February 2012
2 posts
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Three Photographs by Marcin Majkowski
Marcin Majkowski is 36 years old and from Poland. He is a performance/spoken word poet/writer. He lives in Krakow in Poland.
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Vol. 3, Issue 2: February 2012
Download the issue here for free!
Contributor’s Notes
L. Ward Abel, poet, composer and performer of music, teacher, lawyer, lives in rural Georgia, has been published hundreds of time in print and online, and is the author of Peach Box and Verge (Little Poem Press, 2003), Jonesing For Byzantium (UK Authors Press, 2006), The Heat of Blooming (Pudding House Press, 2008), Torn Sky Bleeding...
January 2012
1 post
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Vol. 3, Issue 1: January 2012
Yes, Poetry is happy to announce its first issue of 2012! We welcome you into the new year with these wonderful poems, which can be downloaded for free here.
Contributor’s Notes
Christian Belz has been a practicing architect in the Metro Detroit area for 27 years. He has been published in Writers’ Journal and The Storyteller and is currently writing an Architectural Murder Mystery.
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December 2011
1 post
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Vol. 2, Issue 12: December 2011
The December issue is now online for a free download here!
Contributor’s Notes
Charles Bassey lives in Abuja, Nigeria, where he works full-time with a financial services regulatory agency and writes part-time. As a creative writer with the sociological imagination, he stares at life actively and reflects on human existence and emotions through poetry, essay and creative fiction. His...
November 2011
1 post
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Vol. 2, Issue 11: November 2011
You can download the free ebook on Lulu here!
October 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Vol. 2, Issue 10: October 2011
The October issue can be downloaded for free here!
Contributor’s Notes
Matthew James Babcock teaches at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. He has a PhD in Literature and Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. His book, Private Fire: The Ecopoetry and Prose of Robert Francis, is available from the University of Delaware Press.
Martin Burke is an Irish poet/playwright living in Belgium...
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Two Photographs by Viktorsha Uliyanova
Viktorsha Uliyanova is an import from the old Soviet Union and is currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry and fiction works focus on hidden politics, city panhandlers, and occasionally getting stuck in the black solar system. In addition to her writing, Uliyanova is an experimental, 35mm film photographer.
She can be found at her website: www.viktorsha.tumblr.com
September 2011
2 posts
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Kristi Nimmo-Between the Moon with the Birds
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Vol. 2, Issue 9: September 2011
Our September issue can be downloaded for free here!
Contributor’s Notes
Megan Coxe, an amateur poet in the truest sense, has just returned from a sabbatical year in Almería, Spain as an assistant English teacher, to be plunged back into American life. Now she splits her time preparing to pursue a MA in Hispanic Literature at the University of Texas, coping with the return to her...
August 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Poetry & Talk with Peter Marra
Download the interview for free here!
Peter Marra lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Among his influences are Tristan Tzara, Paul Eluard, Edgar Allan Poe, Russ Meyer, and Roger Corman. He has been published in amphibi.us, Yes Poetry, Maintenant 4, Beatnik, Crash, Danse Macabre,Caper Literary Journal, Clutching At Straws, and O Sweet Flowery Roses. He is currently constructing his first collection...
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Five Photographs by Keith Moul
Keith Moul’s work has been appearing frequently for about 15 months, but he’s published poems widely for more than 40 years. His chapbook, The Grammar of Mind, was released last November by Blue & Yellow Dog Press. He’s now retired, living in the Pacific NW, writing and taking pictures.
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Volume 2, Issue 8: August 2011
Our August issue can be downloaded for free here!
Contributor’s Notes
Andrea Beltran lives in El Paso, Texas and moonlights as a poet. She studied poetry under Jack Myers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and has recently had poems appear in The Café Review and Flashquake. Her ramblings about poetry, food, and her journey as she learns to operate and bond with her...
July 2011
1 post
4 tags
Volume 2, Issue 7: July 2011
Our July issue can be downloaded for free at Lulu here!
Contributor’s Notes
John Grochalski is a published writer whose poems have appeared in Avenue, Viral Cat, Lit Up, Rusty Truck, Thieves Jargon, Outsider Writers Collective, among others. His column The Lost Yinzer appears quarterly in The New Yinzer (www.newyinzer.com), and he can be found at his blog Winedrunk Sidewalk...
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Poetry & Talk with Eric Rodriguez
The interview, as well as Eric’s poetry and artwork can be downloaded for free on Lulu here.
In his spare time, his hair and fingernails grow twice as quickly. He once could have been found living across from Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, but he does not do that any longer. A problem child (the quiet kind), he once threw nude drawings into the yards of his neighbors. No one suspects much...
June 2011
4 posts
4 tags
Five Writing Prompts
Write a poem about the latest vacation (or long weekend somewhere) you were on. Describe it honestly, not retelling how you wanted it to be. What was the atmosphere like? Where did you sleep? Who were you with?
Probably one of the strangest prompts for a writer: get a partner! One of you will write one stanza, and then the other will write the second. Alternate until you both agree it is...
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Poetry & Talk with Frank Virgintino
Frank Virgintino is attending SUNY Purchase College, where he is a Creative Writing and Literature double-major with a minor in French Language and Cultural Studies. Currently, he is working to bend the genres of poetry and memoir, as well as co-running a small literary publication of his own called The Leaf Unturned. He was born and raised in New York, where he still lives.
* * * *
The...
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Volume 2, Issue 6: June 2011
The June issue is now available as an Ebook for free here.
Contributor’s Notes
Maureen Donatelli lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia where she received her BA in English from The University of the Fraser Valley (Honours) in 2001. Besides all things poetic, Maureen enjoys photography and spending time with her children. Maureen’s poetry has appeared at vox poetica and is...
May 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Five Writing Prompts
Don’t use a metaphor or simile in the entire poem. How else can you describe and express without relating what you are writing about to something else?
Write as though you are explaining something that is meant to be understood. So often in poetry, we focus on the obscure and work in ambiguities.
If you are learning a language (or if you aren’t, start to) write whatever you can in...
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Vol. 2, Issue 5: May 2011
I’m eager to present the May 2011 issue of Yes, Poetry as an Ebook here for a free download! From now on, all issues of Yes, Poetry will either be avaliable as Ebooks and/or as a paperback book on Lulu. This issue in particular is available only as an Ebook. I hope everyone enjoys it just as much as I did!
I am including the author biographies here to give an idea of the issue:
...
April 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Poetry & Talk with Christina Murphy
Q & A with poet Christina Murphy, interviewed by Joanna C. Valente
“Some pieces just come to a writer almost whole and are like a gift; other pieces require enormous effort to get sections written at all and then to get those sections into a structure that works cohesively in conveying the experience a writer seeks to create for the reader.”
...
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Vol. 2, Issue 4: April 2011
PETER MARRA FLUORESCENT the spasm-clang of the subway electrified her spine warm white yens coursing upwards the smell of the subway steel and fluorescent warmed her tummy as she stepped into the car doors closed behind her crush bones zone frozen as the signal sounded she tasted iron on wet lips sitting down slowly licking her lips staring at the passengers voice coming through...
March 2011
1 post
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Vol. 2, Issue 3: March 2011
ANITA MCCQUEEN THRILL Don’t think of me as the only one there’s plenty of honey givers for a house stint I’m a vacation thrill take me while I’m willing and remember me when you’re old and grunting. JEFFREY MCDONALD GREASE FIRE Scalding skillet. Brimmed fluid swirls counterclockwise, guided by its own aberrant febricity. Upper story. Unmindful cuisinier, stoned,...
February 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Five Writing Prompts
Write about a family heirloom. It can be in your possession, lost, or owned by another family member. Why is it important? Do you want it? Who originally owned it?
Write about a relative you barely know/knew. Imagine what their life was like, and write a poem through their perspective.
What is your favorite possession? Think about what could be nearly impossible for you to part with. What is...
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Vol. 2, Issue 2: February 2011
ANGELA QIAN ANGEL CITY feather touches soprano-light haloed in blurs of afterimages vibrations making microcosms in [sight flight might night airy] mirror in the cloud, wherefore does it come? lasting an endless autumn on the earth of man and fibers trailing syllables proclaiming eternity. terra del nozza where: two out of three words are compounded into sense—the last brings hisses and...
January 2011
1 post
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Vol. 2, Issue 1: January 2011
JAY CORAL A POEM UNMADE IN BED before i unfurl the eyelids of last night i hear the highway breaks into roaring waves tar to golden sand the dream rolls i touch the palpable breeze of the ocean in my face am I still in a beach hotel in Puerto Rico? shadows of the palm trees? narrate adultery in the ceiling smoke detectors beep the mating calls of the coqui and the great tucan plants her digital...
December 2010
2 posts
Yes, Poetry's First Contest Begins 12/21/10!
Yes, Poetry is announcing its first contest, which begins December 21, 2010 and ends on April 21, 2011! Please submit up to five poems and send to our email address at editor@yespoetry.com. In the subject line of the email, please write “Name_Contest Submission.” If you do not use this header, your submission will not be considered for the contest. Please include a short author...
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Issue 10: December 2010
ZACH GOMES BERLIN AUBADE We’ve got sweat-slicked brows, tuffs of loose, knotted hair Our limbs dumbly droop and we stand on the roof Of a three story flat up in Prenzlauerberg Near five a.m. when the night’s at its end When we shuffle our shoes and sometimes tip the booze From the bottles that we’ve all left scattered around Then the beer trickles down and it spreads on the ground And turns...
November 2010
1 post
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Issue 9: November 2010
RICH FOLLETT CONSONANCE for one moment arm in arm, gazing skyward (who knew that stars could actually form a canopy?) for one heartbeat-optional moment bathed in twinkling chastity we lived wholly within each other, you and i – perfect friends, god-given for one resplendent, montane midnight moment we held one breath in two bodies beneath Orion with Philotes smiling down for one...
October 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Ten Writing Prompts
Write about the first snow of winter. It can either be a fictional or true account.
Write a poem using the common phrase: “the cat is out of the bag.”
Write about life inside of a bubble, literally. What would it look like? What would the smell be? Would you be able to see out? Would others be able to look in?
Think about what it would feel like to jump out of a building. Jot...
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Issue 8: October 2010
J.B. MULLIGAN I’LL NEVER SPEAK YOUR NAME AGAIN Wind like a train rattles the night. Ghosts of lost hobos mutter and curse. Bah – it’s a fancy. It’s never you, whose softest breath unsettles me. I live in the world, sentenced by you to a life of wondering memories lost in the dark, the heated past, an exile from my only heart. Decades of thirst. Drops of rain. SOME CHIPS ON...
September 2010
3 posts
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2008 Chapbook Writer: CJ Evans
In 2008, CJ Evans won the Poetry Society of America’s chapbook competition, and published The Category of Outcast. In particular, On Sharks, On Sex is a poem by CJ Evans, in which repetition is the primary technique used throughout. The word “on” is the start of every sentence, as well as the addresses the person the speaker speaks to as “darling.” In general, the poem is similar to a...
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Poem of the Month: The Art of Poetry | Jorge Luis...
To gaze at a river made of time and water And remember Time is another river. To know we stray like a river and our faces vanish like water. To feel that waking is another dream that dreams of not dreaming and that the death we fear in our bones is the death that every night we call a dream. To see in every day and year a symbol of all the days of man and his years, and convert the outrage of the...
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Issue 7: September 2010
KAREN KELSAY LAUREN Today, I opened your old closet door and my finger traced over short pencil lines etched in the wood; they formed a carbon ladder of yesterdays. For a moment, I saw your bare feet peeking beneath a cotton nightie, you stood like the wispy daisies growing near our fence. I steadied my hand to measure your height, checking that heels were firmly on the ground. Nine years ago,...
August 2010
1 post
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Issue 6: August 2010
DONAL MAHONEY THAT GREYHOUND STATION This woman I am interviewing, one of her front teeth crosses over the other and sticks out like a leg crossed over the other. Otherwise I would hire her; I am certain of that. But she reminds me too much of that Greyhound station at three in the morning. There, alone on a bench, across from me still, her little dress up, skulls of bare knees, hillbilly child...
July 2010
1 post
1 tag
Ten Writing Prompts
Write a poem without using any words that indicate color.
Write a short prose piece about any topic, then break it up into lines afterwards. Think about why you broke up the lines the way you did. Is it meant to be unsettling, or rhythmic?
Write in the perspective of being a mother or father. You may use your own parents as a reference point, or it could be completely fictional.
Write about...
June 2010
6 posts
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Issue 5: July 2010
STEPHANIE VALENTE WHEN YOU ARE NOT LOOKING, I WRITE ON YOUR SHEETS hello,
I made coffee until the grains went runny
and flipped through your grammar books past receipts and emptied pockets
to get back
a sense of that lingering your arm and hand makes
on my should
sometime
after night but, before morning.
THE LINING i feel like an empty glass of water
cooled over droplets
parched against...
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On Our Radar: Kamau Braithwaite
Kamau Braithwaite’s poem “Duke” from his book Middle Passages is a work where the punctuation, lineation, syntax, and diction is highly experimental, to say the least. He uses vernacular language in such a way where the reader gets a true feel of the speaker’s voice, and of where, what, and how Braithwaite chooses to illustrate it. For instance, the beginning and first page of the poem...
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Noelle Kocot's "Poem For the End of Time"
Noelle Kocot’s poem “Poem For the End of Time” is reminiscent of both Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and “America,” as she uses similar techniques, such as repetition, long lines, geography and movement as a means to unify, and religious imagery. Throughout the compilation, religious imagery is a prevalent theme, beginning with the verse she has from John at the start. Within the particular...
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On Our Radar: Black-Listed Magazine
Recently, I stumbled upon Black-Listed Magazine, which is a small publication that publishes poetry on a rolling basis. The way in which it publishes is unique in that the editor does not wait for full issues, but simply posts writing based on value. This type of publication is most interesting for a readership, because there is always something new a weekly, or even daily basis. As a result, the...
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Ten Writing Prompts
Write a poem in reaction to a poem of your choice written by Emily Dickinson. You can address either the persona in the poem, or to ‘rewrite’ the poem.
Find any article online (scientific, political, art, etc.) and write either about it, or include an idea, person, place, or thing from the article itself.
Open up a dictionary, choose any word starting with the letter...
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On Our Radar: Camber Press
Camber Press is a small, independent publishing company located in Westchester, New York. It is dedicated to publishing chapbooks of writers of any background in both poetry and fiction. They are currently accepting submissions to their chapbook contests. The fiction award is being judged by Chuck Kinder, while the poetry award is being judged by Stuart Dischell. Submission guidelines are on the...
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Issue 4: June 2010
GALE ACUFF THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN Yesterday in Sunday School I fell off my chair and broke my arm—okay, my wrist—because I went to sleep when Miss Hogg was going on about Heaven and Hell as if she knew so much because she’d been to both. Do you want to go to Heaven, she asked us. Yes, ma’am, all the children said. Or do you want to go to Hell, she asked, as if...
May 2010
7 posts
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“Only poetry can measure the distance between ourselves and the Other.”
– Charles Simic
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Upcoming Readings in NYC
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Time: 7:00pm-10:00pm
Place: One & One Bar and Restaurant (Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Aven
New York, NY
Description: Michael Geffner is hosting another series of The Inspired Word, with poets Tara Betts, Dasha Kelly, and Rich Villar. There will also be a ten-slot open mic. There is a $10 cover charge, and you must be 21 years or older to...
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On Our Radar: Blue Print Review
Blue Print Review offers much more than just the average literary magazine; it offers not only an array of writing, but images that correspond with the text. Each issue has a specific theme that brings together the various pieces in such a way it changes and adds to the perception and interpretation of each work. One of the more interesting and innovative qualities of the website is the way in...
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Ten Writing Prompts
Write a poetry 101: what you like, dislike, and wish to see in a poem. Write it in a list, bullet points, stanzas, etc. Be creative.
Write a poem using a quote by a famous writer or artist of your choice, using that quote either in the poem or in the title.
Use your hometown as the setting or ‘place’ of a poem. It doesn’t have to be narrative, but the place/hometown needs to...
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On Our Radar: Richard Siken
Richard Siken’s collection of poetry, Crush, is a wonderful mix of poetry that is both experimental in nature and reminiscent of prose. Siken has an ongoing narrative that lingers throughout the novel, although it remains fairly ambiguous until the end, which not only allows the story to be relatable, but it allows it to carry a surrealistic and absurd quality. In this way, it is detached...
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Issue 3: May 2010
JOHN MIDDLEBROOK WALK OFF THE EARTH Crowns of coral reef rest on the summer’s western sky, and a lush dusk delays our walk back home. But now the cooling grass we lie on pushes up against us skyward: the roots of the earth have the longest wait for dawn. Clinging to the last of the day, we curl around each other and we fill our closing circle with the kindling wood of touch. Still the...
April 2010
5 posts
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Robyn Schiff: A Close Reading
“Iron Door Knocker the Shape of a Man’s Face, by Feetham” is a poem from Robyn Schiff’s collection Revolver, which illustrates her constant, and often, intense use of imagery in her poetry. There is usually a lack of a distinct setting or environment in the collection, as it is driven by an anxiety perpetuated by the imitation of thought process. For instance, “Iron Door Knocker the...
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Inspiration of the Day: Hal Sirowitz
My Therapist Said
You’re always giving, my therapist said. You have to learn how to take. Whenever you meet a woman, the first thing you do is lend her your books. You think she’ll have to see you again in order to return them. But what happens is, she doesn’t have the time to read them, & she’s afraid if she sees you again you’ll expect her to talk about them, & will want to lend her...