New York Pitch Conference Reviews, Algonkian Writer Conferences, and Poetry Forums

It’s a good question, Siva. Now that you raise it, I’m not sure.

For Your Love From the stroller you lift your arms toward me as if you’re merely stretching after a long nap, but when Grandma appears you giggle! My jealousy leapfrogs over reason as she takes you into her arms as if you were a bouquet of long stemmed peonies. Oh my little one, how can I steal your...

Say I’m weary, say I’m sad, Say that health and wealth have miss’d me, Say I’m growing old, but add, Jenny kiss’d me. — from Jenny Kiss’d Me by Leigh Hunt v2: You Kissed Me We were worlds apart till you kissed me. I waxed tipsy in your arms. You kissed me. Every fiber in my body looked up, longing f...

I am not sure why, but the more I read this poem, the more I like it. Because I love animals, especially elephants? Because there’s an understated humor I find charming? Because I like the unexpected turn to rejections? Or how we’re thrown back into our modern world, the wilderness just a video or d...

One person suggested cutting the opening 2 lines. Your thoughts?

The drones shouldn’t be the focus. The focus should be on the mom’s concerns for her child, her worries heightened by the limited information that he can provide her.

Siva, I like that you're writing about your son. The first 11 lines set the scene nicely. I don't think you need the rest of the opening stanza. It meanders without emotionally deepening the relationship between mother and son. I like the closing stanza as well. But I think you miss out on the best ...

Hi Michael, I am not available for an ibpc nom this month.

Stay safe.

The Brownings Wasn’t Ba's life just paper, letters and poems? Robert wasn’t in love with her Ba said but with her writings. She feared disappointing him when she was merely a frail wife anchored to a sofa. Yet here he was, month after month, coaxing her to stand, to walk, to live… And how were they ...

Thanks, Michael

Rita the Orangutan Kidnaps A Small Boy Charley, a small boy, was pinned against the orangutan's chest, his legs dangling. "This is what happens when you live in isolation," someone said as a zookeeper placed a fruit bucket of bananas just beyond Rita's reach. Inexplicably Charley smiled, warming to ...

Covid-19 Maybe it was a hoax, this viral storm from China alarmists were predicting. Or maybe the virus was drifting across our borders, silently like the incendiary balloons set aloft by the Japanese in 1945, which rode high altitude winds— out of our sight—falling harmlessly onto rocky slopes and ...

Great work, Siva! Your work has emerged big time within the last year....it's been a joy to read

revised

In the Year of the Coronavirus I Turn to My Garden for Solace A black capped chickadee lands on my patio table eager to check out anything new, even my cell phone where she taps away with her bill. An urgent text? Then quicker than a wing beat she is off! My collie Nastasia sniffs a compost bin, pro...

Alfred Tennyson Quoting dead poets in Latin or Greek did not impress Rosa's parents for long. Their politeness— words chosen as carefully as their perfectly clipped hedges— could not be criticized. Yet there was a coldness descending from their high rooms, where he was never allowed. How could he no...

Thank you, Siva.... appreciate it

Kate—To Her Breast Implant Where once my left breast posed in the mirror, a scar squinted back. You changed everything. You handed back my self esteem like a coat girl returning my warm cloak on a winter night. My other breast has grown accustomed to you, as if the two of you had become twin sisters...

Thx,Michael email: bobbybradshw@yahoo.com This is my original poem, and I’m not representing in another forum. Separation Conjoined at the hip and chest, we were partners in a slow dance. Though our parents were divorced, we never knew loneliness. When talk of separation came up we looked at each ot...

took out a couple lines

Thx for that... I’m glad the 2 new stanzas work

I have added some stanzas...see V2...let me know...thx

I nominate Siva's "Riding a Bike...."

Thx, Siva

This is much better than previous versions. I like the clean, shorter lines as well. I know you’re still working on this, and I look forward to your next revision.

Question: why do have so many blank lines?