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.

Beware the Ides of Morph (SEVENTEEN Mynas)

Beware the Ides of March, the Ides of Morph, a darkly delicious concoction in which Thirteen temporarily morphs into Seventeen Myna Birds!

A hauntingly sexy assortment of scrumptious goodies and horror by the likes of Molly Curtis, Corey Mesler, John Grey, Daniel G. Snethen, Joseph Harker, Trisha Low, & Stephen Caratzas.

Partake of these creatures' works here! http://13myna.blogspot.com.

Then feel free to submit to other updates in the future (the issue after this one will go back to just Thirteen new editions - two of those are MORE pieces by the above named Joseph Harker and Trisha Low - eleven of them are still open) and/or invite your friends to submit.

Below are a couple little slivers created from the current issue, pilfering and fusing tidbits from all of the new Seventeen Myna Birds creatures. Slurp.

"creatures bucked off at awful angles / music latticing the night / small, humming, lucent / golden cobwebs / spirits flanking spirits / lips stained mauve / savage orange glow / sticky sweetness / salty starvation / treacherous fashion"

"ink in my veins / open up like a ghostflower / long, slow nerve / mortifications of the flesh / the slits of her gums / have you been snorting buttercream? / the new, the dark, the glorious"

Darkly Delicious Poetics (1)

A Treasurey of poetry chapbooks, poetry books, poetic art, notebooks to work on your poems and art within, yummy eating and drinking doodads, & more.

Featuring work by Juliet Cook, Christine Hamm, Kathy Burkett, Aunia Kahn, and many more.

Stay tuned for #2, coming soon.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d657e50cd846d91c7295de3/darkly-delicious-poetics-1?index=0

Me in Front of a Mausoleum

Me in front of a Mausoleum


What do you think is underneath?


"Wisteria drooping itself lovely above a rim of secrets." Ali Lawrence

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Me in front of a Monument


T & Me


"Like a gigantic gong
undergoing constant pulsations" Izzy Onereic

NEW Notes From a Dissected Poet

"I'm not a dead animal and my brain is better than that of a fetal pig. However, I still have not fully recovered from the results of my stroke and its resultant aphasia."

That is one line from my new article about the matter here: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5602556/full_length_dissection.html?cat=70

P.S. I did make a small mistake within my article - in this line I used the wrong link - "If anyone would like to help me out a little bit and partake of your own creative goods, it would be utterly wonderful if you purchased a special something from the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop at http://bloodyooze.blogspot.com/".

The correct link is http://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress.

Thank you for partaking.

More coming soon!

Poetic Poems & Hot Reviews

These two fun photos were taken of me by the lovely poet Becca Claver during my reading at the recent Slash Pine Press poetry festival. I've not yet downloaded or uploaded my own photos, so just might post a few more soon.

As well as glancing at these darkly sweet little photos, you just might also want to read three very recent book reviews of three of my poetry collections. Scroll on down to my previous entry here to check out a review within the latest issue of Arsenic Lobster online literary magazine of my Slash Pine Press published print chapbook called FONDANT PIG ANGST.

Then look/lick/click below to read two other new reviews within the latest online issue of Galatea Resurrects--first a review of another print chapbook called MONDO CRAMPO; then a review of an online chapbook called Tongue Like a Stinger:

http://galatearesurrection14.blogspot.com/2010/04/chaps-by-juliet-cook-lucy-harvest.html

&

http://galatearesurrection14.blogspot.com/2010/04/tongue-like-stinger-by-juliet-cook.html

If any of these peeps give you the feeling a strange and creative collection of mine might be something you'd like to read yourself, you may purchase FONDANT PIG ANGST from Slash Pine Press or via my very own etsy shop at http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/ AND/OR you may read the other two online. MONDO CRAMPO was published in fun and sexy print as part of the Dusie Kollektiv, has since sold out, but may now be read online. Tongue Like a Stinger has always been online. Enjoy!


FONDANT PIG ANGST - http://www.etsy.com/listing/46272508/fondant-pig-angst-by-juliet-cook


MONDO CRAMPO - http://www.dusie.org/JulietCOOK.pdf


Tongue Like a Stinger - http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/chapbook/cook.pdf

Happy New Year!

I have two new poems published to start the New Year, in two differerent online poetry publications.

The first I'll mention is an older poem called 'Sullied Honey'. Several years ago, this piece was accepted by a horror genre magazine called Poe Little Thing, but the issue it was supposed to appear in never materialized, as far as I know. Maybe the magazine folded or something. This poem never quite seemed to fit into any of my collections, but I still liked it, so I eventually decided to resubmit it--and it was picked up by the wonderfully quirkilcious ROBOT MELON.

Check it out in issue ten (click the N) here:

http://www.robotmelon.com/

If so inclined, you can also click the T to visit issue 5 from the archives, to read a couple more of my poems: 'Glass Cake Plate' (which also appears in my first full-length book Horrific Confection) & 'Pepper Shaker' (which also appears in my chapbook, PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR).

As for the aforementioned 'Sullied Honey', it appears nowhere excerpt HERE (along with work by Nicolle Elizabeth, Mark Cunningham, Jac Jemc, and more):

http://www.robotmelon.com/issueten.html

I also have a NEWER new poem published in a VERY new (first issue new) female-centric literary magazine called Bone Bouquet, which you may check out HERE (along with work by Daniella Pafunda, Sarah Vap, Allison Layfield, and more):

http://bonebouquet.wordpress.com/

If my Nellie Oleson poem piques your interest, I have another Nellie Oleson poem currently online in Prayers for Children, HERE:

http://www.prayersforchildren.be/first-degree.htm

I also have another piece from this mini-series forthcoming (in print) in The Columbia Poetry Review.

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I desired to post a new issue of Thirteen Myna Birds for the New Year and I shall soon, but I'm still craving at least a few more pieces of new content to add to the furiously fizzy little mixer. Check out my guidelines at http://13myna.blogspot.com/ and if you think you have some material that fits the bill aka beak, do feel free to send it my way. I have four new pieces of content waiting in the wings right now and as soon I receive a few more that ruffle my feathers the right way, the new issue shall be brought to life, hopefully by the middle of the week.

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Speaking of female-centric literary, I'm trying to finish up a piece for the upcoming Delirious Hem forum 'This is What a Feminst Poet Looks Like'; the forum will tentatively hit the scene January 15, so stay tuned for sundry and diverse takes on feminist poetics from a variety of hot female poets. I'm writing about meat curtains in mine.

As if that isn't juicy enough, I will be writing a new column for Read Write Poem this year (2010 baby), loosely centered around the theme of (conflicted) feminisms and (warped) poetics, so keep an eye out for more details about that soon.

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P.S. Once more for good measure--some best poetry books of 2009: http://bit.ly/4VPoyg (and coming soon--some predictions for 2010).