Kevin Harling - Featured Poet January 17th, 2010

I believe poetry is a bridge between us and our world. It allows us to relate our experiences in a very personal manner. I have been writing now for coming up on four years, and what I find surprising is how one progresses the more one writes. I feel that anything contains poetry, for beauty lies within everything, it just takes one to immerse oneself in the chosen subject and bring it forth. I find inspiration all around me. I enjoy reading many other poets, but in particular Pablo Neruda and Odysseus Elytis. Words have amazing abilities, the ability to convey the lighthearted, the deeply thought out, or the simple, but even more than that no two people see things the same way and as a result no two poems are alike.

Read poems by Kevin Harling:   

• The Fall

• Black

• Yoda

• Indigo

 Read more poems by Kevin at the following sites:

http://kevinharlingpoeticalmusings.blogspot.com/

http://kevinharling2.wordpress.com/

http://kevinharling.wordpress.com/

Michael H. Brownstein

Michael H. Brownstein taught elementary school in Chicago’s inner city (he is now retired), but he continues to study authentic African instruments with his students, conducts grant-writing workshops for educators and the State of Illinois Title 1 Convention, and records performance and music pieces with grants from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, the Oppenheimer Foundation, BP Leadership Grants, and others.

Read poems by Michael H. Brownstein:

• AFTER THE MOON FILLS ITSELF WITH MILK

• BEFORE TOO MANY BREATHS

• BREATH

• MUSTARD

Click here for info about the Eye On Life Poetry Contest!

Read more poems by Michael H. Brownstein

EOL Poetry Contest Deadline Approaches

There is still time to get your entries in to the Eye On Life Poetry Contest, deadline January 31st.  Mail early, because entries must be received by then! 

Click here for more info

Bibelot

I hang with mad poets and dead people.

I have been labeled a delusional realist.

And I am never enough.

If you don’t believe me, just read my poems.
Okay.  Never mind.  Maybe I am too much.

But too much what?
And you can never have too much.

Which brings us back to square one.

I think I’ve just confused myself.

You?
__________

Sincerly,

Bibelot

Read Bibelot’s Poetry:  

• Nonreciprocal Altruism

• Bones in the Closet

Ivan Jenson - Featured Poet, December 28th, 2009

Ivan Jenson has enjoyed unprecedented success publishing his poetry in the the US and the UK and he has received recognition for his bold Pop Art. His Absolut Jenson painting was featured in Art News, Art in America, and he has sold several works at Christie’s, New York. Ivan Jenson is highly sought after for his popular and dynamic live readings on the stage and radio. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Word Riot, Zygote in my Coffee, Camroc Press Review, Word Catalyst Magazine, Poetry Super Highway, Alternative Reel Poets Corner, Underground voices magazine, Blazevox, and many others.  He now writes novels and poetry in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

• Click here for Ivan Jenson’s web page

Read Ivan Jenson’s poetry: 

• WOW

• it’s not you

• Inner Child

• Forget Columbus

• Just Crazy

• The Way

• Giddy as Gilligan

Wilda Morris - Featured Poet, December 21st, 2009

Wilda Morris is workshop chairperson of Poets & Patrons of Chicago and a past president of the Illinois State Poetry Society. Her awards include a 2009 Prairie Poetry Award from College of DuPage and a Pushcart nomination. Her blog, “Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge (wildamorris.blogspot.com),” provides poets everywhere with a monthly prompt; she publishes at least one winner on the blog each month. Her book, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant, was published by the Rockford Writers Guild Press in 2008.

Read Wilda’s poems:

• Jaguar Night

• My Real Name

• Jim Daniels’ Poem

• London Cathedral

• Lady Wen-Chi Has to Decide

Enter the Eye on Life Poetry Contest

Diane Dean-Epps - Had I But Known

Diane Dean-Epps graduated from California State University at Sacramento with a major in Communication Studies-Broadcasting and a minor in Business Administration, pursuing an unfinished dance minor along the way. After a diverse and rewarding ten-year career in television broadcasting, she wended her way to a Master of Arts in English language, with a published master’s thesis highlighting the work of author, Langston Hughes.  Dean-Epps lives and works in California, writing novels in her spare time; Maternal Meanderings (Humor), Last Call (Humorous Mystery) and KILL-TV (Humorous Mystery).  Her numerous essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including MORE magazine (on-line), The San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento magazine and The Contra Costa Times.

Read Diane’s Poetry:

• Had I But Known

• Not My Stories

Diane’s Blog

Diane’s Web Site

Poems by Michael Weems

Michael Weems is a NYC based writer, playwright, and actor.  Recent playwriting credits include:  Bludgeon the Lime and Necessary Adjustments (Phare Play Productions) Fragments, Waiting Life, and Onward, Forward (Little Hibiscus Productions), Subtlety (Algonquin Productions), Burden Me (Strawberry Riant Festival & Awakening Drama); Waiting Life, Ready to Shine, and Subtlety (Brief Acts).  Recent fiction/poetry credits: Love Me, As Well (Record Magazine - Winter 08-09) When We Reached the Forest (Indite Circle Literary) and being named the poet of the month for ‘O Sweet Flowery Roses Literary Journal (October 2008), as well as recent works being published by 63 Channels Literary, Jump In Magazine, and Oregon Literary Review, amongst others.  Thanks to my loves, Christine & Thomas.  www.michaeltweems.com

Read Michael Weems’ Poems:

• A.M.

• Home at War

Enter the Eye on Life Poetry Contest

Poems by William Vollrath

William Vollrath resides in suburban Chicago, where he has finally found time to focus on writing after paying some dues as a stockbroker, grave digger, ad salesman, English instructor, real estate appraiser, bartender, political activist, father and husband. He hopes sharing his experiences, perceptions, frustrations and joys will be both good therapy for himself and provide some lasting illumination for others.

Bill enjoys doing poetry readings throughout the Chicago area and his poetry has appeared in a number of journals and web sites. 

Read poems by William Vorath:

• existential irritation

• Plaid Skies & Purple Dogs

• Half Made Moment

William Vollrath’s chapbooks of poetry “Make Mine Rare” and “Neon Windows” are available at lostmuse00@aol.com.

Chris O'Carroll - Reading at the Cantab Lounge

 December 9th, 2009 - Chris O’Carroll:  The first sonnet I read was “Holiday Fare,” my tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie we watch every year at my extended family’s Christmas gathering. It’s quite a spectacle — a room full of smart, cynical, irreverent atheists with tears streaming down our cheeks as Frank Capra twangs our heartstrings. The second sonnet I read was “New Year’s Prophecies.” The title is pretty self-explanatory. Horace Walpole wrote, “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” There’s no reason that good light verse can’t think and feel at the same time.

“Holiday Fare” appeared in the print journal The Deronda Review.

• Read Holiday Fare

• Read New Year’s Prophecies