maddwierd poetry

A blog for poetry

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On My Shelf: Procession by Katherena Vermette

Alright, here’s the latest of my summer reads for you. Whenever I go on vacation, I like to pick a book that, in some way, has a local connection to the place I visit. See, I know on any given trip I’m going to end up in a bookstore somehow, so why not turn it into a chance to remember my travels in a special way? On a recent vacation in Canada, this led to me getting a couple books by Canadian…

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Original Poetry: Flying Fish

This is a piece that I put down for a long time but then picked back up recently. It was tricky, trying to remember what was the original core of this piece for me, and then deciding if that’s still what I wanted to write after all. What really helped me out was taking this poem to my writing group, and having several helpful sets of eyes comb through it, say what was working, and what could be…

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Notes From the Field: Finding Submission Opportunities

As you could tell from my good news a few posts ago, I have been hard at work tracking down opportunities finding potential publication opportunities, like with literary journals and poetry contests. It’s a process I’m pretty familiar with, by now. I’ve been going through cycles of writing and editing poems, then submitting them ever since my grad student days. Which I’m realizing now was…

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Original Poetry: A Haibun - Gone to Seed

I’ve had an occasion to try out the poetic form haibun recently, and wanted to share the results with you all. A haibun is a Japanese form of poetry. Specifically, it is a short piece of prose, (so, like a prose poem,) followed by a haiku. Or maybe the prose is preceded by a haiku, or maybe the lines of the haiku are tossed in the prose poem like a salad, or maybe the prose poem is actually a…

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On My Shelf: Our World, by Mary Oliver

Okay, maybe I don’t need another excuse to talk about Mary Oliver. Maybe the amount of times I reference her and her poetry in any discussion on writing is untenable. Maybe I am turning into a menace and should be stopped. (I can’t be, but I’ll let you make that argument.) This time though, weirdly enough, I actually have something new to say. Something new that, despite having been a fan of hers…

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Notes From the Field: Open Mic at Sketchbook Brewery-Evanston

It’s my aim with this new “Notes From the Field” series to both chronicle what its like visiting these different events and venues, and share what I’ve learned by going out and gaining experience as a poet and writer. Hopefully you’ll learn something, and maybe even decide whether a certain event sounds like something you’d want to take part in. Today, I’ll be starting this series off with an…

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Hello Again! Special Announcement

Hi everyone, well, it took me about a year off of figuring out what I wanted to do with this blog. I have really been taking time to consider how I want to share my work with people, how I might actually get eyes on my work. I’ve been going out and doing more poetry readings. I’ve been making efforts to get my poems published, (with modest success, as you’ll see in a moment!) In that vein, I…

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Open Mic

I’ve been going to more open mics and poetry readings in my area, and that’s been truly rewarding. The in-person connections over art, creativity, and performance, are truly second to none. It’s really something I want to do more, to the point that it inspired me to write on the feelings it inspired in me. I highly recommend seeking out community spaces for your creative expression of choice,…

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Weekend

I’ve been really struggling with getting through work, and been driven to writing poetry about it to cope. I do sometimes feel like the work week turning me into one of mythological figures that descends into the underworld every week, then has to claw her way back out. I can recognize that’s not the healthiest relationship to have with your job, but I don’t think it’s uncommon…

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Dear Noah

I’ve lost count of what part of this little series this is, but I have for you, once again, a poem that is also a letter I’ve written to my funny, sweet little cat. He cannot read them, so I will occasionally share them with you all. Enjoy. Dear Noah, You stand by, there as Itwist, spiral, unravelmy mind to the starswith a soft, insistentpaw to the side,my right arm(your favorite one)reminding…

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Taking it Off

When I sit with myself this year, on the fourth of July, and ask myself how I feel about my country, poetry comes out. It’s, um, not the Star Spangled Banner though. Not quite so flattering. Still, the subject, does give me a whole lot of inspiration, maybe even enough to compile a collection one day. Here’s one I like, sums up my feelings lately very well. Taking it Off I sit stunned and…

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Late Night

I freaking hate nights where I stay up and on my phone until I get a massive headache, but they’re unfortunately a bit of an inevitability sometimes. It’s that addictive feeling, of not wanting to get off my phone but not feeling like anything else will feel good, even long after being on my phone stops feeling good. A very uncomfortable paradox. As always, poetry is there to help me out through…

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Need

I think poetry has a really interesting place in the current cultural landscape. It’s a very niche, some would say dead, medium. But at the same time, it’s sort of set up to complement the “shorter attention spans” everyone is complaining about nowadays, compared to, say, a novel, or other longer form of writing. And you do see some of that with the success of poets like Rupi Kaur. But given how…

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I'm a Geode

I wrote this poem after leaving a conversation completely emotionally devastated, try to grapple with how I was feeling. The image of the geode came to me, and I liked it, because geodes are beautiful, when you open them up, if a bit jagged and sharp. And I was trying to find the beauty in that moment, so it helped to explore that imagery, write this poem. I’m a Geode You’ve gone and madethe…

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Made of Stories

I wrote this story while contemplating some random images of abandoned buildings online, as you do, some nights, on the internet. There was an old library with yellowed pages of books everywhere. I saw that and thought “Hmm, that’s probably what I look like, inside,” as a writer and avid reader, someone who just eats stories and poetry up. So I wrote a poem contemplating that image. Made of…

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Meetup

I find it hard to prioritize my own needs in relationships very often. I’m talking family, friends, romantic partners, anything. I bury stuff down deep, usually to prioritize other people. So I find it important to center myself in contemplation with poetry, remind myself to go remember I have feelings, then dance naked in the woods and just feel them a whole bunch. I’m working on a more measured…

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Utility Knife

I’ve had cause to unpack family drama recently. Well, more specifically, I had cause to look back at and evaluate some generational trauma, and contemplate where I fit into that tableau. I promise this is very much not the last poem on this topic that you’ll see from me. The moods I get sent into by this sort of contemplation often send me running for my notebook and pen, to process it, I…