In honor of National Poetry Month, Escape Into Life is featuring several of my poems about poetry today: How a moth flies into a poem, How to read a poem, This is not a poem, The solace of poetry.
“Inevitably she is driving
when it happens—”
Check out the great art, too –> Escape Into Life
Poetry isn’t the only thing I’ve written over the years. In 2013, my sci-fi mystery novel, WHO SAW THE DEEP, was released! I loved writing this book and it remains one of my favorites out of all the words I’ve put to page in my life. If you would like a copy, the buy links are below.
buy links: Evernight – Amazon Kindle – OmniLit – BookStrand – Smashwords – Barnes & Noble – iBookstore – Kobo
Suspense, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Mystery
Word Count: 55,000
Published By: Evernight Publishing
Click here to read an excerpt.
When Noah moves back home after grad school, he doesn’t expect a simple handyman job to turn deadly. Amelia seems like a sweet old lady with a run-down house, but appearances can be deceptive. When an alien ship lands in her woods, Noah discovers that everything he believed about Earth and human civilization is wrong.
Amelia already gave her heart to one man—does she really want to let another one inside? Even though Noah is everything she ever wanted, can she really trust him? He seems like a good person, but her family’s genetic legacy is more important than romance.
When all their secrets are laid bare, Noah and Amelia discover that the survival of their species may be more dependent on love than either could have imagined. Civilization endures because of anonymous acts executed by ordinary individuals. And love, especially in the face of betrayal, is worth everything.
What are people saying about Who Saw the Deep?
“This novel is well written, original, and clever. … It’s a pity to classify this book as science fiction; it reads more like the ancient myths, or even fairy tales.” – Publishers Weekly Review
“The characterization in this novel is slow and subtle at first, but eventually even the smallest clues are tied together in ways that I never would have anticipated. … Ms. Lim knows exactly how to paint a thin veneer of dread over what otherwise appears to be a perfectly ordinary day, and her ability to find the dark underbelly of even the most mundane chores and experiences plays a large part in why this tale earned such a high rating.” – Long and Short Reviews – 4.5 stars
~~~~~
My goodreads giveaway for my full length poetry collection is over and two lucky people will be receiving their books in the mail soon. If you would like a copy of my poetry, here is the buy link: Amazon
It’s been an interesting three months. Autumn Sky Poetry DAILY is my recreation of Autumn Sky Poetry, a journal I published from 2006-2011. I missed reading poetry every day, and disliked the poems I found to read. My request for submissions brought me more poems than I’d ever hoped I would receive. Even more delightful is the quality of poems that have landed in my inbox. I am amazed at your work, dear poets. Thank you for sharing your words with me. I hope to keep publishing for a long time to come, but of course, that will depend on what I get.
So far, I haven’t found myself growing weary of reading. The accepting poems daily via publishing model seems to be working. I’m also pleased I don’t have to send out rejection letters. I read all the poems I receive. I am sad for those poets whose poems I don’t accept because I know what that feels like. I also recognize that what I publish may be only as good as what I like to read, and other readers may like different things.
As I’ve stated so many times in my past Editor’s Notes on Autumn Sky Poetry: Reading poetry is a pleasure for which too few of us have the time to spare. My aim, as editor, is to make poetry as accessible as possible: simple pages, simple formatting, exquisite poetry. I’m still trying to hold true to that. When I falter, I’ll take a break, but that time has not yet come.
Poem
This little poem
is very, very bad.
It doesn’t rhyme right—
how sad.
It has no feet,
nor iambic stress.
I think it’s freaking out
in a little blue dress.
It makes no sense
and has no style.
Maybe I should put it away
for awhile.
****
I’m freaking out a little (or maybe a lot).
I’ll be posting at my forum: Autumn Sky Poetry Forum. You’re welcome to join us. Register, and send me a message via Facebook or email so I know to approve your membership request.
NaPoWriMo began here: http://www.napowrimo.net
NaPoWriMo, or National Poetry Writing Month, is an annual project in which participating poets attempt to write a poem a day for the month of April.
This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month), she started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April, and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project.
Let the insanity begin!
Yesterday:
Today:
First Crocus
This morning, flowers cracked open
the earth’s brown shell. Spring
leaves spilled everywhere
though winter’s stern hand
could come down again at any moment
to break the delicate yolk
of a new bloom.
The crocus don’t see this as they chatter
beneath a cheerful petal of spring sky.
They ignore the air’s brisk arm
as they peer at their fresh stems, step
on the leftover fragments
of old leaves.
When the night wind twists them to pieces,
they will die like this: laughing,
tossing their brilliant heads
in the bitter air.
by Christine Klocek-Lim, first published on About.com.
Happy first day of spring.
Come one, come all–I’m reading at Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center Sunday, May 4!
When: Sunday, May 4 at 3:15 pm (doors open at 3 pm)
Where: Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, 419 Green Lane (rear), Philadelphia, PA 19128
Why: Because!
I’ll be reading a selection of new poems and maybe a few old favorites. I’ll have copies of my poetry chapbooks and fiction novels for sale. Hope to see you there!
Rumba — lady’s wrap
I’m a fox and he has his hands
on me. I step back, wild.
He moves closer, twists somehow
and I’m curled in his arm,
walking forward.
I have no idea how I got here.
She says, now turn her again
and he unwraps me like a candied chocolate.
An exotic pear, un-netted.
A hairpin slipped loose.
I try to dance away
but he catches me
easily.
I’d say I was lost but it would be a lie.
The music is a leash and he is
turning me again.
I’m trapped
against his other side, walking backwards,
dizzy as a maple seed.
He pivots
and I follow.
I am a kite on a string.
Horse and halter. He smiles into the wind
and I let him let me go
into a double chassé.
Suddenly I am a stray balloon.
A missing key.
A dropped penny, desperate for him
to scoop me back up.
first appeared in Diode v5n2
For the past year, I have had the privilege of writing for Touch: The Journal of Healing as its Poet in Residence. I wrote a series of three essays focusing on the journals concept of Evolution into Insight: Experience. Intent. Craft.
It has been my pleasure to work with the editors, O.P.W. Fredericks and Daniel Milbo. Their friendship and editorial insight elevated my prose in a way I couldn’t have managed on my own.
If you’d like to read the essays, here are links to all three.
Welcome to my new website! It’s been a long time coming and I’m sorry I have to pack my old one away in its virtual trunk, but when technology changes, so too must we.
I originally created November Sky with Dreamweaver, I think. I may have used something before that, but I no longer remember. Thing is, I’ve been online in some form or another since 1987, not with a website, but with email and various accounts at various places. Yes, I remember CompuServe and scrolling through the internet on a terminal. Not a terminal window, an actual, physical terminal. Anyway, the software I use to keep my website up and running is going extinct, so I have decided to merge my blog (November Sky Poetry Blog) and my personal website (November Sky) into one new place: christinekloceklim.com.
Some things from November Sky are gone (the photographs) and some poems, and some things have been added (I imported all my blog posts). Some stuff is new: the menus that point to my fiction writing. I’m planning on doing a lot more novel writing this coming year and I wanted this site to reflect that. I put up some easy to use menus and you should be able to find things fairly quickly.
In a couple of weeks, I will redirect novembersky.com to point here. I apologize in advance for any broken links.
One new and awesome feature of this site is that all of the Poem Sparks you thought were lost forever when Poets.org’s Discussion Forums were taken down are now here. I put a simple link on the right sidebar for you to click. All the Poem Sparks I wrote will appear. Additionally, you can use the Search box on the bottom of the right sidebar to find Poem Sparks, too.
To see them now, just click on the photo below.
POEM SPARKS!
And that’s basically it! 🙂 Hope you enjoy the new place!
Christine Klocek-Lim 