Read more Twitter poems online at http://twitter.com/WorldClassPoet.

And don't forget to download the World Class Poetry Toolbar for micropoetry chapbooks. The first chapbook, titled Twitter Poems, is available now. Two more on the way soon. These chapbooks will only be available through the World Class Poetry Toolbar.

HardSoftwood Download

Gary B. Fitzgerald has the distinction of being the first author to be featured in the World Class Poetry Promotional Chapbook series. Designed to give poetry book authors and publishers a way to promote their books, these digital chapbooks feature selections from published books and are available as free downloads. Only from World Class Poetry.

Hardwood and Softwood were made available last month through the World Class Poetry Toolbar. They are still available as individual chapbooks in that medium. Now, you can get both chapbooks as a dual download without the toolbar. To check out Gary's poetry in the dual chapbook titled HardSoftwood, click here and take the free download. Share it with your friends.

American Life In Poetry: Column 216

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Judy Loest lives in Knoxville and, like many fine Appalachian writers, her poems have a welcoming conversational style, rooted in that region's storytelling tradition. How gracefully she sweeps us into the landscape and the scene!

Faith

Leaves drift from the cemetery oaks onto late grass,
Sun-singed, smelling like straw, the insides of old barns.
The stone angel's prayer is uninterrupted by the sleeping
Vagrant at her feet, the lone squirrel, furtive amid the litter.
Someone once said my great-grandmother, on the day she died,
rose from her bed where she had lain, paralyzed and mute
For two years following a stroke, and dressed herself--the good
Sunday dress of black crepe, cotton stockings, sensible, lace-up shoes.
I imagine her coiling her long white braid in the silent house,
Lying back down on top of the quilt and folding her hands,
Satisfied. I imagine her born-again daughters, brought up
In that tent-revival religion, called in from kitchens and fields
To stand dismayed by her bed like the sisters of Lazarus,
Waiting for her to breathe, to rise again and tell them what to do.
Here, no cross escapes the erosion of age, no voice breaks
The silence; the only certainty in the crow's flight
Or the sun's measured descent is the coming of winter.
Even the angel's outstretched arms offer only a formulated
Grace, her blind blessings as indiscriminate as acorns,
Falling on each of us, the departed and the leaving.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c)2007 by Judy Loest. Poem reprinted from "After Appalachia," Finishing Line Press, 2007, by permission of Judy Loest and the publisher. Introduction copyright (c)2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Poetry Book Review: "How To Make A Living As A Poet"

Gary Mex Glazner has done what few other poets seem able to. He makes a living as a poet and has written a book giving concrete examples of how you too can make a living as a poet.

How To Make A Living As A Poet by Gary Mex Glazner is broken down into three sections. Section 1, titled "The Poetry Entrepreneur: Creative Poetry Programming", offers 12 overviews of poetry projects that have earned at least a part-time income for the poets who are behind them. Many of the projects offer a full-time income and Glazner even includes his own very successful Alzheimer's Poetry Project.

Read the rest of the review here

World Class Poetry Promotional Chapbooks

Do you have a published book of poems? Would you like to expand your opportunities to market them to World Class Poetry's 15,000 + unique visitors every month? Our growing website and blog have had almost 20,000 combined unique visitors for three months running. Get the word about your poetry out to this valuable, targeted traffic. Click here for details.

New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

Enjoy these latest blog posts from World Class Poetry Blog

• The Top 100 Poetry Blogs
• "Howl": Because No One Reads It Like Allen Ginsberg

Interested in guest blogging? Get the details here.

Poetry Book Of The Month

Last month we featured a Gary and this month we've got another Gary in our sights. From Gary B. Fitzgerald to Gary Mex Glazner. You'll love Glazner's take on how to make a living as a poet. That is the title of his book, published in 2005. There are some great ideas in this book and Gary should know because he has lived it. Sold his flower shop and went into the full-time poetry business. Now he's going to teach you how to do it.

Buy How To Make A Living As A Poet by Gary Mex Glazner today.

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