POETSWEDNESDAY & More

Writing workshops with Peter Murphy

I've been to the Sea Isle City workshop. I highly recommend it. Check out other workshop opportunities on the web site below.

http://www.wintergetaway.com/

Tiferet

http://www.tiferetjournal.com/

Lips

http://home.earthlink.net/~poetry_magazine/Lips.html

Pin Up Girls Are Not All From Hollywood

                                --by Jennifer Diskin 

The day before Grandma Adeline died,

She condemned her sister Verna

for not putting the right year of birth

on the grave

as if you can smear Oil of Olay

on my great-grandmother’s grave

and make the marble younger.

Who guessed stones were prone to age?

 

She got mad about Verna’s obsession

with Fred Gethman

who Verna was infatuated with at 14.

Now, she was 90 and still she swoons

and harasses the priest at Sacred Heart

about the exact whereabouts

of Sir Fred’s monument.

 

When a wife is done

with all the cooking and baking,

she lets her anger chug

like a

Delaware

and

Lackawanna

train.

 

The electric can opener

you use for chicken and rice soup

is as frigid

as a middle age spinster

who takes care of her parents

stays a polyester wearing virgin

and has an affinity for gray cats.

 

I stay quiet

about the amount

of salt in the bowl.

I figure if you can make it this far,

forget the sodium content.

                                                        

I get the can opener to work

because I once was

the virtuoso of loose women

and I screwed open too easily.

I didn’t let a man beat with his hands

but I let guys bruise me

with what they didn’t say

after I made the bed.

 

Oh, Adolcha, Adeline,

My Polish Rita Hayworth,

Pray for me

who has won

the audition to be Job’s wife.

I am sick again,

No trips to

Washington

to be a secretary penciled in

or Benny Goodman’s Stardust

and U.S.O. parties

just the solace

of fireflies in the backyard

small votive candles,

flickering through sky.

 

 

 

 

 

---

Andrew M. Daddio

Check out the work of A.M. Daddio on the site below

http://www.amdaddio.com/

Arbella

Have you seen the latest issue of Arbella? If not, you should. Tom's included some really interesting writing, photographs and drawings. I especially love the back cover photograph by Andrew M. Daddio, "The Loraine Diner Series/#18-End of the Meal."

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[email protected]

Joe Weil's Blog

http://www.myspace.com/joeweil

Television Daddy by Susanna Rich

Prepublication sales for Television Daddy, a new chapbook by Susanna Rich, have begun!  From July 11 through August 22, Finishing Line Press is offering free shipping for the book.  It would be a tremendous support to her if you ordered your copies now—this first printing is a limited collector's edition and the press run and publication strength of this title will be determined, in part, by how many books are sold during this period.  Just visit

 

http://www.finishinglinepress.com/2006newreleasesandforthcomingtitles.htm

 

Television Daddy is in the 13^th row, 4^th book in.  Or snail mail the order form below.

 

                    

 

 

ORDER FORM

 

Mail to:

Finishing Line Press

PO Box 1626

Georgetown, Kentucky 

40324

 

Please send me ____________ copy/copies of Television Daddy by Susanna Rich, at $14 each. (Add shipping fee for orders placed after August 22, 2008:  $2 for first copy, .50 for each additional.)

 

Name __________________________________________________________________

 

Address ________________________________________________________________

 

City, State, Zip ___________________________________________________________

 

____ Enclosed is my check, payable to Finishing Line Press for $ ____________.

 

____ Please charge my credit card $ ___________.    _______ Visa _______ Mastercard

 

Name as it appears on the card ______________________________________________

 

Credit Card Number ________________________________    Exp. Date ____________

 

Card verification number (3-digit code on back of card, far right) ___________________

 

Signature _______________________________________________________________

Ed Galing

Ed Galing's poetry, through the use of simplistic form and language, tackles subjects that are complex and extremely relevant today, given our current economic climate. Galing is 91 years old and is still writing. He is an inspiration and a talented poet. I had asked him to read for PoetsWednesday a couple of years ago, but the trip from PA was too much for him. I read several of his poems at the Barron Arts Center and they were well received. With the permission of Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books, Dave Roskos was gracious enough to let me print these three poems from Buying A Suit On Essex Street. I hope you enjoy these poems as much as I do. My childhood was somewhat similar. I, too, grew up in a cold water flat. I understand all that is related to that lifestyle such as warming yourself near the kitchen stove, heating stones in order to warm the sheets before bed, and very discretionary spending. Ed Gailing has a gift. He finds beauty in places that most people refuse to look, and is at home where no one wants to live. That's poetry.

 

BITTER ROOTS

 

I never sold apples

during the depression

 

on this new york

street that I passed by

 

each day, you would find

them, men with wooden

crates, upon which the

 

apples rested, and below

the scrawled sign,

"buy an apple and help me...

        five cents..."

 

the men were always so

sad looking and old before

their time, defeated by an

 

enemy over whom they had no

control,

 

millions unemployed and out

of work, and I, too, was

one of them,

 

living in a cold water flat,

alone, and broke...

and often I would shiver in

 

the cold air, stop, and buy

a sweet apple, munching it

on the way home to nothing,

 

thinking, it could be me,

it could be me...

 

and from then on,

even until these days,

 

an apple has never tasted

the same again.

 

 

JEWISH DELIS

 

I discovered lox and

bagels at an early age.

Eating on the Lower East Side

right near Broome Street

was Moishe's Cafe,

mouth watering

corn beef and

great juicy pickles,

all those delicacies

that made the Lower

East Side famous,

Nathan's hot-dogs,

Coney Island in the winter,

the bridges spanning the borough,

the subways underground,

the hurdy gurdy crazy

mixed up world of New York

and no matter how old you get

the yearning to return.

 

 

MUSIC ON THE BOARDWALK

 

Saddest sight I ever seen

on the boardwalk of

Atlantic City

last summer

was this woman

with no arms or legs

lyin' on a gurney

playin' a small keyboard

piano with her tongue

and makin' the happiest

music I ever heard

while the people

strollin' by with

legs and arms and

whole bodies

were busy eatin' ice cream

and hot dogs and throwin'

peanuts to the pigeons

and never paid any attention

to this woman who was doin'

all this entertainin'

just so that

someone would

pay some attention to her.

 

Tony Gruenewald

www.tonygruenewald.com