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

https://soundcloud.com/rc-james-user841120068/recording-12 I got to take a break – Iook for an opening tu-u-u-ne in distance is a lot more than distance more than a long way to go feeling some resistance got to make a connection frequency modulation is wrong you got to make contact it’s you or it’s ...

FranktheFrank - An appealing, and, yes, very loving character study. I'm not sure about: "the accomplishments of the perfect woman." Seems more objective than the rest, and doesn't tie us in with the specific woman at hand, and that you're referring to the condition, or attributes, of women in gener...

Bob - A refreshing piece - aside from the tender and sensuous content, I like aspects of the form - how lines travel that open space - one stanza to the next, supplying a pause. You have a firm handle on the interaction of human and natural environs. Enjoyed this - RC

If somebody's going to riff on my poem about Asa Monet they should either comment on the original directly or include that poem along with their abortion - insidiousness at its weaseliest. - RC

FD - You're right back into the same territory - let me clue you in - I'm not in that particular region of hell any longer - have moved on, as I said - to open skies. - RC

Kenneth - I refer you to the rewrite - I appreciate your input and good suggestions - I feel it's more palatable now - RC

Frank - Ah - OK - Couldn't place the name at first - but referred back to the battle ground - well, it's a big sky out here where I am - old conflicts kinda just float away. Though I never pictured you as trepidatious. As to the poem: I would add I have never seen a man push his glasses back frenzie...

Kenneth - You're probably referring to this section:

the rapid-fire, mouth sputter-froth
fusillade of political protestation.

The ridiculous over-writing is intended to physicalize through
the sibilance and alliteration his vocal tirade.

I think you're right about the breaks - done - RC

Johnson’s glasses constantly slipped down to the tip of his snub nose; he poked them back up, furiously, with a middle finger, punctuating the rapid-fire, mouth sputter of his anti-war rant. A peacock screech at the peaks, his sleep-deprived voice drowned out metal clangs and crashes, slap-happy dom...

capricorn - Your poem is an anthem in itself:

Through passing time its timbre wrings
emotions still - this ancestry
my forefathers bequeathed to me.

Instructional in its humility and reverence for homeland
missing from the political hysteria rampant on this side
of the waters. - RC

Too much humor to admit to sad or distraught - really an amusing extended mataphor on reader, written, and writer. And the humor begins by borrowing - keying off Bulwer-Lytton. Volumes never admitted to a boudoir on winter evenings. Drab, no circulation. Scorned books, the forgotten. Discarded bundl...

Michael - I always go for rhythm - those cuts kinda mess that up - meaning/content maybe but I'm partial to the way the original sings - flats/sharps an' all - Thanks though - I see what you're getting at - I'll play with it and see if I can get some of those cuts in tune - appreciate the look - and...

In a midnight voice, arms extended, she reads blues that lays the soul to dust. Hands reaching upwards, a white woman moves her fingers calling the sky to hold these words. The poet stands at the crossroads where her art and family meet. Her mother stands in the ruins holding a bouquet of bloody mus...

Eira - Nicely detailed study - with an obvious love for her in the delivery. I encountered only one bump: on muscle-bound flanks. For me "muscle-bound" makes it somehow too human - picturing barbells and gym shorts - Maybe something like: 'on her well-muscled flanks' Enjoyed this - I once had a Neap...

Thanks Bob - That passage was sort of an afterthought - I was thinking I needed to
lively it up a bit and this came through - makes her less mysterious than she would
have been without it. Best - RC

thank you Bernie - Glad you liked some of it. "starchy" - that's a new one to me - but I know what you mean, pompous or something close? I try to keep my distance from that kinda thing - this one's easily fixed though - thanks for the welcome - appears to be some serious, intense writing going on he...

Gone, her whiplash laughter, beyond full knowing, dream drift gone solo. In sunshine volumes, through ancient portals, her steps are history, a chapter in the book her face holds hostage. My momentum is lost, plagued by atrophy. Parting calls up a crossing roar, one-way streets turn on themselves. I...

Bob - You start this off in great bathetic fashion: Distraught, I draped posters with pictures of you around town. I went on television, imploring your return. Then it gets batheticer - in a very enjoyable way all the way to that tenderness at the end: to see you and your partner again in my drawer,...

in a Dickensian gloom, an autumn drizzle dampens the concourse entrance. You got me on that first reference to Dickens. The apparent nonchalant attitude and delivery, for me, holds my attention - not put off by any unnecessary descriptions etc. ‘The train on platform four to Tilbury will leave at 3:...

yellow fields, trees flagged in vermilion, a citron sky. I recalled we're seeing elements of his paintings here, a foreshadowing, in painterly terms, not your ordinary red, white, blue, and orange. distraught, full of energy-- my brush strokes words flying in a heated conversation. Yes! Vincent all ...