Welcome to another month here at the Palace!
"It Just Ain't Right"
How often do we hear that phrase, or one like it, coming out of the mouths of our friends, strangers or even our own? Or "fair", that's another good one, is it not? Who and how does one qualify to make the decision that something is or isn't right? Does the pull of the capitalistic culture have anything to do with the arrogance involved with such immature judgmentalisms?
The Rolling Stones have even sung about finding out that you get “just what you need”. So, pop culture, for decades, mind you, has been letting us know the err of our ways. Life, itself, has a way of throwing at us what will best develop us for...life. Karma is taught in the Far East, “As you sow...” is the wording in the major Western morales and, pop culture again, “What goes around, comes around” is some other wording. When is it that folk will catch on to the fact that what is thought, said or done has corresponding effect?
What would life be like if we accepted all that happened as what was “supposed” to happen, and tried to figure out what was to be learned from it, so as not to “need” reoccurrence?
What would poetry be like if it were aimed at achieving such goals?
What would we poets be like?
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
For any of you who might be interested, the next volume of the Diary of a Poet series will be released within the next week or two...
We are still open for submissions! All volumes for the year of 2005 must be completed before the end of April. Trying to balance editing and printing during a hectic paving schedule this past year proved to be too exhausting. If you, or someone you know, are interested in having your verse be an addition to this colorful and inspiring series, PLEASE submit as soon as possible.
We are also looking for articles for this newsletter! If you have an essay on a poet, or form of poetry, we would be glad to run it here! Let us know!
I, again, would like to remind all the Palace Poets that the poem and picture/art option for the newsletter is open to all. Maybe you could go through your photo albums in search of poetic inspiration. Maybe you will even find the whole idea enticing. A scrapbook of your life with accompanying verse might be quite the heirloom to leave behind! :)
poet @ poetrypalacegiftshop.biz
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The Forrest
The ancient moss covered trees
Stand like bearded sentinels
Overseeing their charges
Arms reaching downward
In an invitation
To any who would be lifted
Above this mortal sod.
They are grouped together
As though they confer
With one another
Over the mortal state of man.
Whom they observe below them
Upon the land
Their noble heads
Nod in the breeze
I can hear them whispering
Aha, aha,
What can we do with these?
© Jeri Garry 2004
Palace Poet XIII
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"After finishing a poem, i am thinking of the next one. I don’t feel elated or excited, because I always feel there is more to be written. When I feel elated and satisfied, I will know my writing days are done:)"
Michelle Mead
Palace Poet XI
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"I must to achieve
the only thing I
hope for- peace."
Michelle Tercha
Palace Poet XII
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"I will write until I am empty. Everything and anything can inspire me."
Jeri Gary
Palace Poet XII
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Poetry Exercise
This month the exercise is to take a favorite poem, or maybe a poem that left you with a feeling that something was missing, and write a separate poem for each line. Begin each poem with the line from the poem you chose to work with. The poem can be any length you wish. End the poem with that same line, or an elaboration of that same line which grew out of that particular write. Take the last line from each of the poems you have written and see what that poem has turned into. It may be better, it may not, but you will have a much deeper meaning to it than when you started.
Have an exercise you created for improving your writing? Would you like to see it in this newsletter? Send it to
Poetry Palace
.
Remember, if the exercise is easy, the benefit is minimal… :(
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Chapbook Self-Publishing guide. $3.00 (US delivery). 40 pages.
Chapbook Self-Publishing guide. $6.00 (Foreign delivery). 40 pages.
We poets here at the 'Palace' hope you continue to enjoy visits to the sample and posting pages!
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And, feel free to send comments to
Poetry Palace
.
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Good Day! :)
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Donations to Poetry Palace help thomas beal to continue publishing poets and further the attempts to bring these works to High Schools.
www.PoetryPalaceScholarships.org is in the creation stage. We apologize for not having this tax deductible option available at the present time!
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Submitting Poetry For Chapbook Consideration
Three or four poems will be plenty for a query. Poetry MUST be submitted with NO tabs, aligned left, in Arial ( other common fonts if you do not have Arial) font, with titles, in bold, on the first line of a page (or five spaces below the last line of the preceding poem), in one document. Poems in all CAPS will be deleted. Please do not have lines of over 40 characters (even those might have to be divided, and it would be far more comfortable if the poet did it before sending, probably on both sides of this adventure!) If this is too much work for you, that is fine; do not submit (I do not mean to sound cold, but the amount of work done here is ridiculous!). Please put "chapbook" in the subject of the email! :)
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We have a contract for single poetry submissions for People Say; a new volume will be released each year. If you have a poem that you think would be a great note card, please send it along with this contract to poet@poetrypalacegiftshop.biz. Please put “single submission” in the subject line.
Single Submission Contract
I have submitted this poem to be used in the note card catalog knowing that if used it cannot be sold or used elsewhere until it goes out of print. I understand that the catalog sales are for 'Palace' support and no royalties are paid, but that I will receive twenty-five cents for each note card purchased with my verse appearing on it. I understand that royalties are paid quarterly. I hereby agree to all Poetry Palace terms and understand Thomas Beal has all creative authority. The content of the poem cannot be changed without my permission, but the artwork, fonts etceteras to be used is dictated by the needs of Poetry Palace.
I _________________ agree to all the stipulations set forth by Poetry Palace.
Date___________
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Thank You, Again, For Your Visit!
"My mind is like a city of one way streets
all leading to its center.
Poems and parts of poems
and parts of possible poems
stampede frantically
in Twilight Zone redundancy
down each street
and i live
in the dust above the collision
unable
or willing
to control the bits of their shrapnel
as they tear through me
writing all that i can hold on to
long enough to slate.
I am not sure if i messed up the blueprints
or the construction
or if the city was already there waiting for me.
My best days are when i scribble frantically
or share those scribblings.
I guess that makes this one of my best days!!!
Thanx"
thomas beal
Palace Poet XIX
