Catching Up

First of all, free posters for National Poetry Month from the Academy of American Poets over at Poets.org. Sign up now!

Next, poetry news about me: lots of close, but no. In fact, since the beginning of the year, four journals have written to say, liked your work, aren't going to publish it, please send more. That brings the list of journals I need to send more work to up to seven. And here's the question: I had heard that you should respond to such requests within a month, before your name is forgotten, before staff turnover (especially in the case of university-based journals which can be student-run), but then recently I read that it was only good manners to wait six months, so as not to overwhelm editors dealing with stacks of submissions. Both opinions were given by poets who publish regularly. So, what do you think?

My manuscript is also a semi-finalist for a prize that would be a big deal for me; it's not likely I'll win; who knows if I'll even make it to the finals, but here's hoping.....More on this when the news becomes public.

Finally, today is the day I have been waiting for. I am alone at home. This has not happened since before Christmas. Sadly, I need to be alone to really concentrate (I say sadly because it happens so rarely, such an elusive thing). And I have plans to write poems and to clean out a closet and to prepare a few lesson plans and to finish my final problem set for my masters in linguistics. It may not sound thrilling to you, but I am so pleased to have a quiet day to do all this. Yay! And if I get it done, tomorrow I will take the time to go to a student's art show. So, off I go!

(Oh, and did I mention, I'm having a good hair day, a really good hair day, here all alone, with no one to appreciate it. The universe has a sense of humor.)

What's Neat on the Net: Visual Edition

Combinations of poetry and the visual have been showing up on my screen all week. Here are a few of them:

1. The first is the release of this year's National Poetry Month poster. See below. Check out past year's posters here.

2. The second is a series of guest blog posts about mathematical poetry in Scientific American online. They are all written by mathematical poet Bob Grumman, and feature his work as well as that of many others. Pieces tend to include some kind(s) of mathematical element, as well as words and visual imagery. Here's an example below (and if Mr. Grumman or Scientific American is unhappy about my reproducing this here, please let me know and I'll take it down):

Grumman's own "Long Division of Poetry, Frame 7"

Here are the articles in the series, displaying a wide array of styles while still using the elements mentioned above:

M@h*(pOet)?ica (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica: Summerthings
M@h*(pOet)ica: Louis Zukofsky's Interval
M@h*(pOet)ica: Scott Helmes (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica--of Pi and the Circle, Part I
M@h*(pOet)ica - Happy Holidays! (Check out Gary Barwin's "Circle of Ifs") (link to this misbehaves; go to last blog post on list, scroll down and link from there)
M@h*(pOet)ica - Circles, Part 3 (This is the last post. You can link to all posts from this one. Scroll to end.)

3. Lastly, at Maria Popova's Explore blog, a video explanation of why yellow in the room without you isn't yellow on your computer screen.