Monday, May 25, 2009

Sketchbook Call for Poems; Mr. Davis, Mr. Roethke, & Mr. Gilbert



Miles Davis


A call for poems opens things up today from the online publication Sketchbook. Carefully read the guidelines and I would suggest you go to their website to get a feel for what they use and an idea of all the many things they do.


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Sketchbook
A Journal of Eastern & Western Writing Forms

Announcing May / June "Sunflower(s)" 2009 Kukai

The May / June 2009 Kukai theme is "sunflower(s)" . Use the exact
words "sunflower(s)" in the haiku. No more than a total of three
haiku may be submitted. Haiku submitted to the kukai should
not be workshopped, appear on-line in forums, or in print.


Haiku

Author, Country

To: kukaieditor@poetrywriting.org
Subject:sunflower(s) kukai

Submissions: Friday, May 01, 2009 – Saturday, June 20, 2009
Midnight.

Voting: Sunday, June 21 - Sunday, June 28, 2009, Midnight.

The results will be published in the Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sketchbook.

Recent letters to the Sketchbook editors and discussions on
various forums indicate that some assumptions about a kukai
must be spelled out. From now on (April 1, 2008), Haiku
entered in the Sketchbook kukai must be previously unpublished;
they must not be workshopped; they must not appear on any
ist, forum, group, blog, or in print. In short, if the haiku has
appeared on the internet or in print we consider it to have been
published. The voting in a kukai is anonymous and publication
anywhere voids anonymity. Any haiku found to be previously
published will be disqualified.


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Celebrate Theodore Roethke's birthday reading his poems here

In addition, Garrison Keillor gives an overview of Roethke and reads a great poem from Jack Gilbert's Refusing Heaven, entitled "Happily Planting the Beans Too Early" in today's Writer's Almanac. I tried embedding it without any luck, so here's the poem:




Happily Planting the Beans too Early
I waited until the sun was going down
to plant the bean seedlings. I was
beginning on the peas when the phone rang.
It was a long conversation about what
living this way in the woods might
be doing to me. It was dark by the time
I finished. Made tuna fish sandwiches
and read the second half of a novel.
Found myself out in the April moonlight
putting the rest of the pea shoots into
the soft earth. It was after midnight.
There was a bird calling intermittently
and I could hear the stream down below.
She was probably right about me getting
strange. After all, Basho and Tolstoy
at the end were at least going somewhere.
Jack Gilbert





It's also Miles Davis day and I'm unabashed fan, of all periods. So here's something newer, live in Munich in 1987, with apologies to classic fans; my feet are, however, moving now.







spring breeze--
where my feet are pointed
I'm on my way
Issa
translated by David Lanoue



best,
Don

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanx for the nod towards Sketchbook!

Karina AND John are "in it" 111%
just go to the "ARCHIVE"

every issue is there

might take some time to peruse all but, well worth the visit!

Ed

Ed Baker said...

pee est..


well

Jack's been "awake" all of his (writing) life

just 'we' hadn't paid too much attention to his

beneath-the-still-waters..

thanks, Jack

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

You are welcome, Ed -

Thanks to awakened Jack, indeed ...

Charles Gramlich said...

Love that last piece by Issa. I'm going to check out the guidelines for the other.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Charles, glad you liked, Lanoue's translations are solid - good luck with Sketchbook.