An Afternoon at the Strand

It's Valentine's Day. Whether you have a love to celebrate or are actively boycotting this greeting card holiday, I've got a poem for you about my one true love--books. It comes from If It Was New York, Summer 2009 and it's a sneak peek at what the collection has to offer.

An Afternoon at the Strand

Miles and miles to keep you entertained

Practically calling out to you with all its musty glory

New and old, there's no shame in what you happen to like

Diving deep into stacks, submerged until the last call

No more room left for you to bring home another treasure

Another stack places more tension on an already worn shoulder

But it's a habit, a hobby, an obsession

You need it more than it needs you

Those words, billions of them floating around you

And a million more trying to get out of your own head

You just need to focus, focus

...focus...

Then maybe you'll find the gem you've been looking for

The one that will twist your insides, clamp down on your lungs

At just the right moment to scare yourself at the thought

A book is just a book, until it's not, then you give it life

Calmly breathing culture, giving birth endlessly to another

And another until you can't stand it—you must have them all

Maybe you'll turn into a maniac, consuming thousands of words

Bloated, but still ready for the next delicious stack

It has a different taste, and you can't wait to try some more

And you situate your tote, and you check your wallet

Another stack for home, another stack for the pleasure of it all.




Interested in more from the upcoming collection? Check out Patreon for more exclusive excerpts and extras.

New Year, New Tier

2019 is here, folks. I'm cautiously optimistic about it because last year I was able to accomplish most of the goals I set for myself, but there's still caution for the future because 2019 is an odd-numbered year. I tend to not do so well professionally in odd-numbered years. Don't ask me why, it just happens. I'm looking to break that streak this year by again setting the same goal as last year. I'm aiming for four published works by the end of 2019, which I now know is doable since I already accomplished it once. However, this time there won't be unfinished live projects to lean on. I'm making 2019's pieces all new and all polished to a shine when they are revealed.

I'm nearly twenty-five percent into my goal already with the upcoming poetry collection If It Was New York, Summer 2009. This collection will be available for pre-order soon. I've hit a few behind-the-scenes snags, otherwise the pre-order would be available now. But I've got a plan to fix all of that. I just need to strap myself to my computer and get all of it done, though it's difficult because I find myself in input mode rather than output mode. I'm consuming a lot of content, but the original stuff just isn't flowing out at a fast enough rate. 

In other news, if you have been interested in checking out my work or my Patreon page but still haven't done so, I've got a deal for you. There are ten spots available to sign up as a 2019 All-Star on my Patreon page. What does this mean? It means that you get access to all posts and tier rewards available and for only a $1. That includes exclusive excerpts of new projects, cover reveals, early access to ARCs, and my entire backlist--including the out-of-print Melody of Love novella series. Since there are only 10 spots available, I wouldn't hesitate to sign up.

What are your writing goals this year? What do you want to see happen for yourself in 2019?

When Planning Goes Awry (Or, How Not to Write a Poem)

Week two of my goal to write 30 poems this month didn't seem to go as well as the first week. It's mostly because I was removed from my notes. During the last week in March I was coming up with these fabulous ideas to poeticize so I wrote them down and kept them especially for this challenge. The problem with all of this planning arose when I went back to those notes, looked at each separate idea and couldn't remember exactly where I wanted to go with it.

I used the notes anyway to do my daily writing, but I know that these ponderings of poetic genius didn't get the treatment they deserved. They turned out poor, with or without editing. Don't fret--they won't be lost to the ages if I commit to a few hours of rigorous revision.

Lesson learned. If an idea for a poem sprouts in my mind, I sit down and I write it then and there. Then maybe I'll get closer to achieving what I want.

On to the part you all are waiting for. The poem I'm sharing this week is a haiku. It comes much closer to traditional haiku with the theme of nature.

--

Fertile air in spring

Blossoms the waiting flowers

Rain mists down on us

-- 

No National Poetry Month would be complete without a pause for some promotion, would it? If you like haiku, I do have my haiku collection Unfolding Life for sale. You can get it from Amazon, Createspace and Kobo. I have it on good authority that more places for purchase will be available soon. ;-)  As always, if you pick up a copy, let me know what you think by leaving a review.

National Poetry Month, Week 2: Don't Dabble #Poetry

The poem I'm sharing this week doesn't have a title yet. Maybe it doesn't need one. I was reading someone's short bio online and I saw the phrase "the author dabbled in film making for awhile before..." and the word dabbled just struck me the wrong way. It actually made me angrier than I thought a word could, especially when there wasn't supposed to be anything malicious attached to it. But, that's what poetry is, isn't it? Exploring the unexplored depths of our souls. And my soul apparently hates dabbling.

- - - -

I dabble.

Pretentious.

What does that really translate to?

I have money, I do what I want.

That is, until I'm bored with it.

Or someone says I'm no good at it.

Rolls off my back, you know.

Rolls off, does it?

Down the hill, to a blackened pit

Where you collect all those failures

And tell people you've dabbled.

You took their spot—

The real talent. The ones who plead

To cut their arms off, sacrifice a first born

For the chances you buy.

Dabbling.

It's a loaded gun

To wield at those who dare question your value

Without using numbers.

It's Almost That Time Again: Submit Your Poetic Confessions

We all have them: a vile verse, a crude couplet, a quatrain destined for the dump or just an embarrassing tale of woe set in poetic form. I'm now accepting more Poetic Confessions: a way to cleanse the writer's conscience. No matter how embarrassing, silly or sad your story may be, I want to hear from you. We all know that April is National Poetry Month, so we'll kick it off right by featuring some Poetic Confessions. But I can't do this alone--while I have many confessions to make, I'm sure my readers want more of a variety of confessions.

So that means I'm accepting entries of your own Poetic Confessions. Just email your story (short or long--doesn't matter to me). If you reference a specific poem of yours that's available online, feel free to include the link to it. You should also include a short (1-2 lines) bio and a link to your blog or website. Please put the words "Poetic Confessions" in the subject line so I won't lose it in the spam folder. I cannot guarantee that your confession will make it on the blog during the month of April depending on the amount of submissions I get, but it could be used at some point in the future.

From time to time we all have that poetic misstep, so go ahead and get it off your chest. I'll start posting confessions on April 1.

Celebrating Poetry #10: Share Your Poems

Now that you've written your poems out, it is time to share them. I know it can be a little scary, but you don't have to start sharing with the world right away. You can start simply by sharing your work with a trusted friend or family member. However, if you want the world to see your work, you can do everything from posting to a blog to printing it on a poster or attending a poetry reading. The sky's the limit when you want to share your work with the world.



Poem of the Day: The Only Threat

Celebrating Poetry #9: Write a Poem

I know it's kind of late in the month, but if you have been celebrating along with everyone else and haven't written a poem yet, what are you waiting for? It doesn't have to be great and you don't have to share it with anyone if you don't want to (though sharing is encouraged around here). Even if you have never written a poem in your life, there's no time like National Poetry Month to get started.

What poem will you be writing today?

Poem of the Day: Mother Nature Cries

Celebrating Poetry #8: Write A Letter to A Poet

Writing a letter to a poet can be a fun activity, particularly for kids and teens. The Academy of American Poets often features letters written by students to poets from across the country. But just because you are an adult doesn't mean you can't write a letter too. Most poets list some type of contact information on their websites, so if you feel inclined, write a letter to favorite poet.


Poem of the Day: Without Answers

Celebrating Poetry #6: A Poem in Your Pocket

Tomorrow, April 18, is officially Poem in Your Pocket Day. It is a day-long celebration that happens during every National Poetry Month where you simply choose one of your favorite poems and carry around in your pocket all day long. It's main purpose is to get you and others to share poetry and get a conversation going. There are also a variety of poetry events across the country to coincide with this event.

What poem will you be carrying with you tomorrow? I'll be carrying around “The Thin Edge” by Dorothy Parker.


Poem of the Day: Truth in Color

Poetry Influences: Dorothy Parker

I cannot tell you when I first discovered the writing of DorothyParker—I assume that I first found her work in college through one of those multi-book anthologies I had to have for my literature classes. But her work has been such a part of my life for the past decade or so that I feel like I have always known the her work.

What I love about Parker the most is generally what other people enjoy as well—the snarky, in your face attitude that she brings to most of her work, whether it is poetry or short stories. She's an icon of the Algonquin Round Table, women writers and so much more. She's also a huge reason why most of my New York City fantasies put me into 1930s garb, drink in hand and staying out til all hours with the other prolific NYC writers of the day.

My favorite Dorothy Parker poems? “News Item,” “The Thin Edge” and many more. What are yours?

Poem of the Day: War Zone

Poetic Confessions #4: Best Left to Journals

At one point in my high school/early college writing, I decided that flowery language was out and simple words and phrases were in. Instead of writing a ghastly sonnet with every word to describe love without using the word love, I decided to just say what was on my mind. That's how "Ooh You" came along.

I am now very aware that simple language, unless the message is entirely new, does not always work well. That, and naming the poem after a song (sans the 'h' on Ooh) just makes the whole effort seem sloppy, now that I look back. But it is one of the unfortunate failures that will live on, since I sold full rights to Associated Content (now YCN). I hope they enjoy the $0.10 a year they make with advertising on it. I know I enjoy the $0.01 per year I make.

Welcome to National Poetry Month!

It's finally here: National Poetry Month. We're going to have some fun here at TSW with all things poetry. There are a variety of things in store that are new, and some that are carrying over from last year. First, I will be continuing Poetic Confessions. You can still send your own confessions in (check out that post HERE) and I will be offering up some more of my own confessions as well. I will also be featuring my own work with a poem of the day on all posts in April. And of course, guest bloggers can add to the conversation and submit a post (details HERE) so that I don't feel like I'm talking to myself all month long.

This year, I will also be posting stories about poets that have influenced me, discussions on different poetic forms and of course ideas for ways that you can celebrate too!



Poem of the Day:

LIFE OBSCURED

Everything in the universe

Can be hidden behind my thumb

To be duped is comforting

But cannot be reconciled

Originally published in The Poetry of Yoga, Vol. 1

Callout for Guest Bloggers!

TSW is still looking for guest bloggers to contribute! Here is the original post from a couple of weeks ago:

Since the blog's main purpose is writing, I hope that there are a few writers out there that would love to talk about their own personal writing experiences, a writing topic they are an expert in or other writing-related topic that you can think of. However, I would like to also include anyone with a business remotely related to writing. If they want to write a guest blog post, I'm totally open for that. And this is a VERY loose interpretation of writing related. For example, you could own a coffee shop and write about the types of coffee writers love, the weirdest writer that's walked through the door, etc. As long as it's grammatically sound, I'll consider it.

What do you need to do to be featured on TSW? Well, all you need to do is send me the post along with your bio. Please feel free to include links to your website, blog, Twitter account, Facebook or any writing that you want to feature in your bio. You can also include a picture of yourself or a relevant picture that goes along with the post, but please make sure that you own the rights to the photo, otherwise I can't publish it with your post.

All guest posts will be published on Fridays. At least two tweets on my Twitter account (@TerriDeno) will also help to promote the post. Happy writing!

**If you are planning to send in a guest post for April, I will be featuring guest posts by poets or about poetry to celebrate National Poetry Month. All other guest posts sent along not on the topic of poetry will still be considered, but will be held off until May.

Calling All Poets! Send in Your Poetic Confessions Today

We all have them: a vile verse, a crude couplet, a quatrain destined for the dump or just an embarrassing tale of woe set in poetic form. I'm now accepting more Poetic Confessions: a way to cleanse the writer's conscious. No matter how embarrassing, silly or sad your story may be, I want to hear from you. We all know that April is National Poetry Month, so we'll kick it off right by featuring some Poetic Confessions. But I can't do this alone--while I have many confessions to make, I'm sure my readers want more of a variety of confessions.


So that means I'm accepting entries of your own Poetic Confessions. Just email your story (short or long--doesn't matter to me). If you reference a specific poem of yours that's available online, feel free to include the link to it. You should also include a short (1-2 lines) bio and a link to your blog or website (free promotion!!). Please put the words "Poetic Confessions" in the subject line so I won't lose it in the spam folder. I cannot guarantee that your confession will make it on the blog during the month of April depending on the amount of submissions I get, but it could be used at some point in the future.


From time to time we all have that poetic misstep, so go ahead and get it off your chest. I'll start posting confessions on April 1.

Need some inspiration? Here are the confessions I posted last year:

Poetic Confessions #1: Cutesy Wootsy Bunny Wunny

Poetic Confessions #2: Beach Bummer

Poetic Confessions #3: Songs in the Key of Poetry

 

 

The Last Visit Before Spring?

I'm buried up to my knees in snow here, but for me that's a good thing--I can't get out until the snow melts, which means I can get more work done instead of finding excuses to leave the house. Sometimes Mother Nature knows how to work in my favor (though I'm sure others in the area probably don't agree). Hopefully it's the last visit, because I have way too many spring/summer clothes I haven't been able to wear yet. Well, without looking slightly ridiculous, anyway...

National Poetry Month is just a week away and you know what that means--calls for contributions. I'll post more on Wednesday, but I'm going to continue the Poetic Confessions series of posts I started last year. Hopefully, I'll get some other contributions so that no one has to see me drone on and on all month long. I would also love to get more guest posts so that I can provide all aspects of poetry and what people write, think, love, hate about it all. That post will probably come on Friday.

See... a little planning goes a long way. April should be a great month here at TSW.

Crunch Time

It's a whirlwind of activity on this computer today. It's getting down to the wire for a variety of projects I'm working on. I have a tentative date to turn in my fellowship application by Friday, although there is still one poem I would like to include that has not gone through a final round of revision. That's on the schedule for tonight, otherwise I may have to leave it out. I'm not quite staying on task when it comes to my serial project, however, I have been adding a little more detail to the outline so that information is there when I need to get to it.

And of course, I haven't forgot that April is National Poetry Month, so I'm brainstorming about my blog posts for this year. I hope to bring back some of the old series ideas and add at least one new series of posts. I hope you are all getting ready--I know I am.

Input and Output

I just finished sending off another poetry submission. At this rate, I should start getting a ton of accept/reject letters by springtime. It's also really good to get the finished poetry wrapped up in submission limbo so that I can concentrate on those that need some revision. I'm still sticking to writing a poem a day so far, so I have plenty to revise.

However, the more work I put out into the world, the more ideas that seem to come flooding in. I was recently reading more about Amazon's serials and I'm still intrigued. I really want to write a serial, but Amazon's program is a little too small and much too exclusive (major publishers only) at the moment. I guess I'll have plenty of time to work on my idea and let Amazon catch up. Don't worry -- I have tons of other things to work on anyway. Hopefully something with a bigger payoff than bragging rights.

Recovering

I wish I could tell you that today I am recovering from partying too hard this weekend, but sadly I'm recovering from a bit of a cold. It wasn't a full-blown cold, but it did blow my plans for the weekend. I'm sad to say that I had to skip all of my poem/photo a day challenges yesterday, but I'm back on track now. Along with that, I'm participating in a blog tour over at Book Review Bin for the next two weeks. That's always a ton of fun, even though I have yet to win one of the prizes...

And of course all of my submissions are still on schedule. I have plenty of revision work to do this week so that I can submit anywhere from 5-10 poems at the end of this month to publications. Then, the whole wonderful cycle starts all over again. Although next month the revisions will be more intense since I will be working with a lot of first drafts. I'm just glad the idea well hasn't dried up yet!

Working on a Dream--And It's Working

I know I normally don't post on Thursdays, but today is a special occasion. Yesterday I found out that my poem, "Tuesday Morning Hangover" is being published over at Full of Crow in the July 2012 issue. It was a pleasant surprise to find out last night. Go check it out and let me know what you think!

Busy Bee

Over the weekend I submitted a few more poems, letting my babies out into the world. I also acquired a few new babies of the plant kind. I started a container garden on the back deck to see if 1) I could actually grow something and 2) so I could have a little more knowledge and control over the types of foods I eat. We'll see what happens with these later in the summer.

On the work front, I finally have a few new leads for work. I'll find out soon whether I get to add some new jobs to my daily to-do list. I'm cautiously excited about these since they would add something to the resume. I also feel guilty about spending more money than I intended to this weekend, so a new source of income would be welcome.