Happy or Unhappy November! Creeping into November with Dissolution and Decay, a new poem of mine in Rogue Agent!

Creeping into November with Dissolution and Decay, a new poem of mine is now appearing in Issue 116 of Rogue Agent! 

"Decayed limbs lurch
themselves out of trees.
Broken branches
spurt dead seeds."

Read more here - http://www.rogueagentjournal.com/jcook-3

Dive in to the whole November Issue here - http://www.rogueagentjournal.com/issue116

It is still Halloween/ Me on Halloween night 2024!

A photo of me on Halloween 2024. It's hard to believe that October is about to end.

NEW! A collaborative poem by Daniel G. Snethen and me is appearing in Issue #106 of Yellow Mama!

  "...The cruel teacher barks,

cancels recess, hideously instructs
students to place their heads down
on the desks. She is prepared to lash out

at anyone who moves against her
and bite or slash them in the neck.
I was the shy one. I couldn't move.

I was afraid to breathe.
I didn't want her to hear me.
I feared I might get stomped or cut
into even tinier pieces."

in "Dire Wolf Consequences", a collaborative poem by Daniel G. Snethen and me, which is appearing in Yellow Mama Issue #106!

Preceded by art created by Keith Coats Walker!

Here's a link to the collaboration, but read Daniel's individual poems in this issue too, as well as investigating some of the other creepy fiction and poetry and art!

https://blackpetalsks.tripod.com/yellowmama/id3342.html

NEW! Two of my creepy poems are appearing in Cul-de-sac of Blood!

I have two new short poems appearing in Cul-de-sac of Blood!

Usually when I have new poems up, I share a few lines from one of the poems, but this time I'm sharing Cul-de-sac of Blood's description of my poems because I love their description!

Furthermore, after you read the two poems, if interested you can click on "Learn More About These Poems".

Here's what Cul-de-sac said about my poems:

"Rotting bear dolls & chicken brains erase our heads & replace them with images of themselves, & though we might not have a name for this process, Juliet Cook’s poems show us what it feels like to find ourselves somewhere between foreground & background."

Read the poems HERE - https://www.culdesacofblood.com/juliet-cook-3

This photo of Henry Spencer (played by Jack Nance) in Eraserhead (directed by David Lynch) initially inspired the first poem.

If I suddenly died, my poetry files wouldn't make sense to anyone else...

Most of my poems seem to range from one third of a page to one half of a page to almost a whole page to a little bit longer than a page to a page and a half (with occasional exceptions that are shorter or longer). But the poem I'd been working on for a while and recently finished (at least for now) is almost three whole pages long (and at least somewhat different from my norm in other ways too). I'm not usually drawn to long poems, because I'm a slow reader, and so if I see a poem that's more than a page long, I'm less likely to dive into reading it if my time feels limited. But this poem of mine is a weirdo and is doing what it wants to do.

Somewhere in the process of working on this poem, I also started thinking about how my process has changed over the years. For many years, I wrote everything on paper until a poem seemed almost done; then I would switch to the computer to see how the formatting looked when I typed the words from hand writing to the screen. I'd make a few more revisions on the computer and then print out the completed poem. If I changed my mind later and made more revisions and then printed out the revised version, I'd still keep the previous version(s) on my computer and on paper with the previous version(s) stapled to the revised version(s).

In more recent years, I don't care so much about saving all the drafts of a poem in progress. I'm not saying I delete things fast, but if a poem in progress ends up turning into a very different poem, I don't usually have a problem deleting the earlier version and just starting over with the new version and so on and so forth. I do still print out a copy of every completed poem though, so they're not just on my computer. But the printed out versions are oddly organized, as are the online versions. I mean, I know how and where I have them organized, but if I suddenly died, my files wouldn't make sense to anyone else.

I'm not a very organized person in terms of how things are stored in my home OR on my computer. As far as my computer files go, I store and organize works-in-progress in various phases, but there's so many works-in-progress that I save while they're in progress and then forget to delete all those in progress documents. I do have a somewhat organized separate file for my completed poems though, entitled "Juliet POEMS".

I'm someone who has been writing poetry for over 30 years now, so if I saved all my drafts and in progress poems, my space would be inundated with works-in-progress, as well as documents from the past that I just never deleted or got rid of. It already is to a certain extent. I guess I'm in the middle with that sort of stuff and maybe I always will be. I most certainly don't desire to forget or ignore or delete the past (especially in terms of my poetry), but I most certainly do prefer to focus on the present.

On a semi-related note, another part of the reason I still have a lot of files, documents, and pieces of writing (most certainly not just poems) from the past is because I don't feel like focusing on a bunch of past documentation (such as old hand-written letters, old photos, old files, etc...) in order to decide what I should or shouldn't get rid of, because then my mind would focus on the past to make those sort of decisions.

Happy October 2024!

Happy October! I hope it is brimming with creative delights, poetry, art, reading, writing, submitting poetry, genuine communication, creative flow, and positive dynamics. And also delightful spookiness, disturbing horror movies, and fun socks. And also time not speeding buy so darn fast.

Happy October from Leyland!

Happy October from me and my socks!

Only a few copies left of my CONTORTED DOOM CONVEYOR...

My poetry chapbook CONTORTED DOOM CONVEYOR (published by Gutter Snob Books in 2023) is now Sold Out/Out of Stock from Gutter Snob Books, BUT you can still acquire a copy directly from me, from my Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/1527609127/new-contorted-doom-conveyor-a-poetry

Also too, here's a recent review of my CONTORTED DOOM CONVEYOR. Thank you very muck to Cat Russell!

"If you love creepy visceral poetry, Juliet Cook is the best poet you could possibly read! Imagery from your worst nightmares combined with vulnerability and insight, you're sure to love this book."

NEW! Four of my Poems are making an appearance in A Thin Slice of Anxiety!

"They want us to join another group.

Fit in. Assume their assumptions

are new. Act as if their spastic consultations

are truly shocking. Type more short

circuited, almost automatic praise

to the latest leader of this crazed bandwagon.

Secondary members get cut off

or caught up in the outrage

of fluctuating speculative membranes.

Glistening fluid spews itself out

from underneath the latest console,

gets swallowed up then re-harvested"

I am delighted to have four poems making an appearance in A Thin Slice of Anxiety!

Read more HERE -http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2024/09/poetry-selections-from-juliet-cook.html?m=1

Hello September! I hope my Fall is filled with poetry and a few other personal thoughts...

My full-length poetry book "Malformed Confetti" is now approaching 6 years old (already) and still exists (see the photo links below). I still exist too.

I do tend to assemble poetry chapbook manuscripts more than full-length manuscripts. I've had 8 different chapbook manuscripts published in the last 6 years (with another new one forthcoming soon), but this book is still my most recent full-length. It takes me a long time to assemble full-lengths and overall, I'm more drawn to shorter length books. I have my reasons. BUT with that said, I should really try to focus on assembling my next full-length manuscript soon. It's been in-progress for years.

I've been having trouble sleeping soundly lately, so the other night in bed (while not sleeping), I was thinking about how my first individual full-length poetry book was named "Horrific Confection" and then my second one was named "Malformed Confetti" and then it suddenly and unexpectedly popped into my noggin that maybe my next one should be named "Broken Stethoscope". Not sure exactly where that came from, but it felt like a possible plan.

The last few months have not been my most creatively productive, but this month is off to a pretty good start. I've already sent out five poetry submissions this month and one query (I'm not the greatest at querying). I finished writing three semi-interconnected new poems. I finished revising an older poem (and have two more poem revisions in progress). I also have two other new poems in progress that I hope to revisit more soon. Oh wait, actually, I sent out six poetry submissions so far this month, but one of them resulted in a rejection about three hours after submitting it. So hopefully I'll receive a new acceptance semi-soon.

I have more to say but it will have to wait until later.

One more thing I will mention for now (without getting into much detail as to why) is that I am trying to avoid volatile negativity on social media or behavior that feels toxic to me whatever its intention might be. I would rather place my negativity, anger, and other strong emotions inside my poetry and art (and the few people I trust in terms of expressing myself personally). Of course there are always exceptions.

I wish my friends a genuinely creative September.

A photo of my 6 Year old poetry book, Malformed Confetti (published by Crisis Chronicles in October 2018).

You can acquire your own copy of Malformed Confetti from Crisis Chronicles Press, HERE - https://ccpress.blogspot.com/2018/10/Cook102.html

Or from Amazon, HERE - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1640929738/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_myi?m=AXH8DEUFPPU2O

Or directly from my own Blood Pudding Press shop, HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/641070988/malformed-confetti-by-juliet-cook-2018?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Poetry by Juliet Cook

Gorgeous cover art by Simona Candini.

Photo taken by Crisis Chronicles Press editor, John Burroughs

FREE online version of my poetry chapbook, The Rabbits With Red Eyes!

Hello there poetry friends (or friends who are not sure how they feel about poetry but might be interested in checking some out). Anyone who hasn't yet read my 2020 poetry chapbook, "The Rabbits With Red Eyes" (published by Ethel Zine & Micro-Press) can now read it for FREE online here! - https://ethelzine.com/the-rabbits-with-red-eyes

Simply click on that ethel zine link and then click on the red cover of the chapbook. 🐇

***

"He wants to be the boss of broken body parts.

Some of us will refuse to be his apprentice.
Some of us have hearts that cannot be easily baked
in this oven. Some of us will try to rise
above all this hate."

in my poem "Pepper" which appears in this chapbook.

***

ALSO, although the print copy of this chapbook is now SOLD OUT from Ethel, I have a few copies left, so if you might be interested in acquiring one of the few remaining print copies (well, other than the few I'm keeping for myself), you can check it out and/or grab one up in my Blood Pudding Press shop here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/792299569/the-rabbits-with-red-eyes-by-juliet-cook

But to reiterate, the new online version is totally free and here's a link to that free version again - https://www.ethelzine.com/the-rabbits-with-red-eyes.

Just click on that link and then click on the chapbook cover for The Rabbits With Red Eyes and you can read the poems for free.