Some very good news: I have a half page prose poem “You Remember” in this month’s October Quadrant Magazine. It’s always a big thrill to see my name up there. Thanks, as always, to Literary Editor Professor Barry Spurr.
Good News
poetry publication
My Poem ‘My Friend Is Swiping & Scrolling’
My poem ‘My Friend Is Swiping & Scrolling’ is published in this month’s Quadrant Magazine, July-August 2022. I wrote the poem during the first year of the pandemic. Have a read. Hope you like it.
My Friend Is Swiping & Scrolling:
My friend in the dark hour before dawn. My friend with the ragged stomach who had a bad night. In a different hemisphere he is turning on the bedside light, rolling out of bed, pouring a cap of antacid at the kitchen bench. My friend who hasn’t left his neighbourhood all year. My friend in London pining for how things used to be, for the Eurostar crossings to speak German and Spanish.
My friend scrolling through Facebook to see the faces of his family. My friend living alone who aches with aloneness. My friend the glass-half-full-kind-of-guy listening out for the early morning train thinking, we’ll get through this, in time. My friend who sits through forty Zoom meetings every five days. A rush of nostalgic reflections but is everything nostalgia? We’re all in this together.
The extroverted friend and the introverted one scrolling & swiping at home, the teenage friend whose father is hospitalised for a third time, my friend in China who sends me a red envelope, my friend in France dunking a croissant as she swipes left in greyish gloom, my friend in kurta pajamas beating a tabla drum, my friend in activewear driven to over-exercise, my friend who is addicted to social media like I am.
My friend in Israel my stressed-out Barista friend behind a coffee machine my friend with only one kidney my friend in palliative care under a sign I do not want visitors my young friend who was warned at school about swiping & scrolling my friend next door, who wonders if we are complaisant already my friend who is feeling lethargic my friend who hopes everyone will go back to work soon my friend who tells me she has a problem wearing a mask my friend who pretends not to see me on the street, even she must be on Zoom with others by now, so I let her go.
Scrolling will distract me from uncomfortable emotions as the cafes near me say takeaway only and the stores where I used to window-shop have empty frontages with To Lease signs and the famous writer I wish I’d had the courage to speak to when I had the chance, is diagnosed with dementia in another country, I snatch at memories of post cards sent back and forth. So who else should I pick up the phone and dial and say, Are you okay? Who else might I never see again?
All of us scrolling & swiping in the mornings and the afternoons and in the evenings near the hotel with the old TOOTH’S SHEAF STOUT Keeps you fit! poster telling us a tantalising beer with a dry finish and a medium body.
Copyright 2022 Libby Sommer
My Poem ‘Hostilities’
My poem ‘Hostilities’ is published in this month’s Quadrant magazine, available in newsagents, good book stores and in libraries. Big thank you to Literary Editor, Barry Spurr.
Hostilities:
I worry about the ones
who disbelieve in science,
the ones on social media
with no qualifications
but a good command
of gobbledygook,
and the one who said
she’d had enough of wimps like me.
Scientists observe and calculate,
study the risks,
wave us across
as we wait by the side of the road,
even though the science of pandemics
is incomplete.
It takes a lot of guts sometimes
with those who are close to us.
Relatives, old school friends, intimates …
Anti-vaxxers still find arguments
to fire at us. I think of Aristotle’s warning:
there is only one way
to avoid criticism –
do nothing, say nothing,
and be nothing.
Copyright 2022 Libby Sommer
Poetry Opportunities
I’m delighted to say that my new poem ‘Words’ has been accepted for publication in Quadrant magazine. Big thank you to Literary Editor, Professor Barry Spurr.
Unfortunately, it takes at least a year from acceptance to publication in Quadrant, but I’m not complaining 🙂
Maja Amanita shared on Facebook this list of poetry opportunities for you to enter sourced from the Red Room Poetry page and email list.
Opportunities for poets
- Tamba Magazine Poetry Competition – Closing 11:59pm, Thursday 31 March
- Flying Islands Manuscript Prize for Emerging Poets – Closing 11:59pm, Thursday 31 March
- Kyogle Writers’ Festival Poetry Competition – Closing Friday 1 April
- Krakow City of Literature’s Residency Program – Closing Monday 4 April
- June Shenfield Poetry Award – Closing Monday 4 April
- Ada Cambridge Writing Prizes – Closing Friday 8 April
- Annual WB Years Poetry Prize – Closing Saturday 30 April
- Boree Log Award for Bush Verse – Closing Sunday 15 May
- Poetry d’Amour Award – Closing Friday 27 May
Australian Poetry Publishers
I am thrilled and delighted that my first poetry collection, ‘The Cellist, A Bellydancer & Other Distractions’ has been accepted for publication by Ginninderra Press. The book is due for release in May 2022.
Below is information about the Australian Poetry Publishers directory.
AUSTRALIAN POETRY PUBLISHERS – Poetry Sydney. The Australian Poetry Publishers directory is a portal for poets to have their poems published, to encourage Australian poetry to be purchased and to support Australian Poetry Publishers in enabling poets to have the opportunity to be published.
Here is the link:
Good luck with your submission.
By the way, when I attended an online course recently titled ‘Pathway to Poetry Publication’, we were told to aim for 100 rejections a year. To apply for everything.
Libby Sommer, Author 