New poem in decomP

Check out this new little poem just out in decomP, "After the Snake Has Passed."

Changing the website

Revised the opening words on my website. Changed them to more of an introduction. Now maybe I say too much. Before maybe I said too little. Caught between two styles yet again. Anyway, here’s the old, shorter version: “R. D. Parker began writing poetry in 2009. He writes poems in more than one style. Here you can find a list of his published poems and a link to his new poetry blog.” Maybe the new version will clear up confusion when people expect one style and then, to their surprise, find links to another.

decomP in December

Long time no blog. Sorry. Anyway, decomP has taken a poem for their December issue. Thanks to editors Jac Jemc and Jason Jordan for their receptiveness to a new writer.

The glow of the second quotidian

My interview with PANK is now up on the PANK blog. J. Bradley, the panky PANK interviewer, usually asks clever-silly questions. I can go clever, maybe. I can go silly, maybe, too, though I usually try to trim the silliness from my drafts. But I’m no good at clever and silly together, so I didn't go that way. My favorite J. Bradley interview is the recent one with Victoria Lynne McCoy. McCoy’s poem made me think of Martha Nussbaum’s fascinating and provocative Sex and Social Justice.

(What in the world is the glow of the second quotidian? Read the interview and you'll find out.)

Can you have a good poem without ideas?

There’s an interesting discussion on Elisa Gabbert’s The French Exit about whether good poems must have ideas. Darby Larson, energetic and risk-friendly editor of the terrific web journal Abjective, proposes my “Aquamarine” in Caketrain 7 as an example of a poem so radical that it has no ideas. That’s a smart thought. I don’t know Darby, but I appreciate that he reads enough stuff to have read my stuff. More recently, he commented on “Stillness” in the PANK blog. Be sure to check out Abjective.

Welcome

Welcome readers, whoever you may be. This blog doesn’t have much on it yet, but it will grow (slowly). Looking forward to my interview with PANK, which I expect will take place some time soon.