Campbell McGrath's epic poem Shannon has just been released by Ecco. McGrath is the author of seven previous collections, including Seven Notebooks, Pax Atomica, and Capitalism, and is an award-winning poet. He teaches at Florida International University in Miami, where he is the Philip and Patricia Frost Professor of Creative Writing.

Shannon was a nice breath of fresh air. It's an epic poem and a poem that tells the story of George Shannon, the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The poem is a fictionalized account of what happens to Shannon during a 16-day stretch he was lost from the rest of the group. The poem was a very fun read.

Here's a small excerpt from one of the sections:

This land is grown chastened
& changed somewhat
These past days
Hard traveling. Dust-ridden
Scoured & coarse
Not a tree
On the horizon all day
Only buffalo herds
Unbroken some hours keeping pace.
All these grazing creatures fed upon
The grass of these plains
Is it not strange
To believe that I might feed
A host of nations
Upon my own heart, feeling it swell so?

In a land of plenty
I travel hungry.

In a country of herds
I wander alone.

On a journey of discovery
I am the lost.

*****

What are you up to?

I've got three new books I'm currently working on. One is a collection of poems "about" poetry, many of them addressed to American poets I admire, from Whitman to contemporaries. Another is a collection of lyrical prose poems, a kind of thing I haven't written in a long time. The third is another "historical" project, a book about the 20th Century, comprised of one hundred poems, one per year, each dated and in the voice of a historical figure.

Shannon is a long poem about George Shannon, the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. How did you come across his story?

I have a poem about Meriwether Lewis in my very first book, CAPITALISM, and while researching that poem, 20 years ago, I first encountered George Shannon, who got lost and wandered alone for 16 days, and I thought--that would make a good long poem. Over the ensuing years, I would occasionally tune in to George Shannon's voice, and take down notes about his time on the prairie, but never knew exactly what to make of them. Then I had a semester off from teaching, three years ago, and sat down to really write his story.

How did you decide to write an epic poem? Also, how long did it take to write from idea to final draft?

Once I really focussed on Shannon, it went surprisingly quickly--I wrote the poem in about six or eight weeks, and then revised it for another year. Because I knew the beginning and end of the story--Shannon gets lost, then he gets found--I only had to create the narrative of those sixteen days alone. It becomes an epic poem in the sense that Shannon represents many things in American history and culture, and speaks to us from a time, two hundred years ago, when America was still creating itself, literally and symbolically.

What was the greatest challenge you found in writing this poem?

Just keeping it going. Getting the narrative to work. It was a kind of novelistic struggle--how do you keep the reader interested? How do you create tension, create a voice for Shannon, create a shape for the poem?

You teach at Florida International University. What is the most common mistake you find younger writers making?

Young writers make all kinds of mistakes, but so do not-so-young writers. I prefer the mistakes of younger writers, because they tend to be mistakes of enthusiasm rather than mistakes of excessive caution. 

How do you manage your submissions to publications?

I just send out poems to magazines when I feel I have a bunch of finished poems lying around. Sometimes, I might not really have anything for a year or two--as when my energy went into Shannon, a long poem, which I did not really submit to periodicals. Getting published is like going fishing--some days you catch a fish, some days you don't. It might have to do with the bait you are using, or your technique, or where you are casting your line--but there's a lot of luck involved, too.

Who are you currently reading?

I've been reading novels, biographies and history recently, books about Picasso, Matisse, and Chairman Mao, among others.

If you could share only one piece of advice with other poets, what would it be?

Write more poems. Ignore things you can't control--like getting published--and write as much as you possibly can. 

*****

* Check out Campbell McGrath's Wikipedia page (don't usually get to say that, huh?) here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell_McGrath

* You can learn more about Ecco at http://www.harpercollins.com.

*****

Also, if you're a poet or publisher interested in a Poetic Asides interview, then click here to see how we might be able to make that happen.

Friday, June 12, 2009 4:04:36 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [4] 

Our house is filled with reading materials. Books, comic books, newspapers (old and new), our own writing (whether Tammy's, mine own, or the boys'), literary journals, and magazines. I feel strongly that the more you read the easier it is to write well. After all, everything I read is being enjoyed by me as a reader, but it's also being studied and analyzed by me as a writer. And, of course, reading can kickstart my own writing.

For today's prompt, I want you to take a headline from a magazine, newspaper, or website and make it the title of your poem. Then, write a poem. You can find your own (and please reference where you found it), or use one of the following (taken from magazines in our apartment):

• Why You Eat More in Winter (Shape Magazine)
• The Best Gifts for Runners (Runner's World)
• Games to Grow By (Playing With Your Baby)
• Simple Storage Solutions (Family Circle)
• Tasty Ghoulish Goodies (Halloween)
• A Perfect Wreck in the Tetons (Backpacker)
• Out With the Other Woman (US Weekly)

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Why You Eat More in Winter"

There's a hunger for the sun
and then a fear of evening
gaining traction. You want
to forget you could cramp
in swimming pools. Of course,
holidays will have their way
with your waistline. Plus,
nobody leaves their homes
anymore. They sit and wait
for the cold wind. They pine
away for another heat wave.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:11:06 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [203] 

I've been lucky enough to interview several talented poets on the blog. And to make it easier for you to read them all, I've updated my poet interview TOC. There are many more interviews on the way.

* Bill Abbott
* Nin Andrews
* Julianna Baggott
* Sandra Beasley
* Shaindel Beers
* Jericho Brown
* Helene Cardona
* Sage Cohen
* J.P. Dancing Bear
* Sara Diane Doyle
* Denise Duhamel
* Katy Evans-Bush
* Patricia Fargnoli
* John M. Fitzgerald
* Cherryl Floyd-Miller
* Suzanne Frischkorn
* Jeannine Hall Gailey
* Frank Giampietro
* Tom C. Hunley
* Sheema Kalbasi
* John Korn
* Dorianne Laux
* Diane Lockward
* Tom Lombardo
* Denise Low
* Justin Marks
* Joseph Mills
* Valerie Nieman
* Aimee Nezhukumatathil
* Kevin Pilkington
* Susan Rich
* Martha Silano
* Laurel Snyder
* Anne Tardos
* Jillian Weise

Tuesday, June 09, 2009 5:59:14 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [6] 

Some of you dedicated Poetic Asides readers may recognize Shaindel's name as a person who's commented on the blog and even shared advice in previous Poets Helping Poets posts. She's a Facebook pal and an internationally published poet.

Shaindel is currently an instructor of English at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon's high desert and serves as Poetry Editor of Contrary (www.contrarymagazine.com). She previously hosted the talk radio poetry show Translated By, which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/onword.

She recently released her first full length collection, A Brief History in Time, through Salt Publishing. Here is one of the poems I enjoyed the most:

A Man Walks Into a Bar

He was tall, well-built, blue-eyed,
a guy most girls would want to take to bed.
Then he reached for the beer with his left hand,
revealing the stump of his right.

We could tell the second he knew that we knew.
We'd smile, but the smile wouldn't travel
all the way to our eyes. He'd turn back to the bar,
fold his arm closer so that we could
no longer see

as we rushed off to sling beers for guys
not as good-looking but more whole,
the ones who leered lecherously,
on "Short-Shorts Night"
and left ten dollar tips for two dollar beers

always expecting more, always bitter when we didn't deliver.
The quiet one, we wounded week after week, a guy
any of us would have considered "out of our league,"
"a long shot," if he had been unbroken,

the sad, blond man we were afraid to love.

*****

What are you up to?

Right now, I am grading tons of papers because it is the final week of classes where I teach. Next week is finals week, then a week break, then I teach summer classes. I've managed to get my summer classes scheduled to just Mondays and Tuesdays for six weeks, so I hope to write and read like crazy during the summer. I have a two-book deal with Salt, so I'm going to keep working on the poems for my second book with them, and I need maybe another three to four short stories to round out a short story collection, so I hope to make that happen. My other fantasy is to write a poem a day, starting with where I fell off the wagon during National Poetry Month and then start on prompts from the previous years.

I noticed a few sestinas and a ghazal in your collection, A Brief History of Time. Do you have a favorite poetic form?

I really like sestinas. There's something comforting and scary at the same time about setting up a Word document or a page in a notebook with those six end words all down the page. The rush of all of the possibilities. I want to get better at villanelles, though. Even though there is a villanelle in my collection, I don't think it's as good as the sestinas. I still need practice. And I want to work on other forms, too. So, yes, I do have a favorite, but I need to work on all of it. 

You have a confessional voice in your poems. Where do you draw the line between reality and fiction?

I think John Ciardi said it best when he said, "Poetry lies its way to the truth." Most of A Brief History of Time is autobiographical, but sometimes details are changed for the sake of sound or rhythm or meter or to make something a little more dramatic. For instance, in the title poem, I say that my mother was in jail for two counts of attempted murder, but it was attempted manslaughter. I don't know if anyone's going to pick bones about that. 

You're the poetry editor of Contrary. As an editor, what are common mistakes you see writers making in their submissions?

The biggest mistake is people sending in things that just aren't ready. It's like the second they finished writing the first draft, they sent it. Sit with the poem for a while, think about it. Go through and make sure each word is the right word, that each word is necessary.

The second thing that happens is that people leave words out or have typos. And sometimes this happens in the most brilliant works of the most brilliant poets, and it's really painful then, because I ask my co-editor, Jeff McMahon, "Can we ask her if she meant, x, y, z?" and then we're deliberating with a poet, when our instinct should be just to put it in the "no" pile. I really think we are surprisingly nice and patient for editors who get thousands of submissions for each issue. Editors shouldn't have to do that; if you're sending it out, it should be flawless, the best work you can produce. There are thousands and thousands of other writers you're competing against out there.

You host a talk radio show, Translated By. What's the most fulfilling aspect of the show?

Sadly, I don't do the radio show any more. I have a teaching load of five courses a quarter, three quarters a year, and then I teach two six-week summer courses for extra money--so seventeen college courses a year. (And I have two part-time jobs on top of that, so I'm usually working seven days a week.) It was really hard to read a book a week to be properly prepared for the show and be emailing writers and publishers constantly to keep the show booked.

The most fulfilling aspect of the show was learning more about writers all over the world. Despite the outcry that Horace Engdahl caused when he called American literature "too insular," there's a lot to what he said. I loved having to read a book (in translation) by a non-English language writer once a week. I learned so much about writers from other cultures and what is going on or has gone on around the world. It was like a global perspectives or world history course every week. 

How do you manage your own submissions process?

It's a lot different than it used to be, and I'm trying to figure it all out. I used to have tons of unpublished works, and I would send out everywhere, and then collect all of my rejection slips and a few acceptances. I still use Allison Joseph's Creative Writers Opportunities list (CRWROPPS) and Duotrope's newsletters. Now, I'm in the strange position of nearly everything I've written having been published, and I really need to get to work at producing more writing. Also, I get contacted a lot by editors and publishers asking if I have work for an upcoming issue or sending me invitations for a themed issue or anthology. This, of course, is a double-edged sword. It's really nice to get first consideration, but it really hurts when you get rejected. There's nothing like getting asked to the prom by the starting quarterback and then being stood up.

Who are you currently reading?

If it weren't a FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) violation, I would type the name of the student on the top of my stack right now. I was "sort of" reading Ellen Gilchrist's Nora Jane: A Life in Stories. My husband and I have a tradition of going to Artifacts, a used book store in Hood River, Oregon, when we go camping and fishing at Deschutes River State Park, and buying books to read in the tent each night. So, I read non-student work then. I really like Ellen Gilchrist and secretly wish I was Nora Jane. I also have a book review that is overdue (please forgive me, Jeff) of C. E. Chaffin's Unexpected Light. I've really admired Chaffin's work in the past, and I can't wait to get into the book after all of this grading is behind me.

Then, I have a giant stack of friends' (a mixture of online and in-person) books to read--Kyle Minor, Christopher Coake, Idra Novey, Kim Barnes, Patricia Smith. Just loads and loads of summer reading to catch up on.

If you could share only one piece of advice with fellow poets, what would it be?

Read and read and read. Read writers you admire; dip into bad writers occasionally to reassure yourself that you're not one. Read poetry, read fiction, read nonfiction about things you'd like to write poetry about. Just read.

*****

* You can try and win a copy of Shaindel's book from Goodreads.com at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6135468.A_Brief_History_of_Time. Winners will be chosen June 29.

* She also invites poets to hunt her down and friend her on Facebook.

* And she has an author site at Red Room as well: www.redroom.com/author/shaindel-rebekah-beers.

* Plus, more info on her book is available at Salt Publishing's website www.saltpublishing.com.

*****

If you're a poet or poetry publisher and want hooked up with a Poetic Asides interview, then click here to see how you might be able to make that happen.

Monday, June 08, 2009 12:24:53 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [2] 

Looking back, I often feel like my father raised me almost entirely on adages and sayings like "early bird gets the worm" and "you snooze you lose." Another of his favorites was that we were always "burning daylight."

For this week's prompt, I want you to take an adage or popular saying and make that the title of your poem; then, of course, write the poem. There are so many possibilities: "Right as rain," "Better safe than sorry," "Penny earned is a penny saved," etc.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"You snooze you lose"

You booze you snooze;
you snooze you lose;

you lose you quit;
you quit you sit;

you sit you think;
you think you sink;

you sink you cry;
you cry you lie;

you lie you sin;
you sin you gin;

you gin you smoke;
you smoke you croak;

you croak you snooze;
you snooze you lose.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009 3:20:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [297] 

I first came across Frank Giampietro's name during an interview with Julianna Baggott last year. Since then, I just kept running into either his name or the title of his collection, Begin Anywhere. Finally, I decided to ask him for an interview (he's a Facebook friend--see the power of social networking?).

One of the things I personally love about this collection is that it constantly surprised me. Every time I thought I was going down a predictable road--one I didn't care to go down--the poem would take interesting side streets to get to our destination, which may or may not have been where I thought we were going originally. Eventually, I quit trying to predict our destination. Instead, I just let myself enjoy the ride.

Here's one of my favorite poems of the collection:

Juice

I'd like to begin with my addiction to heroin,
though I never shot it, I only sniffed it.
(Snorted is so, what? Crass?)
Once after seven years without it, I talked
to an Italian ex-junkie who was still smoking hash.
Because she shot it,
she claimed that she was more addicted to it.
Instead of admitting she was right, I went on
about the purity of American heroin
while she repeated no, no, no emphatically.
I found her sexy in a big-boned
Elizabeth Bishop sort of way.
If I were Elizabeth Bishop,
with my history of addiction,
I would have to write a villanelle
like "One Art,"
but my refrains would be
A1: I shared crack with a pregnant Dominican woman
A2: at the top of a five-flight walk-up on 109th Street in Harlem.
They say you can let the arms
of the repeating lines
wrap themselves around you
for comfort. It's a great form for subjects
that might otherwise be a threat.
I wish I could say that my best poems
are written when I'm afraid. Sometimes
when my four-year-old wakes up, he's afraid.
The first words out of his mouth are
I want some juice. Now I sleep with him,
and I wake up to the request
nearly every day. Honestly, there's no better way
to slip from my dreams. I worry I won't sleep at all
when he kicks me out of his bed.
When I sniffed heroin, whole parts of my body
would go completely numb as I slept.
One morning I woke unable to move either arm,
but after a minute or two, the feeling came back. It's not
that I'm afraid to write about addiction--it's just
that this is nothing like that.

*****

What are you up to?

This summer I'm working on a second book while teaching creative writing to undergraduates here at Florida State University. Otherwise I'm making video poems I call "voems" (very original, right?) and posting them to YouTube. You can see two of them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Wn_i0PezM.

Your website lafovea.org is rather interesting in how poets become nerves that connect to each other. Could you speak a little about how the site works and what the inspiration was behind the site?

One day after hearing the usual grousing about how nepotistic the publishing world is (an idea that doesn't hold much water, by the way), I had an idea to use nepotism productively, interestingly, as an alternative to publishing in the usual submission rejection sort of way. I thought why not have an internet site that publishes poems by invitation exclusively. And then I thought about how to do that and allow the largest variety of voices to be heard. I envisioned teachers inviting students and students inviting teachers. I also thought and hoped La Fovea might get poets from outside academia too. So I came up with the idea of publishing poetry nerves, nerves all extending from a giant poetry eyeball. I started with twelve poets with very different writing styles, all of whom I know and admire, all of them gathered around the eyeball on the homepage, and had them post two poems. Then they had to invite at least one poet. That poet then invited a poet and so on. We now have over 160 contributors. It's really working well and has been a lot of fun to see grow.

Your poems deal with topics such as being a father and husband. You are both a husband and father in real life. So, where do you draw the line between reality and fiction in your poems?

I guess I don't, in my poems that is. For instance, I have a poem about my son shooting me with an arrow. And knock on wood, he hasn't shot me with an arrow yet. But we have played with a bow and arrow, and he has scared the bejesus out of me a time or two pointing the arrow inadvertently at me or his sister or the cat. That's where I get the poems from, the possibilities for drama in real life rather than the life itself. Life itself is usually dull, as far as I can tell (maybe because I have no "inner resources").

Begin Anywhere is broken into two sections. How did you decide to organize the poems in this collection?

I had a lot of help from my editor at Alice James Books, April Ossamann. She showed me some ways of organizing the book that I just couldn't see on my own.  

Your poetry has been published in several literary journals. Do you have a method for handling your submissions?

I send in spurts, usually, and then wait for the rejections to come in. One day recently I got three in the mail at once. I think that might be a record.

When do you know a poem is finished?

After I've sat with it a week or two and shown it to one of my trusty couple of readers and gotten his or her feedback, that's when I know it's ready to send out. Finished is another story. I'm more of a poem abandoner than a finisher. I never feel like my poems are finished.

If you could begin anywhere, where would you begin?

Ha, ha, very funny. I like the 12-step program notion that one can begin one's day over at any time during the day. One can just say okay enough. Let's begin this day again. I do this with my kids sometimes when they are acting up. If things are getting hairy at the dinner table one of us will say "stop, let's start our day over." And then we have a little good morning ritual and then we start again. But even on my own, without the kids, I begin my day over lots of times as a way to keep my head on straight and my attitude and outlook rosy.

Who (or what) are you currently reading?

Right now I'm reading Joel Brouwer's new book "And So." It's really amazing. He's a poetry dude. I'm also reading Anna Karenina on my Kindle iPhone application. I have a house full of books and love paper books just like the next poet, but I have to say it's great reading on my phone because the phone is so much easier to hold than a book. Plus, since I always have my phone, I always have my book and can read while in line at the post office mailing my soon to be rejected submissions.

If you could offer only one piece of advice to fellow poets, what would it be?

Hmmmm, I like to take advice a lot more than give it. If I could take one piece of advice, I would like to be told to be more satisfied with things exactly the way they are. That's what I need to do, how I need to be.

*****

To learn more about Frank Giampietro and his collection, Begin Anywhere, go to his publisher's website at http://www.alicejamesbooks.org/

Also, check out his online literary journal at http://lafovea.org/.

Or read "Death by My Son" featured on Poetry Daily (and the one he references in the interview above) at: http://poems.com/poem.php?date=14198

*****

If you're a poet, editor, publisher, etc., interested in an interview on Poetic Asides, then click here to learn how to possibly make that happen.

Monday, June 01, 2009 11:53:54 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [8] 

A poem of mine appeared in the most recent issue of Ocho, which was guest-edited by Atlanta poet Collin Kelley. You can see his post on the issue here: http://collinkelley.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-issue-of-ocho-online-now.html

To check out the issue yourself, go to http://issuu.com/didimenendez/docs/ocho24

Apparently, hard copies will be available on Amazon soonish.

This issue of Ocho gathers poems by poets who actively use Twitter. Yes, I fall into that category. If you want to follow me there, my Twitter name is: @robertleebrewer

Thursday, May 28, 2009 9:06:20 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [15] 

There are so many things that seem obvious on the surface. But when you look beneath the surface, you may find surprises. Houses that are beautiful on the outside may be completely torn up on the inside; super athletes can be ticking timebombs for heart attacks; and even "happy" families have been known to eventually reveal dark secrets.

For this week's prompt, I want you to write a poem that looks beneath the surface. For extra effect, you could possibly title the poem after your subject. For instance, you could title the poem "Happy Birthday" and then look at how it's not happy; or you could title the poem "Self-made Man" and describe how that might not be such a good thing. There are lots of possibilities for this one.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Neighbors"

At first, I think these people don't know who
I am. But then I realize I don't know
who they are either. My hair needs cut and
my eyes need glasses if I ever want
to see. In the distance, I hear children
play their games in the dark. I walk
my dog and never see them. They surround
me with sound, and I wonder: Who are they?
Who will they become? Hopefully not just
another old man quietly walking
a dog in the rain and thinking these thoughts
while stepping on the moon in each puddle. 

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:20:33 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [319] 

On May 29, I'll be leading an online seminar on how to get your poetry published, including what not to do in your submissions. In the seminar, you'll learn how to submit your poetry (online and off), how to identify and study appropriate markets, how to write cover letters, and more.

As an added bonus, I will be providing feedback on one poem (of 20 lines or less) from each registrant--details included in your confirmation e-mail. So, you can learn how to publish your poetry and receive feedback on a poem for only $99.

But that's not all, my OPM just recently gave me a coupon code that'll take an extra $15 off, which would make it just $84. Just go to https://writersonlineworkshops.webex.com/writersonlineworkshops/j.php?J=683166157.

While there, don't forget to use the following coupon code: g1y3f1gq30

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:07:36 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [4] 

Sorry for the quiet on the blog over the past week and the lateness of the prompt today. I'm just glad to be able to deliver a prompt and poem today. On Saturday morning, I lost consciousness and quit breathing for a short period of time. Tammy and my (soon-to-be) sister-in-law called 911 and got me to safety. In fact, Tammy is the person who restored my breathing (apparently, I turned a bright shade of blue). I was hospitalized from Saturday morning until yesterday evening. In the process, I met several very nice doctors and specialists; had lots of blood drawn; was put through several tests; and ultimately am not sure exactly what my condition is or what caused my episode (though I have been given a prescription for Vitamin D, have more follow-up tests to do in the future, and am not allowed to drive for at least another week). I'm very thankful to be able to throw a prompt and poem up today and to have a wife who kept me alive and (by restoring my breathing) saved me from any brain damage. (I, of course, let her know how special she is to me, but I thought I'd share with y'all, too.)

******

Anyway, I was trying to think of a good prompt that might tie in with my recent "adventure." Sooo, for this week's prompt, I want you to write a poem about the unexpected. It could be something along the lines of the completely unexpected episode I recently experienced. Or it could be an unexpected act of kindness, an unexpected visitor, an unexpected gift, etc. There are a lot of ways you can run with this one.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Waking in our hospital beds, we think"

We are born without heads
and build space shuttles
in our laboratories and public parks;
we dream of what worries us
while wearing our tubing and bracelets;
the lucky ones
are rolled around on their beds.

The nurses will wake us
and ask us questions;
the doctors will wake us
and ask us questions;
even our visitors--
they will ask questions, too.

No one will walk away satisfied
with our answers; they
will look at us
as if we are liars
or idiots.

They will order more tests
and blood drawn,
more questions asked
by more specialists.

Maybe this or that;
nothing confirmed
by blood or tests.

They will ask us questions
again. They will sigh.

They will tells us we're lucky.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 6:42:31 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)    Comments [230]