The Mad Poets Blog

It’s Monday again. That means time to get Shameless with your good news. Reading coming up? Book getting published? Website we should check out? Type it in the comments & let us know. Or tweet it with the hashtag #ShamelessMonday. (And of course, if you’re not following us – @MadPoetsSociety – you should be!)

As for us, we’re really getting back in action this week!

*Week of Feb. 8, 2010*

• Wed, Feb 10, 6:30-8:30 p.m.: The MPS Critique Circle meets at the Coffee Club in Media, Pa. Please note, this is a new location & a new time for 2010. The critique circle is free, open to the public, and will convene in the Coffee Club’s glass-enclosed conference room.
• Thurs, Feb 11, 7 p.m.: We kick off our series at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr with our annual pre-Valentine’s Love/Anti-Love open mic. This is always LOTS of fun! No featured readers — just you, you, and you reading your poems about love, hate, lust, repulsion, and everything in between.
• Sat, Feb 13, 2 p.m.: Tamara Oakman’s Business of Words poetry workshop moves to the Blue Grotto (at Community Education Center) in University City. The workshop will meet monthly on the 2nd Saturday, Feb thru Nov.
• Sat, Feb 13, evening: The Mad Poets series in Pottstown kicks off… I don’t have full details, yet, but I’ll update later.

So, way back in the day when I first started blogging, before I started my current (ongoing) personal blog, and well before I took on the duties of the Mad Poets bloggette, there was thing that went around the blogosphere called The Friday Random 10… folks would put their music players on random & then post to their blog the first 10 songs that came up. It was always fun to see what connections came up.

Inspired by that tradition (does anyone still do it), I’m initiating the Friday Random 2 here on the Mad Poets blog. Every Friday I’ll select 2 random (or not so random, as the case may be) poems from the Mad Poets Review, the Internet, the Norton Anthology, or where ever I feel like. If you’ve got a blog, maybe you can point us in the direction of a few of your favorite poems (let’s keep copyright in mind, so link to external sites, get permission from your friends & be generally conscience of not just posting someone else’s stuff without their say so).

I thought it only fitting that we start off with a poem by the Queen of the Mad Poets, Eileen D’Angelo. This poem appeared in the Mad Poets Review, Volume 20, which was released in 2007.

South Wind
~Eileen M. D’Angelo

It’s one a.m. –
and nothing feels right:
My legs are too long for this small bed,
my feet dangle off the end, into cool air.
The stars outside hang just below the tree line,
and this cabin is not big enough for me
and this country brown spider.

It’s one a.m. –
and I want to pick up the phone,
hear your voice, tell you how cold the sheets are
here in the mountains, where four months
of rainless skies deluged into one day
of drizzle and downpours. The other night,
under cover of overcast sky, I slipped
into the dark cold waters, my nipples
hard as buttons, my eyes skyward
as smoky clouds moved across the moon.

Tomorrow I will walk around the lake,
rain or no rain. I will take what I can
for the journey home: This south wind
blowing off the lake, the damp pines
turning in sunlight. Fallen apples
circled by bees.

The second poem comes from one of my newer favorite web mags, Literary Mama. I read this poem a few months ago & it just rang so true of the pressures (read: neuroticisms of motherhood). Here are the first few lines, please link over for the full poem, it’s well worth it!

Junk food poem
~Rachel Levy

Start stressing about Halloween festivities at the kiddies’ school. Read flyer about Room 9 Halloween party. Experience disbelief that each family is to send in some kind of Halloween junk. Calculate that junk total for each child would equal twenty-five pieces. Wonder how so much junk will fit into little goodie bags that kids are supposed to decorate. Experience some level of disgust with emphasis on materialism given the recent economic downturn. Experience desire to not spend money on little plastic witches with little parachutes that will get destroyed after one day of use and go into a landfill. Realize that before landfill junk will come into home. Experience strong desire to keep junk out of home. Consider possibility of homeschooling kids…. READ THE REST OF THIS POEM.

It’s Monday. It’s February. Events are starting to get back into full swing — and there’s ALOT going on. So, help us fill our calendars by telling us where you’ll be reading or performing. Let us know where we can buy your books, CDs or other goodies! As for us…

*MPS Events, Week of Feb. 1st*

• Tuesday Feb 2, Open Mic @ Steel City Coffee in Phoenixville. (Note: the new schedules aren’t up on the main website, but you can check there for the address & directions. Need more deets? Leave us a comment or use the contact info on the main site.)

Also… it’s February, so this week we’re gonna kick off a new feature:  the Friday Random 2.  We’ll post two poems from the Mad Poets Review, the internet, the Norton Anthology, or where ever the heck we feel like finding ‘em.  So check in Friday and see what we’ve found.

There’s still an hour left of Monday… that’s plenty of time to get shameless. Where are you reading? Publishing? Performing? Hell, are you gonna stand on street corner and shout your work into the wind? Let us know & we’ll do our best to come out.

As for us… it’s a slow week. But we’re working like lightning to nail down our 2010 schedules, which will go full tilt in February. Look out!

The MPS website & blog were experiencing technical difficulties yesterday… so Shameless Monday comes a day late.  But here it is: you’re chance to promote whatever it is you’ve got to promote. A reading, a book, a CD, an art show, etc etc etc. Whatever it is, we’re here to promote & support it! You can also get shameless on twitter by following @MadPoetsSociety and tweeting your good news with the hashtag #ShamelessMonday.

As for us, we’re back on the map.

*Week of Jan 19*

Friday, Jan 22, 7:15p: Maleka Fruean reads for the Poetry Aloud & Alive Series at the Big Blue Marble Bookstore.
That’s right, Poetry Aloud & Alive, which has been thriving in Mt. Airy’s favorite independent bookstore for a few years, has come under the sponsorship of the Mad Poets. This month, we are proud to feature Maleka Fruean — a familiar face around BBM, since she on staff at the store. We’re really excited to be working with Mike Cohen and the folks at BBM to keep this series thriving and succesful. See you there!

A new year, a new resolution to keep this blog better updated… especially our Shameless Monday Fun!

So bring it on. Tell us about your upcoming readings or performances. Tell us about your publications: where can we find your work or buy your books?

Post it in the comments and/or tweet it with the hashtag #ShamelessMonday. (BTW, if you’re not following us, we’re @MadPoetsSociety.)

We over here at the Mad Poets are still firming up our 2009 schedules. So there’s nothing to promote this week — more room for all your good news!

There’s some wet weather in the forecast, but the Mad Poets Bonfire this weekend is definitely on!

The Bonfire event officially starts Saturday afternoon/evening, lets say dusk-ish, though there will be folks out there as early as 3 p.m. setting up and picnicing.

You may have heard that a few Mad Poets were planning to head out Friday night for some pre-bonfire camping action… unfortunately, that’s OFF!  With the weather people calling for thunderstorms tonight, we’re not setting up camp until tomorrow afternoon.  But we will definitely be there, with drums & treats & fire & poems, poems, poems. You can go to the Bonfire page on the website for more info & directions.

We hope you’ll come out and play!

There are still a few hours of Monday left (depending on where you are in the world, there me be alot of hours of Monday left)… besides, it doesn’t *really* have to be Monday for you to shamelessly self promote.  So bring it on:  Where are you reading? Where are your poems, stories, essays, etc. published??  Post it in the comments & will do our best to spread & respread the word.

And what about us… HOLY POETRY, BATMAN! We’ve got one busy week!

*Week of Oct. 5*

• Tues., Oct. 6, 7p.m.: Open Mic Poetry at Steel City Coffeehouse in Phoenixville, hosted by Mary Kathryn Morgeneier.
• Wed., Oct. 7, 7p.m.: Mad Poets Critique Circle facilitated by Amy Laub at the Media-Upper Providence Free Library.
• Wed., Oct. 7, 6p.m. – 7:30p.m.: The continuation of Leonard Gontarek’s Self & Place in Poetry workshop. It’s too late to join this workshop, but keep an eye out for future workshops with Leonard. Or if you really need some feedback, like now, head on out to the Critique Circle (details above).
• Thurs. Oct. 8, 7p.m.: Milkboy Acoustic Cafe Series, hosted by Autumn Konopka, featuring poets Quincy Scott Jones, Pat Goodrich & Elizabeth Raby, followed by an open mic.
• Sat., Oct. 10, 1p.m. – 3p.m.: The Business of Words Poetry Workshop, facilitated by Tamara Oakman, at the Univ. of Pennsylvania Bookstore.
• Sat., Oct. 10, 7p.m.: Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill’s, hosted by Glenn McLaughlin, featuring Sean Webb & Autumn Konopka, followed by an open mic.
• Sat.-Sun., Oct. 10-11, 7p.m. – 3p.m.: Mad Poets Bonfire at Ridley Creek State Park.

It’s one thing to talk about starving artists… but there are some way too many people who are seriously starving.  So, this weekend, the Mad Poets are asking anyone reading or dropping by our Annual Festival to bring a non-perishable food item for donation to CityTeam Ministries.

The Festival is scheduled for this Sunday, from 12p-5p, in the Mansion Parlor at the Media Borough Hall, at 3rd & Jackson Streets in Media, Pa. (Get directions)

The Festival features about 40 locally & nationally known poets reading their original work. Some of the featured poets include Alison Hicks, Leonard Gontarek, Amy Laub, Steve Delia, Missy Grotz, and Ed Krizek, among many other talented writers.

The Mad Poets Festival is held in conjunction with the Media Food & Crafts Festival, which takes place on State Street. It is a great opportunity to hear a multiplicity of eclectic poetic voices in a casual, friendly environment. Grab some great snacks on State Street, come hear some poetry, go back for more grub, come back for more poems. Or just hang out, nosh on our light refreshments, listen to the amazing poetry, and chat with the local poets.

Admission is free, but this year, we’re asking all the poets and attendees to bring a canned or non-perishable item to be donated to CityTeam Ministries.  Based in Chester, Pa., CityTeam helps the poor and disadvantaged throughout the Delaware Valley by providing hot meals, safe shelter, decent clothing, and recovery programs.  In addition to the food drive, a representative from CityTeam will be dishing up warm & delicious chicken chili for a $1.00/cup donation.

It’s going to be a great afternoon with of good food and “food for thought.”

So, it’s Tuesday. So, it’s been a month since our last call for Monday Shamelessness. Are we the only ones who fell into the black hole of September??

Without further ado, we invite and encourage your shamelessness.  Where are you reading or performing? Where are you publishing? What the heck is going on in your world??? We want to know!

It’s fall, so things are picking up for us again.  This week is a little light, but we do have our biggest & best event of the year — the Mad Poets Festival — coming up on Sunday.  Check it out!!

*Week of Sept 28*

• Wed., Sept. 30, 6-7:30 p.m.: The Self & Place in Poetry, A workshop with Leonard Gontarek at the Walnut Street West Library (note this is a change of venue!)  The workshop is free, but registration is required. Click above for more info.
• Sun., Oct. 4, 12-5 p.m.: The Mad Poets Festival (woot woot!) at Media Borough Hall.