New Poems to Read and Poets to Follow

Looking for fresh poetry to read or to share with others? Of course, give these new faces credit. They’ve worked hard, as poets do. Support emerging poets and get to know them before everyone else does.

Jean Bansemer

We’re listing poets in alphabetical order. Jean rediscovered poetry during the 2020 pandemic and has since written two books about life in America as a wife, mother, and business woman. Preview her work and get to know her on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads. “His Uniforms,” is from her latest book and is a sentimental poem– a tear-jerker for Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, July 4, military graduations or at graduations, in general. It appears in Along Came 22: Poems and Short Stories about Love, War, and Silliness.

Victoria Chang

She’s not exactly new to poetry, but her book, The Trees Witness Everything was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022. Follow her on Twitter and enjoy her simple, but powerful expressions!

Stephanie Niu

Fall into images of water and life flowing symbiotically. Niu’s chapbook She Has Dreamt Again of Water came out in March 2022 and has already won a couple prizes. Water Dreams will take you away. Reach out to Stephanie on Twitter.

Water Dreams

In the dream there is a whale shark. I hold her fin, and we quietly agree where to go. The water is not cold. Then I swim breast stroke in the living room,the couch falling away below. My mother says water dreamsare auspicious. That night she dreamed of slaying a snake, cutting its long body like a carrot. I feel her pride for me swell, even at this. The lucky animals migrating from her dreams to mine. Her relief that I can conjure, even in sleep, what she cannot give me—good rest, good luck, an ocean to dream in. But she is always swelling. She is always in motion, urgent for something she cannot name. Can she call it superstition when it uncovers the truth of her marriage. When she dreams of a bodytucked into a closet the night of her second miscarriage. For her, there is no difference between what you controland sleep. There is no split, a real self and a dream selfto divide neatly. There are just dreams.

Stephanie Johnson

Stephanie considers herself an “Expat. Repat. Poet. Associate Editor http://novelslices.com. Always pulled between the US, Istanbul and Sydney. Incurable science fiction fan. T1D.” Her poems range from discussions of diabetes, aging, traveling, and cultural values. You’ll find Stephanie and several of her poems on Instagram and Twitter.

Ada Limón

Ada’s work can be found on Amazon’s best seller list for poetry. She’s an established writer whose new book, The Hurting Kind, celebrates birds and life. Her words are as light as a sparrow’s wings and you can, of course, reach her via a tweet.

Eliana Tanjung

From Indonesia, Eliana explores the meaning behind human existence. Peruse her work on her website or follow her on Twitter. Her latest collection is comprised of 13 poems about her childhood. In this poem inquiring about life she writes:

Life

Oh life,
Why so confident
Your ways
Emotionless
Heartless
Tossed me around
When I never ask to
You give me a riddle
In a language
As foreign as silence
How am I supposed
To find the answer
But to bask
In the wavering
Of your presence

John Roedel

Comedian and writer, John Roedel, shares bits of his soul in his latest book, Upon Departure, which explores grief after a loved one departs. He’s there for you on Twitter and Facebook. Here’s one of his poems of inspiration:

after you survive

your storm

become a lighthouse

your scars are

meant to burn so bright

that it will help a person

lost at sea find the shore

every wound you carry

has a 1000 watt bulb inside

of it

that will preach the gospel

of the coming dawn one

burst of daybreak at a time

it’s the circle

of survival

you have endured

to help others endure

you have outlasted the dark

to become a disciple of light

this is your calling now

to plant your feet

in the same shore

you washed up on

my love,

ignite

Ocean Vuong

Loss and grief abounds in the pandemic era. Ocean Vuong lost his own mother to breast cancer in 2019, just before the pandemic. His latest literary feat of 28 poems explores loss and continuing. Time Is A Mother is already a new, best seller. If you’re an aspiring poet, take a class with him through the MFA program at The University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

DEAR ROSE

if you’re reading this then you survived
my life into this one this one with
my name crossed out then found
halfway in your mouth if you’re reading this
then the bullet does not know you
yet but I know mom you can’t
read napalm fallen on your schoolhouse
at six & that was it they say

a word is only what it signifies
that’s how I know the arrow
-head in my back means
I’m beautiful a word like bullet
hovers in an amber afternoon on its way
to meaning the book opens like a door
but the only one you ever read
was a coffin its hinges swung

shut on lush descriptions
of a brother & the bullet still
the fastest finger pointing
to life I point to you to me to
-day a Thursday I took a long walk
alone it didn’t work kept stopping
to touch my shadow just in case
feeling is the only truth

I’m capable of & there down
there between thumb & forefinger
an ant racing in circles then zigzags
I wanted significance but think
it was just the load he was bearing
that unhinged him: another ant
curled & cold lifted on
his shoulders they looked like a set

of quotations missing speech it’s said
they can carry over 5,000x their mass
but it’s often bread crumbs
not brothers that get carried
home but maybe going too far
is to admit the day ends anywhere
but here no no mom this
is your name I say pointing

to Hong on the birth certificate thin
as dust Hong I say which means
rose I place your finger on a flower so
familiar it’s almost synthetic red
plastic petals dewed with glue I leave
it out of my poems I turn from
its face — clichéd oversized
head frayed at the edges

like something ruptured
by a bullet seeking language
a kind of person which is to say
I was born because you
were starving but how can anything
be found with only two hands
with only two hands you dumped
a garbage bag of anchovies into the glass jar

the day was harmless a breeze hovering
in amber light above us gray
New England branches swayed without
touching to make fish sauce you said
you must bear the scent of its corpses
salted & crushed a year in a jar tall
as a boy they dropped with slick
thumps like bullets each word must stop

somewhere — why not a yellow
poet I put in the fish sauce I take out
the fish sauce I dance
on the line until I am the line
they cross or cross
out they nearly killed me
you said for being white
with a toilet plunger you pushed the fish

down sound of bones like gravel
the violet vein on your wrist glistened
your father was a white soldier
I had amber hair you said they called me
traitor called me ghost
girl they smeared my face with cow shit
at the market to make me brown
like you & your father the eyes glared

from inside the jar they shot
my brother you said looking down
but away from the dead
eyes my little brother
if reading is to live
in two worlds at once why
is he not here my friend said you can do
anything in a poem

so I stepped right out of it
to be entered is to be re
-defined the bullet achieves its name
by pushing the body into itself flesh
refugeed into flesh I was struck
by these words we say I was struck by
this passage it moved right through
opened me up these eyes reading

not yet closed not yet healed
shut am full of leaden meaning which parts
a red sea inside me sinew dusted to soft tissue
my blood a borderless translation
of errors in the reader’s
hands a gaping rose which is
your name Hong I say which also means
pink the shade every bullet meets

before finding its truest self Calvino said
human instinct is to laugh
when someone falls the soldiers
were cracking up as they fired
your brother running his sky
-blue shirt pink on the ground
our evolution as hunters Calvino went on
the collapsed body a signal

of meat thus hunger
leads to lethal
joy it’s almost perfect
you smiled your nose deep
in the jar as if to be hunted
is to finally be seen alive briefly
as if the bullet makes you real
by making you less

which is perfect
in poems the text
amplified by murder
-ous deletions
leads to inevitable
art the pristine prisoner
in his marble coffin the length
of a fish is a timeline

across the page to document days
the dead a measurement
of living distance
the body blooming
as it decays Pink
Rose Hong Mom
are you reading this dear
reader are you my mom

is she in language I cannot
find her without you this world
I’ve made you cannot enter within months
their meat will melt into brown
mucus rot almost-sauce the linear
fish-spine dissolved by time
at last pungent scent of ghosts you said
you named me after a body

of water cause it’s the largest thing you knew
after god I stare at the silvered layers
the shadowed line between two pressed fish
is a finger in the dark gently
remembered in the dark his finger
on my lips mom his shh
your friend the man watching me
while you worked the late

shift in the Timex clock factory why
am I thinking this now the gasped mouths
mottled pocked fins gently the door its blade
of amber light widening as it opened
shh it sounds like an animal
being drowned as you churned
the jar your yellow-white arms pink
fish guts foaming up gently you must

remember gently the man he’s in
the past now his face a black rose
closing do you know
what it’s like baby my baby
boy you said sweating above the jar
to be the only one hated the only
one the white enemy of your own
country your own

face the trees they were roaring
above us red leaves leaving little cuts
in the sky gently I touched
your elbow the fish swirling
in their gone merry-go-round
sightless eyes no no mom I said
holding my breath I don’t know
what it’s like & turned

my head up toward the sun
which brightly cancels
if you’re reading this then
I survived my life into yours
you who told your brother you were hungry
so he stole a roasted chicken
so he tucked it under his sky
-blue shirt & it’s not

your fault reader you had
to work you had to get up
in the blood-blue dawn to warm
up your car you who held
instant coffee with both hands
ate your lunch of Wonder Bread dipped
in condensed milk in the parking lot
alone you bought me pencils reader I could

not speak so I wrote myself into
silence where I stood waiting for you mom
to read me do you read me now do you
copy mayday mayday you who dreamed
of dipping shreds of chicken
into fish sauce as you hid in the caves
above your village you white
devil girl starving ghost

but I shouldn’t have been so
hungry you said looking up
at the leaves vermilion through the brother
-blue sky I hated my hunger the veins
on your fists the jar all amber crush
empty as a word
-less mind stop writing
about your mother they said

but I can never take out
the rose it blooms back as my own
pink mouth but how
can I tell you this when you’re always
to the right of meaning
as it pushes you further into white
space how can I say the hole
in your brother’s back is not

a part of your brother but your brother
aparted who is still somewhere
running because I wrote it
in the present tense the bullet held
just behind his death an insect
trapped in amber the charred
chicken clutched to his chest dust
rising from sandals

as he sprints toward the future
where you’re waiting by the rain
-warped window wet footsteps
on Risley Rd but dear reader
it’s only your son coming home
again after school after
the bullies put his face in brown
dirt what if I said the fastest

finger pointing to you Ma
is me would you look away
I point to you no no I went right
through you left a pink rose blazing
in the middle of the hospital
in Sai Gon reader who
cannot read
or write you wrote a son

into the world with no
words but a syllable so much
like a bullet its heat fills you
today a Thursday
(ours not Vallejo’s) partly cloudy a little
winded I kneel to write
our names on the sidewalk & wait
for the letters to signal

a future an arrow pointing to
a way out I stare & stare
until it grows too dark to read the ant
& his brother long
home by now night flooding
the concrete black my arms dim
as incomplete sentences
reader I’ve plagiarized

my life to give you the best
of me the rest in the blankest
margins & these words these
insects anchovies bullets salvaged
& exiled by art mom my art these corpses
I lay side by side on the page to tell you
our present tense was not too late

Share Your Favorite Poems and Poets of 2022

Which poems inspire you, speak to you, reach you? Share them with us in the below comments.

Fifteen Dos and Don’ts when Writing for Children- Recap of Jesse Florea’s Session at Write-to-Publish 2014

Some have a heart for children- others a heart for writing.  Marry the two and the world will change.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Clubhouse Magazine’s editor, Jesse Florea, at Write-to-Publish in Wheaton, IL.  He was at the conference looking for great stories for Focus on the Family and he presented a session on how to write for children. He’s also the author of several books for kids and their parents.

Who Is Generation Z, The Homeland Generation?

Copyright My Web Writers

Generation Z was born between 1995 and 2005.  They’re known as the “Silent Generation”, “Homeland Generation,” or the “Net Generation” because they’ve grown up with the Internet. They were born after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when many felt safer staying at home. William Strauss and Neil Howe describe this group as “highly connected” and media technology savvy because they are “digital natives.”  During a naming contest sponsored by Neil Howe’s company website, Homeland Generation was the name chosen by the site’s voters to represent this generation.

Florea says,

“They’re self-directed. Parents no longer over-schedule their children like they did five years ago.  There’s a little more free time for this generation, which is good because they have time to be creative, but the bad part is that they have this technology and when you have technology and time, they can get into trouble with the technology rather easily.”

According to NC State University:

“Such connectedness has a dark side, however, contributing to a sedentary lifestyle and skyrocketing rates of obesity. This generation may live shorter, less healthy lives than their parents despite the medical advances of the last twenty years. Of 100 Generation Z kids, 47 will be obese by the time they reach adulthood.”

Florea says,

“Basically, that’s because they don’t have to go outside to be entertained. All the entertainment they need is at their fingertips with a gaming console or they can talk to their friends through any different type of social media. They don’t need to get outside to get together.”

In 2011, Grail Research provided a fascinating look into this next generation by comparing the relationship of Boomer parents to their children verses Generation X parents to their Generation Z children.  Fundamentally the differences lie in the comfort with technology that Generation X shares with its children. There is an increasing overlap between Generations X, Y, and Z and their channels of entertainment, technology, brand experiences, and family values.

“Generation X is raising Generation Z with a high involvement parenting style. Generation X saw a social trend of divorces and is expected to instill stronger family values, along with ‘old’ notions such as work ethic, etiquette, and resilience. This, along with better education, will make Generation Z more tolerant, respectful, and responsible.”

The Homeland Generation might be more financially conservative, too. Florea says,

“Generation Z is saving their money.” Also, “This generation identifies itself more as individuals, than as a team…Sort of like Generation X…They believe in their own character and they believe they have their own persona.  Generation Z doesn’t believe in getting agreement or living by social norms.  Their society exists on the Internet where they speak out their minds and express their opinions.”

 

15 Dos and Don’ts When Writing for Kids

To kick off his session, Florea asked, “How would you describe children?”  Words like “rambunctious”, “messy”, “innocent”, and “smart” quickly filled the room from the audience.

Florea mentioned, “We want all of that in your writing. I’ve been at Focus on the Family for twenty-one years.  You know of Dr. Dobson.  He wrote a lot of books.  A lot of dos and don’ts.  Having boundaries, having parameters can really help, so that’s how this workshop started. I’m going to share about 15 or 16 dos and don’ts” when writing for kids.

1. Don’t underestimate your audience. 
   

   “Kids are thinking, feeling and smart human beings.  They just lack life experience and the wisdom we can share with them as writers. Don’t doubt a child’s ability to understand concepts and accomplish great things. Generation Z is a smart generation because they have at their fingertips, all the information in the world.”

   Clubhouse Magazine particularly likes to feature ordinary kids performing extraordinary feats. Challenge kids with your writing. Kids know that things aren’t always perfect. You can’t shelter these kids, there’s just too much readily accessible information. Don’t shy away from writing stories about kids in single parent homes, with special needs, or whose families are in financial duress.

2. Challenge kids spiritually. Years ago, Clubhouse Magazine received a letter saying that it was “boring.” Florea took the letter, published it, and asked, “Okay, readers are we boring?” He received close to 500 responses.  One of the common threads through all of them was that kids want to be spiritually challenged. They don’t just want to hear a Bible story.  They want to see its application.

3. Do get into a child’s mind. Know their interests.  What makes them tick?  What do their parents want them to learn? This is important because parents are the ones buying the magazines.  Spend time with kids and know what they’re studying in school.

4. Do work on a gripping opening. Capture their attention within the first three sentences.  You have to have a good hook.

5. Do use vibrant, active verbs.  Kids need action.  The story needs to move. Show the action, don’t tell it. A Wheaton professor of Florea’s used to say, “There’s always a better way to start a story than with ‘it’ or ‘there’.” As soon as you start with it or there, you’re using passive voice. When editing copy, Florea seeks out and circles it, there, was, is, and were and reconsiders what these words add to each sentence.

6.  Don’t go adjective crazy. “One well-chosen adjective is better than three adjectives strung together. Adjectives slow down your writing, while verbs keep up the pacing and make everything go faster.” Also, when using dialogue, just use said. “Said” is an invisible word that people read through.  If you go for fancier words like “chortle” or “mused”, you’ll stop the narrative. The person reading will stop and think, “Oh, why are they using that word?”

7. Do use interesting and realistic dialogue.  Don’t try to use the cute catch phrases that the kids are using today because those words may be out of style by the time the article or book is published.  Florea looks for stories with active verbs, compelling dialogue, and believable characters.

8. Show the action. 

9. Do use humor. People retain 80% more when they’re laughing. To achieve humor you can use repetition, switches, exaggeration, extremes, and word plays.

10. Don’t wrap up your story in a nice, little bow. Kids know that’s not how the world works. Be honest.  Former IU professor, Peter Jacobi, once said “The ending should leave the reader with satisfaction tinged with dissatisfaction.” Do leave readers with a nugget of truth. From age five on, children are able to relate to stories in characters just like adults. A value development specialist, who once visited Focus on the Family, said that “by age ten, right and wrong are locked in for a child.”

11. Edit your copy.  Some professional writers work through up to thirty revisions before sending in a story. Cut the fat. Stay away from clichés.

12. Do be creative. Don’t copy the world.

13. Know industry trends. Go for “edu-tainment” (educate and entertain), which is like writing a chocolate bar packed with a vitamin. Watch movie trailers to see what will be big when each movie comes out the next year.

14. Do write compelling characters. Write characters that are going through a lot of things. Also, don’t have the adults solve the problems.  Let the kids solve the issues without preaching from the adult characters.

15. Do be yourself.  Kids can spot a phony a mile away.

 

Next June, make a point of visiting the Write-to-Publish conference in Wheaton.  The people are welcoming and you may soon find that you’ve developed relationships with mentors and fellow writers who will guide you throughout your career.  Meet one-on-one with acquisition editors and publishers, while also absorbing valuable insights and industry trends.  We especially thank Jesse Florea for sharing his expertise in children’s publishing with My Web Writers’ readers!

Appointments with Heaven – a Worthwhile Read

Choosy Writers Choose Good Books

Are you choosy about the books you read?  I am.

My high school English teacher used to scold me when I found excuses not to read. She’d blink her eyes, sigh, and pinch her nose, “Good writers make time to read.”

Well, she’d be proud.

I read a book over spring break that was worth my time and attention. It was edifying, truthful, and inspiring and there’s a back story on how I received the book, which I’ll share in a moment.

Appointments with Heaven bills itself as “the true story of a country doctor’s healing encounters with the hereafter.” At first, I thought.  Boy. Do I really want to read a bunch of creepy stories about people dying?  (The book was given to me shortly after my mother’s death in 2013.)

I’d seen a lot of death and well, eh.

But, my sister-in-law raved about the book and she’d experienced loss, too, so I figured it had potential.

Heaven’s Southern Setting & Faith Theme

My family packed up our van and headed south to Florida. Dr. Reggie Anderson’s story is set in the rural South.  So literally, my journey included representations out the window of the places described in the story – Alabama on the way down and Tennessee on the route back up. What I discovered is that the story isn’t really a book about death — it is about finding faith in life.

Soak in that statement for a moment.

It’s a book about faith. Your life has purpose and it affects eternity.

Do you believe that? Like I said.  It’s a book about faith.

There are times, even if you believe there’s a higher purpose, when truthfully, you’re just not seeing how the dots connect. You lost a friend, a job, or an opportunity.  You’re stuck in what seems to be a mindless and pointless routine.  You’re disillusioned because of awful events or situations. This book addresses whys.  Does anyone even know we’re here?  Is God real?  Why do bad things happen?

Even if you have answers worked out for yourself, Dr. Reggie Anderson’s perspective, because of his scientific expertise in medicine and his own early disillusionment, is unique. This book find has the potential to be a future workbook and video series for small groups.  The Kendrick Brothers or some other producer ought to take a good look at it.

About Heaven’s Ghost Writer

If you’re a writer, it’s a study on the art of ghost writing.  Truly, the story’s organization, running motifs, theme, voice, and flow were so well constructed that I beamed for Jennifer Schuchmann, the book’s ghost writer. And herein is how I received the book.

Jennifer and I met at a conference in 2010.  She was already a published writer, managing a young family, and at the start of a promising career.  We became Linkedin and Twitter contacts. In September 2013, I was in the midst of managing a big work project, while organizing household moving details for my family, when my mother passed away. With those plates spinning, I accidentally sent an email to Jennifer that was intended for someone else. When I realized my mistake, I sent Jennifer a note asking her to disregard and delete the email.  She did, and then we quickly caught up. I asked her about her current projects and she shared.

“I’m primarily doing collaborative books with people who have stories to tell but don’t have the time or ability to tell them. I’m either hired by them or by their publishers. I’ve released two new books this year.

“Taylor’s Gift” is the story of parents who lost their 14 year old daughter in a skiing accident, donated her organs, and then met the organ recipients.

“Appointments with Heaven” is the story of a country doctor who lost his faith, found it in a dream of heaven and now catches glimpses of heaven when his patients die (he can feel their soul leave their body, smell the scents of heaven, and feel a warmth in the room). Both are good books.

Good to hear from you even if it was a mistake!”

I then confided that my mother had passed away two weeks earlier and that her Heaven book sounded relevant.  She wrote,

  Oh, I’m so sorry!  Send me your address and I’ll send you a copy of “Appointments with Heaven.” Writing that book changed the way I view death. Maybe that’s the whole reason we reconnected was so I could give you a copy of this book.

When my copy arrived, she’d personalized it with a note, “I hope this brings comfort in your loss.”

If you’ve ever lost someone, you know that the cards you receive in the following weeks are thoroughly appreciated.  This was the first time anyone had sent a book.

I read a few pages and stopped. I felt called to send a copy to each of my siblings, but I personally wasn’t ready to digest the book.

By spring 2014, I was ready.

Let’s be clear, I’m not getting paid to write this post for Appointments with Heaven nor am I doing it because I know Jennifer.  I know plenty of authors.  I just like the book and feel it’s worth my time.

I hope it’s worth yours, too.

Yesterday, I interviewed Jennifer about her ghost writing techniques.  Read Tips for Collaborative and Ghost Writing Success, for the back story on how Dr. Anderson’s Appointments with Heaven was written.

Make a Living Writing Website Content for Companies

Tired of commuting? Don’t like that 9-5 schedule? Wondering if you can make it on your own? If you’re a writer, have you considered writing website content for companies? Here are some things to consider on whether you can make it a go on your own.

Make connections. To get started, you need a network. You can network at your own job, with previous employers, at industry events, alma mater activities, and even in line at your favorite coffee shop. Getting that first, resume-building client can happen anywhere. Be ready by having a stack of business cards on hand and writing examples to share. If you haven’t had your work published yet, get started. With sites like WordPress and Blogger, you can create your own web presence and develop your own writing style without a paid job. After you’ve developed your business and created a cache of clients, you’ll need to keep making connections—this time with other writers because before you know it, you’ll be too busy to do all the work on your own.

Get your back office in order. Sure, you can work from the local coffee shop, perhaps even the one where you met your new client. But make sure you are organized with your work projects, whether it’s through paper files or online. If you’re a contractor, you’ll be working with contracts. Some clients will sign your contracts, others will make you sign theirs. Get a standard contract in order, look into your state’s tax requirements for freelance work, and be ready to answer these questions when you get the call, because companies will ask. Hire an attorney to create a contract template for you. Learn what is and is not a business expense and what you can write off each year on your taxes. Having your ducks in a row in advance makes tax preparation season that much easier.

Be deadline driven. When working on your own, you have to meet your clients’ deadlines. The second you don’t, they’ll find someone else who will. It sounds cutthroat, but it’s just the way work gets done. If the deadline is too tight or you’re overwhelmed with other work projects, be upfront and honest. Ask if you can push the deadline back a few days or see if there is another writer who can handle that project, then let them know when your load lightens up and you’re available again.

 Add some sparkle. You don’t have to throw around pixie dust, but your work does have to stand out from all the rest. Depending on the project, add a creative twist to your writing, show your wit, and constantly remind your clients why they hire you.

 Understand search engine optimization. You don’t have to be an expert at it, you just have to know it exists and how it affects your client. Get input from them on what keywords they need and how frequently they need to appear in your copy. Understand that those keywords change frequently, so you’ll have to ask that question again and again.

Know your client. Yes, keep your sparkle, and yes, know the SEO rules, but you also have to know what your client wants. Maybe one day you’ll be highlighting a client success story on how they set up an international tax agreement, and the next day you’ll author a feature story on the company’s pro bono program. You’ll have to adapt your voice and style to meet the client’s needs.

Ready to try it? Good luck!

~Joanne

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