CruelestMonth.com

A Contest - The People Look Like Flowers At Last

As I alluded to in yesterday's post, I'm giving away three copies of Charles Bukowski's final collection of new poems, The People Look Like Flowers At Last.  I realize that saying that this is it from Bukowski may be hard to accept as true.  This will be the fifth collection of new poems released since his death in 1994, but we swear, we know John Martin, we know Linda Bukowski, as far as we all can tell, this is it.  (Except for the Selected Buk that we'll be publishing next year, edited by John Martin, but that's irrelevant.)  In order to procure your copy, please write me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com.  Include your name, address, and...here's the catch: to win a copy you must write, what you think, would be Bukowski's final poem. 

Will he muse on the fickle and violent love of women, the fellowship of whisky, the anarchy of Los Angeles, the slow, ineluctable approach of death?  Will he be lewd, comic, sorely profound?  It is up to you.

I'll choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners--each will receive The People Look Like Flowers At Last and other goodies commensurate with their place.  Each winning poem will be posted for a day on the CM.  The deadline is Wednesday, March 21st and please include the poem in the body of your e-mail.  That should be plenty of time considering Buk's methods of composition. 

In the meantime, to help get you started, here's a long one from his final collection:

"sadness in the air"

here I am alone sitting
like some wimp

listening to Chopin

the night wind blowing in
through the
torn curtains.

won $546 at the track today but
now I'm thinking that
dying is such a strange and
ordinary thing.

I just hope that I'll never need
false teeth before I
go.

A Worldly Country by John Ashbery

Today marks another exciting release from Ecco: A Worldly Country by John Ashbery.  On an occasion such as this, my only pleasure is to invite you to share in our enthusiasm.  Palpable, isn't it?  I have a quantity of three--the perfect number--copies of Mr. Ashbery's latest.  In order to partake, please e-mail me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with your name, address, and, here's the kicker, a sentence of twelve-word length that includes the phrase "caffeine energy gum."  That leaves you nine words.  Please use them wisely.  Winning entries will be posted and attributed.  ***WE HAVE OUR WINNERS...TABULATING RESULTS!!!***

"The Inchcape Rock"

Prop up the "meaning,"
take the trash out, the dog for a walk,
give the old balls a scratch, apologize for three things
by Friday--oh quiet noumenon
of my soul, this is it, right?
You lost the key and the answer is inside
somewhere, and where are you going to breath?
The box is shut that knew you
and all your friends,
voices that could have spoken in your behalf ...

Why, what did you want me to do with them?
Half a document is sufficient to this
weather, wild time, excrescence, more.
Rumors sift across a bald apologia.
The feet are here.

- John Ashbery from A Worldly Country (2007)

Zbigniew Herbert Giveaway

The Collected Poems of Zbigniew Herbert: 1956-1998,  translated by Alissa Valles, with an introduction by Adam Zagajewski, has haunted my every step since I began this blog.  Always people wondered where and when they might procure a copy.  Ceaseless e-mails and hysterical phone messages went from being the exception to being the routine that I came to know as my burden.  The fact that the publication date had been moved twice didn't help matters, serving only to exacerbate the 'fiending' of some otherwise respectable poetry lovers.  But fast no more, friends.  The on-sale date is nigh (2/6) and I have three books to give away.

The first, you guessed it, three readers to write to CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com will receive a copy.  But here's the catch: please provide, besides your mailing address, the title of a poem, any poem, that appears in the collection.  Capitalization and punctuation will factor in, so no duncy, e-mail speak.  Good luck!

And if you'd like a further description of the book, follow the link below.

Flash Fiction Contest

Flash Fiction Contest sponsored by Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi will accept submissions starting tomorrow, September 1st. 

TO ENTER: E-mail one story to mary@squarebooks.com with the subject header "FLASH FICTION CONTEST: <Your Title>".  DO NOT include your name anywhere in the body of the e-mail.

RULES: Fiction. 160 words.  No more, no less.  Ages 18+.  One entry per person.  Accepted only September 1 - September 10.  The winning entry will be read on Thacker Mountain Radio by the author.  If the author is unable to be present or does not wish to read their entry the producer will select someone to read it on-air.

JUDGES:
Charles McNair - Paste Magazine
Bess Reed - Regal Literary Agency
Michael Signorelli - HarperCollins
Annie Wedekind - Farrar, Straus & Giroux

- MS

Guess the poet...

This one's easy.  Leave the first correct "guess" as a comment, and I'll send you a book.  Here goes:

sun coming down

no one is sorry I am leaving;
not even I;
but there should be a minstrel
or at least a glass of wine.

it bothers the young most, I think:
an unviolent slow death.
still it makes any man dream;
you wish for an old sailing ship,
the white salt-crusted sail
and the sea shaking out hints of immortality.

sea in the nose
sea in the hair
sea in the marrow, in the eyes
and yes, there in the chest.
will we miss
the love of a woman or music or food
or the gambol of the great mad muscled
horse, kicking clods and destinies
high and away
in just one moment of the sun coming down?

but now it's my turn
and there's no majesty in it
because there was no majesty
before it
and each of us, like worms bitten
        out of apples,
deserve no reprieve.

death enters my mouth
and snakes along my teeth
and I wonder if I am frightened of
this voiceless, unsorrowful dying that is
like the drying of a rose?

Dylan Thomas Prize

Entries now being accepted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in a "race to reward young writers."  60,000 pounds is up for grabs, but you have to a be a published author under 30 to qualify.  If this means you, then hop on it.  If not, and you're like me, well...one day at a time, friend.

2006 Grolier Poetry Prize

In its 34th year, this contest is being co-sponsored by the Ellen La Forge Memorial Poetry Foundation, Inc. and the Grolier Poetry Book Shop. The book shop is the the oldest continuous poetry book shop in the United States. The contest is open February 1st and closes on June 30th.

First place winners recieve an honorarium of $1,000 and have the chance of publishing up to six of their poems. Three runners-up will have up to four of their poems published. These winning poems will be published in the Grolier Poetry Prize Annual. The winner and runners-up will be selected and notified in September. The contest opens Feb. 1 and closes on June 30. Visit the site for more information and for guidelines.

(Via CK, olivereader.com)