LIVE poetry event featuring Poet Laureate Philip Levine, 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winner Tracy K. Smith, and two fantastic poets from the Tumblr community: Saeed Jones and Karolina Manko.
This Monday, April 23, 7 pm, at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC. Open bar. Amazing poetry. Poet Laureate. Pulitzer Prize Winner. Poets from the Tumblr community. Put it on your calendar and come out to celebrate poetry with us!
To anyone in New York: This is an amazing opportunity! Please visit!
I live in a world where my shit’s
fuck’s and damn’s
are more offensive
than the fact that Parisian pigeons
are better fed than children
of Appalachia.
I eat more lipstick
than I’d like to in hopes
of a thicker paycheck,
and the shorter my skirt
is apparently an invitation
for rape.
I might as well be a lamp.
Dress me in a floral shade.
I have to pay for a document
that shows I am more intelligent
than the average person—
when I live in the Internet
and swim through a sea of free knowledge
for $27.94/mo.
New material I am working on! I am making more chapbooks to send out to friends. If you’re interested in having one, hit me up and I’d be glad to mail you one for a few bucks!
Keep practicing,
Any
4 
NameCelebrate Poetry
Location New YorkApril is National Poetry Month, and Alfred A. Knopf and Tumblr are joining forces to celebrate in style. Follow this Tumblr for a stream of verse from new voices in the Tumblr community as well as established writers. Submit your own poems for a chance to be featured, or join us at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe on April 23rd to meet up and hear readings by U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine and other amazing poets. And don’t forget to check out the brand-new Poetry Spotlight for new poetry blogs to follow!
Also check out…
Made with Paper
Tumblr is the modern-day notebook. FiftyThree created Paper so you can post sketches, diagrams and more to it.Coverjunkie
Celebrates creative magazine covers you wanna link and their ace designers.Digithoughts
A pile of thoughts, links, pictures, and stats on mobile, gadgets, business, the web and more.
Woo!
More Practice!
Any
(via shellhorn)
L’Œuf by Any Syler
It’s complete! My first chapbook of poems. 12 poems hand folded and sewn together by yours truly. I’m currently making copies for family and friends.
Keep Practicing,
Any
I believe in the power
of a mouth.
You can bite, you can shout,
you can suck, you can sip,
you can kiss, you can tear,
you can spit, you can say
anything you dare.
With a mouth, one can spew
out immaculate waves of wonder,
or host a caravan of boiling tongues
of spite.
I believe in the power
of a mind.
You are what you think.
Insecurities are crippling:
the shy eyes of memory.
“The happiness of your life depends on
the quality of your thoughts”
(Thank you, Marcus Aurelius).
I believe the youth has become sedated with fear
of authority.
The Internet is a court—
yard execution platform. Punishment
awaits the fearless.
Lies masked as encouragement:
“Everyone is splendid—” pffft, special snowflake—
“Be all you can be—,”
fore you realize you’re a pawn
and there is no way out of this gurgling vat
of black tar
and we won’t help you
[but 6 feet under, you’re our fallen hero!]
get your own coverage you freeloading hussy
stop being a Poor[BOOTSTRAPS!!!]
I believe the power
of the Riot Grrrl movement was strong,
[Thank you, Kathleen Hanna]
but it is 2012. We need something new.
I believe the civil rights movement was only the seedling
of something larger, and to consider
how much we love the gays
of our country,
I would love a clean separation from the dingbats
and the yay-whos through an understanding
marry whomever you please
but remember this is not the end
of the movement toward equality.
I believe the G.O.P’s must be crazy.
Stay out of my uterus.
Who would have thought
that 1% could carry so much weight?
I wish I could eat
well— [you guilt me out of stamps]. I will fuck
whoever I like [with consent]! I will fight
until the day I die
knowing what I am in
for what I stand:
I am woman.
You shall not continue to humiliate us.
I believe in the power
of awareness.
But does it really spark
a fire under your butt?
Or do you nod your head,
say, “Oh, my God, that’s horrible,”
and then go on eating your dinner?
Or are you a keyboard warrior?
Or are you tagging the street?
Or are you on the phone?
Or are you in the office?
Or are your hands knitting
the quilt to a better future?
I believe in the power
of words.
Converse with others about what truly matters.
Do not exhaust them:
we are all using a language that dies
every time we speak.
First (and one half) draft of a new piece. The finished product will be in my final project poetry chapbook!
Keep practicing,
Any
I do not wish for death
on others,
except perhaps for you—
I’ll spare your soul
so you can see
exactly what I’ll do:
I’ll extract your speech,
then scrub it raw,
to cleanse out arrogance,
then pluck your brain
with a spoon
to scoop up ignorance.
I’ll take your eyes
and skin them fresh,
then lead you to the light.
Time’s a-ticking
to call you out
‘cause all your talk is trite!
I could never pray
to see you dead,
simply ‘cause it’s rude.
So let us kill
all encounters,
lest we cause a feud.
It’s been a rough month. Here is some poetry-in-progress.
Keep Practicing,
Any
I have made my first book! Literally— we had a workshop on how to bind (stitch) our own chapbooks. I shall be making more for my final lyric poetry course (along with submitting a few poems to a magazine), filled with original work. This little chapbook is an anthology of works from my fellow classmates this quarter, and I must say I am impressed by the work we have produced in the last two months. It’s simply beautiful.
Are you interested in crafting your own chapbook and would like some information? Feel free to shoot me a message; I’d love to help you out. I learned so much from my professor (he and his wife run their own press, and bind all of their books by hand) this afternoon, and I’d love to pass on what I’ve learned. It’s a simple and clean way to honor your work.
Keep practicing,
Any
Using the word “said” is probably one of the few things that I can agree over with Hemingway. Using “synonyms” for said sometimes leaves agency for writers to get crazy and they distract from the true expressive content he or she is trying to convey in his or her work. Let the reader think about how the character said something!
I’m not saying to exclusively use “said,” but use it more frequently than you already do. It’ll have the work run smoother as “said” is a very generic, unemotional word. There isn’t a weighty meaning lagging onto it. Be choosey with your synonyms.
Primarily using “said” isn’t as weird as you may think it is— in fact, most readers skim over it. Look in some of your favorite books. Your favorite author probably uses the word “said” more often than you noticed. You’re inserting dialogue for your reader to gain more insight to the moment it is happening, and if it’s an intense moment where you need to convey that, try adding more description around the dialogue rather than holding it all in word to close up your dialogue.
Keep practicing,
Any
(Source: imgfave, via organdonor)
She is like a candle
On the mantle in a blackout.
Her brittle wick burns slowly
As her fire crackles into the milky wax.
Her spirit lingers through hallways:
Warm Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon spice.
Mustard-stained walls spin higher
As her flame twirls brighter.
Once the power has been restored,
Her fire is choked into smoke.
Here’s a poem I tinkered with all Sunday. It’s nowhere near finished. I believe it is still lacking something, but I can’t tell what it is quite yet.
Keep practicing,
Any
It began with the banning of your bicycles.
Is there anything new under the sun?
Did we merely send you off?
I want to tell you that they killed Naked Jewish women
Well before the stampedes.
I want to kiss the children of war.
Cautious and without ceremony,
I withdraw from the swarm of yellows.
Women bare themselves before the sun,
Between the legs, two giddy, sweet-sounding bells.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
Naked, you resemble everyone.
