What About Poetry Contests?

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Have you ever witnessed people competing in a poetry contest? I have. Of course, you can't witness submitted poems to judges that are on paper. There are programs out there however, where poetry is preformed. I went to a NAMI (National Allience for Mental Illness) Convention in Seattle and saw different poets compete. They had their poems memorized, and while preforming, they had their rhythm down. I was glad I did not enter, for I don't have my poems memorized, I've written way too many. I have been surprised on occasion when other people have recited my poems back to me, (I do remember a line of what I've written here and there, and definitely the subject matter) Anyway, the NAMI poetry contest performance was very enjoyable. If you ever have the chance to go to something like that, I highly recommend it. I have done poetry readings that were not contests, and I've read my poems from paper there. If you ever get the chance to attend one: GO! I love participating or simply attending.

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Why do I bring this up? I'm bringing contests up because I don't often enter them, and only when there's no fee. If you read my blog, you will see I did enter a Goodreads Contest and won 7th place (out of hundreds) with my poem "Talking Walls", which I never preformed. I really should make a YouTube video of that one. While I don't usually enter a poetry contest with a reading fee, I plan to next month. Why? Because I've met the people putting it on. A woman from the foundation taught a free class at my local library. I went to see if she taught poetry the same way I used to. She actually did teach it the same way. It's going to cost $20 for each 3 poems entered. Not bad, and of course, there's cash prizes at the end. Wish me luck!

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I have actually judged poetry contests before, back in High School. My teacher and poetry club Facilitator invited me to do it. These were written poems that I got to read and judge along with another lady (older adult). We had to agree on the ones we liked. Then the best ones were published. While I am a writer of poetry, I don't think you need to be a Writer to judge poetry, just an Appreciater. We all judge poems automatically when we read or hear them anyway. Honestly, I don't usually enter contests, because I'd rather just have mine published and get paid for it. When you think about it though, every time you submit a poem for publication, you're entering a contest, fee or no fee.

For an update on my New Year's Resoluton: I did write a couple reviews in February, and a few this month too. No poetry however. I have 3 poems to write now and enter into the contest in April. I really want to get back to my books too, Seasons of Sensation, or even my short stories or romance book I've got partly written. I wish you happy reading, viewing, writing, and/or preforming!

Happy New Years and Resolutions!

Photo By Myriam Zilles

I don't know if I got any work done on my new book this year or not. I do know I wrote at least one poem this year that is not going in the book. I think I might make working on Seasons of Sensation my New Year's Resolution, as much as I dislike New Year's Resolutions. I think our society is way too obsessed with goal setting. A little bit is okay, but it's gone too far. Everything in moderation!

Photo by Matt Hoffman

Setting this goal though, helps me work on other goals too, like prioritizing my mental health and accomplishing things I can be proud of. What better way to do that then poetry? I also just got diagnosed with a nervous system disorder (functional neurological disorder or FND) and mindfulness is supposed to help. I think mindfulness and poetry relate big time! In fact, in my classes, I would sometimes have everyone do a mindful exercise and then write a poem. Writing a book might be a little more structured, but every poem I write doesn't have to go into a book.

Photo Thanks To Content Pixie

I could also work on getting individual poems published and getting a little money through that. I read somewhere that someone made it their goal to send out different poems to three different publishers every month. I could do this too. I get emails through AuthorsPublish which sends out lists of whose accepting manuscripts/pieces (paid and unpaid). I have a tracker on my computer to list what I sent out and to where. I'm all set up for it!

Photo By Greg Rakozy

Things are always circling in the back of my mind too. Should I pull out the romance novel I started writing and work on that again? (I don't want to get pegged as a romance author though). I do need to sort through what speculative poems I have and start on that poetry book, but maybe after Seasons of Sensation. Should I look for an agent? Perhaps after Seasons of Sensation. And I simply need to pull out the short stories I already have written and start compiling them into a book. Lastly, I should totally start being more consistent with this blog! It does get lots of traffic! 

Thanks For Reading,

Happy New Year's To You All!

Photo Thanks To BoliviaInteligente

Should Poems Have a Title?

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If you read a lot of poetry, you will notice that there are many poems out there without a title. In fact, a very famous poet, Emily Dickinson, did not title any of her poems. The choice to title poems is up to the author. It is the readers right to have an opinion on whether a title should be placed or not. I am of the belief that the choice of titling a poem is a matter of artistic expression.

There was a time in my life when I titled some of my poems and left others without a title. Now I title everything. The reason for that is because, submitting a poem for publication, I got rejected. The reason they gave me was that they could not figure out what the poem was about. I realized that adding a title would add clarity and add a little extra something to the poem. I titled the rejected piece, "It's All About The Sky," and don't remember if I submitted it for publication anywhere else.

I also choose to add titles to my poems for easier organization and recognition. When writing many pieces, it is helpful to have an indicator of which piece is being talked about in a conversation or in a paper. It also helps in poetry collection books. It can be argued that a title to a poem is unnecessary for organization. When a poem has no title, its first line becomes the title. That has been the case with Dickson's poems in my English books. Still, I think titles are beneficial for clarities sake.

I have run into the problem of giving some of my works the same title. It will be quite a project going through my writings and figuring which titles should be changed, or if I am willing to have some of my poetry titled the same. I have so many poems that giving every piece a different title might be unattainable. It is possible that I may choose to have the first line of my poem become the new title. If this is the case, I will write that one line down twice. There's nothing wrong with a little repetition in poetry.

 

It is kind of weird that some poets choose to go without. An author would probably not write a book without a title. That would be weird. It may be that some poets don't title their poetry for the very sake of weirdness. That's fine. Titling poetry is a choice. I have nothing against authors who choose not to title their poems. I, however, now choose to title mine.

Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

 

They Left Out the Title

Empty words expected to be gleaned through inference.
But how can we tell when the line before and the line after is left blank?
It puts a new meaning to 'reading in between the lines'.
Reading the words after blank spaces,
our hearts may be captivated
and our creativity may spell the subject out.
Our own interpretation.
That must be the hope of those who left the title without.

Free Ebook For Easter

 

Happy Easter and Happy Poetry Month. To celebrate, I am once again offering my kindle ebook, 'Un-Clenched Emotion', free to everyone! The promotion for this book runs from Friday April 7th, 2023 to April 11th, 2023.  Last time I offered my book for free, I gave away 6 books. I'm not sure if I'll run this promotion again, right now I am not planning on it.  The link for the this is:   https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y Of course the link is all over the site. I'm sorry to bombard you, but I want to make it easy for you to get my book!

I don't make any royalties ($) when I give out my book for free.  I do make some pennies when someone downloads and reads my book on Kindle Unlimited. You heard me right, cents, not dollars. I also recieve a few cents a month for being enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program. When someone actually buys the book, I get a couple of dollars. And my Sales Ranking goes up.  So of course I am always hoping to sale. I haven't sold many copies, but I have sold some. For me, that's reason to celebrate! 

I also believe the reviews I have received for "Un-Clenched Emotion" is reason to celebrate. Right now I have an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 (out of 25 ratings). That's pretty great! I've received so many honest reviews by belonging to review programs myself. Right now my favorite review program is Sandra's Book Club. It's at: http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com/ It is awesome, and if you are an author and decide to join, please mention my name. Anyway, one of my favorite 5 star reviews for my book is as follows:

If you want to know what's inside the book, here are a few of my YouTube teasers:

I hope you seize this opportunity to get my book for free and I hope you enjoy!

The Importance of the Pause

 

Photo by Ales Krivec on Unsplash

In all writing, not just poetry, where the writer puts pauses into their piece is very important.  In prose, the pauses are easy to indicate with commas and periods.  Paragraph breaks are also another form of pauses.  A pause in writing allows the reader to stop and think about what they just read, and perhaps prepare for a new idea.   The pause allows the reader to have time for what they just read to sink in.

Photo by Hrayr Movsisyan on Unsplash

 

Commas and periods can be a way to indicate a pause in poetry too.  Poetry is not exactly like prose, it has it's own set of rules.  Also unlike prose, in poetry, it is okay to break some of the rules.  Sometimes there will be no commas or periods in the piece at all.  In that case, line breaks are something that indicates a pause.  Why would you want to incorporate pauses in your poetry at all? You don't have to, but it can really help if you or someone else is reciting the poem.  Most poems are written to be read or performed, (with the exception of some visual poetry).  The spacing between words can indicate a pause as well.  In poetry, you can put as many spaces as you want between words, or even letters.

Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Perhaps you don't write poetry, but only read it.  In that case, notice the pauses if there are any.  It will help with the comprehension and emotion of the poem.  Reciting a poem, whether you are the poet, or the reader, can help you get the best feel for the piece.  Next time you read a poem, notice the pauses.  It will help you better understand what the writer is trying to convey.

Photo by Isabella and Zsa Fischer on Unsplash

Sleep, Interrupted

By Natasha McKinley

 

She,

            Sleeps,

                           Softly.

 

There is a patter of

                                    footsteps that She

dreamily hears.

 

Awaken now.

            See what disturbs your slumber.

 

She wakes.

            It is only the footsteps of her family.

 

                                    Rest easy.

What to do for Poetry Month

It is the month of April, and the month of April is poetry month.  There are many things people can do besides write poetry.  Most obviously, they can read poetry.  Of course, you can read the classics like Shakespeare or Dickon's, but you can read current day poets too, (like me).  If you read a poet's work on your kindle, they would appreciate a review or at least a star rating.  All you have to do is click a star.  I decided to read a poetry book for this April.  

This month I decided to read Misha Collins poetry book: "Some Things I Still Can't Tell You."  Misha Collins is not famous for being a poet.  He is famous for playing the character Castielle (an Angel), on the T.V. show Supernatural.  I was very excited when I found out he was into poetry.  I saw him recite some on my Instagram account, thought it was great, and asked my husband for his book for Christmas. My husband got for it me!  Misha Collins is a very good poet, and I am very glad that I have his writing in my possession.

If you are a poet, and are published with Amazon, you can give your book away for free for up to five days.  You won't get any royalties when you do this, but you might spread your work around the world a little more.  I chose to give my book away for 3 days at the beginning this month.  Four people took advantage of the offer.  I may give "Un-Clenched Emotion" more free days in following months.  It is on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, it is always free.  I found out that I do get royalties if someone buys my book that way.

Naturally, if you would like to, you can write your own poetry in the month of April.  There are many poetry challenges online where they ask you to write a poem a day for the whole month of April.  I have done this in years past, but did not do a poem a day this year.  I did write a few poems this month, which I plan to submit to publication.  They are speculative poems, poems that follow a fantasy or science fiction theme.  I have a title for the other poetry chapbook, (or perhaps whole book), this time, and some more of this book to put together. The theme for this book is the Seasons. I still have a long way to go to get this finished.

I challenge you to read and/or write poetry this month.  Promote what you have already written, or write a review for an author you have read.

How to Read Poetry

It's been awhile since I added a blog post.  I have however, been working on my blog page.  Some may have noticed that I added a page to this blog called "The Written Poetry of Natasha Gruss."  It's very hard to see when you go to the home page of my blog, just a small link on the right hand bar under the pages heading.  I will post the link here so you can find it easier.  It's: https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
While it says "written poetry", I also added YouTube Videos of me reading my poems.  I've been thinking about writing a blog post on how to read poetry for awhile, but I didn't want to do it until I was able to give samples of me doing it myself, out loud.  When posting the videos, here is the one that had the most likes when I shared it:

What to Pay Attention to While Reading Poetry

The above is an example of how to read poetry out loud.  There are two ways to read poetry: silently and out loud.  When you write poetry, it is really important to pay attention to how the poetry would sound if someone were to read your poem out loud.  Even if they read it silently, they may hear inside their head how it sounds.  There's not much to say about how to read a poem silently, it's just done.  Pay attention to punctuation and line breaks.  Like in regular grammar, a comma or period indicates a pause in the material.  Less known is that at the end of a line of poetry there should also be a pause.   Poetry can also have less conventional grammar like odd spacing, it should be self explanatory that extra spacing indicates a pause.  Emphasis should also be placed on capitalized words when reading poetry.  These things need a lot of attention when you decide to read a poem out loud.

What to Do When Reading A Poem Out Loud

So why would you put a voice to a poem?  Many people have been called on in class to read it, and they don't have a choice.  This would normally be someone else's poem, but it may be your own.  You may decide to go to a poetry reading and want to share your poem with a group.  I have experience doing both of these things.  I've been to many poetry readings through out my life, and they have all been well received.  If you can, read through a poem before you speak it.  Read through it as many times as you can so you can get a feel for it and what you are going to perform.

When sharing your poem with your voice, one of the most important things to do is to make sure your voice is loud enough to be heard.  For some people this comes naturally.  Some people need practice.  If you need practice making your voice louder, you may try speaking over the sound of a fan and see how well you can hear yourself.  Also look at the back of a room and pretend like you are speaking to someone there.  While you want to be heard, you probably don't want to shout unless your poem calls for it.

If you are going to read a poem, a good idea is to stand up and go to the front of the room.  Sometimes, like in a classroom setting, we don't get the opportunity to do this.  A sitting position can work as well, but make sure you sit up straight.  In the Poems "My World" and "Untitled Coffee Poem," I was sitting while I read the poem, but I was doing a video with a camera close to my face, so it was easy to be heard.  In my Haiku, that begins "Slip, Slip to the waves" I was standing.

Untitled Coffee Poem

Memorizing a Poem

Finally, if you are going to read a poem you have written out loud, the best thing to do before 'reading' it is to memorize it.  I have been to poetry competitions where everyone had the poem they were "reading" memorized and performed it memorized.  This is by far the best way to experience a poem.  However, if you are like me, you've written too much stuff to memorize it all.  I have sold some of my poetry, and I have felt funny not knowing my exact wording when the person has recited my words back a loud to me.  Excited that someone wanted to memorize my work though.  In the videos I did, only the Untitled Coffee Poem was memorized when I recorded it.  The Haiku that begins "Slip" I read while recording, but since it was so short, I did have it memorized.  "My World" was read and not memorized, and yet it was well received.  Memorization isn't mandatory, merely a
suggestion.

Ocean Haiku

Things to Remember

Poetry can be read silently or out loud.  It can be memorized.  It is important to read through poems before performing them and to pay attention to grammar like line breaks, odd spacing, and capitalization.  Volume and posture is important when reading a poem aloud.  I hope this post helps anyone if they encounter a situation in which they need to read a poem.

Discovering the Marketing and Promotion of an Author

After the publication of my first poetry book in 2016, I became very discouraged when I didn’t make a sale, or seem to be able to give away my poetry for free.  I stopped writing poetry for a long period of time.  Last month, April 2018, I somehow got motivated to write poetry more.  I didn’t write a poem everyday, yet the month of April was still full of poetry.

Submitting Poems for Publication

I discovered many new things about the publication and marketing of poetry.  Back in March, I had checked out a couple of copies of “Writer’s Digest” and discovered a few publications that would pay poets for their poems if they were accepted.  I made it a goal to write poems that I was proud of and submit them for publication.  I succeeded in this goal and sent out two poems, one each to the publications “Contrary” and “Poetry Magazine.”  I probably won’t know until November if they’ve been accepted, and I don’t have much hope they will be, but I am proud I attempted to at least.  I know there still is a chance. 

I also joined the Goodreads “Poetry!” Group and entered a poem for the May contest.  I was not a finalist, so I will share it now:

If I Saw the Perfect Me

Another Past, an Alternate Dimension.

-Blink- She has everything I ever wanted.

Eyes of Ebony, Shimmering Hair in Shades of Gold,

and Skin like Tanned Cream.

If only I had fallen in Her Footsteps.

Walk softly with pitter pattering feet.

Our destinies tied together.

She thrums to the heartbeat of Her Love.

Eyes everchanging as the Ocean,

Eyebrows: dark drawing perfect curves to Gentle Face.

He is mine here, this dimension, something we share.

My love vibrates to my soul.

For a moment, I stop regretting being Her.

Rubbing dull brown eyes, I see She’s found a Purpose,

while I write resumés that blow away

to crumbling and quitting, never finding purchase,

while I stand precariously, Her Feet Perfected Toenails,

Rooted with Joy.

I hold glittering Fool’s Gold while Hers Sparkling Pure is Solid.

She bites it with Pristine White Teeth, doesn’t distort. 

Biting mine with stained teeth and too small lips, melts to glop.

Her green with Luck, me green with Envy.

I wonder if the Money God is really evil,

or if it’s just a matter of success.

-Blink- We both see an Empty Soul, green with decaying,

wearing poverty as pride. Her eyes also ebony,

but no life there, orbs glinting of malevolence.

Us Others release our benevolent breath,

taking comfort of Our happy dispositions.

Looking at Another’s problems through a looking glass of speculation,

I come to the realization:

It doesn’t matter how magnificent Her life is,

mine could be as the Other; much worse.

Reviews of Poetry

In March or April, I also became an Author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15863356.Natasha_Gruss).  I’m not sure how I discovered I could do this.  I joined some review groups on Goodreads this April and exchanged reviews of poetry books.  I reviewed and got reviewed by four poets.  I didn’t review them, but I also read more poetry books that were listed for free on Amazon and twitter, just to celebrate poetry month.  I submitted my book, “Un-Clenched Emotion” to be reviewed on other websites as well.

Twitter

I discovered twitter by tweeting my blog posts and promoting my poetry book (@natasha_gruss).  Tweeting, liking, and retweeting things gained me a lot of twitter followers.  If other authors, or poets, (or just interesting people,) followed me, I followed them back.  I did tweet one old haiku of mine, and someone used it as inspiration to make a haiku page on their website.  On twitter, I found a book on marketing and used that for poetry month.

Amazon, KDP Select, and Giveaways

For Marketing, I really examined the Amazon page of my book.  Doing this, I learned that authors were allowed to give away their kindle books for free every 90 days.  I thought I had unsuccessfully done this one time, and that I couldn’t do it again.  I was happy I was wrong.  When I discovered I could give away my poetry book away for free again, I decided I would do that in celebration of poetry month.  To do this, I also figured out how to fix the kindle version of my book. (The formatting didn’t come out right the first time).  It felt good, trying to get my poetry book out there.  I didn’t know when I did my free promotion before that I could find out if I gave away any books.  This time I discovered KDP select makes a marketing graph of how many books were sold or given away.  I was happy six people took advantage of my giveaway.  Amazon’s Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01LZE8CKO) also graphs sales rank and author’s rank.  It only ranks sales, not giveaways, so my free book promotion didn’t affect rankings at all.

For the future, I tried to figure out how to help my rankings and studied print book giveaways.  Everyone said Amazon’s print book giveaways weren’t worth it, but Goodreads was.  I bought 6 print books of “Un-Clenched Emotion” (https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/) which I hope to give away in the future.  I also wondered if doing a giveaway of an item, like a coffee pot, would help my Amazon Author ranking, if people were required to follow me as an Amazon Author.  What do you think?  If you could follow me for the chance to win a coffee pot, Edgar Allen Poe mug, dragon stapler, or tea basket; would you do it?  Which thing would you want?

I am proud of all I did in April to celebrate poetry and learn about the marketing of it.  There is still much more work to do.  There are many more discoveries I made on marketing and blogging, but too much to write in one post.  I may write about them in the future.

The Cover Photo of Un-Clenched Emotion

I wanted to talk a little about the cover that's on my book, "Un-Clenched Emotion".  I believe it is awesome, and friends and family have told me that it is beautiful, so I know it's not just me.  It's a picture of the sun, and it is reflected in the ocean on a beach.

I thought maybe my book price as $5.50 might be high, for a little over 20 poems.  However, I think the photo on the cover is worth much more than that, even without the poetry.  I'm not a photographer in any way, but some of my family members are, and some friends too.  Their photos sale for $50 dollars and up.  I always thought I took good pictures, but I don't have a professional camera and I wouldn't know how to start to sell a photo for such a price.  I still think I'm good with a digital or phone camera though.  If I was selling this picture, I would not be ashamed to accept a reasonable amount of money for that breathtaking scenery.  Compared to $50, $5.50 is quite a deal!

The picture on the cover of "Un-Clenched Emotion" was taken in SeaSide Oregon. I was simply on vacation with my family and happened to be at the beach.  I was captivated by the scenery.  I wanted to hold onto if forever, so I did the next best thing and took a photo.  It's too bad I couldn't bottle the scent or record the sounds of the ocean.  It was such a great feeling to be in SeaSide  I had no plans for that photo except personal enjoyment.  The double sun, in the water, and in the sky really speaks of natures beauty.  It's a reflection of it self, and that is poetic all on it's own.  The picture puts you in a serene sort of mind, perfect for when your reading poetry.

I didn't write any poems solely about the sun in my book, but I definitely mentioned it once or twice.  I did write a poem entitled "The Sea" which makes the beach a perfect representative of what's in the book.  This poem also mentions the sun in it.  This is in the Enjoyment part of the book.  I placed it there because I love the ocean and find it enjoyable.  I do mention the sun later on in the book in the philosophizing part entitled "Seeking".  In this poem, the sun is more of a metaphor, but the imagery still helps me justify putting a photo of the sun on the front of the book.

I haven't made any book sales that I know of,  (Not until I simply see money in my account will I know if I did).  I'm not sure if anyone accepted my free kindle book either. (I will never know unless someone posts a review).  Perhaps reading poetry isn't that popular.  But even if you don't like poetry, you could still buy the book simply for the beauty of the cover!  I understand if you don't want to get the kindle copy for that, but the kindle price is $2.99 so you're not paying "extra" for the cover. https://www.amazon.com/Un-Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494455180&sr  I'm proud of my poems, and I'm proud of my creation.  I think everything about it is beautiful and everyone who has seen the book has told me it is too.  I just wish I was better at getting it out to the public!

Celebrate Poetry Month

It's April.  That means it's poetry month!  I have written poems about different times of the month.  April was my second favorite month, because that's when I got to go on vacations in the previous years.  October is my favorite because I love the fall, and that's when I met my true love.  I'm starting to get a liking for March too since that's when my love moved in with me!  April still has it's benefits though.  In the place I live there is a tulip festival every year, so I am surrounded in beauty,  The weather finally gets nicer in April, and it is time to celebrate poetry.  Celebrate poetry month by getting my book, "Un-Clenched" emotion on Create Space or Amazon.

Published My First Book

Hi, I'm author Natasha Gruss I started this blog to promote my first published book, "Un-Clenched Emotion".  Doing this myself, there has been some problems formatting it on the kindle, though it is available on Amazon,  I have a hard copy of my book and that turned out great.  If you want to buy it the link is https://www.createspace.com/6580430   It's more expensive to buy on Create Space then Amazon, but the formatting is worth it.  There are all kinds of poems in this book on all kinds of different subjects.  Some are happy, some are sad (or you might say depressing), and some don't really fit into either of those categories.  These are my favorite poems I wrote through out my entire life,  I believe I should share them with the world.  This is my first published book, In the future I may publish more, we'll see how this one goes first.