New Addition to my Horrific Confection website

The newly available Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, "Paloma" by Jennifer E. Hudgens, has now been added to my Horrific Confection website.

https://julietcook.weebly.com/blood-pudding-press.html

Cocklebur Press Poetry Reading this Thursday December 7!

"Back again!

Open mic signup at 5:30pm. Featured reader goes on at 6pm.

Featured reader is Juliet Cook from Blood Pudding Press.

Juliet Cook's poetry has appeared in a small multitude of magazines, including Arsenic Lobster, DIAGRAM, Diode, FLAPPERHOUSE, Menacing Hedge and The Rising Phoenix Review. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks, an individual full-length poetry book, a collaborative full-length poetry book, and has another individual full-length poetry book forthcoming. She also sometimes creates abstract painting collage art hybrid creatures. You can find out more at www.JulietCook.weebly.com

Open mic to follow."

Click the link below for more information. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1872649509712244/

NEW in FLAPPERHOUSE online - Drenched Mold by Juliet Cook and Michael Bernstein

"I’m either screaming or I’m crying
or I’m hideously mean.
I’m a female-shaped gumball machine.

You know you can’t wait
to break me open
or throw me out the window.

I turn myself into
a ripped out placenta in the trunk
of the car. I can’t even drive."

inside the "Drenched Mold" by Michael Bernstein and me

read more in FLAPPERHOUSE  - https://flapperhouse.com/2017/11/28/drenched-mold-poetry-by-juliet-cook-michael-bernstein/

My Newly Painted Tentacle Mug

Newly finished (glazed and fired) tentacle mug I recently painted.

At the Borderlands:Oct Tongue poetry reading

Juliet Cook (me), reading her poetry at the Borderlands: Oct Tongue book release reading on November 18, at Main Street Books

Oct Tongue 2 is HERE!

The Oct Tongue 2 collaborative poetry anthology has arrived!  

"Oct Tongue 2 by George Wallace, Lyn Lifshin, Mark Sebastian Jordan, Juliet Cook, Kathleen Cerveny, Dianne Borsenik, Margaret Bashaar and Eric Anderson, published 18 November 2017 by Crisis Chronicles Press.

http://ccpress.blogspot.com/2017/11/Oct2CC096.html

We are pleased to present the long-awaited Oct Tongue 2, our biggest book yet (it's like eight books in one!). See October (and so much more) through the eyes of eight of America’s finest poets.

Each of these eight writers wrote and submitted at least 31 poems in response to editor John Burroughs' October 2014 poem-a-day invitation. Life intervened and it took awhile to get this fine collection into print, but we believe it is well worth the wait. Oct Tongue 2 features 258 poems on 328 pages, and is 6"x9", perfect bound, with cover photo by Peggy Honeydew. It will make you laugh, make you cry, make you angry and make you glad you read it.

The book is available for $15 from Crisis Chronicles Press, 3431 George Avenue, Parma, Ohio 44134 USA.

Please join us for a special book launch event Saturday, November 18, 2017 from 2 to 4 p.m. during Borderlands: Oct Tongue at Main Street Books, 104 N. Main Street, Mansfield, Ohio 44902."

NEW in The Rising Phoenix Review - Breast Meat

"We do our best to stand out
as chickens. We cluck and we pluck and we pop
another egg. We paint it, try to make it
look new and exciting, but it leaks."

from my poem "Breast Meat"

NEW in the The Rising Phoenix Review

partake of more HERE - https://therisingphoenixreview.com/2017/11/12/breast-meat-by-juliet-cook/

A Powerful New Review of the New "Fuck Cancer Poems" by Michael Grover (thank you to Matthew J Hall)!

"These poems, as I’m sure you’ve gathered from the chapbook’s title, are a personal exclamation toward malignancy. The author, Michael Grover, has been told he might have cancer; there is, however, a further diagnosis here that extends beyond the poet’s liver. There are tumours which have spread wild and rapidly as they chew through the hope of a better society...

By comparing his own disease to the fractured state of these bizarre times, the poet humanises the fractures and reminds us that we are being hollowed out, dumbed down and nullified by a bullshit, self-serving, cancerous zeitgeist."

from a powerful new review by Matthew J. Hall of the Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, "Fuck Cancer Poems" by Michael Grover.

read the entire review HERE - http://www.screamingwithbrevity.com/review-fuck-cancer-poems-michael-grover/

purchase your own copy of "Fuck Cancer Poems" from the Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

And Yet Another New "Fuck Cancer Poems" has found a new home!

Matthew J. Hall received his copy of the new Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, "Fuck Cancer Poems" by Michael Grover!

Get your own copy from the Blood Pudding Press shop here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

(By the way, Matthew J. Hall is a Blood Pudding Press poet too - and his poetry chapbook, "Pigeons and Peace Doves" can also be acquired from the Blood Pudding Press shop.) 

NEW in Philosophical Idiot! - Dementia Is a Raptor

"She keeps on screeching out her own bad apple,
hacking it out of a cockatoo mouth and then

it grows into a high-pitched velociraptor

diving in for the next attack."

from my poem "Dementia is a Raptor", up at Philosophical Idiot today

More here - https://www.philosophicalidiot.com/julietcookpoetry2

NEW from Blood Pudding Press - "Fuck Cancer Poems" by Michael Grover now available for pre-order!

"I feel the pressure of the World
Lifted off my shoulders
Like two days in a row off
They asked me to work today
& I said no
Like I needed the money
To work this hard & be this poor"

from the poem "Like Autumn", within the new poetry chapbook Fuck Cancer Poems by Michael Grover, now available for pre-order from Blood Pudding Press, HERE:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/560564955/pre-order-fuck-cancer-poems-by-michael?ref=shop_home_feat_4

12 or 20 (small press) questions with Juliet Cook on Blood Pudding Press

Here is a 16 question interview I recently participated in about my Blood Pudding Press. Thank you very much to rob mclennan for inviting me to answer his interview questions.

http://robmclennan.blogspot.ca/2017/09/12-or-20-small-press-questions-with_15.html

***

And here's where you can get the latest Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks mentioned in my answer to question 16:

Cutting Eyes from Ghosts by Ariana D. Den Bleyker is HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/512469489/new-cutting-eyes-from-ghosts-by-ariana-d?ref=shop_home_feat_2

Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius is HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/522735584/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_feat_1 

Fuck Cancer Poems by Michael Grover is coming soon!

Semi-panic and semi-beyond...

I might delete this post of mine soon because I don't know that there's a particularly legitimate point in semi-publicly posting it - but other than the poetry/art stuff, most of what I choose to share is focused on my own thoughts/feelings - and me thinking out loud to help me clarify my own thoughts/feelings, because that's what I've done for years, because if I'm not expressing myself on a one on one basis, then I'm trying to express myself by writing out some of my thoughts/feelings.

My brain has been too frequently on the brink of panic lately.

I don't think there's any particular reason for the panic, other than my own brain glitches. Or another way to put it is that even though certain things might accidentally catalyze my panicky feelings, once I suddenly/semi-randomly get into one of my more panic prone modes, it's nobody's fault. It's nobody's fault that sometimes my brain is more prone to panic than other times. It's not even my own fault, because I don't intentionally cause my brain to get panicky and I don't want to be so panic prone and I don't purposely focus on things that might trigger panic.

But I also don't want to just ignore things just because they might trigger panic. But sometimes I have to tone down my focus on certain things. And if that causes certain people to feel as if I'm not on their side and thus think less of me, then so be it. Most of us don't know all the details of all our online friends and how their brains work and why. I think some people seem to make assumptions too easily. I don't make assumptions quickly or easily at all. Maybe that makes me some sort of a screwball.

Once the panic starts, the panic is largely illogical. When I have an actual panic attack, the logical part of my brain still exists but has to use a large amount of energy to try to convince the illogical part of my brain that this isn't entirely real, that I'm probably not going to suddenly die or be killed. That my artery is probably NOT going to explode, have another aneurysm, and make me immobile, inexpressive, borderline non-existent to the point of being an un-real variation of the real me. I want to be the real me, flaws and all.

I try my best to stay logical (or logical in my own way). But I can't always control my own brain's defaults. For over 20 years, I've had these different time frames in my life where I'm more prone to more panic/panic attacks than usual. I could theorize about the reason(s), but I don't want to focus on that right now.

I will say that even though there's not very many people in my life that I can regularly talk to in terms of genuinely expressing myself on an ongoing, in-depth, one-on-one basis, about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I want to talk about, filled with glitches, contradictions, mixed feelings, speed racing thoughts, emotional outbursts, weirdo-isms, yelling jags, crying jags, giggle-fests, and an odd personality that most people probably wouldn't be interested in handling for very long, I am very glad that I have my main man who will listen to anything I have to say, anytime I want to say it, and who actually likes it

(There WAS a legitimate reason for this post. It took a while, but I went from feeling like I was on the brink of another panic attack to feeling smiley-faced about Darryl, even though he swears too much).

In my mind, POETRY is meant to be the opposite of destruction

In my mind, poetry is not meant to be a destructive force field nor a hazardous competition nor a playing field role reversal of right versus wrong.

I feel like some people in poetry land almost want to force other people in poetry land to pick a side and announce the side they picked and why.

I don't want to pick a side; I want to pick a poem.

I don't feel the need to unfriend someone, completely distance myself from them, and cut them down just because we're not on the exact same side - or semi-publicly slam somebody just because I disagree with parts of them - or lay out exactly how I feel about another person so that other people can narrow down which side I am or am not in support of.

If anyone wants to know how I feel about someone or something, then they can feel free to ask me one-on-one and I will probably respond - but I'm probably not going to get involved in some group attack that combines some legitimate points with a bunch of people making fun of a bunch of other people.

Sometimes it starts to feel like some sort of aggrandized agenda, but I'm not even sure where it's heading. To destroy people you disagree with? To destroy people you hate? To destroy people who hate you? To destroy people before they destroy you?

***

By the way, this post isn't directed at any ONE or any particular THING or any particular SENTENCE or any particular CONVERSATION or any particular GROUP or any particular agenda. I don't have any particular agenda. I'm just expressing myself and this is directed towards how I feel IN GENERAL about poetry friendship. Of course, there are always exceptions to everything too.

I've had people try to control me before and I didn't like it at all. I will try my best to be myself AND listen to others. I will try my best to stay in control of myself without trying to control anyone else.

***

I try to expel my own negativity (and all kinds of other feelings too) via creating my own poetry and art. Not by attacking other poets and artists or anyone else.

Here is a video of me reading some of my poetry this past May (part of the Take the Knight Off poetry reading in Canton, Ohio).

I just happened to encounter the video yesterday and thought I would share it today.

The New August Flock of Thirteen Myna Birds has Arrived!

The new August flock of Thirteen Myna Birds has finally arrived on the last day of August!

New poems by Charles Cicirella, Jennifer E. Hudgens, Alan Britt, Ali Jones, Eddy Jordan, and John Grey.

"His wide palms made it easy to hold his prey - I tried to climb out of the hole again - to dig my way out of losing - even background checks are shot full of holes - dripping from a corroded arrowhead - Was this what hell feels like - like blackened goblets - in red dawn - in love with sweetness and gore - turning comatose blue - I start to black out again - it's a side-effect of spirits - the shadows of trees moving back and forth - my head holds my predator's wisdom - We drag our dreams - the radio bleeds a sobbing tune -fluid and bloody - mouth jolts open, as if forced from within."

Partake of it all HERE - https://13myna.blogspot.com/

NEW in Philosophical Idiot! - "From One Ruined Human to Another".

Thank you very much to Philosophical Idiot for sharing my poem, "From One Ruined Human to Another".

HERE - https://www.philosophicalidiot.com/julietcookpoetry

Young Robin

yet another variation on...

When I'm talking out loud, I think I use the words "um", "like" and "literally" too much. I don't really know why I use the word "literally", because I don't really think anything is exact.

I also use the words "maybe" and "I guess" a lot.

I guess maybe I'm not very adherent or stringent. But hopefully that doesn't make me wishy washy.

Anyway, I looked up the definition of "literally" and here is it's informal definition.

"used for emphasis or to express strong feeling while not being literally true."

That's kind of a funny informal definition and I guess that makes a little sense in terms of me using it, because I sometimes sound emphatic and I'm pretty expressive and feeling-based. But sometimes I think too much of what I express is either accidentally exaggerated or overly repetitive.

I think my voice sometimes sounds more confident than I actually feel too.

And yes, I realize this might be yet another variation on the sort of thoughts/feelings I've been repetitively expressing lately.

and so on and so forth

 I used to think that there was always a very valid and potentially powerful point to creative expression via poetry and art (and sometimes I still think so and still feel that way), but a lot of my creative expression is very personal (which I'm usually fine with, because that's how I write and create).

But lately I've been thinking that even if my poems are a meaningful form of expression for me personally, they might not have much of a larger purpose (and they're still valuable to me if they don't but...) I mean, who wants to hear a middle-aged, middle-class white woman go on and on about her body issues and her anxiety and her depression and her anger and her relationship issues and her uncertainty about whatever the heck love is and so on and so forth?

Granted, I'm technically poverty level, but I don't feel poor, so I'll always consider myself middle class. Granted, I'm technically disabled, but I don't directly focus on that in my poetry and sometimes it upsets me when people seem to encourage me to focus MORE on my disability in my poetry, because maybe I already AM focusing on it in an indirect, semi-abstract sort of way. Sometimes I think that me feeling like I barely exist and that I'm not particularly meaningful is a sort of side effect of the brain damage of my stroke, because I don't remember feeling so pointless when I was younger, but maybe I always felt that way, or maybe I would have felt that way when I got older anyway, whether or not I had undergone such a brain fluke.

But it makes me feel a bit weirdly uncomfortable if people seem more interested in my brain damage rather than my poetry - because of those two parts of my life, I most definitely prefer the poetry, whether or not it interests many others. 

NEW in The Rising Phoenix Review - Trap

"I don’t want to be a body stared at
and held down and screamed at
and told what my body does or doesn’t deserve."

from my poem "Trap", now up at The Rising Phoenix Review

read more HERE - https://therisingphoenixreview.com/2017/06/29/trap-by-juliet-cook/