Quick Ketchup

I spent some time this morning dropping back in on folks I”ve written about in the past thanks to Frank Wilson at BooksInq, who graciously helped put out the word about Carlos Contreras, the New Mexico teacher looking for poems to hand out to his students. The followup on that – Carlos is still looking, and thanks those that have sent poems. He says that subject matter and language are not a concern – “These kids have seen everything,” he told us over at GotPoetry. If you write and still haven”t done it, email Carlos ( [email protected] ) a poem of yours along with a short blurb of who you are and what you are about.

What was even neater was that the very next item on Frank”s blog was about Mike Snider, the sonnet blogger, who has prettied up his blog recently and given it a whole new face. Mike writes a new sonnet every week. Being a lover of poetry in form, I had to order his chapbook 44 Sonnets. He responded immediately and graciously and I had the lovely book in my hands within a week. And it is lovely – Snider”s sonnets are refreshingly modern – an example of what you can do with an old form in fresh language. Definitely a keeper.

Quickmuse is now up to 18 poets who have responded to the challenge of writing a poem in 15 minutes based on a piece of writing with which they are presented. New battles take place every two weeks. The next one is coming up on September 20, between Paul Muldoon and Andrew Motion.

You”ve got three weeks left to get in your entries to the Poetry Superhighway 2006 Contest. Remember, entry fee is $1 per poem. The collected entry fees will be shared among the top three poets – 50% to the winner, 30% for second place and 20% for third. The judges for the contest have been chosen, and short bios are on the site. The deadline for receipt of the poem and entry fee is October 7. Last word was over 250 paid entries as of August 26th.