Brian Beatty On Russell Edson

Borrowed Trouble: Micro Tribute to Russell Edson (1935-2014)

I wouldn’t write at all if it weren’t for myriad writers before me whose works showed me what was possible. The poems of this series are small offerings of respect, of thanks, to those muses. – Brian Beatty

Russell Edson

“Sentience is overrated,” the ape explained to the news interviewer and millions more at home. The cameras and lights intrigued the beast. “At least our years of study kept the zoo interesting.”

– Brian Beatty

Learn more:

Poetry Foundation Bio 

Poets.org Bio 

Click for books by Russell Edson

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Brian's most recent collections of poetry are Dust and Stars: Miniatures and Brazil, Indiana. Don't miss Brian's columns on the great poets: insert your email address in the "Follow By Email" box to the right of this article and you'll be notified every time a new article appears.

The Power Of National Poetry Month April 6, 2019

Chlolla Needles Young Writers And Artists April 6, 2019 

April 6! Young Writers & Artists 2019 Book Party!

Eighty students participated in this years issue. You can  CLICK HERE to see all their names. This event is for those in the issue and ANY other youth in the area who would like to come and read in public. This is book release and open reading for ALL students grades K-12. Adults are welcome to come and cheer on the youth. The event is open to all community members and is free. If an adult is able, it would be great for you to bring some cookies or juice to show appreciation to the youth and help make their party a time they will always remember. 

All youth who are in the magazine will receive a free copy at the reading. We want you to feel safe, so if you come and do not have a desire to read in public - you will not be forced to. We'd still love to meet you and give you your copy. Parents, grandparents, friends, and community members are all welcome. 

See you Saturday at 2:00!!! Donations will be accepted, but are not required. 

Thank you!!!

Tobi Alfier - How’d You Do This Week?

So it wasn’t a full week, and one of the days was April Fool’s Day, but National Poetry Month really did start. How’d you do with your writing-focused tasks? I don’t care if all you did was buy three new notebooks, one for your pocket, one for your purse, and one for your suitcase. If it was for writing, it’s about writing, and good for you!

Some of the things I was privileged, or, humbled, to do, receive, hear about, etc. You know I love lists so I have to number them (and yes, I love commas):

1. A friend sent me two poems to read and comment on. They were outstanding and I was very thankful she sent them to me. We don’t write the same way at all, and I really have to put myself in her shoes when I read her work. Both of them are ready to be submitted. One of the poems is a sports poem. She’s going to send it to Sport Literate because of last week’s blog post. I have my fingers crossed, not that she needs it.

2. Speaking of Sport Literate, not only does my husband Jeff have a poem in the new issue, but he took the cover photograph! I can’t claim any responsibility for this but I’m so happy for him. This may be the first time they’ve had a color cover photo.

3. Another friend sent me poems that her writing group did as an exercise. They wanted to write about sex in a veiled way. I know there’s a niche for more graphic work, but in my opinion, negative capability is especially important when writing about sex. Part of this is because the terms used may become too clinical to be poetic, or too much like you’re back in fifth grade making fart sounds with your elbow. It is possible to write something very lovely AND “mature”.

Note: whenever anyone sends me work, I ask if they want me to just read it, or if they’d like comments. I will NEVER make comments on someone else’s work unless they ask. This writing group said they’d like comments so I’ll be doing that this coming week. I’m really looking forward to it, and yes, there is a way to critique a poem without taking someone off at the knees. I’ll write about that in future posts.

4. A long-time friend of mine who writes fiction is currently on vacation in Ireland. We have gone with her in the past, on tours led by Men of Worth. They’re a wonderful musical duo who play a lot of concerts across the country. During the summer they lead trips. Each day, we tour (well I usually sit somewhere and write). At night they give concerts. The years Jeff and I have gone, they’ve invited us up to read during the concerts. They are amazingly generous and kind, funny as hell, and brilliant musicians. In their honor I have been posting Scotland and Ireland poems each day on Facebook.

5. I had a fascinating conversation with my son the other night about psycholinguistics. According to Wikipedia, “The field is concerned with factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language”.  I don’t know if this speaks more to fiction or poetry. I don’t know if the field even touches on writing at all, or if it remains WAY over my head. I do think most poets want their poems to be comprehended. They need to acquire the correct language so this can happen. We are lucky, because if we don’t have the right word, we can “produce it” and use a neologism. I do it all the time. “Acquire, use, comprehend, and produce language”.  Let’s just say I did more listening than talking the other night and I’m still processing it all. I found the whole conversation very interesting and a little scary (proud mom realizing how dumb she is).

6. Jeff is currently at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada, Oklahoma. It’s great because he’ll see a lot of our Texas and Oklahoma writer friends, and also meet poets we’ve published. It’s always wonderful to put a name with a face—for them as well as for us. There are a lot of readings at Scissortail and Thursday someone had to cancel. Jeff was invited to read. That was unexpected. I wish I had been there to listen to all the readings, especially Jeff’s. He’s on his way back to the Festival to listen to more today (Friday).

7. I wrote two poems. They rested. They were edited, reviewed, and are now respected and ready to submit.

8. On that note, I did two submissions, received one acceptance earlier in the week, and two rejections Thursday, dang it. Such is the life of a writer—I’ll be the first submitting poet to admit it.

9. Cholla Needles just published “The Gibson Poems”, a new book of poetry by Simon Perchik. Jeff and I LOVE “Uncle Si”; I was so happy to find out that Rich Soos knows him too. The man is a legend. He’s in his nineties and still writes every day! “The Gibson Poems” includes 216 poems. Our copy is already in the house! 

10. From the Alfier Woodpile, a prompt for you. Use it as a title, a line in a poem, or inspiration. Change the tense, change the sex, use only a part of it (I do that all the time), or don’t use it at all.

If you’ve never tried writing a ten-syllable line poem, try it. Try a five-syllable line poem. Read them out loud; you’ll be amazed at the difference in pacing.

Try couplets, try tercets, try one long stanza, try a pantoum and see where it takes you.

Do whatever makes you happy. But do write something if you can.

“in his pocket, a bus ticket three years old”

We have a poet friend who when he wants to write something fresh and new, he looks out a different window in his house. That’s all he does. Don’t make yourself crazy, take care of commitments, but please, find time to write. National Poetry Month, week two!!

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Tobi Alfier's most recent collection of poetry is Slices Of Alice. She is also co-editor with Jeff Alfier of the San Pedro River Review. Don't miss Tobi's columns on the craft of poetry: insert your email address in the "Follow By Email" box to the right of this article and you'll be notified every time a new article appears.

April Issue Released- Cholla Needles 28!

Cover art by Sarah Soos 
Inner art by Jillian Sandell

The fine poetry & stories in issue 28 are by

Caryn Davidson

Peter Jastermsky

Noreen Lawlor

Dave Maresh

Bonnie Brady

John Sierpinski

Heather Morgan

Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Cynthia Anderson

Jonathan Ferrini

Gabriel Hart

Click here to purchase on-line ($5)

We encourage our neighbors to buy Cholla Needles books at 

Rainbow Stew, Space Cowboy, JT Coffee, and Raven's Books. 

Support our local distributors!

Cholla Needles Young Writers & Artists 2019

Our beautiful cover is by T.J., a kindergarten student. 

He titled his art Rossis Can Brac.

Edited by r soos, Cynthia Anderson, Lynne Thelan, and Megan Meraz

Featuring the work of these young writers and artists who will soon be filling the bookstore shelves with new books and dreams: Elias Andre, Senna Andre, Andrew, Edith Armstrong, Mikey Arrellano, Ayn B., Briana Baskin, Kenyon Brazil, Alice Buracchio, Ari Carillo, Rylan Castillo, Laysha Cazares-Morales, Ariana Constant, Michael Curran, Adison D., Robert Davis, S.E., Kenny Edmonds, Barbara Elkins, Thomas Elkins, Mystie Ann Frey, Barbie G., Olivia G., Robert Grant, Andrew Gutierrez, Brianna Hall, Kaylee Harper, Justina Unong Harris, Katelyn Hedge, Ryder Hermanson, Areli Hernandez, Mariyah Hernandez, Mallory Hutchinson, Jake J., L.J., T.J., Zane K., Evan Kingston, Ellie Kobaly, Louisa L., Wesley L., Makayla Leach, Paul Leach, Mavin Lee, Kona Long, Lorianna M., Rick M., T.W.M., Hailey Manning, April Miller, Savannah Miller, Hailey Munsey, Hayley Nicholas, C.P., Nathaniel P., Ranja P., Serena P., Sharon P., Arthur Paulino, Caitlin Praxil, Alberto R., Anna R., Eva R., Katy R., Neaven Ramsay, Kendra Rester, Daphne Root, Billy Ross IV, Elena Santos, Celica Sentura, Gabe Sentura, Dakota Shealey, Baliegh Shepherd, Ella Sinclair, Katherin Tréjo, Jennifer Veles, Rebecca Valdez, Colton VanWagoner, John Wheeler, and Bobby Whitfield.

Click here to purchase on-line ($5)

We encourage our neighbors to buy Cholla Needles books at 

Rainbow Stew, Space Cowboy, JT Coffee, and Raven's Books. 

Support our local distributors!

Simon Perchik - The Gibson Poems - New Book!

one hand

reaching for another and in the dark

you let your fingers unfold end over end

then close

The 216 poems in this collection would never be written except for the 216 photographs in the collection titled Deus Ex Machin by Ralph Gibson. -Simon Perchik

Simon Perchik, an attorney, was born 1923 in Paterson, NJ and educated at New York University (BA English, LLB Law). His poems have appeared in various literary journals including Partisan Review, Poetry, The Nation, and The New Yorker.

reviews:

“Perchik’s poetry allows past and present, familiar and fantastic, banal and bombastic to co-exist with creative tension. Perchik dives deep into the unconscious in his poetry and emerges with much that is beautiful and strange.” Washington Review

“These are poems with fresh insights sticking out all over them and they ought to give pleasure to anyone whose mind is still open to new poetry.” X.J. Kennedy

"The "meaning" in these poems resembles a fugitive glimpsed only as he vanishes around a corner, reappearing only as he turns the next corner, about to vanish. But he always returns...Perchik is truly a master." Robert Kramer, American Book Review.

Click here to purchase this book on-line ($10.00)

We encourage our neighbors to buy Cholla Needles books at Rainbow Stew, Space Cowboy, and Raven's Books. Support our local distributors!