Have you got some burning questions about the art of poetry? Maybe you'd just like someone who knows what's what to give you their honest feedback on your poems. Well, Tuesday is your lucky day of the week. That's when local poet Karen Douglass points her blog squarely in your direction.
Tuesday is Tip day for poets, says Douglass, and she invites you to email her your specific questions about poetry. (Probably just one question per email, especially if that question is, "Would you read this poem of mine and critique it on your blog?") Make sure to include in your email written permission to post your poem, question or comment on a public site and to respond publicly. If there's any uncertainty as to this point, your question or poem will probably not be included, so be explicit in granting said permission!
What should you send? Says Douglass,
- poems that you care about and want an honest response to;
- specific questions about the craft and/or content of contemporary American poetry.
- No gratuitous sex, violence or nastiness.
(What constitutes "gratuitous"? That's always for the blogger to decide. The blogger is always the unilateral decision point for what's acceptable on their blog, 'cause it's their blog. You have been reminded. And if you're a blogger yourself, here's a certificate.)
Each Tip Day Tuesday blog post will serve as the jumping-off point for what is hoped to be a deep and fruitful discussion about the concepts and issues raised. It'll be a sort of virtual, non-real-time literary salon. The experiment will be all the more successful for your participation, so don't be afraid to dive into the comment zone.
Would Douglass's critiques and advice be useful to you? That's ultimately up to you. Read her poetry yourself and see. Her most recent poetry collection, Two-Gun Lil, is available on Amazon.com, as is her fantastic compilation The Great Hunger. You can order her 2006 prose poem collection, Sostenuto, via publisher Moon Pie Press. If you're around town, check for these books at Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Cafe on the Hill in Boulder or at Brainfood Bookstore in the Longmont Old Town Marketplace.
Meanwhile, make Douglass's blog a frequently visited link in your bookmark library. She has a lot of interesting and important things to say about the literary craft. And come Tuesday, she might have a few things to say specifically to you. Just email her your questions or your poem for critique at "kvdbooks" at "facebook" dot com.
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