Category: Underfoot Poets

Work selected alongside editor Tim Miller.

Lynne Burnett (Chapbook Confessions #6)

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After a hiatus due to my returning to England, here is Lynne Burnett’s confession & a blinding return it is for Underfoot.

If you are interested in submitting your confession, see our guidelines and get in touch.

Underfoot Poetry

Chapbook Confessions is a series in which poets discuss, at length, the writing of their most recent collection of poems, in whatever way they desire. For more information on the series, go here.

Below, Lynne Burnett writes on her 2018 collection,Irresistible (Finishing Line Press).

41tczvccz0l._sx322_bo1,204,203,200_First, I must confess I never intentionally set out to write a chapbook—both in the sense of writing poems specific to a theme or project, and in manuscript size. I always thought I’d write a “proper” book and as the years passed and the number of poems written and eventually published grew, that it would certainly be bigger than chapbook sized! Especially since I was late coming to the party, having put writing aside for twenty years to raise a family and then a further twenty to tease out the fruits of that elongated pause. I learned though that one hand must…

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New Year, new poem up @Riggwelter Press

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Happy New Year. Going to refrain from repeating my message from last year (something about not celebrating the passage of precious time).

I find myself this year, back home after 8 years living in Korea, teething in my own culture & wondering what the future has in store. This period of adjustment is challenging & those who follow this blog will understand what I have given up to return to England. My departure from Korea was sad, it just felt like time to move on. I suppose somewhere within myself, an ordeal felt like a peculiarly logical step; which I have John Berryman to blame for.

My decision to leave didn’t make leaving any easier, parting from my ex-wife was very upsetting, I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment having to leave her after so many trials & experiences together. Parting from the guesthouse was also difficult, a place I built myself, put a great deal of energy into establishing & making sure it functioned; but also a home. I am glad my ex-wife will continue to run it & I can go back to visit in the future.

Moving on, this poem @RiggwelterPress is hopefully a harbinger of a year of publications in such quality journals & more besides.

I hope all are well with hopes for the coming year.

Daniel

Kathy Boles-Turner (Chapbook Confessions #4)

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Kathy Boles-Turner confessing to you all in regards to her process, with poems from her collection Ramshackle Houses & Southern Parables following her insightful confession.
If you want to confess to us or submit poetry, please check our guidelines & get in touch.

Underfoot Poetry

Chapbook Confessions is a series in which poets discuss, at length, the writing of their most recent collection of poems, in whatever way they desire. For more information on the series, go here.

Below, Kathy Boles-Turner writes on her 2018 collection, Ramshackle Houses & Southern Parables.

img_0132Listening.

That’s all I was doing when poetry arrived shortly after my fortieth birthday. I figured it was a fluke, a one off, a little writing exercise to take advantage of while the next great American novel marinated in the back of my mind. Then it happened again. And again. Words came with light and heat and sound and texture.

A similar sort of word visitation had happened occasionally with prose. Characters’ names and voices, scads of dialog came following on the heels of one spark of an idea or another. Maybe the spark would begin with an image, a discussion of…

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Poem @Smithereens Press

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Very very very pleased to report that my poem When all the animals are dead has been picked up by the Smithereens Press for their 2nd issue. A press I hold in high esteem & have, on my second attempt, got into.
They started publishing, exclusively, online chapbooks. They have since branched to a magazine, which is into its 2nd issue. I have read a number of the chapbooks, which include Chris Murrey’s Three Red Things & A Hierachy of Halls & Trevor Joyce’s The Immediate Future, which just happen to be 3 of my favourites.
It is a press worth returning to. & definitely worth wading into the numerous chapbooks, all free.
The link.

Robert Okaji (Chapbook Confessions #3)

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If you don’t know him you should (get out your cave, quit admiring those shadows & leave); a kind chap, likes an ale or 2, cooks well apparently, a phenomenal poet & someone I am very pleased responded to my urge to make poets “confess, confess, confess”, as in the Spanish Inquisition scene from Monty Python.
Get busy reading people & if you have a book of poems loitering in the world, consider sending us a Confession on that text: the trials & tribulations, the nasty habits & the time of day, the amount of sugar in your coffee, the pinch of salt for you pre-poetry vaticum, or was it something stronger, bit more raw on the tonsils? What ever the experiences, check our guidelines & get busy writing.

Underfoot Poetry

Chapbook Confessions is a series in which poets discuss, at length, the writing of their most recent collection of poems, in whatever way they desire. For more information on the series, go here.

Below, Robert Okaji writes on his 2017 collection From Every Moment a Second.

 Chapbook Confession, or, How to Write Chapbooks without Knowing How

81JPWewW4yLI confess that I’ve never intentionally written a chapbook, that I’m too scatter-brained to plan one. Instead, I write individual poems, and after a suitable stack has accumulated, attempt to force them to comingle, however reluctantly, hoping to form a semi-cohesive collection for someone’s reading pleasure (or dismay, as the case may be). This is not to say that the occasional series of poems never escapes my subconscious, but I never deliberately set out to write a certain number of poems with the intention of publishing them as a discrete entity…

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Four Impressions up at Marie Marshall’s Zen Space

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I don’t usually write short poems, I always get carried away. Marie Marshall & Bob Okaji persuaded me to try my hand at something short, so thanks must go to them for the encouragement & extra to Marie for including me at my most unsure. Writing short poems is so difficult. It’s a neat little showcase Marie puts together, worth a bit of your day to have a browse, go here to do so. Also, worth a browse for the Man Ray photos.

Sarah Law (Chapbook Confessions #2)

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Another Chapbook Confession this week, this time by poet Sarah Law. Law writes on her collection Ink’s Wish, about a Medieval visionary called Margery Kempe. Her poems from the collection, are rich in details, zooming in on incidents from Kempe’s biography, a thorough character study of a woman, creating a connection between the contemporary conscience & the Medieval. Well worth a look-see.

I’d also like to remind you poets with collections & chapbooks etc, that we are always open for submissions in all our categories, but we’d especially like to read about your Confessions. I was hoping poets would be jumping at the opportunity to talk about their work, almost completely free of restraint, free to roam the experience & talk about everything or anything about it, as well as the chance to see some of the poems published. What you playing at! Get busy. Where else is this opportunity available? As far as I know, only at Underfoot. Get your arses in gear.

Daniel

Underfoot Poetry

Chapbook Confessions is a series in which poets discuss, at length, the writing of their most recent collection of poems, in whatever way they desire. For more information on the series, go here.

Below, Sarah Law writes on her 2014 collection Ink’s Wish.

Sarah Law lives in London, UK, and is a tutor for the Open University and elsewhere. She has published five collections of poetry, the latest of which is Ink’s Wish. Recent and forthcoming work in Ink, Sweat & Tears; Ekphrastic Review; Eunoia Review; Amaryllis; The Windhover, Saint Katherine Review; Where is the River and elsewhere.

21566728These poems are from my collection Ink’s Wish which was originally published by Gatehouse Press and was shortlisted (one of four collections in the poetry category) in 2014 for the East Anglian Book Awards of that year. The small (100 only!) print run from Gatehouse soon sold out and I…

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Amy Soricelli (5 Poems)

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5 poems by Bronx poet Amy Soricelli over at Underfoot poetry today.
Poems personally informed & telling, full of anecdote & a close relationship with an urban environment, the ins & outs of a well lived life & commitment to community, family & friends. There is pure life in these poems. Amy’s voice is confident & the poems flow like the dodgy step of a citizen walking through a crowded pavement.

Underfoot Poetry

Teacher Training

I cannot sit her down and say things that will make the
difference in the shape of her feet
or sounds from the kids she teaches when they ask all the time;
they ask about the world
and the lonesome way people behave.
She will say things now, on the phone,
that startle me;
like once in 3rd grade she asked me about God
and it was just sitting there;
the beliefs we carry or don’t.
She tells me about the ‘sometimes scrapes and bruises’
hidden under the kids sleeves
and how they might cling extra hard
before a long weekend.
She shows me math on little cards;
they teach with little cards that fit in my hand,
so little.
I cannot tell her to be careful because
the windows, the doors.
we need them.
if not to show them the world –
its glory and the absolute…

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John Looker (Chapbook Confessions #1)

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So pleased to have John Looker (a poet I personally admire & enjoy reading immensely) to start off our new series Chapbook Confessions.
I really do encourage you, after reading John’s piece, to have a glimpse at what this Chapbook Confession malarkey is all about & if you fit the criteria & want to contribute, then we would be more than pleased to read what you send us. We are hoping this will be not only useful to readers, but perhaps…what’s the right word, Ah! Cathartic (that should do it) for the writers themselves.

Underfoot Poetry

Chapbook Confessions is a series in which poets discuss, at length, the writing of their most recent collection of poems, in whatever way they desire. For more information on the series, go here.

Below, John Looker writes on his 2015 collection The Human Hive (Bennison Books)

519wanKURJL._SY346_Asked to explain the secrets of his craft, the alchemist would wrap his cloak more tightly and withdraw to his tower in silence. The mountebank however, holding his phial of coloured water high, might become loquacious about herbs gathered by moonlight on the shores of Arabia. 

I feel uncomfortable talking about how I write my poems. I would prefer to say nothing. Saying anything at all incurs the risk of becoming a charlatan. However, as I’ve been ‘shown the instruments’ and have to say something, I’ll try to find a middle way. I am grateful to Underfoot for publishing some of my poems, and I…

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