I stumbled upon an article from Mother Jones about the demise of literary magazines. You can find it here. Although the article is specifically addressing the fate of literary magazines that are associated with colleges and universities, this article caught my attention because a) Spout obviously has a strong interest in the preservation of literary magazines and literary culture and b) back in the day (1989 to be exact) Spout Magazine was launched in part to address the lack of publishing opportunities for all of the talented writers who were getting lost in what seemed at the time (and maybe still does) like an elitist environment that worked against championing new voices.
Many, but not all, of the offending publications were affiliated with institutions of higher learning. If literary magazines are now being dumped by universities, where all of the readers and writers going to go? If, as the author of this article suggests, creative writing programs are “…multiplying like tribbles” there should be enough readers to support the publications. Or not. The term “alternative” has been overused to the point of becoming nearly meaningless, but in the case of literary publishing, there are alternatives for literary writers beyond the usual list of suspects. It is my sincere hope that any changes in literary publishing will encourage readers to look for publications like Spout (and many others) that are interested in bringing as many new and underappreciated voices as possible into print.
On Valentine’s Day, I went over to my friend Steve’s house and I made him play
poetry games with me. Poetry games, which have been enjoyed for thousands of years, are one way that many modern poets such as
Ezra Pound,
T.S. Eliot and
Charles Bukowski (who, by the way, is a past Spout contributor) and more recently this writer and her unenthusiastically-forced-into-creativity Valentine’s Day date, continue to cut loose (in more ways than one).
Magnetic Poetry is an example of a derivative of these games. For anyone who loves words, here are a couple of my favorite poetry games, below, to get you started.
Poetry game #1: Everyone partaking in the round picks a descriptive word, a color and a location. Now players must arrange each of these words in a poem.
Poetry game #2: Cut out a paragraph from the newspaper or a magazine and create a poem using only the words available.
Always remember that poetry games can be played alone, but Spout encourages collaboration and is adamantly against loneliness.
Don’t forget, after indulging in a set of poetry games, send us your favorites and perhaps they will show up in a future issue of Spout magazine or I may just post them right here on the web for all to see, such as what my friend Steve came up with (scroll down) — for what good is anything, including a blog, without poetry?
Toodle pip,
-Libby
Here’s a charming poem that my reluctant friend penned on Valentine’s Day during round one.
Postcards
By Steve Madsen
I gave him a glare
from across the parlor
as he instructs the help
in his bossy matter of fact tone
I went to Bucharest
and Budapest
with purple flowers
pressed in my journal
and a silver pistol
in my luggage
She sends me postcards
and telegrams and
I can never catch up
“The Wasteland” just got weirder. I haz a feeling you will like this.
Check out the award winning poem “Half Asleep” from Spout Press author Kirsten Dierking (Northern Oracle) on the mnartists site.
When I first read this poem, I could not find the words to elegantly describe the impact of the piece, but luckily Juror Joyce Sidman gets it right in her assessment.
Better living is ambitious, but that is how we roll.
