspot.com/2009/07/michelle-mcewen-will-be-reviewing-your.html</a>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-42624732960244863282009-07-10T14:03:00.000-07:002009-07-19T15:10:03.033-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 11 w/ Juliana Gray)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sle6S6GNV-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/D0jy_sUBaMA/s1600-h/JULIANA.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 86px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 130px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356955115776202722" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sle6S6GNV-I/AAAAAAAAAVM/D0jy_sUBaMA/s200/JULIANA.jpg" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Juliana Gray.</strong><br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: When poet Chuck Rybak suggested I interview you next, he said, "...I'm not sure if Juliana has any tattoos, but she sure could give a great answer if asked about them..." That said— I'm going to ask you the same question I asked him in his interview: sometimes poems are bigger than the page; what poem or line from a poem would you consider having tattooed on your body?<br /><br /><strong>JULIANA</strong>: I am ink-free, though the cover of my book depicts a young woman with a tattoo of the Mars symbol on the back of her neck, and people sometimes ask if that's a picture of me. I like the idea of a tattoo, but I'm afraid of pain. As for a line of poetry on the body, I don't think anything can beat Harry Crews's bicep tattoo of cummings's "how do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death?" The only thing I might get that could compete with that is a line from Larkin's "Church Going" – "A serious house on serious earth it is" – as a tramp stamp.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Do you do something poetry related everyday?<br /><br /><strong>JULIANA</strong>: At the very least, I read the poem of the day on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily each morning. (This routine is complicated by the two cats competing for space in my lap and walking across the keyboard, but I manage.) I also keep a couple of books of poetry on the coffee table, and I dip in and out of them as I read a novel, grade papers, or putter around the house. Right now I'm reading a few poems a day from Jim Murphy's terrific book <em>Heaven</em> <em>Overland</em>. I know Jim from graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, where I also met Chuck Rybak, your last interviewee, and I'm just loving the book. In the poem "River Minstrels, No Date Given," he describes the figures in a photograph as "disguised quite as/ themselves, bent to survive the times." I wish I'd written that.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I absolutely love your poem "Summer Downpour on Campus." I can't get enough of it. It gave me goosebumps the first time I read it and still does each time I read it— especially this part which, to me, was an unexpected surprise: "...but I am walking to meet a man/who'll buy me coffee and kiss my fingers— " I'm curious, how did you feel when that line came to you?<br /><br /><strong>JULIANA</strong>: I'm blushing— thank you so much! That was one of those poems sparked by a real experience; I was teaching at Auburn University, and one August afternoon the sky just opened up while I was, in fact, walking to the local coffee shop to meet the man I was seeing at the time. When I sat down to write the poem, I tried to think of a small, affectionate token that wasn't too terribly cutesy – one of those little loving gestures that couples unconsciously perform with each other – and that's what I came up with.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Writer's block— what would you prescribe?<br /><br /><strong>JULIANA</strong>: I'm not sure I believe in writer's block. Certainly there are times when the creative powers are lying fallow and we aren't producing much or any work, but as for a "block"– some kind of barrier between you and the language – I just don't buy it. Louise Glück goes for months or years between books without writing a thing, but she's certainly not blocked— I think it can be a way of storing energy, recharging the mental batteries. Of course, I may just be blithely optimistic here. I've written very little in the last year, not because I'm "blocked," but because I don't seem to have much to say at the moment. The only piece of advice I might have is not to reject an idea or spark of a poem in advance, without even attempting to write anything. The most trivial-seeming starting point can lead to something really surprising and wonderful.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Suggest, please, the poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><br /><strong>JULIANA</strong>: This is a hard question. I've had the incredible good fortune to spend my last ten summers teaching at the Sewanee Young Writers' Conference and working on the staff of the Sewanee Writers' Conference. (In fact, today is the last day of the Young Writers' Conference, and the "old writers' conference" will begin next week.) Through both of those conferences over the years, I've met so many diverse and amazing poets— legends like Mark Strand, Andrew Hudgins, Donald Justice, and Mark Jarman; and emerging writers like Sandra Beasley, Dan Albergotti, Jake Adam York, Beth Ann Fennelly, Eric McHenry, Leigh Anne Couch— the mind boggles.<br /><br />But if I can only suggest one, I'd pick my fellow SWC staff member Erica Dawson. Her book, <em>Big-Eyed Afraid</em>, won the Anthony Hecht Prize in 2006. It's just marvelous, personal and confessional and clever and funny and so, so brilliant. It's like nothing else I've read. Although Erica and I both write in meter and form, her approach is completely different from mine, and she has a dexterity with these musty old forms that I really envy. She can handle something like a crown of sonnets – the very thought of which intimidates the hell out of me – with such dexterity and sass. The woman is just too smart. I love her dearly, but I'd never play Scrabble with her.<br /><br /><br /><em>Juliana Gray is the author of The Man Under My Skin (River City Publishing, 2005) and the chapbook History in Bones (Kent State University Press, 2002). Recent poems have appeared in New South, 32 Poems, Iron Horse Literary Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Alfred, New York, and is an assistant professor of English at Alfred University.</em> </div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-24095211649594084932009-06-22T07:11:00.000-07:002009-06-22T07:30:35.490-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 10 w/ Chuck Rybak)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sj-TbUUrZRI/AAAAAAAAAVE/pcue9MDqEBU/s1600-h/poetcr.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350156979860628754" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 133px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sj-TbUUrZRI/AAAAAAAAAVE/pcue9MDqEBU/s200/poetcr.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Chuck Rybak</strong>.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: When poet Stephen Frech suggested I interview you next, he told me that you are one of the readers for his publishing company Oneiros Press (which publishes poetry broadsides). When you read poetry, do you find yourself thinking now: “This would make a good poetry broadside?” </div><div><br /><strong>CHUCK</strong>: Absolutely. I found this happening as soon as I got my hands on the first completed Oneiros broadside, which was Albert Goldbarth’s poem "In the X-Ray of the Sarcophagus of Ta-Pero." This broadside is still one of my favorites. Visually, there is a profile view of a head, reminiscent of one of those cool phrenology models, with smaller heads floating inside of it. To the right of the main image is the poem, which includes the lines “I’ve felt the weight of another head / inside of my head, leaning its skull / against my skull as if to rest.” I’ve literally stared at this broadside for hours, and I sensed right away that Shawn Sheehy, the graphic designer for Oneiros, could do absolutely anything. I knew, of course, that the poems were good, but I had no idea that the broadsides would be that stunningly beautiful, that they would add so much to the text. What started as Stephen Frech’s project to publish a few poems on letterpress suddenly became this artistic enterprise without limitation. To your question, I soon found myself reading poems and analyzing how well they would translate into an Oneiros broadside. Some poems were great by themselves, but I had no visual narrative or context that added to, rather than merely represented, what was on the page. Other poems just cry out to be broadsides. Dan Albergotti, who you interviewed previously, is a perfect example. He submitted his poem “Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale” twice to Oneiros’ contest. Both times I read it and thought, “this would make an amazing broadside.” Luckily, Dan won the contest the second time through. For the record, I was right— it is an amazing broadside (and a fantastic poem).</div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I love your poem “Tongue and Groove.” I’m always interested in knowing did the title come first or the poem? </div><div><br /><strong>CHUCK</strong>: In this instance, the poem came first. There have been times that a title has stuck with me right from the start – I have a poem called “Purple Heart” which fits that bill – but this time I had the poem entirely finished before settling on “Tongue and Groove.” To be honest, I was guilty of not heeding the lessons of Richard Hugo’s “The Triggering Town,” specifically his basic call for swearing off the truth. I was writing about a real floor that, technically, is not a tongue-and-groove floor. I’m embarrassed to write that. I was also foolishly searching for titles that I felt would be more reverent and profound, and since I was writing about reclaimed barn wood, I kept running through the images and sounds of a barn, the animals and people who would have lived with that wood— for the sake of exercise, let’s make up an alternate, terrible title right now: “The Stalls of Memories that were Never Mine.” That’s the kind of junk I was struggling with. When the floor finally dried after being stained, I even pressed my face to the wood, trying to see if there was some feeling I would get from it, some texture. Utter failure. I had the word “plank” in my head as well, which feels like it never would have worked. Finally, “Tongue and Groove” just felt right thematically, as well as having interesting connections to music, the human body, and so on. At first, I told myself that the title was a place holder, just in case I found something better. Instead, it became the title of my book.</div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Did you read a poem today? If so which one? If not, what was the last poem you read?</div><div><br /><strong>CHUCK</strong>: I’ve been reading a lot of poems lately, and I have literary journals, chapbooks, and new books of poetry strewn all over my study at home. William Stafford’s poem “You Reading This, Be Ready” is stuck on my refrigerator, and I find myself reading lines from it quite a bit as I go back and forth from the kitchen. That being said, yesterday I sat down and read some poems by Craig Arnold. Unfortunately, I had never heard of Craig or encountered his work until his recent disappearance and death. I was moved by the public response to Craig’s disappearance, and I immediately started searching online to see if I could find some of his poems. I read “The Bird-Understander” and loved it, and then read it to my wife during dinner and the emotional impact was even stronger. His first book, <em>Shells</em>, finally came in the mail and yesterday I read the poem “Why I skip my high school reunions.” It’s pretty incredible. The title immediately caught my eye because I have skipped both reunions that my class has had so far. There’s this magical moment in the poem when the speaker, thinking back to high school, recalls being backstage with a girl on the opening night of a play and “she conjured out of the vast yards of her dress / an avocado and a razorblade, / slit the one open with the other, flayed / the pebbled skin, and offered me a slice.” Nothing this interesting ever happened to me in high school. To be honest, I don’t think I knew what an avocado was until I was thirty. </div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: Sometimes poems are bigger than the page. What poem or line from a poem would you consider having tattooed on your body?</div><div><br /><strong>CHUCK</strong>: Wow. This is a tough one. I’ll start by saying that I don’t have any tattoos, so this would be a big leap for me. The main reason I don’t have a tattoo is the standard line, “I can’t think of anything I’d want on my body forever” (other than my appendages). I was also turned off to tattoos early in my life when a friend of mine said he wanted Yosemite Sam tattooed on the back of each calf— that’s a lot to recover from. But, if I were there in the chair… I’d be tempted to take some lines from Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” maybe the rather unremarkable lines “And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black.” I’ve simply been maddened by the persistent misreading of this poem, yet each instance further cements for me what a mad genius Frost is. But, if it came time to actually pay for the work, I would take the last line from Robert Bly’s poem “Snowfall in the Afternoon” which reads “All the sailors on deck have been blind for many years.” First, I love<em> Silence in the Snowy Fields</em>, the book this poem appears in. There’s always been something about this line that holds me, simply on a personal level and my relationship with poetry. This book, and specifically this poem, helped me to see poetry in an entirely different way than I had previously. This poem feels playful and profoundly imaginative— who looks at a desolate field, blowing snow, a barn, and then converts that material into a giant, ice-encrusted ship sailing through the corn? Robert Bly does, I guess. I didn’t have a definition for “deep image” as a movement or style when I read this poem, but I certainly felt it. When I did finally learn about the “Deep Image School” I felt this poem had already made me an expert. That line is everything I hope for in my own writing: a chance to refashion the seemingly mundane as magical. Oh, and where on my body would I get this tattoo? Full extension across the shoulders sounds good.</div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?</div><div><br /><strong>CHUCK</strong>: Juliana Gray immediately comes to mind. She’s easily one of the best poets writing today. I’m not sure if Juliana has any tattoos, but she sure could give a great answer if asked about them. Juliana is an incredible writer and I carry a deep admiration for her work. Her book <em>The Man Under My Skin</em> is out of this world, or to quote one of my favorite movies, “It will really blow your hair back.” Reading the title poem alone will be enough to keep you in your seat and read the entire book. There’s also a great poem about a museum of military history that concludes with this beautiful, yet truly frightening image of Adolph Hitler’s tea set. I can remember reading that poem and not being able to shake that image for days. </div><div><br />Juliana and I went to grad school together, but never got to hang out as much as I would have liked. But, in the time I did spend with Juliana, there was always that sense of being in the presence of a genuine artist. When her book came out I bought it right away – I hadn’t actually seen much of her work at that point – and I felt I was reading everything I knew to be true. If you’ve ever read a poem and said “I wish I had written that,” then you’ll know how I felt when I read Juliana’s book— I said “I wish I has written that” fifty-two times over. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div><em>Chuck Rybak is the author of Tongue and Groove (Main Street Rag, 2007). He is also the author of two chapbooks, Nickel and Diming My Way Through and Liketown, and his poems have appeared in War, Literature & the Arts; The Ledge; Pebble Lake Review; and Southern Poetry Review. He lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he spends no time thinking about Brett Favre and works as an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin— Fox Valley.</em> </div><br /><div></div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-53975448022422987302009-06-09T09:13:00.000-07:002009-06-09T10:59:55.915-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 9 w/ poet Stephen Frech)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Si6SKvbOqkI/AAAAAAAAAU8/K2XeWWlit6Q/s1600-h/poetfrech.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345370520962378306" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 133px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 166px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Si6SKvbOqkI/AAAAAAAAAU8/K2XeWWlit6Q/s200/poetfrech.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Stephen Frech.</strong></div><br /><div><strong></strong></div><br /><div><strong>BT</strong>: It’s 9 p.m., are you…<br />a.) just putting the finishing touches on a poem?<br />b.) just beginning a poem?<br />c.) reading a poem?<br />d.) not even thinking about poetry?<br /><br /><strong>STEPHEN</strong>: I rarely work on poems in the evening any more. For one, I become so lost and animated by working on poems, by reading others’ poems I love, that were I regularly to touch up, begin, or read poetry at 9 p.m., I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I’d probably render myself unemployable for any daytime job.<br /><br />Second, like a lot of people, I used to write at night, when the house was dark, when my imagination seemed liberated. The places my mind could wander felt magical and everything I wrote sounded like previously untapped, raw wellings of great material. I woke every morning and found that what I’d written was, instead, tired, boring mumblings, sometimes illegible scribbles as I had nodded off to sleep. I met writers in St. Louis, in graduate school, who maintained a more work-a-day schedule, rising early and writing undisturbed for hours. The transition for me, from working poorly at night to working productively in the morning was long and uncomfortable. I conditioned myself to wake at 5 a.m., then let myself sleep until 7 when I could work with attention.<br /><br />So, I write in the mornings when my mind is fresh and alert and still feels attuned to the world the way I’d hoped it was when I worked at night, when I was simply over-tired and my head was spinning.<br /><br />I’m often reading at 9 p.m., though, some fiction, mostly non-fiction. For a few years, for example, I consumed every book on arctic and Antarctic exploration I could find, accounts that gave voice to an inwardness, an interior life brought on by severe physical hardship. I can see that interest in interiority echoed in other ways in my own poems, so while I rarely work on poems at night, I am doing the kind of reading that fills me up with images and language that enter my poetry.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: When poet Rhett Iseman Trull suggested I interview you next, she said: “I’ll bet he’s got a poem up on his bedroom wall." Well, do you have a poem taped to your bedroom wall? If so, which one? If not, which poem would you consider taping to your bedroom wall?<br /><br /><strong>STEPHEN</strong>: Rhett is right to bet I have poems up in the house. Virtually every room has poems on the walls, though strangely enough, my bedroom remains one of the few without a poem. My wife and I moved, so perhaps we simply haven’t settled on one yet.<br /><br />I love poetry broadsides, I have for a long time, so I’ve acquired quite a few. Among the favorites currently on my walls is “Waiting by the Sea” by William Stafford. A friend found it in San Francisco years ago and bought it for me, knowing the broadside and I would be good for each other. Another favorite, a broadside I bought at Hungry Mind Bookstore in St. Paul before they transformed into Ruminator Books before they succumbed to the book market and closed for good, is “Passing a Truck Full of Chickens at Night on Highway Eighty” by Jane Mead.<br /><br />I love the poem not because it champions courage and curiosity, but because the speaker recognizes a wish for her own courage in identifying with one of the livestock one sees so frequently on the highways here in the Midwest. One chicken, craning to see outside the cage, has its neck bent in the draft of the truck, or simply the force of traveling through the world, as it’s carted off (as we know) to slaughter.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: You run Oneiros Press which publishes poetry broadsides; can you tell me what makes a poem broadside-worthy?<br /><br /><strong>STEPHEN</strong>: Your sense of “worthiness” reminds me of another bit of writing I have taped up, not a poem, but good advice for writers:<br /><br />“Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?”</div><div></div><div></div><div><br />I suspect Annie Dillard’s idea of a poem’s worthiness is one that acknowledges the struggle and the urgency of living.<br /><br />Broadsides have always interested me, in part, because of their communal act of reading. Books, magazines, newspapers, though they can be read by many and discussed, don’t lend themselves to a shared, simultaneous reading. Broadsides, printed large and posted publicly, ask for that shared, communal consumption.<br /><br />Because they’re posted as opposed to cradled in the reader’s lap, poems that succeed best on broadsides are those that make themselves available to readers on a first reading and invite and reward further readings. While you could say that all good writing rewards multiple readings, not all good writing gives itself so readily to the reader. Think of writers for whom the challenge is part of the reward: Dostoevsky and Hart Crane come to mind. They’re great writers, though hard to represent on broadsides.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I consider myself a logophile (which is a lover of words). Is there a word you're terribly fond of at the moment?<br /><br /><strong>STEPHEN</strong>: I was recently generating material for what I hope will become a poem and wrote the word “emberous” by which I’d meant ember-like, smoldering, fire-potential. In looking it up to see if such a word exists, I found the word “emblements” meaning crops legally belonging to the tenant. I love the short ee sounds, the two em’s. Purely associatively, it brought to mind the word “tribute” and its many uses and valences.<br /><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next?<br /><strong><br />STEPHEN</strong>: I immediately thought of Chuck Rybak for a number of reasons I trust will be evident in an interview with him. He’s a marvelous poet who enjoyed a stretch of publishing in a short period of time: two chapbooks and a full-length volume of poems. I’d enjoyed a number of poems in draft and early manifestations in journals. When the full-length book came out, I was surprised and delighted to see how much of it was new work I hadn’t seen, poems full of the quiet sureness that had been building in those others. The book felt a revelation, which I think is part of their charm for all readers: felt and surprising meditations on common, lived experience.<br /><br />Chuck comes to mind, too, because he is one of the readers for Oneiros Press, and the one in fact who prompted me to start the press instead of fantasizing about it. Would I quit talking about a broadside press, he challenged one night over beers, and simply start one? So I did. We need friends sometimes to hear enough of our wishing to know, often before we do, that we have the energy to make it happen.</div><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div><em>Stephen Frech has earned degrees from Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Cincinnati. He has published three volumes of poetry: Toward Evening and the Day Far Spent (1996), If Not For These Wrinkles of Darkness (2001), and The Dark Villages of Childhood (2009). He is founder and editor of Oneiros Press, publisher of award-winning letterpress poetry broadsides.</em> </div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026144564179530172.post-10122399661684150552009-05-28T08:12:00.000-07:002009-05-28T08:58:20.689-07:00THE POETRY CHAIN GANG (part 8 w/ Rhett Iseman Trull)<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sh6xTgbSQJI/AAAAAAAAAUk/2FgYm4qYHCI/s1600-h/rhett.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340901156787994770" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LN30IagA_Zo/Sh6xTgbSQJI/AAAAAAAAAUk/2FgYm4qYHCI/s200/rhett.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong>The Black Telephone has five fast questions for poet Rhett Iseman Trull.</strong></div><br /><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I love beginnings; one of my favorite poem-beginnings is: "The rusty zipper, the Pawcatuck river/fastens Rhode Island to Connecticut down/to the sea" from Leslie McGrath's poem "Renewal." Is there a poem beginning that you absolutely love? </div><div><br /><strong>RHETT</strong>: That’s a beautiful beginning, and such a perfect opening to that particular poem in which the journey along this river is the background to a couple’s journey through the years. It’s a powerful love poem. I love beginnings like that, beginnings that feel like a lift-off, that sweep me up with the feeling that I’m about to go somewhere. And some of the best beginnings, in my opinion, are those that take on more layers of meaning once you’ve read the whole poem, as McGrath’s does in your example. </div><div><br />One of my favorite beginnings is in “Mood Indigo,” by William Matthews, which opens this way: “From the porch; from the hayrick where her prickled/brothers hid and chortled and slurped into their young pink/lungs the ash-blond dusty air that lay above the bales/like low clouds; and from the squeak and suck/of the well-pump and from the glove of rust it implied/on her hand…” I could keep quoting, but I’ll stop there on that amazing image of the “glove of rust.” This is one of my favorite poems and I’m amazed at how, in those first few lines, Matthews creates this energy, starts something rolling that will build and build (he keeps up that anaphora for the first 15 lines) and saturate the poem and the reader just as this “mood indigo” has built up, moment by moment, for years, inside the young girl in this poem. </div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: What would you want your readers to say about you as a poet? For example, I'd want my readers to say, "That girl can write her butt off..." </div><div><br /><strong>RHETT</strong>: Well, just the idea that I might, one day, have people out there that I might think of as “my readers” is nice. I think I’d like them to say, “That poem really moved me.” That’s the most any of us could hope for, sending poems out into the world: that they reach someone and move someone, communicate somehow the feeling that inspired the poem in the first place. </div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: What made you want to start writing poetry? </div><div><br /><strong>RHETT</strong>: I think my short answer to that would be “my need for song.” The longer answer is that I started writing novels and stories at age 5, but poetry came later. I was around 12 or 13, difficult years for many reasons, and I was visiting a friend. She was older than me—in high school already—and had a beautiful voice. We were in a musical together that summer. She had one of the main singing roles, while I was ever-delegated to the chorus where my off-key singing might blend in and be lost among the stronger voices. But I loved it, loved being a part of the show and disappearing into my character (I always thought up elaborate back stories for my character, even in the chorus) and channeling the intensity of my feelings into songs. </div><br /><div>Anyway, I was at her house and I think she sensed that I was struggling with some great unnamed depression that I’d been trying to keep all locked up inside; she showed me a notebook filled with poems she’d written, sort of in lieu of a journal. She let me read a few of them and I was struck. I still remember some of the lines. It wasn’t that they were brilliant poems or anything…it was just that I’d never thought of trying to take my pain and confusion and put it into a kind of music, give it a voice, as she had done. I went home and started my own notebook the next day. Those early poems were more than a kind of therapeutic venting, though they did serve that purpose. But I think my urge to write poetry was more of a need to search, a need to find the right words for emotions that had been too complicated for me to begin to express before. And whether we’re talking about depression or love or anger or hope, etc., I think that’s probably, to this day, what inspires me to try to write a poem. For me, it always starts with some great feeling and a reach to—not necessarily name or define it—but to give it some sort of shape and voice. And music. To give it music. To give into music. I think the same thing that drove me toward musicals in my teenage years drove me—drives me—to write poetry. </div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: In the First paragraph of a New York Times article by Sara London (November 7, 2008), London writes, "When I was 8 or 9 I copied a poem from a library book in loopy cursive and taped it to the wall over my bed." I tell you this, to ask you, today, if you haven't got one taped to your bedroom wall already, what poem would you copy from a book and tape to the wall over your bed? </div><div><br /><strong>RHETT</strong>: This question makes me happy. I like the thought of poems hanging up in people’s houses, and it’s interesting to think about which poem should hang in which room. I’ve got lots of poems taped to the closet door in my office, for instance, and we have a few broadsides up in our family room. But in the bedroom, right now, we have only one poem up. It’s called “Two Charms for Charm” by Fred Chappell. I was lucky to have Fred as one of my teachers in UNCG’s MFA program about 8 years ago, and at the time he was writing a book of cat poems. Half-jokingly, I asked if he would write a poem about my cat Charm. Well, he did it! He had me bring him a picture of her and write down some facts about her (i.e. “Charm Kitty’s favorite food is ham. She cries when I sneeze. She prefers her water in a mug. She was born in LA and traveled 3,000 miles in the car back to NC with me when she was just 4 months old.”). My mom copied Fred’s resulting poem in calligraphy and framed it for me. It’s one of my favorite poems and it’s a great one for the bedroom because it’s a kind of prayer, not just for Charm, but for all beings in our house. Part one pleads, “Frightful spirit, fly away” and part two asks, “Guardian genius, linger close.” </div><div><br />I’m inspired by your question to add another poem to the bedroom wall—right over the bed, sure. On Valentine’s Day this year, walking through the bookfair at AWP in Chicago, I stumbled upon what has to be one of the greatest love poems ever written: “Charismatic Ambulance Driver” by Mark Leidner. It was a broadside taped to a table with beautiful handmade poetry items. I sat down on the floor and read it over and over. I forgot where I was. I was struck by the beauty and the power of this poem. I bought it immediately for my husband, Jeff, who loves poetry as much as I do. As soon as I get a good frame for it, it’s going over the bed. </div><div><br /><strong>BT</strong>: I'm trying to start a chain, a chain of poets, sort of like a chain gang of poets. Can you please suggest a poet I should ask five fast questions to next? </div><div><br /><strong>RHETT</strong>: After that last question about taping a poem to the wall, I think you’ve got to talk to Stephen Frech. He’s a wonderful poet, whose new chapbook, The Dark Villages of Childhood is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. But he also runs Oneiros press, which publishes gorgeous poetry broadsides. I’ll bet he’s got a poem up on his bedroom wall.<br /></div><div></div><br /><div><em>Rhett Iseman Trull won the Anhinga Prize for Poetry for her first book, The Real Warnings (Anhinga Press, fall 2009). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2008, Iron Horse Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Review, and other publications. Her awards include prizes from the Academy of American Poets and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her MFA from UNC Greensboro, where she was a Randall Jarrell Fellow. She and her husband publish Cave Wall in Greensboro, North Carolina.</em> </div>Michelle "Mim" McEwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00244428617235226799noreply@blogger.com