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Book Brush
Book Brush offers templates to create professional-looking ads and social media images for your books. Create three free images per month with the free membership, or unlimited images with the paid plan, which also includes more design options.
Book Cover Templates at PosterMyWall
PosterMyWall is a graphic design vendor offering templates and stock images for email marketing, promotional videos, social media posts, and self-published book design. A monthly subscription gives you unlimited templates and various credits toward buying photos, or you can pay for individual images and videos as needed. Their sample book covers on their website are professional-looking and clearly indicate the book's genre.
Book Covers, Marketing, and Authenticity: An Interview with Laura Duffy of Laura Duffy Design
A handsome book cover that's right for your genre can increase sales by a factor of two or more. But does working with a professional have to feel like a trust fall? Designer Laura Duffy doesn't think so.
Annie Mydla, Managing Editor
This year, Laura Duffy Design is providing free benefits to all entrants and winners of the North Street Book Prize. All entrants receive a detailed PDF about book cover design, and winners receive customized book design and marketing services.
Laura Duffy here joins Winning Writers managing editor Annie Mydla to talk about helping indie authors get the most out of her services, from the cover to essential marketing elements like metadata, Amazon keywords, and copy.
Watch the entire interview with Laura or read this lightly edited transcript.
Key moments (links lead to the YouTube video):
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities, like merchandise
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
Introduction
ANNIE MYDLA: Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in. I'm Annie Mydla, managing editor of Winning Writers. Joining me today is Laura Duffy, former art director for Simon & Schuster and Random House, now independent book cover creator and North Street Book Prize co-sponsor. Laura, thank you so much for being our co-sponsor, and thank you for talking with me about all the ways that book cover design can be important for a book's success.
LAURA DUFFY: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Before we begin, I'd just like to point out to everybody that Laura Duffy Design is providing a free detailed PDF guide about the book cover design process to all North Street entrants in 2025. She's also providing free merchandising and book cover design services for winners, as well as some other things which we'll talk about in a little bit. So let's just dive into the interview.
0:55 Why do authors settle for a subpar cover?
We receive many books in the North Street Book Prize each year. Now, of course, we don't judge a book solely by its cover, but it does make an impact on the book's competitiveness with other submissions. Why do you think authors settle? What are some of the mental stumbling blocks that keep authors from striving for better covers?
Perhaps it's just that they don't know how to find a designer, or they don't know they need a designer. Perhaps they've designed their own cover, and they don't want to be told that it's not good enough.
But I think that they also need to be shown. They have their ideas. And I say, "Yeah, I'm going to do your idea. But then I'm going to show you my idea, because that's what you're hiring me for." And then they have that, "Ohhh, okay, I get it," whether it's a really impactful design, or it's the details on the back, or on the spine, or in the interior. It becomes this, like, "Okay."
And perhaps it's budget, finances, and stuff like that. In that case, they could maybe try to learn from other designs, or designers, or what they see. But I think that, like any other trade or business when somebody's been doing it for a long time, you want to really rely on their expertise. Especially with a book cover. You know, it's interesting, because it's artistic, it's art, it's creativity, and we've got artists here, but it's also a business thing, a marketing tool. There's a lot of technical things going on. You have to find the right combination.
2:34 Why working with a professional can feel like a trust fall
Sometimes I get the impression while working with people who are self-publishing, they have to do so much of it by themselves. When they meet a professional, especially a relatively affordable professional like yourself who does such a good job and has so much background and experience, it can almost feel like doing a trust fall. It's the first time that they've been able to put their work in the hands of another person. And they don't really know how it's going to come out. They've had experiences that burned them in the past, maybe.
Well, that's a good point, too. I do get a lot of clients who've come to me after working with an agency. I don't want to badmouth anybody, but there are lots of places out there that, for instance, don't read the book, don't really want it. They just want to produce a cover. And that's not how I work. I don't know how I'd get my ideas if I didn't read as much as I could of an author's work. So yeah, it's all about trust.
I know that you probably don't feel comfortable saying this about yourself, but it's not just your expertise and your experience and your skill. It's also that you're a very warm and lovely person. So I think if somebody needs to learn to trust, you're probably a good place to go.
I know what you mean, because there are a lot of companies that are very slick. You don't know who's behind it. Is this one person? Is this a team? Is this a group? And I'm one person, although I'm branching out, and I've got people who are helping me out. But people are reacting to my site because it looks like I'm a human being.
Because this is such an incredibly personal thing that these people are doing. Maybe they're sharing in a memoir some of their most personal details. For them, it's a huge thing, finally publishing this book. It's just really intimidating in a lot of ways. And I think what I'm realizing is that they appreciate my patience.
3:54 Why self-publishing is even more crucial in today's world. "That's what I want to be part of."
And I feel personally, with the way the world is, especially in the United States, I'm starting to really appreciate the role I'm playing, the role we're playing, in helping people get their stories out. Because I know that there's a lot of fear everywhere. So that leads to even more gatekeepers, more people saying, "I don't want to publish this book. We're not talking about this anymore." But you can do it. Yes, you can talk about it. And how incredibly important that is. I'm working on several books right now that I know are topics that are just really, it's really important for people to get their voices out.
People have been telling them all their lives, you can't do this, you can't do that. And now it seems like society is telling people more and more, you can't do this, you can't do that.
I feel like people are being a lot more authentic, whether it's because we came through a pandemic…People are looking for places to rest, be creative, or have support. You know, we've just got so much coming at us.
5:33 "This cover is gonna be strong, because this is a badass book": Honoring authors' authenticity
And I mean, I think that's the positive thing about nowadays: that people are talking about things. We're seeing the underbelly of a lot of things, but those things were always there. They were just hidden. You know, the Me Too movement and all these things. And now it's like, "Okay, I can talk about my family trauma," that before was—you just didn't bring it up.
And so that's another thing. I'm like, "This cover is going to be strong, because this is a badass book." And that's what I want to be part of.
6:21 Book cover design is not one-size-fits-all. It's personal
This is just another reason why you as a book cover designer are, in my opinion, preferable to organizations that are bigger, slicker. Because the bigger the company is, the more standardized things have to be. Somebody who's got so many clients, they don't really necessarily have the time or the emotional bandwidth to engage with people on that level.
There are so many different kinds of self-published authors. They have different needs, different comfort levels, different expectations. It's not a one-size-fits all situation.
How do you think we can get authors to appreciate the value of a good cover and evaluate their cover designs more critically?
I think that, again, it's that seeing is believing. I think that once you show them what can be done, and how others react to their books—you know, once they put it out there on social media and there's oohing and aahing—yeah, you know. That's the fun part.
I think that's also a step towards, "Oh, this is going to be a good experience." I think that fear, that terror of, "Oh my goodness, I'm putting my baby out into the world for the first time," and then it's like, "Oh, no, this is a party." Everybody's chiming in. I think that's when they realize, if they're working with somebody like me, or another professional with a lot of experience, "Okay, we're running with the big guys now. We can hang with the big guys and gals." And it feels good.
8:05 "We're all creatives, just in different lanes": Designers and authors working together
Book covers are one of the most accessible parts of books. People look at that image, and they just get an immediate sense of something about your book, something about you.
Everybody now is exposed to design. Good design, bad design. More and more people, I would say, maybe think they can be designers, and they can be. There are tools, and they might find out that they're very good. It's worth educating yourself and looking around.
But you do want to do something that's really good, whether you're doing it yourself—there are people, there are authors, who've done good stuff, and they've used Canva. It's pretty impressive. They've taught themselves InDesign. And I like that too. I love seeing people expand and discover things about themselves.
Maybe they try it and they find an amazing talent. But do they have the time? Do they have the bandwidth? Do they have the resources? I could make a book cover, but would it have all those really subtle little touches that subconsciously communicate to viewers of that cover, "This is the real thing"?
I think that another thing is, that what an author is doing is very creative, and what I'm doing is very creative. Yeah, we're all working with creatives, but in different ways and different lanes.
9:16 Why improving a book cover improves sales
Can you tell us a little bit about how improving a book cover can improve sales?
Well, that's a good question, because I think that there's a lot that goes into improving sales. The book cover, of course, is important. When you're writing a book, and you're considering the cover, you're stepping into the world of marketing. It's just like any other aspect of the world. If you're looking for a job, and you want to stand out, how do you present yourself? Regardless of how you get to a book, what's going to make you stop, pause, and look at that book and pick it up? On some level, if a book cover is doing its job, especially with a lot of competition, a well-put-together cover represents and indicates a well-written book.
10:03 Why a good cover increases marketing opportunities like merchandise
How can a good cover contribute to marketing opportunities like selling book merch or building an author's web presence?
I think that people like to see good-looking things, right? What's really fun is when you start integrating other elements from the cover onto the website or onto the bookmarks, and it kind of pulls it out—you know, it's all of a piece. And I think people really appreciate that.
10:30 How Laura raises sales with SEO, Amazon keywords, and more
I have a very entrepreneurial mindset, and I love thinking about how to grow a business, how to market. I get very excited about that. And I try to convey that to authors. "Okay, we're going to do this, let's do this." Like, "Who's your target market? Who's your audience?"
What should be done early on is, keep your audience in mind. You know, SEO, search engine optimization, these keywords that help the cream rise to the top are important. The algorithms. It's the game we're playing. And so even early on, making sure that you're using words, whether it's in your book description, whether it's on the back of your book, or that's even in your book, or anywhere, that you're using words that will attract your audience. You know, "You're not using your title enough," or "Let's get these words into the subtitle," or "Let's get these words into a blurb." We've got to do it. We've got to do it if you want to really stand out.
I think that is a little bit of something, like, you know, that's hard for authors to adjust to. That's where I come in, like, "Okay, no, we're going to do this. You just relax. You wrote your book."
11:43 Expressing our truth vs selling books? It's a balance
We're getting into some core human issues here, with this balance of, "We want to be ourselves. We want to express ourselves. But we also want to get these certain benefits from what we're producing." Sometimes I wonder whether this is one of the things that makes self-publishing difficult for people. This conflict, this tension, between expressing yourself, and getting what you want from other people in terms of their response, in terms of their money, their time, their attention.
It's awesome that you can help them with the covers, which is, in most cases, how people really meet the book, but also that you can work on these behind-the-scenes elements that have to do with marketing on Amazon, keywords, and all the things that we don't really think about.
When I have the discussions, whether I'm giving them my initial pitch or it's during the process, there's a lot more going on than just the talk about the design of the cover. Over and over again, I'm encouraging authors to get out there. I feel that feeling of, "I want everybody to be successful and confident." I think there's a lot of people starting out. I mean, 99% of the authors that I work with are newbies. And "I've never done this before, I don't know what…" "Okay, yeah, you're not alone." I hope that that comforts them, that they don't feel like they're the only author in the world that's starting out and never done this before. I feel like it's a cool place to be, the indie publishing world. It's really neat.
13:23 Laura's free customized services for North Street Book Prize winners
You're a North Street co-sponsor. You're actually working with last year's North Street Book Prize winners at this moment. Can you tell us a little bit about how it's going, the kind of things that you're working on together?
So I've been working with a lot of the first prize winners, right? And I've done work with Angelino Donnachaidh. He wrote Tamiu: A Cat's Tale. And when I spoke to him, you know, he didn't really know what he wanted, how he wanted to utilize my services. He just wanted it to sell more. So what I offered to do was work on his metadata, work on his copy: for his cover, on Amazon, and keywords. So that was an interesting project, and I'm interested in seeing how that does because that's what I've been doing for a lot of my clients nowadays.
And then for Stephen Pollock, I did a bookmark for [his poetry collection, Exits]. And that might also lead to a postcard. And then Bryan Wiggins, who I said, "I think your cover [for The Corpse Bloom] looks great," but he wanted to make some changes to the layout and add all of these wonderful awards he's gotten. So I'm doing that.
14:33 How merchandise increases authors' exposure
Actually, can you tell me some of the other kinds of merch that you provide? Because I'm not sure I know.
So, the bookmarks and the postcards. I've been asked to do tote bags, and t-shirts, and any kind of swag, toys, business cards that are just specifically for the author. More and more people are asking for those stand-up banners that they'll have at a reading, and they retract. I've got a picture of one woman on my website standing next to one, and it's got her cover on it, and it's got the quotes.
You know, a lot of media sheets. I try to encourage people. I say, "If you feel like you're going to go out in the world, and you're going to be hitting people up for podcasts and this and that, you want to put together a media sheet, or a white sheet." People call them all different things. But they don't know that that exists, so I show them examples.
Whatever anybody wants their book cover or anything on, I'll do it. It's just a matter of designing it. There are lots of printers, so it doesn't really cost that much money. And it’s fun.
15:38 Considering a cover now? This message is for you
I was wondering if you have any advice for authors who might be considering the cover for an upcoming book.
I would say, yeah, just write your book and let me read it. I think that if you're working with somebody who's going to read the book, which apparently I feel like I'm one of the few people that do, then you don't have to really do much regarding the cover. When I look through a story, a novel or something, I'm looking for maybe a specific moment. Some kind of tableau, something that might lend itself to color. But yeah, just focus on writing that great book. Hire that developmental editor and let them take their time doing it.
Sometimes I think that books, or the part of books that authors produce, is like the raw material. Like they are creating a raw diamond, or a lump of raw gold, or something like that. Alchemists are real if you're a self-published author. You do produce the gold. You do produce the diamonds. But then, you're the alchemist. You're not a blacksmith. You're not, like, a goldsmith, or a diamond cutter. There are other people who do that stuff to turn it from that really valuable, rare raw material to the finished product.
Let the creative people that you've hired do their job. Because they're coming at it from many different vantage points. I've rarely been able to say to an author, "You're just too close to this" and "Just back off." But, you know, sometimes, yeah, I'll be able to say that, and they'll get it, and they'll be like, "Okay, yeah, I'll talk to you when you're done. You just do your thing." And I'm like, "Yeah, I love you."
Laura Duffy, thank you so much for sharing your book cover and marketing insights with us today. And thank you so much for providing these excellent benefits for North Street Book Prize entrance and winners.
Well, it is my pleasure. I love working with you and this has been a really great experience. I hope that people find these helpful.
Book Editing Associates
Serving writers, literary agents, and publishers. Mainstream, genre, trade, and academic publishing specialists. Copyediting, developmental editing, proofreading, critiques, book proposals, query letters, book promotions, and creative writing instruction. Network coordinator Lynda Lotman takes extra care to screen her staff (read how).
Book Marketing and Book Promotion
Book marketing and selling advice from John Kremer, author of '1001 Ways to Market Your Books.' Informative website includes contact information for book buyers, publicity outlets and more.
Book Marketing Buzz Blog
Experienced editor and publicist Brian Feinblum shares tips about turning media exposure into sales, creating your author brand, using multimedia tools to market your book, and much more. See his Book PR & Marketing Toolkit page for a list of links to his top articles and favorite resources.
Book Promotion Tips at Blue Light Press
Founded by poet and novelist Diane Frank, Blue Light Press is a well-established independent publisher of poetry books, chapbooks, and anthologies. This page on their website provides a long list of ideas for promoting your forthcoming book via readings, reviews, launch parties, media interviews, and more.
Book Publishers Who Specialize in Diversity and Inclusion
Here Wee Read is a book blog for parents and educators. This A-Z list profiles small presses and specialty imprints that promote multicultural literature for children and adults.
Book Review Directory
Launched in 2015, the Book Review Directory is a growing list of bloggers who review books in various fiction and nonfiction genres. The site has three goals: to match authors with reviewers, to raise the profile of book review blogs, and to help readers find new books in their areas of interest.
Book Series Recaps
Book Series Recaps helps fans catch up on details they have forgotten, in preparation for reading the next book in a series. The site also features spoiler-free book reviews, fan art, discussions, and book quotes. Authors they follow include Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black, Roshani Chokshi, Sarah J. Maas, and Toni Adeyemi. Focus is on YA and fantasy.
Book That Poet
State-by-state directory of poets available for readings aims to match them with local libraries, bookstores and historical societies looking for speakers. Most listings are in Wisconsin at present, but site owner hopes to expand its reach. Poets pay $12 per year to be listed.
Book Traces
Book Traces is a project of the University of Virginia. They scan and digitize interesting margin jottings and other objects left inside old books. As libraries de-accession copies of books that are not rare or widely read, pieces of history are being lost. The curators say, "Thousands of old library books bear fascinating traces of the past. Readers wrote in their books, and left pictures, letters, flowers, locks of hair, and other things between their pages. We need your help identifying them in the stacks of academic libraries. Together we can find out more about what books were and how they were used by their original owners, while also proving the value of maintaining rich print collections in our libraries."
Book Trailer Design Advice from Zara West
In this blog post, romantic suspense author Zara West (Beneath the Skin) describes the basic elements of a successful book trailer and how to create them using public-domain music and images.
BookBaby
BookBaby offers self-published authors a full range of services from editing and design to printing, distribution, and marketing. BookBaby is a co-sponsor of our North Street Book Prize—that's how much we trust them!
BookBaby’s Guide to Book Pricing for Authors
BookBaby is a leading vendor of self-publishing and related services. In this 2023 article on their website, writer and editor Philip Kinsher breaks down the costs of publishing and marketing your book, and the factors to consider when setting the book's price in various formats.
BookBub’s Ultimate Guide to Book Marketing
Self-publishing service BookBub has compiled this list of articles from their BookBub Partners blog, covering every aspect of the marketing campaign for your self-published or small press book. Topics include book and cover design, pricing, advertising, creating an online platform, author success stories, and how to track the results of your marketing efforts.
BookFinder
Launched in 1997, BookFinder is a website that lets you compare prices (including shipping costs) from 100,000 booksellers worldwide. A great source for used books, textbooks, or locating a particular edition of the book you want.
BookFunnel
BookFunnel is a reasonably priced subscription service for authors. It handles the technical aspects of distributing e-book review copies in multiple e-reader formats.
Bookish & Writer Events: Sarah Nicolas Newsletter
Sarah Nicolas is the author of the YA novels Keeping Her Secret and Dragons Are People, Too. Her weekly newsletter on Substack features listings of upcoming author readings, book fairs, and writing workshops.
Booklash: Literary Freedom, Online Outrage, and Language of Harm
PEN America is an organization that defends freedom of speech for writers worldwide. This thorough report from 2023 studies the negative impact of social media outrage on writers' freedom to address controversial topics. Although the critics in question are often motivated by progressive ideals such as anti-racism, the report argues, our political discourse suffers when publishers over-react by canceling book contracts or revising books without the author's permission. In many of the examples cited, the book's problems were capable of other interpretations, or the author's public behavior was too quickly conflated with the value of the book itself.
BookLender
Like Netflix for books, BookLender (formerly Booksfree) allows customers to rent up to 15 books at a time, with no late fees, due dates, or shipping costs. Members can choose from more than 250,000 paperback titles or 36,000 audiobook titles.
Bookmarks & Inkblots
Bookmarks & Inkblots is a book review column started by poet Konstantin Rega, an editor of Virginia Living magazine. This feature highlights Southern authors of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
BookRix
BookRix is an online community where authors of poetry and prose can upload their work and receive feedback. Membership is free. The site is based in Germany but has an English-language section. BookRix offers several free contests throughout the year, with prizes up to $1,000; winners are decided by members' votes.
BookRix
BookRix is an online community where authors of poetry and prose can upload their work and receive feedback. Membership is free. The site is based in Germany but has an English-language section. BookRix offers several free contests throughout the year, with prizes up to $1,000; winners are decided by members' votes.
Books About Transgender Issues for Teens
Parents, educators, and teenagers will benefit from the New York Public Library's list of recommended YA books about gender identity, last updated in 2015. These fiction and nonfiction books can help schools create a more welcoming and diverse environment.
Bookshop
Established in 2020 by Andy Hunter, the publisher of Catapult Books, as an alternative to Amazon, Bookshop is an online book vendor that directs a portion of its proceeds to support independent bookstores.
Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene
Doug Holder of Ibbetson Street Press curates this blog of poetry news and reviews, focusing on the Boston area.
Boston Comment
Hard-hitting essays on the state of contemporary poetry, by poet and critic Joan Houlihan. Among her targets: incoherent experimental poetry, free verse that sounds like prose, and famous names who are past their prime. She is also founding director of the Concord Poetry Center which offers conferences and workshops in Massachusetts.
Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge
Poetry slam open mike and featured readers can be enjoyed every Wednesday night at this club in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Both/And: Trans & GNC Writers Tell Their Own Stories
Launched in 2022, this limited series in the online journal Electric Literature features essays by transgender and gender-nonconforming writers of color. Readers are encouraged to donate to help pay marginalized authors. Electric Lit's Editor-in-Chief Denne Michele Norris, the first Black trans woman to helm a major magazine, says: "In a decade when the transgender community has gained unprecedented visibility in both pop culture and socio-political contexts, the publishing industry lags behind... Both/And will elevate the stories of those at the forefront of the fight for racial and transgender equality, while employing EL’s significant literary platform to uplift transgressive writing."
Brain Pickings
This free, donation-supported website curated by Maria Popova collects links to the week's best articles on literature and culture. Sign up for their email newsletter to be notified when new pieces are posted.
Brawl
Launched in 2024 by Martheus Perkins and Taylor Franson-Thiel, Brawl is a quirky online poetry journal that seeks "groovy, snappy, sound work, and musical language." The tongue-in-cheek list of the editors' special interests includes sports, dinosaurs, the body, and "Mom trauma (: " but your best bet is to read past contributors online. Published poems are accompanied by bold pop-culture illustrations. When submitting, you can specify which editor should read your work, based on the list of their interests. No "racism, homophobia, zionism, transphobia, sexism, ageism, ableism ETC."
Break Every String
By Joshua Michael Stewart. This poetic autobiography is a blues song for the dead-end economy of Midwestern towns and the family wreckage they harbor. His characters crackle with energy that could find its outlet in verses or fists, parenting your own children or stealing someone else's, a guitar or a bottle. As the one who escaped, Stewart plays through all the octaves of emotion, from gratitude to judgmental pride, to survivor guilt, to wary compassion: "of loving/the lost with raucous praise, of letting the gone go."
Breakfast’s Lust
A breakfast spread was
laid out on the table.
Coming down the stairs
in a purple robe flowing
light around my knees I
saw him happily reading
the paper. Out of the
corner of his eye he
spotted me urging me
into his arms.
I went to those arms facing
him while sitting down on
legs that cradled us as
we slept.
A brush of morning kisses
painted me the smell of
minted paste invaded waving
the air of the sweet
breakfast behind us.
What a wonderful way to
start the day. He hugged
me closer as I slid my hands
down the length of his
torso like curtains ending
a play, I slid my hands
down to the zipper of his
pants letting the palm of
my hand kiss the growing
firm members.
I slid my hands in a slow
action as it swelled and
pumped please don't stop.
Cold sweat beads glittered
against members flesh, but
the kisses never stopped just
hungered for each other a
little more.
His hands pulled on the
robe as he trying to resist
the finish.
From his kisses shivered
a moan slithered between our
tongues as he rubbed the
backs of my legs wanting
to place that swell of
pleasure inside my own
tightness so we may enjoy
the swell together. With
the other palm held the
rested slick backed hair
against my neck breathing
more moans and hisses to bed
smelling flesh that gleamed
in the face of pulled back
curtains of the kitchen.
A little nip on flesh,
an arch of cramped bone
clashing together to
relax, an eased swallow
of a climax producing a
formed whisper of
"I love you." Blessed
our morning while I put
member back in his pants
and held him as if the
world was going to end.
Copyright 2011 by Amber Davis
Critique by Jendi Reiter
Sex and lyric poetry fit together like...your favorite body parts. Erotic verses may be written to seduce, to boast of conquests, to memorialize a moment that was as fleeting as it was all-consuming, or even to satirize an opponent for his undignified slavery to lust. From Catullus, to the medieval troubadours and the bawdy Elizabethans, to contemporary poets like e.e. cummings and Sharon Olds, poets have found myriad ways to examine those acts that lay bare the emotions as well as the body.
But how much detail, or rather which details, should the poem expose? These choices can spell the difference between a satisfying erotic poem and one that instead provokes disgust or ridicule. Where sex writing strikes a false note, it's often because the language is overly clinical, vulgar, or pompous and flowery—or some buzz-killing melange of all three. It's no wonder that so much comedy revolves around sexual innuendo. The sexual moment requires you to cease stage-managing the self and just inhabit it, and sincerity always risks crossing over into foolishness. Without the possibility of a fall, the tightrope act wouldn't be exciting. The good erotic poem knows how to walk the line.
I selected this month's poem, "Breakfast's Lust" by Amber Davis of Troy, NY, because it's an example of an erotic lyric that has potential but could also be improved through editing. Davis takes us step by step through this episode of seduction, lingering on each sensation to intrigue and hopefully arouse the reader. She doesn't indulge in the florid metaphors for sexual organs that were once the hallmark of romance novels. Yet the coupling is suffused with a romantic glow because of the comfortable domestic setting and the slow build-up of physical intimacy between the partners.
Timing is everything here, so it's important to reread your erotic poem with a critical eye for unnecessary asides and repetitive words that dissipate the tension. The style of "Breakfast's Lust" is relatively unsophisticated, a first-person "and then...and then...and then..." straightforward description of events, without the associative leaps that a more advanced writer would employ to connect sex to some other aspect of the human condition—for instance, something funny, melancholy, or frightening about our inner nature that breaks through our defenses and disguises when passion takes over. By comparison, the motivation of Davis' poem is simply to share the pleasure of the scene. If that is your goal, it's all the more important to be concise.
Although Davis' focus is narrow in this way, the poem remains interesting because not all of the delights it presents are actually sexual. The rich color and silky flow of the bathrobe, the appetizing aroma of breakfast, the sunlight through the kitchen window, and the clean scent of toothpaste are equally to be savored. Where metaphors make an appearance, they are surprising and original, not used in a coy prudish way to pretend we aren't talking about sex, but rather to make the setting as vivid as the encounter within it. Some of my favorites were "a brush of morning kisses/painted me" and "I slid my hands/down the length of his/torso like curtains ending/a play". These images flirt with concealment even as the characters begin to bare all. Such texture or counterpoint can make the difference between literary erotica and the dull mechanical pumping of body parts in pornography.
"Show, don't tell" is a cliche because it's true. Love poems seem particularly subject to the temptation to over-declare. We certainly wouldn't want to edit our partners if they said "I love you" a thousand times! But the reader is won over by craftsmanship, not sincerity. Here, the tender relationship between the partners is perfectly encapsulated in the lines "I went to those arms facing/him while sitting down on/legs that cradled us as/we slept." On the other hand, the sentence "What a wonderful way to start the day" is unnecessary and bland.
Allow me to suggest some other phrases that could be cut without hurting the meaning and rhythm of the poem: "I slid my hands/down to the zipper of his/pants" (we already know where she's headed!); the next "I slid my hands " before "in a slow action" (repetitive); and possibly the lines "but/the kisses never stopped just/hungered for each other a/little more" (it's nice that they're not forgetting the romance in the lust, but there are more kisses coming soon, and "hungered for each other" is a bit melodramatic). The section could be rewritten thus:
He hugged
me closer as I slid my hands
down the length of his
torso like curtains ending
a play, letting the palm of
my hand kiss the growing
firm member
in a slow
action as it swelled and
pumped please don't stop.
Additional edits would clean up grammatical errors such as the plural "members" for "member", and omitted articles and pronouns ("while I put his/member back in his pants"). A stanza break following "resist/the finish" would provide nice breathing space and make the stanza lengths more uniform. Davis might also want to think about changing the poem title. "Breakfast's Lust" sounds rather like a bodice-ripper and doesn't add anything. Titles can be a convenient place to provide background information without intruding into the temporal flow of the poem. Would the author like to tell us more about the relationship between the lovers? Is this a special day for them? How long have they been together? Have they made up from a fight? Are they married to each other, or to other people? The mystery is hers to reveal.
Where could a poem like "Breakfast's Lust" be submitted? It was challenging for me to find markets for this poem, because its subject matter might be too racy for the amateur magazines and local poetry societies that I typically suggest for emerging writers, but its style is too simple for the more prestigious journals. The following contests may be of interest:
Oscar Wilde Award
Postmark Deadline: June 27
Gival Press offers $100 and web publication for poems by authors aged 18+ that "best relate gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered life"; past winners have included erotic poems
Aquillrelle Poetry Contest
Entries must be received by August 31
Belgian writers' forum offers publication of a book-length manuscript for the top three winners of their free contest for unpublished poems
Suggestions for Further Reading:
Charlie Bondhus, How the Boy Might See It
Mary Carroll-Hackett, The Real Politics of Lipstick
Jill Alexander Essbaum, Harlot
Lisa Glatt, Monsters and Other Lovers
The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry
This poem and critique appeared in the June 2011 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter (subscribe free).
Bright Sky, Cole Night
By Anne Kaylor
~For Charles Urrey, 1954–2014
His battered hands are bruised yet
never beaten. Kneading with need,
he molds honey-laced love, even as
his broken body grows too fragile
to touch.
Yet nothing—not even hours
preparing the gear nor single-digit
degrees—surpasses his desire to stargaze
tonight as the clouds part to reveal
constellations.
By motorized chair, his fingers navigate
him in this rural setting where clarity of sky
matches a crystal mind. He begs to be lifted,
to gaze at his dark heaven, but his frame
betrays him.
His cognizance is caged by tongue;
sagging, his view clings to earth.
But inside, his own unforgettable jazz
blares a timbre acclaiming life and he sheds
death's tainting touch
for one more day, his Stetson
firmly in place as we break bread,
heedless of the odds.
Brilliant Flash Fiction
Based in Ireland, the online journal Brilliant Flash Fiction is published quarterly and accepts submissions of unpublished short stories under 1,000 words. See website for rules for their quarterly free contests with prizes up to 50 euros. No simultaneous submissions.
British War Poetry in the Age of Romanticism, 1793-1815
By Betty T. Bennett. Essay briefly surveys the literature of war in Britain during a crucial period in the development of the modern nation-state. Includes extensive bibliography. This essay is the introduction to a larger anthology not available online.
Brittle Paper: An African Literary Experience
Launched in 2010, Brittle Paper aims to promote and discuss the best in contemporary African literature. They publish original fiction and poetry, literary news and commentary, book reviews, and craft articles. They also compile a list of notable African books published each year. Among the useful resources on this site, we recommend Kenyan author and Cornell University professor Mukoma Wa Ngugi's article "Writing Your Other: A Concise Guide for White Writers".
Broadsided
Each month, Broadsided selects a poem or flash prose piece from their submissions and invites an artist to create an original "broadside", or poster, featuring that poem. A letter-sized PDF file of the collaboration is posted on their site to be freely downloaded and distributed. You can sign up as a "Vector" and agree to post at least two copies of each month's poems in your local coffee shop, library, bus station, public notice board, grocery store, or other public gathering place. Entries should be submitted by email; send 3-5 poems, maximum 30 lines each, or one prose piece, maximum 300 words, in the body of your message to broadsided@gmail.com. Include a short bio. Previously published work accepted. Past contributors have included Mary Jo Bang, Ilya Kaminsky, G.C. Waldrep, Brian Teare, and Robert Wrigley.
Broken Pencil
Broken Pencil reviews the best zines, books, websites, videos, and artworks from the underground and reprints the best articles from the alternative press. They also publish original fiction and interviews.
Broken Sleep Books
Broken Sleep Books is a small literary press in Wales that publishes poetry and nonfiction chapbooks ("pamphlets" in UK parlance) and full-length poetry collections. See website for their submission windows for each genre. Editors say, "We particularly wish to encourage more working-class writers, LGBTQ+, and BAME writers to submit. Politically we are left-leaning." Authors in their catalog include Angela Cleland, Pádraig ó Tuama, and U.G. Világos.
Brotherly Love and Stamens and Pistils
BROTHERLY LOVE by Ellaraine Lockie
I knew cancer was coursing
through his body
in stage four deadly drama
The doctor having prepared us
for the final act
in his appointed position
A combination of God
and aggressive casting director
Allocating antidotal roles to archangels
with names like Leucovarin and Kytrel
Typecast as side effect soldiers
Performing all-too-temporary truces
I knew he'd be a memorable hero
Benchmark behaved like a hundred year oak
Even though no malignant knots
ever before blighted our family tree
He sits rooted by the peace
of each pain-free day
Suspended in the soft deception
of a leather lounge chair
While bombs of chemotherapeutic
proportion drop from plastic bags
Staging his private world war
Poisonous parts played out
in provisional victories
I didn't know I was an actress
Another stretch he's pulled
in my elastic existence
Like the tugs that lured
a little sister from farmwife fate
The push into college, classical music, safe sex
All the quality-of-life debts
scripted across my cinematic mindset
As I sit watching the IV
rerun its surreal suspense
And I pretend in Oscar-quality portrayal
that oak trees are immortal
and make-believe can recast reality
Copyright 2010 by Ellaraine Lockie
STAMENS AND PISTILS by Margaret Sherman
After I was fixed
people sent me mixed baskets of
carnations, daisies, roses
lilies to acknowledge my sterility.
Surrounded by these living arrangements
I fell into a deep sleep wondering
where a useless uterus
and a pair of damaged
ovaries would end up
while my fat orange tomcat
ate all the perfect flowers.
Only a few petals were left
in memoriam.
Copyright 2010 by Margaret Sherman
Critique by Tracy Koretsky
Illness, our own and those of the people we love, often compels poets to the page. We struggle to give voice to the mute and expression to the inchoate. Just the act of this striving is moving. We all have bodies; there is no topic more universal. Yet poems about illness can be tricky, skirting mawkish sentiment. One way to successfully avoid this pitfall is to use metaphor. In this month's Critique Corner, we will look at how two poets have attempted this. They are Ellaraine Lockie of Sunnyvale, California, with her poem "Brotherly Love"; and Margaret Sherman of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, with "Stamens and Pistils".
To begin, let's compare their basic structures. "Brotherly Love" consists of three stanzas, the first two of which begin with the words "I knew" and the last with "I didn't know." With this, Lockie ensures a turn in her poem (see August's Critique Corner) by providing a simple but durable structure upon which to hang her rumination. Sherman, on the other hand, does not ruminate, but rather organizes a narrative around a cohering symbol: flowers sent by well-wishers.
This is not to say that Lockie doesn't use metaphor. In fact, she brachiates from one to the next. In the first stanza she seizes upon the word "drama" to generate "final act", "casting director", "roles", "typecast", and "performing".
The "hero" of the first line of the second stanza can then be read simultaneously as both war hero (suggested by "soldiers" in stanza one, line eleven) and dramatic hero. In either case, the notion is temporarily set aside as lines two through five exploit instead the possibilities of "tree" as their dominant metaphor. Line nine, though, harkens back to "hero" in the first line of the stanza, still referring concurrently to both "soldier" ("bombs", "war") and to its original reference to theatrics ("parts", "played").
The conflation is somewhat confusing, a condition given voice in the strategically placed following line "I didn't know". With this line Lockie returns to the metaphor of drama, possibly implying "costume" with the "elastic" trope over the next three lines. Finally, at the end of this stanza—which by the framework of the poem is pre-designed as its conclusion—the metaphor of "tree" is re-sounded within the very same sentence as the more sustained metaphor of "drama" (now morphed specifically to mean "cinema").
Ultimately the question must be: are all these various strands of concept effective? Do they, by their very abundance, their compounding and intermingling, evoke a sense of overwhelm for the reader that might reflect the competing and complex internal processes of their narrator?
The key to understanding this poem, to my mind, is actually a single, tiny, word. It begins line nine of the final stanza. That's right: "As".
With this sudden shift to the present tense, I find myself with a clear picture of the poet with her notebook open. Lockie is an extremely experienced, well-published, and frequently-awarded artist; she knows how to generate a poem. She knows, for example, the time-tested dependability of the "I knew...I knew...I didn't know" framework as a way to initiate material. She knows the value of the specific and exotic and so gives us the names of drugs. We witness her following out avenues of ideas as she milks the possibilities of diction within the theater/cinema family.
The same generative quality occurs in the occasional examples of strained syntax ("Benchmark behaved", or the full sentence about the doctor in stanza one). Likewise for the multiple occurrences of consonance as words suggest other words to her. ("Poisonous parts played out/ in provisional" is the most extensive example of this.) Her considerable experience tells her not to overdirect, but to let the ideas come. And come and come. There is no shortage of ideas in this piece; the poet has a kit of tools and knows how to call upon them.
Now, at this stage of her career, Lockie is incapable of writing a bad poem, even as a first draft, and this poem has enjoyed multiple publications (first in the journal The Hypertexts and then in the poet's chapbook, Finishing Lines). Nevertheless, here at the Critique Corner, all poems are read as drafts. So, responding as such, I would say that, in this piece, my attention is constantly called to the poetics as I am further and further distanced from the feelings motivating it. In the end I know nothing of the brother nor anything memorable of the narrator's experience with him. I understand that the narrator senses an unreality in this experience—that she is being called upon to play-act—and I believe that to be a powerful notion upon which to base a poem, but rather than delve into how uneasily this requirement sits, we are instead asked to ponder trees.
One way the author might drill to the truth of this piece might be to recast it entirely in the present tense. By imaginatively revisiting the moment, she might access the kind of self-referential details that would let the reader truly inhabit the space with her, as opposed to watching her from a distance.
The operative word there is "details" because, by providing the reader too much undetailed information, a poet can give away some of its power. Let's take a look at Sherman's "Stamens and Pistils" with this idea in mind. In her first line she says she was "fixed". This is an ironic choice that not only tells the reader what the poem is about but also how the poet feels about it (more like broken). However, in the sixty words of this poem, we are given this information twice more: "my sterility", and "useless uterus/damaged ovaries". With each iteration, its potency is drained.
Look to the details of the poem to see what might convey the information without explicitly reporting or instructing the reader how to feel. We have a list of flowers, the aforementioned internal organs, a cat, some petals. Notice the adjectives associated with these in the main stanza: "mixed baskets"; "living arrangements" contrasted against "deep sleep" (with its implication of death); the pairing of "useless" and "damaged"; three adjectives for the cat: "fat", "orange", and "male"; and finally "perfect flowers". Within these well-selected phrases lies the poem. Notice, for example, that the flowers have no color. Only the tomcat—which most specifically refers to an un-neutered animal, as well as being slang for seeking sexual adventure—has one.
It is easy to strike "to acknowledge my sterility". The poem loses nothing since the same information is stated with more explicit detail within the next five lines. The question is, should the first line—with its all-too-rare use of effective irony—go as well? Alas, I would say yes. Beginning the poem without it would leave open the question as to why the poet is receiving flowers and return the impact to the phrases about the uterus and ovaries, where it belongs. It would allow the reader to discover as opposed to being told. Whenever possible, make room for readers to participate in putting your narrative together and they will become engaged with the piece.
The same concept can be applied to the final two lines. It is easy to identify "in memoriam" as being too telling, but what of the petals? Allowed to imagine them for myself, I conjure something that looks a bit like tears, or that browns. Even simply read as fallen petals, they make a lovely image. Just cutting the final line would leave this strong poem with a weak verb; that won't do. So, the poet will need to work with it to find something—perhaps, as I've suggested, the word "falling"—that will give the piece cadence, but retain what is powerful about it: its coherence around a simple but potent symbol, its reliance upon the logic of metaphor to speak to readers.
Because, even as we write through our grief, even as we work to release the silent tongues of our bodies, it is the reader we must write for. Whether the choice is to be more brave and share more deeply, or more subtle, to leave room for the reader to take part, the solutions become more readily apparent when we put the reader first.
Where could poems like "Brotherly Love" and "Stamens and Pistils" be submitted? The following contests may be of interest:
Lucidity Poetry Journal Clarity Awards
Postmark Deadline: October 31
Free contest with prizes up to $100 for poems in any form dealing with people and interpersonal relationships; authors must be 18+
Beullah Rose Poetry Prize
Postmark Deadline: January 1
Literary journal Smartish Pace offers $200 for unpublished poems by women; enter by mail or online
Cafe Writers Open Poetry Competition
Entries must be received by November 30
Norfolk-based writers' group offers prizes up to 1,000 pounds for unpublished poems; online entries accepted
Soul-Making Literary Competition
Postmark Deadline: November 30
National League of American Pen Women chapter offers prizes up to $100 for poetry, stories, prose poems, personal essays, humor, and literature for young adults; open to both men and women; previously published works accepted
Writer's Digest Poetry Awards
Postmark Deadline: December 15
National writers' magazine offers prizes up to $500 for unpublished poems, 32 lines maximum; online entries accepted; no simultaneous submissions
These poems and critique appeared in the October 2010 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter (subscribe free).
Bruno Was From Brazil
"I'm from Oakland and I'm not a statistic. Yet. But New Year's Eve I left the Bank of America at 2:30 pm; the news that night flashed on my bank. It was the scene of the last homicide of the year, at 3:20 pm.—, which meant I dodged a bullet by 45 minutes. Witnesses say two Latino males and two African-American males had a parking lot altercation. The Latino driver used an ethnic slur and one of the black guys pulled out a gun and shot him. The two blacks drove off, witnesses say, and Bruno who was from Brazil and delivered pizza, for god's sake, died on the spot...now you know the last word in the guidebook for new arrivals is nigger. Ask Camille Cosby. And I know poor, poor Bruno heard the word a thousand times delivering those pizzas. 'Some nigguz on 90th Ave. want mushroom/salami/chicken...only nigguz want combos like that...you my nigga...when you get money from nigguz, check for counterfeit...nigguz, Bruno, watch out...' Poor Bruno, the word probably came off his tongue like spit. And he didn't know you could call a black person a nigger and get utter scorn and contempt. Like down South where they just ignored it and kept their inner dignity. But Bruno, you don't call a real nigga a nigga. That's like a death wish. Are you crazy? Suicidal? Certain words are like gods. They command respect. Nigger is a god. I'm so sorry for Bruno. He was a sacrificial lamb—that's what you have to do with gods. You have to appease them, give them a lil' somepin somepin. And I know Richard Pryor went to Africa after he made $50 million off the word and came back with religion. Stopped using the word and used crack instead. But he didn't stop folks from using it. He just made the word an academic issue: shall we nigger; shall we not nigger? Forget Dick Gregory's autobiography called Nigger. No, a Harvard law professor writes a book called Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. Nigger is a God, nigger made millions, now it has a career. And the country's leading black intellectual, a guy named Skippy, finds one of the first novels written by a black, titled, what else, Our Nig. So I'm proposing a constitutional amendment on the use of the word. There are simply days when it is dangerous to use the word. And one of those days is Friday night. And another of those days is Saturday night. Ok? On MLK's birthday, abstain. Christmas, it goes without saying. The season is the reason. And proceed with caution on the Fourth of July. Fireworks, drinking and the use of the word by the wrong people don't mix."
Copyright 2007 by Judy Juanita
Critique by Jendi Reiter
This month's unusual and provocative piece, "Bruno Was From Brazil" by Judy Juanita, crosses the boundaries of genre (appropriately for a poem about explosive cross-cultural interaction). An example of the fluid form known as the prose poem, which has become increasingly popular in literary journals, this piece would also work well as a slam poetry performance. Neither form can rely on line breaks to signify that the text is "poetic", forcing the author to pay closer attention to aural patterns and timing in order to give the piece the musical momentum and intensity of a poem. Writing prose poems, or reading one's work aloud, are both useful tools for free-verse poets to discover whether they are allowing line breaks to substitute for true poetic speech.
What exactly is a prose poem? This overview from the Academy of American Poets website notes: "While it lacks the line breaks associated with poetry, the prose poem maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme." Juanita's poem fits this description, with its staccato sentences, its wide-ranging associative leaps between topics and varieties of diction (news reports, conversation, academese and slang), and especially its mesmerizing repetition of That Word.
"Bruno Was From Brazil" initially leans toward the prosy side of the equation, beginning in the voice of a hard-boiled detective story: "I'm from Oakland and I'm not a statistic. Yet." Halfway through, somewhere around the line "Certain words are like gods," the piece takes off as a manic riff on racially charged language and whether its sting can ever be dulled by context. Without line breaks (brakes?), the words spill out furiously, defying decorum and step-by-step logic, so that when we finally reach the author's satirical "solution" of a constitutional amendment, it's obvious that we'll never be able to draw neat lines separating safe from dangerous uses of the word. In this way, the author's chosen form enhances the message and emotional impact of her story.
The hybrid poetic form liberates Juanita to include sentences that would feel too wordy and technical in a traditional lyric poem (particularly the section from "Forget Dick Gregory's autobiography" to "Our Nig"). Other sentences, by contrast, display more of the aphoristic, non-literal qualities of poetry: "now you know the last word in the guidebook for new arrivals is nigger"; "Stopped using the word and used crack instead"; and the passage "Certain words are like gods. They command respect. Nigger is a god. I'm so sorry for Bruno. He was a sacrificial lamb—that's what you have to do with gods. You have to appease them, give them a lil' somepin somepin."
The repetition of the word "god" parallels the subsequent variations on "nigger", reinforcing the connection between these concepts. Gods are lethally unpredictable, a power that we try and fail to contain with words and rituals, and yet a power we can't resist invoking to make sense of our lives. This poem suggests that racial and cultural identity, and perhaps even language itself, are essential aspects of being human, but also have the potential to dehumanize. Where there are borders, there will be wars.
ƒ
The latter half of the poem seems to deride academic efforts to domesticate the word, implicitly questioning whether this is just another way of encouraging children to play with live ammunition. The line between safe and unsafe contexts is easy to cross unawares; wouldn't it be better to suppress the word entirely? On the other hand, how can we think and speak critically about real and persistent racial divisions if we allow racist language to silence us? Neither speech nor silence can perfectly preserve the illusion of a vantage point outside the moral failures of our culture. By choosing to use the word—to rub our noses in it, in fact—but ending with a self-mocking non-solution, Juanita makes us see that cosmetic changes to language only conceal racism, not eliminate it.
Adding to the moral ambiguity, "nigger" is a word traditionally used by whites to oppress blacks, but the homicide victim in this poem is a Latino immigrant who used the word in ignorance, and his assailants are African-American. Who is truly innocent here? The shooters, or men in their social world, might have felt they were resisting oppression by putting a positive spin on a word that the white majority used against them (the way some gays have reclaimed "queer"), but clearly the word still hurts them, no matter how tough they try to become by using it on each other. It's like keeping a loaded gun in your house: all it takes is one curious child to turn responsible self-defense into irresponsible risk.
Some interesting postmodern themes that arise in this piece: "Bruno Was From Brazil" is a poem about language that points to its own inadequacy, yet cannot be silent. It's also about the disjunction between signifier and signified. Repeat a word often enough and it starts to sound strange, almost nonsensical. Abstracted from its interpersonal context, the word as word reveals itself to be empty, arbitrary. Yet this can lull us into a false sense of security, because of course the interpersonal context is always there, and the word in the real world always has a history and an explosive charge. The author, the speaker, is not in complete control of how the word will be received. Is it "just a word"? Yes—and no.
Where could a poem like "Bruno Was From Brazil" be submitted? The following contests may be of interest:
Fineline Competition
Postmark Deadline: May 1
$1,000 award for prose poems and flash fiction, 500 words maximum, from Mid-American Review
Boston Review Poetry Contest
Postmark Deadline: June 1
Competitive award of $1,500 from well-known literary review that publishes experimental poetry and progressive political articles
1/2 K Prose-Poem/Short-Short Prize
Postmark Deadline: August 15
$1,000 award for prose poems and flash fiction (500 words maximum) from Indiana Review, a prestigious journal
This poem and critique appeared in the April 2007 issue of Winning Writers Newsletter (subscribe free).
Buck Studies
By Douglas Kearney. Read these energetic, challenging poems once quickly for their frantic virtuosity of sound and rhythm, and again slowly to tease out the allusions in each compressed line. "Buck" was a racial slur in post-Civil War America for a black man who was sexually powerful and defiant of white authority. By juxtaposing it with "Studies", Kearney mocks the pseudoscientific white gaze, and also demands a place for black subjectivity in the canon of high culture. This second theme emerges most strongly in the two poem cycles that bracket the collection. The first reworks the Labors of Hercules through the legend of 19th-century African-American pimp Stagger Lee (the subject of numerous murder ballads by artists as varied as Woody Guthrie, Duke Ellington, and The Clash). The second cycle replaces Jesus with Br'er Rabbit in the Stations of the Cross. As great satires do, these mash-ups make us ask serious questions: Who gets to go down in history as a hero instead of a thug? Would an oppressed people be better off worshipping a trickster escape artist, rather than a martyr?
Bud
By J.C. Todd
What an exact moment,
beyond stop watch, clock, daily planner.
Nothing meted out. Pure season,
expression of something immense
that you barely glimpse.
Coiled tight like spirochetes, hundreds
squinched in a head, how many heads
on a bush? On a bank of them? Fragrance
when sun hits not green but not blossom.
Less cloud, longer light, a shift of wind
to south—imagine—detonation
as though bombs have been ticking below notice,
ticking in a rhythm so full of silence
who could count it out?
Each noon buds loosen, scent is more intense,
perfume you long for, whiff of an awakening
so piercing it will disappear as you open to it.
The brain can't hold such beauty
and keep the body running.
Just before it blows into bloom
you could die of it—lilac.
Cut, it will fade. You'll say it's lost
its scent, but that's been given
to you, and to stay alive,
you've had to forget.
Le dur désire de durer,
how harsh the desire to endure.
Originally published in Big Bridge, Issue #16
Buddhist Poetry Review
"Our vision encompasses the full spectrum of Buddhism, and we welcome submissions from authors who write from any perspective." Submissions are accepted via their online form. See website for special themes for each issue.
Budgeting for Bibliophiles
This article on the CouponChief website links to their favorite sites for free or discounted books and audio books.
Bulb Culture Collective
Bulb Culture Collective is open year-round to submissions of poetry that was previously published by a now-defunct journal or website, or that was published at least two years ago (regardless of the journal's current status). They will share a new poem on their website twice a week and promote it on social media. Please include credit to the original publisher, and any relevant content warnings about sexual violence or domestic abuse.
Butterfly Story Collective Podcast
A project of the University of California-Davis, the Butterfly Story Collective is a podcast where immigrants share their stories about their experiences living in the United States. Featured speakers include civil rights attorney Hassan Shibly and actor Bambadjan Bamba from the film "Black Panther".
Button Poetry
Founded by National Poetry Slam champion Sam Cook, Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of distribution, promotion and fundraising for performance poetry. Button produces and distributes poetry media, including: video from local and national events, chapbooks, collaborative audio recordings, scholarship and criticism, and many other products.
