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Saturday, February 26, 2005

Wandering in the field of plenitude

I've made a few stops this morning already, starting with BookSlut, a blog that's been mentioned here & there and features reviews by multiple writers, a CafePress store & blog ads. BookSlut took me to 32 Poems, via a review of the biannual magazine put out by Deborah Ager and friends. Tripped up on a link & landed at Amazon first, where I could buy a subscription to 32 Poems if I wished. The BookSlut review was too portly for me, and I was too impatient but finally, I reached bottom and found the true link to the 32 Poems website. They've a blog too.

I like the attitude of the editors, Ager and John Poch. Their stated mission is "to promote the work of contributing poets by placing 32 Poems with editors, nominating writers for recognition and prizes, and commending work to widely read online poetry sources." Now that's alot of work for an editor and way over the top. Part of that online visibility appears to be a newsletter in addition to blurbs at the website. I wonder if they have day jobs? And I'm curious in an admirable way.

32 Poems also has a nice group of links - just the right number. It's so hard nowadays to discriminate. But most inter(net)lopers aren't spending a whole bunch of their time at one place so why go thru the hassle of a string of links? Yes, I know, you can always have at least one link that at least one person has been seeking. Anyway, I clicked over to Smartish Pace, which I want to call Smartfish Place or something other than what it is. What a strange appearance. It's so Sherlock Holmes-y or University Cultured with the marbled hall in the background and the silly carriage racing across the top with its silhouette driver snapping the little whip. huh. What's with that? Then there's the chicken in a box and the miniature font. What about all the folks with delayed visual recognition? But I'm being petty. The site has alot to offer: a Poets Q&A with an ever-changing billboard of names, some Famous Poets; interviews with the same group; photos from this year's AWP convention, which I looked at but not surprisingly, saw very few recognizable names. If I didn't mention this, Smartest Pace is a literary journal and the content includes poetry, fiction, reviews. There's a link to a CONTEST too if one's inclined.

Then it was to PoetryX for an inaugural visit. Ohh, so that's what it is: a forum - everybody's got a forum nowadays - with 598 registered users at the phpbb. A rundown of the poet user names: netsky, Misterpoet, Leyla, bohemian, Venus1496, mccarthy. Ughhh it hurts to read the "poems." I don't want to give this anymore time. So I rush off to New Pages and get my reward.

I see lots of old dates which is anathema online. But NewPages has a good solid chunk of worthiness to it. I skip the Articles because there's just no time and look to the listings on the left side of the page: Literary Mags, Lit Mag Reviews, Online Lit Mags... you get the flavor. NewPages is a compendium, sort of a farmers almanac of the small press independent world. It's worth a bookmark and repeat visits.

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