the Rag - Call for Submissions

…Elaine Schwartz issues her own Call for Submissions. Please note new email address

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The Rag, an Albuquerque monthly poetry broadside which has been distributed free at coffee houses and bookstores throughout the city for over 14 years, is seeking submissions. 

Poems should be no longer than thirty lines including stanza breaks. Previously published poems OK. Email submissions to theragabq@gmail.com (note new email address) or send to Karin Bradberry, 11322 Campo del Sol NE, Albuquerque, NM 87123. Authors receive 2 copies of The Rag as payment for published poems. Subscriptions also available for $15/yr. Send check to Karin Bradberry at the same address.

About the Editors:

Karin Bradberry 

…is an Albuquerque poet, teacher and visual artist. She has served as co-editor/publisher of The Rag since 2008. She has won numerous poetry prizes (SouthWest Writers, Writer's Digest, NMSPS, NFSPS, Prescott Writers), and been published in local and national magazines and several anthologies (Central Avenue, Writer's Digest, Sage Trail, The Rag, Harwood, Adobe Walls, Pudding Magazine, Along the Rio Grande, Fixed and Free).

 Elaine Schwartz

…is co-founder of the Albuquerque Chapter of Poets Against War and co-editor of The Rag. Her poetry, best described as a tapestry of place and political imagination, has appeared in numerous publications including An Anthology of Monterey Bay Poets, Santa Fe Literary Review, Harwood Anthology, Malpais Review, Poetica and The Rag. 

Thanksgiving Fixed & Free Poetry

Colorful Cornucopia, Jim Harris

…a fine & suitable Thanksgiving post and post prandial treat...always room for ear candy when there is none for the other kind. Now to hunt a suitable graphic or so. PS check out link to an interview (worth a separate post of its own) with Billy Brown, too modest to mention it here, and who now writes, 

Dear Poets and Poetry Lovers,

This is a final reminder of the Thanksgiving, November 22, 2012 Fixed & Free poetry reading, featuring two wonderful poets: Joe Bottone and Patrick Houlihan. Below is additional information about these poets.

 

Acequias: The Future of Water in the Land of Enchantment

…by way of introduction, Rachel Preston Prinz describes this #poetry genre as an archipoem…dedicated to my teachers…the mayordomos & storytellers of Taos & Northern NM. HT @soothsayer for this gem

They would call first irrigation ditch in the village the Acequia Madre – the Mother Ditch.

As if the Hispanic settlers wanted to acknowledge it as a source of life, of sustenance, and of community.

The rains and snow that fall on the Rocky Mountains are the source.

They flow as streams, pulverizing stone and leaves and wood… taking vitamins and minerals with them as they carve canyons through solid rock.

Where the mountain joins the plain, almost a thousand years ago, the Puebloans built their communities.

They were moving from a nomadic hunter gatherer lifestyle to a settled agricultural one, and they selected this place to build their village, partially because of the access to water afforded by such a stream.

They learned that you could dam up a stream and save some water for later… and in doing so, they created some of the earliest forms of irrigated agriculture here.

Further downstream – Hispanic villages - some nearly 400 years old...

They too chose this place because of water, and they built upon the older tradition – they designed acequias using surveying, agriculture, and engineering…

that they learned from the Moors and the Romans before that…

and that THEY learned them from Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

So, the acequias we see are a tradition in the making for 7,000 years... and that were brought across 4 continents to get here.

Read the rest of Acequias: The Future of Water in the Land of Enchantment at Archinia. Follow on @Archinia on Twitter and Facebook. More about Acecquia Madre at TEDx and 

The Poetry in Each of Us

…Carlos, aka @soothxsayer writes about his #TEDxABQ

If you are reading this, thank you, first and foremost. I urge you to watch the video below. It is a "TedTalk" if you don't know what that is, all the more reason to click away. Chances are, most of you know what a TedTalk is - most if not all of you are: educators, artists, poets, writers, social justice advocates, journalists, and otherwise, ALL of you are my friends.

I appreciate you all allowing me to pester you, as I often do.

This one is NOT shameless self-promotion, I promise. If you click the talk you will see it is about: The power of poetry in systems and situations involving rehabilitation. Poetry possesses an immense power, if used correctly, we can utilize words to mend and connect populations - this talk expounds on that possibility. Please feel forward to not only click this video, but embed it, forward it, like it - or do whatever else you can in the world of the internet to spread the word, about words! Word...

Thanks, Carlos Contreras, Immastar Productions and JustWrite

#NMpoetry at last 2012 East of Edith

…so late posting this that is now much shorter than Lisa's original. I just looked at the clock and realized I'd better hop to. Posting to announce an event, whenever possible should be before the event 

before Sor

Hi Everyone, 

Wanted to give you the Local Poets Guild run down. We only have [tonight's] event in the space before we close the venue to try to do some work and try to procure heat. 

7:00pm Monday November 12th 

East of Edith is gonna celebrate Sor Juana's birthday at the Projects (3614 High Street NE) with some extended readings of her work, plus the regular open mic and a feature by Levi Romero. This event will also be a fundraiser to help support the hero of this poetry space (and person who has offered years of literary service), Mitch Rayes.

PS Sor Juana's "A su retrato" ...a single sentence

Este, que ves, engaño colorido,

que del arte ostentando los primores,

con falsos silogismos de colores

es cauteloso engaño del sentido:

éste, en quien la lisonja ha pretendido

excusar de los años los horrores,

y venciendo del tiempo los rigores,

triunfar de la vejez y del olvido,

es un vano artificio del cuidado,

es una flor al viento delicada,

es un resguardo inútil para el hado:

es una necia diligencia errada,

es un afán caduco y, bien mirado,

es cadáver, es polvo, es sombra, es nada.

Thanks again for another beautiful season. Hope you can join us for our final open mics and outreach events... and I'll be running some smaller reading groups in the projects secret living room December and January--plus scrounging about to see if I can finagle heat for open mics by 2013 also. And we'll be doing some happy celebrations and giveaways courtesy La Alameda late November (daytime weekend) also. And you can keep catching Don McIver's programming as he continues our work with Church of Beethoven/Chatter. More when I know more.

Happy Winter, Happy Words,

Lisa Gill, Poet and Author
Local Poets Guild Founder/Executive Director 
PO BOX 27686 *note changed address* Albuquerque, NM 87125
nearartexperience@yahoo.com, (505) 382-0704

reposted from Local Poets Guild Google Group