Tag Archives: Poetry

April PAD, Poetry

Zombie Poem (and an exceptionally bad limerick)

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I write a lot of zombie poems. In fact, I’m planning to self-publish a collection of zombie poems later this year. I was just going through some of my April Poem a Day poems from last year to see if there were any I hadn’t transcribed but should when I found this one. I’m going to share it here because I like it and thought you might too 🙂

I look at my meds and know
if walkers don’t kill me
lack of pharmaceuticals will

ETA: I found another one! I think I’ve mentioned before that for every publishable poem I write probably five which are not. They serve their purposes though, whether they are personal and cathartic or just straight-up silly and helping me to just get something on the page. I think you can guess which category this one falls into 🙂

There once was an old man named Hugh
who owned a hound dog he called Blue
Blue’s collar was perfumed and florid
to cover his breath which was horrid
because he loved eating cat poo

Whee!

 

A to Z Challenge, Niteblade

X: Issue #10

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Lost InnocenceOver the years Niteblade has published three print issues. I’d love to do more but they are expensive. Sadly, it’s not even really the printing part that’s expensive, it’s the shipping part. Sending a copy of a print anthology to each contributor can cost $20. Multiply that by 15 or 20 contributors and we begin to reach numbers that I just can’t afford. It adds up quickly.

That’s not to say we won’t do more in the past. I love print issues so anything is possible, especially if our fundraiser continues to be awesome but, well, they are tricky.

Our first print issue was the one you see to the left there, Lost Innocence. That was issue #5. Issue #10, as you can tell by the subject of this blog post, was also a print issue. We called that one Nothing to Dread and it had a Christmas flavour to it. Lastly, our special poetry issue. That was my first attempt at using a printer who wasn’t POD and it was less expensive for me, but did result in a box of books in my closet.

I’m giving away copies of the poetry issue, you can see all about it here. As for the other two, well, I recently decreased their base price over at Lulu and added a 20% discount on top of that. That means you can pick up a copy of either for $7.99. If you combine that with one of Lulu’s frequent discounts you may manage to save even more.

And now, just so this blog doesn’t feel like one giant advertisement and because they are awesome, a duck!

Duck - photograph by Rhonda Parrish

~*~

A2Z-2013-BADGE-001Small_zps669396f9This post has been written as a part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is ‘Niteblade‘, which is the magazine I publish. I chose this theme to help draw attention to the magazine during this, it’s 2nd annual fundraiser.

My first post in this series was about choosing stories and poems to nominate for awards and I’ve gone through a similar process in deciding what to write about for these posts. Not only did I have to choose stories and poems I loved, but they also had to fit with the A-Z theme. Tricky!

 

A to Z Challenge, Niteblade, Poetry

E: Evil Bird

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Magpie - Photograph by Rhonda ParrishI actually always imagine the bird in An Evil Bird by Anna Sykora to be a raven. Alas, I haven’t any pictures of a raven, so I’m going to use this one of a magpie instead. I didn’t do the embroidery you see there, just took the photo of it.

But yes. An Evil Bird by Anna Sykora. I adored this poem from the first moment I read it. It’s really quite fun and the last stanza always makes me smile. It says something about Ms. Sykora’s versatility that she also wrote On Its Own which is a thought-provoking, somewhat melancholy poem which remains one of my personal favourites ever. Ever. Not just of poems we’ve published at Niteblade.

~*~

A2Z-2013-BADGE-001Small_zps669396f9This post has been written as a part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is ‘Niteblade‘, which is the magazine I publish. I chose this theme to help draw attention to the magazine during this, it’s 2nd annual fundraiser.

My first post in this series was about choosing stories and poems to nominate for awards and I’ve gone through a similar process in deciding what to write about for these posts. Not only did I have to choose stories and poems I loved, but they also had to fit with the A-Z theme. Tricky!

Blogging from A to Z 2013:

A: Award Nominations
B: Brenda Stokes Barron
C: Cato, Beth – The Pacifier
D: December 2011 (Giveaway open until April 30th)
E: Evil Bird

ETA: People seem to be feeling bad for ravens because I said that’s how I imagine the bird in this poem. For the record I love ravens. Love them. I even have nine of them tattooed on my arm. Well, I call it a murder of crows, but crows, ravens… any corvidae has got my heart.

A to Z Challenge, Niteblade, Poetry

D: December 2011

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Niteblade poetry issue, original cover art by Marge SimonThis is the original cover art Marge Simon created for our December 2011 special poetry only print issue of Niteblade Magazine. That issue was the last one I worked on as poetry editor (Alexandra Seidel and I co-edited it). After that the mantle of Poetry Editor fell to her.  It’s a tough thing, giving up control of something like that, but it’s been a good thing for me and for Niteblade.

Our poetry only issue was an interesting learning experience. I learned things about writing submission guidelines, about soliciting submissions directly from specific authors, about working with another person to make editorial decisions. I learned about formatting things for printers, and finding printers, and judging printers and I remembered why I usually go with POD printers LOL I also discovered that selling a physical book of poetry is a lot different than selling an electronic book of poetry and prose.

I am very proud of our poetry issue (for it’s content, not just what it taught me) and it just so happens that I have *mumble* copies sitting in a box in my bedroom closet. I’d like to see some of those find homes with people who will read and appreciate them. If that is you please leave a comment to this blog entry. At the end of the month I will send out three copies to random commentators. It could be you 🙂

Niteblade: December 2011 Poetry Issue

~*~

A2Z-2013-BADGE-001Small_zps669396f9This post has been written as a part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme this year is ‘Niteblade‘, which is the magazine I publish. I chose this theme to help draw attention to the magazine during this, it’s 2nd annual fundraiser.

My first post in this series was about choosing stories and poems to nominate for awards and I’ve gone through a similar process in deciding what to write about for these posts. Not only did I have to choose stories and poems I loved, but they also had to fit with the A-Z theme. Tricky!

Blogging from A to Z 2013:

A: Award Nominations
B: Brenda Stokes Barron
C: Cato, Beth – The Pacifier
D: December 2011 (Giveaway)

Poetry, Sale

Sale: Beneath

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Every Day Poets LogoI’m super excited to announce that my short horror poem, Beneath, has been accepted to appear on Every Day Poets some time in the near future. I love Every Day Poets. I love it as a reader and as a writer. I honestly believe they are helping me write better poems. The combination of reading other people’s work each day and the feedback the editors provide on many of my submissions is making me a stronger poet. Acceptance, when it comes, is just a wonderful bonus 🙂

Poetry, Published

Published: Lovers

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7 x 20 MagazineMy super short poem, Lovers, was reprinted in Seven by Twenty today.

This is the poem that earned me a Rhysling nomination a couple years ago and is the one I read at the only poetry reading I’ve ever done (at the World Fantasy Convention in Calgary). I like it. A lot. Though now, after several years of reading it over and over for various reasons, I find it difficult to resist the urge to edit it. Ya know, just take out a comma, or tweek a word. This is why I don’t usually read my work after it’s been published 😉

Check it out –> Lovers on Seven by Twenty.

A to Z Challenge, NovPad, Poetry

Poetry

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My definition of poetry, if I were pressed to provide one, would be deliberately vague. Actually, I don’t know if I could give one even if I tried. I consider song lyrics to be poems, and often as I’m composing a photograph (or editing it afterward) I think of it as a poem. Those pictures up there, for example, are a few I picked out of my photostream over at Flickr that seemed poetic to me.

I write a lot of poems, and I have made much more money selling poems than I have selling fiction. Even so, I always feel almost, halfway embarrassed about my poetry. I think because it doesn’t feel “intellectual” enough. That’s probably not the right word, and I’m worried now that I’ve insulted someone somewhere, but… it’s the best word I can think of for now.

My poems are accessible. No one has ever read one of my poems (that I know of LOL) and said ‘I don’t get it’. On one hand I feel like that’s a good thing, but on the other I’m always worried someone is going to be like “Dude, that’s not a poem, it’s not nearly obscure enough!” or  jump out of the proverbial bushes and point at me and be like “You call that thing you wrote a poem? It doesn’t even have any *insert something here* in it!”

It’s stupid, really. I know it is, but that doesn’t make it go away. Alas.

Now I’ve written and deleted the last bit of this post four times in the last hour. I need to get this blog entry finished and scheduled, but by choosing ‘Poetry’ as my topic I’ve picked something too broad and I’m having a hell of a time keeping this post focused. Therefore, in order to avoid rambling off onto a million other topics I’m going to share three poems I’ve written over the years. I’ve covered the spectrum here from super cheesy to (hopefully) less so LOL I hope you enjoy at least one of them 🙂

The Sepultress
(first published by NewMyths.com in December 2007)

Her silken song of wind and wave
Called unto those beyond the grave
“Awake!” she cried, “And come to play!”
“I’ve only ‘till the break of day.”

And to the shore the dead did come,
In groups of two and one by one
Once there they danced upon the sand
Whilst wicked waves served as the band.

A thousand corpses bobbed and swayed—
Cold bones ratt’ling a serenade
“Dance my children,” I heard her shriek
And terror made my knees go weak

From the shadows I watched their throes
While a foul stench assailed my nose.
With my shirt up over my face,
I loosed my guts, to my disgrace

Above the bluffs, I spent the night
Afraid I might just die of fright
And when the dawn at last did break
All of the dead began to quake.

The power drained from empty eyes
As sunlight reached across the skies
Touched, she writhed upon the beach
Yet further still the beams did reach.

They swept across her gory crew
Who fell; puppets with strings cut through
I stood, transfixed as the tide rose
And shivered in my filthy clothes.

I watched the corpses float to sea
And knew no one would believe me
If I to them, did run and tell
About the night I spent in hell.

Because the water swept away
All evidence of their soiree
I lack the courage to be bold –
This pen’s the only soul I’ve told.

 

Lovers
(first published by Star*Line Fall 2008)

Where river meets bank
We linger, yet again, with
Your fin in my paw

 

Fluffy
(first published by Daikaijuzine June 2010)

A lame name, perhaps, but I wasn’t feeling creative
that day when I found her, hiding under the porch
at MacPherson’s old place. The same deck I ducked under
when I saw the shuffling mob coming down the street.
I’d seen her, a shadow within the shadows, her eyes
so wide open her iris was the thinnest band of gold;
like the ring Jo had given me, before this all started,
the one I lost trying to pull away from the shambler
the week before. She hissed, and arched her back,
not at me, but at the dirty feet, some shoeless, some
stumps, that marched past us out there.
I reached, with fingers shaking like the last leaf clinging
to the trees, and ran my hand down her back,
praying it would hush her, and not make her louder.
She pressed against me, rubbing my palm with her greasy fur,
a low rumble, like gargled gravel, emanating from her throat.
Purring.
It had been so long since I’d heard it, or any sound
reminiscent of joy. For it to be now, while the battered
battalion of undead dragged themselves by, made tears
creep into my eyes. Silent tears, thank God.
Now, as the snow blankets the ground, she rests
spread across my lap, vibrating gently, warming
my legs and my heart. The only other thing,
within hundreds of miles, perhaps,
with a heartbeat.

 ~*~

This blog post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge over the month of April and was brought to you by the letter P. Tomorrow I’ll be answering some of the questions people asked me last month 🙂

A to Z Challenge, Niteblade, Personal, Poetry, Random Fact, Thoughts

I Lied

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So, I lied.

In yesterday’s post I said I was going to talk about Inspiration today, but once it was time to actually write the post, well, I didn’t wanna LoL. I strongly suspect that most of the people who read my blog are creative people, which means you don’t need me to tell you all about inspiration. You know how it works (or doesn’t). You get it. And you probably don’t want to hear about all the myriad of inspirations for my various stories.

Mostly though, I’m feeling lazy today and I don’t want to have to organise my thoughts as clearly as will be required to do that. The inspiration for any one story is made up of a half dozen other things that are interconnected in complex ways that require a lot of thought to sort through.

So, instead of that I’m going to do something different.

Last month I asked people to ask me questions I could then answer for my letter Q day (on the 19th). I was pleasantly surprised by the number of questions I received so on my cheating I day I’m going to answer a few of them. If you want me to find an honest way to make this topic begin with I (other than the oh so clever “I Lied” that I’m going with now) we could call it I Think or All About I* or something, but… meh. Again, that requires too much thought LoL

Alexa asked:

What’s your fave ice cream flavor?
Oh, hell, while I’m at it:
Favorite poet and poem?

My favourite things change as I do. When I was younger my favourite ice cream flavour was Bubble Gum (back when it actually -had- bubble gum in the ice cream), then in my early teens it shifted to Cherry Cheesecake (om nom nom!). A couple years ago I discovered Moose Tracks ice cream and that became a fast favourite, but these days I think my preference is just straight-up chocolate. Sadly I can’t have it very often because I’m working pretty hard at losing weight and it’s calorific, but when I feel like spoiling myself that’s the flavour I want 🙂

Choosing my favourite poet and poem is a bit trickier. When I was younger my favourite poet was probabaly Alfred, Lord Tennyson, especially The Charge of the Light Brigade, and around juior high I was in love with The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. Around that time I also read and re-read all the poems in Through the Open Window (edited by Shirley I. Paustian) and I had tons of the poems marked for quick access (Farewell by Crowfoot, It is not growing like a tree by Ben Jonson, Then the Child Replied by Joseph McLeod, For a Father by Anthony Cronin, Father by Dale Zieroth and Maternity by Alice Meynell, for example. That last is one of those poems whose last lines always seem to linger around the edges of my conciousness.).

These days I’m finally beginning to enjoy Poe’s poetry in a way I never did before, but also a lot of modern poets too. I’m scared to start listing them, to be honest, because I am afraid of leaving anyone out LOL One of my favourite poems recently is “Initiation” by Caitlin Walsh, which was in Niteblade’s recent poetry issue. Actually, I’m pretty fond of all the poems from that issue. I like poetry that is accessible (if I have to have an extensive knowledge of, um, anything to ‘get’ it, I’m not interested.) and while my tastes often wander to the dark side of the spectrum, I’ve read light poems I really enjoyed too.

Francis W. Alexander asked:

Here’s two questions. Although I write zombie stories and poems, I still hafta ask. Why do they hunger for brains? I know brains look like chitterlings (which look good, but turn my stomach). But why do they want the very thing that’s hard to get to? Do they use a nutcracker to get past the skull?

Well, according to Return of the Living Dead (1985) they want to eat brains because that’s the only thing that stops the pain of being dead… but most of the zombies in my stories and poems are straight-up cannibals and will eat any part of a person, they aren’t all about the brains. Maybe the ones who are just enjoy the challenge?

You know what bothers me about brain-eating zombies? They usually go hand-in-hand with the ‘Shoot them in the head to kill them’ kind of zombies. Think about that. If zombie #1 gets turned into a zombie because zombie #2 smashed his head open and started nomming on his brains — what is the point of shooting him in the head? He doesn’t have any brains there to hit anymore, they’re all in zombie #2’s stomach.

O_o

LOL I think that’s it for today. If you have any questions you’d be interested in my answering for my Q post (or any other ones I decide to cheat on LOL) please feel free to leave them as a comment to this post.

~*~

This blog post is part of the Blogging from A to Z challenge over the month of April and was brought to you by the letter I. Tomorrow I’ll be blogging about writerly jealousy. Should be fun LOL

ETA: I was curious. So I did one of those who do you write like things. How do these programs even judge this stuff? Anyway, I pasted in text from three different stories and got three different authors. First, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle then Oscar Wilde and finally, my favourite:

I write like
Neil Gaiman

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

*snort*

Dude, frankly I’d settle for writing half as much as Neil Gaiman.