Four Poems and an Interview

OCTOBER, which ends with Halloween, is a crazy month– and we’re going crazy about poetry. Toward that end, we feature Four Poems from intellectual poet Bruce Dale Wise. As you’ll see, he’s known for his topicality.

Are his poems traditional? Postmodern? Both? Neither? Read them and judge for yourself.

The coup in Turkey has been stopped; the purges now begin.
It’s time to cleanse state institutions shouts out Erdoĝan.

So who is being targeted in this his counter-coup?
All those who do not totally support his point of view:

***

We also have a dynamite interview with Bruce up at our New Pop Lit News blog. Check it out!

I lean to our time, the New Millennial period; the Internet has opened up the possibilities of American poetry, and I think it is exciting to be writing right now.

We Want Pop Poetry!

Announcement

As readers know, we’ve published some but not a lot of poetry. Some of the poetry we’ve run has been good underground-style writing. Some of it has been semi-pop. We now seek to go into full pop poetry mode.

What’s pop poetry?

We’re not certain, because it largely doesn’t exist yet! We can imagine what true pop poetry would look like.

Pop poetry would be:

.-Readable.

-Colorful.

-Sometimes witty.

-Fun.

-Not banal.

-As visible and “there” as a painting.

-Have rhythm and rhyme someplace. Maybe standard AA BB or AB AB etc. work. Maybe off beat. Maybe in the middle of lines. Think innovatively!

Or: We’ll know pop poetry when we see it. If we present just what everyone else is presenting– what’s the point?

Start writing!

Inspired by Death in the Afternoon

Poetry

Our month-long tribute to Hemingway continues with five short pieces by Jess Mize– a very talented young American writer, as Ernest Hemingway was once a very talented young American writer. Let the celebration continue!

I thought about death in the afternoon and how once, over half a century ago I was gored in the groin performing a sarcastic veronica and confident with the knowledge of money to come and the scent of arrogant Spanish wine by the pool in San Sebastian.

Four Poems by Erin Knowles Chapman

Poetry

Warhol or cheeseburger?

Cheeseburger or Warhol?

Such are dilemmas of running a pop literary site. Do we headline our current offering with a photo of a cheeseburger, or one of Andy Warhol?

The New Pop Lit staff engaged in a furious debate over the matter.

The question came up because we feature today four poems from talented Detroit-area poet Erin Knowles Chapman. One of the poems has to do with pop artist Andy Warhol. Another mentions a cheeseburger.

We finally asked ourselves: “What would Warhol do?”

Being a pop artist– loving American pop culture– Andy Warhol would undoubtedly have run with the cheeseburger, which screams “Americana.” Which shouts, “pop.”

Who are we to argue with Andy Warhol? We are, after all, a “pop” cultural project.

Anyway, please read the four poems. We hope you enjoy them!

Snow, the size of thumbprints, diagonally descends.

Do the Fates constrict our naked hands?

Four Poems by John Grochalski

Poetry

Why the Che photo?

We have poetic entertainment for U.S. tax day– including a Che Guevara poem. Very appropriate if you think about it, whatever your viewpoint– whether you want more taxes, or less.

Hemingway (and the Bible) said “The Sun Also Rises.”

WE say, “We Also Publish Poetry!”

We hope you enjoy these four poems by underground poet John Grochalski. Should we run more poetry on this site? Can poetry be readable and entertaining? Striking and thought-provoking? Let us know what you think!

i want to ask him how he pulled it off

down there in bolivia

how he fooled us all and lived

but che looks like he hates

the 4 train as much as i do

Spring Preview

Announcement

Spring is here! Time for a fresh start, a new attitude.

What’s coming at New Pop Lit?

A lot! A mix of prose, poetry, and hype profiles.

First: stories. You want stories? We have stories! By some of the best short story writers in the English-speaking world, if not the entire universe. This includes tales by James Guthrie and Joshua Isard. It includes terrific new work by Anne Leigh Parrish and Scott Cannon, who’ve both appeared here before. Their talent is off the boards. We’re amazed we’re still able to obtain work from them– in different ways they exemplify a dawning new golden age of the American short story art. Would that these writers become as recognized as Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald– but that’s our job!

Toward that end, we have a hype interview planned for Ms. Parrish– not before we post a profile of Jessie Lynn McMains and an interview with Samuel Stevens.

Finally, there’s poetry. We don’t publish a lot of poetry, but we received striking work from two very different poets, John Grochalski and Erin Knowles Chapman. Their work was too good to ignore.

If we get a chance to squeeze in another “Question of the Month,” we’ll do so. The first one was spectacularly successful.

Thanks for staying up on us. Our readers are all.

-K.W.

Poems of Screams and Fears

Poetry

Is it Halloween yet?

Decorations and haunted houses everyplace tell us that the dubious-but-fun holiday is almost upon us. To add our take we have four poems from Ed Ahern, who specializes in the creepy.

They’re poems about night, death, the adoration of questionable goddesses, and other cryptic topics. Ideal mood music for those who wander the pathways and cemetaries of night– if only within their own heads. Enter corridors of the imagination now.

The rules change at night

When coyotes prowl the gardens

And walled-in huddlers cringe

Coming Attractions

Announcement

What’s up? Been having a dynamite summer?

We have! Among the writing we’ve published here has been baseball pop, noir pop, experimental pop, creepy pop, political pop (same thing), pop poetry, plus an interview with one of North America’s best and most controversial writers.

We promise that more exciting fiction and poetry will follow. We’ve lined up many weeks of terrific work. Our only criteria is that the writing be readable and good– so sometimes we receive amazing writing which no one else will touch. That’s our mission, if truth be told.

We’re also lining up more provocative interviews. We’ll also do much more to promote pop writers and we continue to search for outstanding pop writers.

What of our publishing endeavors, you ask?

They’re moving along, at snail’s pace maybe, but they’re moving. The first real printing of NEW POP LIT The Print Version aka Issue #1 will happen. Target date is before October 1. We thank those writers and artists included for their patience. We’ll be selling the issue and other publications– and future publications– at our website and through other venues.

In the meantime we’ll have remaining copies of our “Sneak Preview” printing of NEW POP LIT #1 for sale at Detroit’s biggest street fair September 12– along with zines, t-shirts, and books. Stay tuned for more news about that.

Before all this takes place, please explore this site– especially our Coffee House page, where we have links to:

-Fun stuff at New Pop Lit Interactive. Currently we’re asking, “Who’s the Greatest Pop Personality of All Time?” (Not the biggest. The greatest.)

-Lit-world news at our News page. At the moment we ask questions regarding the promotion of Jonathan Franzen’s well-hyped new novel. Read our report and stay current!

-A Detroit literary blog which will track our attempts to build new publishing in this tough but opportunistic town. We deal here in big ideas only.

Which could be the theme of this entire project.

-Karl Wenclas

Two Pop Poems by Lara Dolphin

Poetry

We’ve published some terrific writing of late. For instance, these two pop poems by Lara Dolphin. They exemplify pop lit: readable, witty, and entertaining. This is poetry for the people– for everybody.

No way will we ever publish bland, meaningless, inscrutable, unmusical, New Yorker-style poetry. Give us Lara Dolphin poems instead!

Finally, toss in

chopped up raw peanuts to make the product impossible

to spread without ripping a hole in your bread.

Spring Break and Other Poems

Poetry

NEW POP LIT is back! At least we think we are. We kick off things again with three striking poems from Howard Winn. Read ’em and think about ’em. We hope you like them! https://newpoplit.com/portfolio/spring-break-and-other-poems/

“The lemmings throng at the dormitory exits,
gathering to go south
for sun, fun, and games,
not to mention various
intoxicants, uppers and downers,
pills, liquids, needles, and just
stimulation or its converse,
some tranquil state,
and careful and casual intimacy,”