Poetry and Instagram

This guest post by Kim Stafford is a passage
from the Afterword in As the Sky Begins to Change,
poems by Kim Stafford (Red Hen Press, 2024)

Once at a big literary conference I went, as a skeptic, to a session called “Poetry & Instagram.” Going in, I was curious, though I considered my poems “too important” to be littered online. Confirming my disdain, an expert explained to us that Instagram could be a platform for experimental forays with language, and a great place to market your published work, but dedicated writers should never post new poems online, he said, because such a poem is thus technically “published,” and can no longer be submitted to a literary magazine. Instagram for marketing, he said, and magazines for literature.

As I listened, though, I realized a new poem posted on the Web could be read — right now — by hundreds, or thousands of people, instead of only by those who seek their literature in print, often in magazines largely read by poets. And it often took me months, or years, to place a poem in such a magazine. What if someone in grief or confusion or loneliness needed a poem right away, a poem I might be hoarding? What if I wanted to share a poem with people in real time — today, this moment — perhaps for people who don’t read journals or books? Why not harness my daily writing practice, and reach out by posting in all directions?

When I discussed this with my daughter, who has used social media for years to share work as a “floral innovator,” she pressed me to post my poems online with abandon. Her own images blossom on various sites, and she convinced me to lean into this practice. She pointed out that poems come to me in abundance, so why hold back on letting them flow forth toward readers? There would always be more where those came from, she said. The source is infinite, and the need is now.

. . . . .

Kim Stafford’s poems can be found at www.instagram.com/kimstaffordpoetry where he posts a new poem and an image each morning.

. . . . .

Kim Stafford, founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, teaches and travels to raise the human spirit. He is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose, including The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft and 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared. He has written about his poet father in Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford, and his book Having Everything Right: Essays of Place won a special citation for excellence from the Western States Book Award. His most recent poetry collection is As the Sky Begins to Change (Red Hen, 2024) (also available as an audiobook, read by the author).
He has taught writing in dozens of schools and community centers, and in Scotland, Italy, Mexico, and Bhutan. In 2018 he was named Oregon’s 9th Poet Laureate by Governor Kate Brown for a two-year term. In a call to writers everywhere, he has said, “In our time is a great thing not yet done. It is the marriage of Woody Guthrie’s gusto and the Internet. It is the composing and wide sharing of songs, poems, blessings, manifestos, and stories by those with voice for those with need.”

. . . . .

For a list of upcoming readings, visit Kim Stafford’s event page.

. . . . .
pussy willow photo by Kim Stafford
author photo by Rob Reynolds

Poetry Marathon

Registration is now open for the 2024 Poetry Marathon! An international event, open to poets of all ages and experience, participation in the Poetry Marathon is free.

The idea is to write 24 poems in 24 hours (or the half-marathon, 12 in 12). The 2024 Poetry Marathon starts at 9:00am Eastern on Saturday, June 15, 2024, and ends at 9:00am on Sunday, June 16. Half-marathoners can begin at 9:00am OR 9:00pm Saturday, depending on local time preferences.

Register for hourly prompts, the option to participate in the annual chapbook, group support, etc. You could end up with a chapbook’s worth of poems! The last day of registration is June 10.

Port Townsend summer series

As you’re making plans for summer, you might consider adding Poetry on the Salish Sea to your calendar. The free summer reading series, in Port Townsend, Washington, will offer four Sunday readings with outstanding poets:

• June 30: Anna Odessa Linzer, Tanya Holtland, Cedar Sigo
• July 28: Rae Armantrout, Kay Ryan, Heather McHugh
• August 25: Erin Malone, Luther Hughes, Arianne True
• September 29: Rick Barot, Melissa Kwasny, Spencer Reece

The readings, in The Garden at Wilderbee Farm & Meadery begin at 3:00pm. Seating is limited, but you’re invited to bring a camp chair or picnic blanket and spread out on the lawn. Find out more about Poetry on the Salish Sea.

need a prompt?

Need a poetry prompt? There’s a generator for that: the Poetry Prompt Generator. Click on “Generate New Prompt” and up it pops. Don’t like that one? Click again. Nothing there for you? The Poetry Department has plenty of past posts on poetry prompts.

If all those links don’t provide any inspiration, maybe what you need is a visit to The Surrealist Compliment Generator.

on poetry

“One is inside a blind spot.”
Jorie Graham
(b. May 9, 1950)

. . . . .
photo by Jeannette Montgomery Barron
quote

laureate update

Congratulations to Susan Dingle, who has been selected as Clark County, Washington, Poet Laureate for 2024-2026. Susan follows Armin Tolentino, who has held the position since 2021.

Susan Dingle earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her poetry has been published in several periodicals, and she is the author of two books: In Pilgram Drag (Finishing Line Press) and Parting Gifts (Local Gems).

Dingle hosts Poetry Street PNW, an all-ages open mic held every fourth Wednesday at the Camas Library. A licensed clinical social worker and alcohol and substance abuse counselor, she also has led poetry workshops at the Attic Gallery and Discover Recovery, both in Camas.

Pulitzer

Congratulations to Brandon Som, who has been awarded The 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry for Tripas: Poems (Georgia Review Books).

The finalists in poetry were Jorie Graham, To 2040 (Copper Canyon Press), and Robyn Schiff, Information Desk: An Epic (Penguin Books).

See the complete list of winners and finalists for the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes.

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Brandon Som photo

free workshop

Give your poems a post-Poetry-Month jolt with this free, online workshop offered by Bellingham Review. On Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 6:00pm Pacific, Taneum Bambrick will offer a one-hour generative workshop “On Slime.” Register here.

May 23!

Please be sure to mark your calendar for the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Awards Ceremony — one of the highlights of the Whatcom County poetry scene — on Thursday, May 23, 2024, at 7:00pm, at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal in Fairhaven.

The evening’s events will include music by the Jansen Jazz Orchestra, readings of Walk and Merit Award poems by their authors, the debut of this year’s beautiful poem placards, chapbooks of winning poems, and more! See you there.

taking the pulse of book buyers

The American Booksellers Association has just released their latest Indie Poetry Bestseller List based on sales at independent bookstores nationwide for the eight-week period ending April 28, 2024. It’s a pretty wide-ranging list with a lot of year-to-year overlap. The ABA maintains their Specialty Indie Bestsellers lists online, so you can see the figures back to 2011. The Poetry list is usually released in early May, so the figures include purchases made during most of National Poetry Month.