Barbara J. Hamby

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Poem Production

Tonight I’ve been going through my poem indexes and, while my poetic productivity dropped greatly in the last five years, it’s picking up again. I have several new ones I can take to my critique group in January. There are a couple I wrote two years ago when a close friend was dying. They need more work and I hope my grief has tempered enough to give me some objectivity.

At any rate, I’m regaining some interest in entering writing contests and I’m pleased that I have some material to do that with. It’s been a long time since I’ve entered anything and a much longer time since I won any prizes.

The latest edition of the Oregon Literary Review just appeared on line and I’ve only had time to sample one essay, so far, but I was very impressed by the quality of the writing. Charles Deemer, the editor, is a former instructor at Clark College, where I took a few of his classes several years ago. He is teaching screen writing at Portland State at present as well as writing novels, poems and librettos.

I just now sampled the poetry in the Review. I guess I’m a little miffed that submissions are by invitation only. Some of the poems in this issue are excellent, understandable, and I can relate to them. But not all. The modern trend toward obscure poetry annoys me. Reeking of academia, it reminds me of the story about the poet who was asked what his creation meant. He was reported to have said, “It means what you want it to mean.” Really?

So now that I’ve done my Rosie O’Donnell imitation, I think it’s time to call a halt.