Category: Uncategorized

Submission Call for “Making Waves: A West Michigan Review”

Published on by Editorial Staff

MakingWavesLudingtonWThe Ludington Writers’ anthology, Making Waves, is open for submissions of poetry, prose and visual art from January 1st through April 30th for our fall 2023 issue. Ludington Writers is a PSM Member Organization

This year’s suggested theme/prompt: doorways.

Submit at http://wavesreview.Submittable.com.
Preview our past issues at http://ludingtonwriters.org.

Favorites / Catherine McGeehan

Published on by Editorial Staff

Naomi Shihab Nye—“Kindness”–https://poets.org/poem/kindness

     Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, “Kindness,” has been for me both a source of inspiration and solace. In this poem she takes us with her on an ordinary bus ride to remind us that “Before you know what kindness really is/you must lose things.” I have a sister who is terminally ill and it seems all I have to give her right now is kindness. But Nye tells us in this poem that kindness is the only thing “that makes sense anymore,” that it can go with us “everywhere/like a shadow or a friend.” In addition to this being a beautiful poem, it is a fine example of how poetry can bring grace when it seems there is none. 

Catherine McGeehan

Submission Call – Peninsula Poets

Published on by Editorial Staff

Call for Submissions

Peninsula Poets Spring 2023 (Members Edition)
December 15, 2022 – February 1, 2023

Members only! You must be a member in good standing with your dues paid thru 2023. If you are unsure of your standing, you can contact membership.psm@gmail.com

Send up to 3 unpublished poems in a single file (.doc or docx format only)
one poem per page with your contact information on each page
email as an attachment to editor23.psm@gmail.com

If you don’t have email mail your poems to:
PSM Spring Edition
PO Box 1035
Cadillac, MI 49601
(Must be postmarked by midnight February 1, 2023)

If you have any questions send an email to Debra Belcher at editor23.psm@gmail.com
Visit poetrysocietyofmichigan.com for full membership details.
We are looking forward to reading your work!

Cover Photo Submissions:

We are aware of the wealth of artistic talent beyond poetry among our membership. We would love to include your artwork, painting, drawing, pottery, quilting, stained glass, even doodles or simple line drawings for chapter pages! Please send .jpg photos of your work so we can make a collage or quilt style cover and headings for chapters. JPEG files should be at a resolution of at least 300 dots-per-inch.  Email your submission as an attachment to editor23.psm@gmail.com

Favorites / Janice Zerfas

Published on by Editorial Staff

On Visiting Herbert Hoover’s Birth and Burial Place by Thomas Lux 

 I admire Thomas Lux’s villanelle, “On Visiting Herbert Hoover’s Birth and Burial Place,” especially because the conversational banal tone hides misfortune. At the prairie’s edge, tents flourish, a reference to Hoovervilles. His message is still relevant: “What you spent was what you earned and not a dime in banks accrued.” Like then, “so many people can’t pay their rent.” The speaker is also humble, saying if he is wrong, he ‘repent[s], but don’t too many people dream of meat in their soup?” The greater divide between rich and poor—“some eat white bread, some get screwed”— due to greed is repeated. But would we, if in power, make any difference? The confusing syntax in the middle asks, “. . . how, can we prevent our oblivion?”

Janice Zerfas

Favorites / Elizabeth Kerlikowske

Published on by Editorial Staff

I love Sir Thomas Wyatt’s poem “They Flee from Me” and I find it so intriguing that I assigned it in every class I taught for many years.  “They flee from me who sometime did me seek.” Oh, well, who hasn’t felt that?  Ostracized again! He likens his courtly companions to deer, and they’re apt comparisons. I see a lot of deer. Bonus: it’s the first use of the term “newfangleness” in literature, which I thought was more newfangled than the 1500’s. Although he ends up jilted, he has made me love him. Link to They Flee from Me.

In Memorium: Joye Smith Giroux

Published on by Editorial Staff

Joye Smith Giroux Garner, North Carolina ObituaryBorn May 31, 1930, to Joseph Earl Smith and Olive Birdie Jenkins Smith, she was the youngest of four children.  Her early years were spent on a farm in rural Michigan. She graduated from Bay City Central and earned her teaching degree from Central Michigan University. Joye married Philip Giroux in December 1951. She taught French and English at South Lake High School in St. Clair Shores, MI and Big Rapids High School during her years as a beloved educator. She was a poet who initially wrote to ease the pain of losing her husband, Philip, to cancer in June 1969. She went on to serve as President of the Poetry Society of Michigan and publish several books.  Full obituary HERE.

Call for Submissions

Published on by Editorial Staff

Opens Dec 15, 2021– Peninsula Poets Members Only Edition

Please send up to three unpublished poems with your contact information on each poem by February 1, 2022. Email poems (all in one file, please) to editor.psm@gmail.com.

If you do not have email, please mail to:
PSM Spring Edition
2272 114th Ave.
Allegan, MI 49010.

Include a SASE for notification.

Questions? Contact Melanie Dunbar at editor.psm@gmail.com.