Marsh Hawk Press Blog

WINNER, RUNNERS-UP AND FINALISTS OF THE 2010 MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE

Congratulations to the winners of this year's contest judged by Anne Waldman:

Winner
"Eminent Domain," Justin Petropoulos


Runners-up
Robert Perchan, Sawnie Morris, Yona Harvey, Martine Bellen


Finalists
Andrea Carter Brown, Mark Neely, Megan Gannon, Darlene Pagán, Sydney Brown, Steven Karl, J. Lorraine Brown, John Horvath, Jr., Dion N. Farquhar, Tony Peyser, Mark Elber, Tony Trigilio, Nancy Kassell, Randall Horton, Djelloul (Del) Marbrook, Andrea Scarpino, Kenneth Gaertner, B. K. Fischer, Leslie Williams, Seth Landman, Faisal Siddiqui, Margaret LeMay-Lewis, Arlene Ang, Nicholas Regiacorte.


Poets from fifteen countries plus the U.S. entered our contest this year. All manuscripts were read at least twice. According to the judges, the poetry quality was high. We thank you for letting us consider your manuscript and invite you to enter again next year.

NEIL DE LA FLOR IN POETS FOR LIVING WATERS PROJECT

Neil de la Flor has a poem, video and statements regarding the BP oil disaster at Poets for Living Waters. This worthwhile project is described as:

Poets for Living Waters is a poetry action in response to the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico begun on April 20, 2010, one of the most profound human-made ecological catastrophes in history.

The first law of ecology states that everything is connected to everything else. An appreciation of this systemic connectivity suggests a wide range of poetry will offer a meaningful response to the current crisis, including work that harkens back to Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing regional effects.

JACKET MAGAZINE REVIEWS ED FOSTER AND BURT KIMMELMAN!

John Olson reviews Ed Foster's THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS over at Jacket 40. It begins:

“Colors, sounds, temperatures, pressures, spaces, times, and so forth,” observed Ernst Mach in his groundbreaking work The Analysis Of Sensations, “are connected with one another in manifold ways; and with them are associated dispositions of mind, feelings, and volitions.” Nothing is static. Everything changes. The planet tilts and winter turns to summer; a photograph of rivets on a ship’s hull appear to be divots if we turn the photograph upside down because we are accustomed to seeing shadows formed by overhead light; pain turns to pleasure; pleasure turns to pain. We do not inhabit a reality that is put before us preassembled and inanimate. We assist, consciously and/or unconsciously, in the creation of what we experience. But neither is it accurate to say that what we experience is entirely our creation; that leads to solipsism, and madness. There is an objective reality. There is a subjective reality. We inhabit a realm somewhere between. This is where language quivers, transubstantiates, and becomes poetry.

Click HERE for entire review.

*****

Gerald Schwartz also reviews Burt Kimmelman's latest, AS IF FREE (Talisman House). It begins:

Burt Kimmelman embraces a lot. He embraces black eyed Susans, Fra Angelico, cicadas in July, his brother, abandoned houses, neighbors and snowshine equally, in ways ranging from quiet to celebratory but all of them

2
let us
celebrate
the littlest
of them — the,
by, upon,
you, me, us.

Click HERE for entire review.

SANDY MCINTOSH INTERVIEW

Neil de la Flor interviews Sandy McIntosh at the Almost Dorothy Blog. Here's an excerpt:

SM: The essential heart of Flamenco is its lyric forms. There are many such forms, each metrically distinctive, and each serves a function in the performance. There are forms that bring the dancers onto the stage, forms that move them through the narrative and all the interactions of passion. All of these are governed by the Duende–the inner spirit released as the result of the performer’s intense emotional involvement with the music, song, and dance.

AD: The poem “Ernesta” is a narrative about an intense, passionate 19th century Spanish pianist who does whatever she has to do to succeed–perhaps even abetting murder. In recasting the story as a poem I decided to use some of the Flamenco verse forms to establish mood and rhythm.

SM: In grammar school, I’d always hated the narrative poems of writers like Longfellow, which were often only mildly interesting stories that happened to rhyme. But, of course, poetry offers an arsenal of possibilities besides rhymes. Since my character, Ernesta, performed at the piano wearing traditional Flamenco costume, I thought it fitting to incorporate poetic devices of the Flamenco in the poem’s construction. They predicate the rhythm of each section of the poem, although I didn’t apply their rules strictly. They are more like background sounds and colors.

AD: Can you dance?

SM: Without being coy, let me answer “Yes…and no.”

You are invited HERE for entire interview.

POEMS INSPIRE NEW POEM!

Naomi Buck Palagi, a poet in Indiana, has written a poem based on poems in Eileen Tabios' THE THORN ROSARY! With appreciation to Naomi, here is her poem below -- you can click on the image to see a larger, more legible version!

MINI REVIEW ON EILEEN TABIOS' THE THORN ROSARY

William Allegrezza posts a brief review of Eileen Tabios' THE THORN ROSARY at p-ramblings; click on excerpt for whole review:

the most significant work that Eileen has published over the last twelve years. While I've read many of the poems in the original books, it was interesting to read the selected pieces again, and this time I read them after reading Thomas Fink's excellent introduction to Eileen's poetry**. In picking the poems, Fink did a nice job of highlighting some of the most interesting aspects of Eileen's poetry and helps show her as a master of the prose poem.

MADELINE TIGER'S NEW BOOK!

TITLE: THE ATHEIST’S PRAYER
AUTHOR: Madeline Tiger
ISBN: 978-1-933675-50-3
PAGES: 90
SIZE: 6 x 9
PRICE: $15.00

CONTACT: Robert Murphy, editor@dosmadres.com 513-677-0504 http://www.dosmadres.com
DISTRIBUTION: You may order books directly from Dos Madres Press Inc. at http://www.dosmadres.com - for quantity or reseller discounts call 513-677-0504 or email editor@dosmadres.com

Announcing "The Atheist’s Prayer" - poems by Madeline Tiger

THE ATHEIST'S PRAYER

These poems speak through visions and memories, through teaching experiences, folk tales, Biblical stories, and responses to visual arts. But the process is spiritual: the poems move toward what one can hold, and they teach us what to trust. It’s no coincidence that the title poem is a rush of language, a passionate declaration —of disbelief, and of belief. The Atheist’s Prayer is Madeline Tiger’s tenth collection of poetry.

—Burt Kimmelman “In The Atheist’s Prayer Madeline Tiger never forgets, even in the most intimate moments, that “truth is ...like the old inveterate river that holds clouds.” Tiger encompasses, with a tender embrace, a life made whole; her ministrations do not deny its sorrows, and she is glad to celebrate its hard-won triumphs. I don’t know when I have ever been allowed to contemplate the intricacies of the personal so unflinchingly and to understand that, beyond the window, there is a vast untempered world, a glorious one. It is the caring in these quietly intelligent poems which makes living in this world possible.”

Praise for earlier work by Madeline Tiger:
—Alicia Ostriker: “To read Madeline Tiger’s poetry is like flowing with the river of life itself... Life, love and death are her subjects–not the abstractions but the details, and she gets the details right.”

—Gerald Stern: “I much admire Madeline Tiger’s poetry of observation, her keen memory and her holding of things dear... I also admire her poems of pure imagination, dreamy and scary... ...she faces... heartbreaking experiences with the bravery of good music so that there is no fake comfort....”

About the Author - Madeline Tiger
Madeline Tiger’s most recently published collections are The Earth Which Is All (2008) and Birds of Sorrow and Joy: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 (2003). Her work appears regularly in journals and anthologies. She has been teaching in state programs and private workshops since 1973 and has been a “Dodge Poet” since 1986. She has five children and seven grandchildren and lives in Bloomfield, NJ under a weeping cherry tree.