"Cats Are Not Allowed In Paradise" a poem by Wendy Van Camp, has published in "The Junction" an online literary magazine on the Medium Platform. The poem is inspired by my own sweet little cat and workshopped in two different critique groups. I normally write speculative poetry, so it is a pleasure to stretch my abilities and write a little literary piece now and then. I hope you enjoy reading it: https://medium.com/the-junction/cats-are-not-allowed-in-paradise-2db964fff3

Congrats to you, Marc. :) Always good to know of new haiku poets in the world. :)

You can find some of them under the scifaiku tab on my blog, No Wasted Ink http://nowastedink.com . I also have some from my book up on my instagram: https://instagram.com/nowastedink

Scifaiku is science fiction themed haiku. It somewhat follows the rules of Japanese style haiku, with a few caveats. It was developed as a form around 40 to 50 years ago by science fiction authors like David Brin and Joe Haldeman and continues to this day.

I confess that I came to poetry late in late, my mid-fourties. Before I started to go to open-mics and heard the poetry of the day, I thought of poetry only in old-fashioned forms developed two centuries ago in another country. My mind was blown by the formless poems of today. They were a new way to look at poetry, with the power of the ideas and emotions at the forefront and went beyond the approved topics of those long dead poets. While I do not like all the new poetry out there, I have come to appreciate it. The gatekeepers are no longer in charge. The words of the people, young and old, are what is seen. This is a good thing and I hope it continues.

Sometimes poetry can help us work out our own inner demons. Clearly this person has left a mark on your life. You also state that he is dead. He will never know what you write about him, but his family (with whom you have no quarrel) will. I agree with the advice to leave out his name and identity. When we write poems, we want to speak to the people around us and connect in that way. Keeping this inspiration's identity to yourself will help to promote that aspect. It will also spare his family, which I believe you would wish. This is not to say that you should not write about this. Clearly it is something that you as a poet wish to address and I applaud your courage to tackle this subject. There are many abused people out there who will value your insight and perhaps gain insight from your words. Be steadfast. Write what you heart tells you to.

I am known for my scifaiku poetry and haiku-style astropoetry. I've published a book of them, which was nominated twice for an award. I publish the poems in magazines first, then place them in groups on Medium to earn additional income. The last stop is as a poem on my instagram page. I feature one poem a month on my feed. To me, haiku and scifaiku are legitimate forms and should be embraced as any other form of poetry. I agree that they are not easy to write. I can spend an afternoon writing a couple of them from a prompt of my choosing. I also agree that the phrases on instagram are not poems...I consider them to be quotes.

Congrats. :) Great news. :)

I'm happy to report that I am the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association's newest officer. I'm their inaugural convention coordinator. I will be putting together readings at major conventions, fan tables for the organization, creating and hosting open-mics, and a few other ideas that are in the works. SFPA is an international poetry association that's been around for about 70 years. I'm please to be part of the team. :)

New poems that I've penned have recently published in the debut issue of "The Starlight Scifaiku Review".  This is a new journal for scifaiku poetry.  Each poem is matched with a lovely illustration and there is a header to state where my inspiration for the poems came from.  If you'd like to take a look at "Close Approach", please visit: https://starshipsloane.com/article/the-starlight-scifaiku-review-summer-2021-issue-1/15/

Thanks, I love them too. I never thought to take a photo until a group of planner addicts I belong to all started to show off their "planner stacks". I decided to join in. :)

I haven't seen your work, but perhaps placing your poems in a notebook at home or in a private file on your computer might be a better solution. No disrespect to the allpoetry.com site, but once you put your poem there you lose your first print right for magazines where you might have been paid or been more eligible for an award. Anyway, we all find our own path. Like I said above, I'm still trying to figure out a better system of storage myself. :)

@Adam Gary Binging is always there. Not just with smokes, but with food too. We are all only human. Hang in there. We can both do this.

@Adam Gary LOL I don't feel particularly organized. When I did my debut anthology I always feared of poets "falling into the cracks". They did not, the project was a success, and I now have a shiny new anthology system in place for future projects. I need a better way to track my poetry inventory and submissions since I'd like to start sending out to magazines again this coming fall.

@Adam Gary I'm glad I never started smoking. I hear that is a tough one to quit. Keep yourself strong and resist. I am coffee free today, but I get to have a cup on Saturday. Woot! I'm starting to feel better after a full week off of coffee and diet coke. I hope that I can continue with this.

@Marie Vonow Not all the notebooks above are for poetry. One is my bullet journal where I track my writing career, another is a Filofax planner that serves as my editorial calendar for various social media, I use ARC journals for novel story bibles, and another traveler style journal for morning pages. My poetry composition mainly stays in a single A5 traveler's journal, second from the bottom. Inside I have a Stalogy notebook and a tome river paper insert. The larger Stalogy is where I scribble in prompts, ideas, create fragments of lines and eventually full poems. There is plenty of cross outs, scribbles...it is a mess...but a mess by design. I don't want to erase while composing because sometimes something "wrong" turns out to be "right". I like to see where I was before. This is why I don't compose poems on the screen. I also find that using paper and pen helps me focus on the words more. When I feel a poem is finished, I enclose it in brackets so that I can see it better. If I remember, I also include a date when it was done. I've been in the same large notebook for years. The smaller insert was for storing finished poems. I thought it would give me a "clean copy" to use at open-mic readings. However, I find that it has not worked out that way. I am considering creating a "book" just for myself of the poems that I like to take to readings and making a single book of these for myself, but that is still in the planning stages. My finished poems usually are copied to EverNote and from there they are submitted to magazines. I don't have a good storage system in EverNote and I fear losing my poetry as the years go by. Perhaps a thread here about poetry storage methods might be a good idea?

This is my current notebook/planner stack for 2021. And yes, this is the desk in my home office. The notebooks are actually brightly colored, but I loved how this B&W shot of them turned out. When it comes to composing poetry, a leather bound notebook is my favorite way to do it. I like to use a fountain pen and an ink color to suit my mood. I scribble ideas, fragments of lines, whatever I need and then circle completed poems in the book. I have a smaller second notebook that I often handwrite the poems into, but I haven't kept up with it. Usually I type the finished poems into Evernote where they are easier to store before I cut and paste them into submission emails. Honestly, I would love a better system to store and catalog my poems. Not just to find them when creating chapbooks/collections, but to know that they are in a place where they won't get lost.

I was gifted an Olympus Dictation Recorder and love it. It timestamps everything and has an automatic filing system. I upload the mp3s into an app called Otter and it transcribes it for me. I don't use this system for poetry, but for story ideas or drafting it works well for me while I'm out on my walks.

Sigh. I've been told that I have to give up coffee...and diet coke. Not sure how I'm going to do it, but must do so for my health. Coffee has been my one vice for many years. I drink it black and usually a couple of cups a day. So I am going to allow myself a cup or two on weekends only, and nothing on weekdays. I'm going to find a decaf tea to help fill in and hope that will do the trick.

I am, but most writers tend to be. :) Comes with being an indy author.