Sketchbook published three of my poems in the newest issue. Definitely go check them out. I'm particularly proud of the haiku sequence.
I've also submitted three poems, one of which should be selected soon, for inclusion in this year's Bagel Bard anthology. More about that when it gets published in early summer.
April is National Poetry Month and National Poetry Writing Month and my goal is one poem, at least ten lines long, each day in April. So far I'm 1 for 1 and I've got ideas churning for at least another two right now. I think I'm in good shape to make it.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
New post!
I just realized I haven't posted an actual update since April, and a lot has happened since then. Got a job teaching at a college, but not a full time one. Still teaching college English, which is awesome, and is definitely what I want to do with the rest of my career-life, but I have to find a full-time position somewhere. College would be ideal, but I'd like to teach high school too. Let's hope the state recovers some this year and starts hiring high school English teachers.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Open Mic
I went to a local open mic last night and read 2 poems from Evening Watch and a newish poem that I hadn't done anything with since I wrote it. Some of the poets who read were excellent. Some were good readers of okay poetry, and a few could use work. That's probably about the norm.
In any case, it seems like the poetry scene down the Shore, at least in this area, is about as insular as the Bagel Bards, but just about as varied in experience, although this group skewed younger than the Bards. There's another reading next month at the same venue and a few other venues around the area (Borders at the Hamilton Mall, a coffee shop in Bridgeton, among them) that I'll be looking to participate in.
The next time I go, I'll have a few new poems, too, as I wrote a few new haiku today that are in addition to the NaPoWriMo daily haiku I set for myself, as well as another poem that I'll try to polish before the next reading.
On top of that, Mignon Ariel King was kind enough to publish another poem of mine, Epiphany, in her U.M.Ph.!Prose online journal.
In any case, it seems like the poetry scene down the Shore, at least in this area, is about as insular as the Bagel Bards, but just about as varied in experience, although this group skewed younger than the Bards. There's another reading next month at the same venue and a few other venues around the area (Borders at the Hamilton Mall, a coffee shop in Bridgeton, among them) that I'll be looking to participate in.
The next time I go, I'll have a few new poems, too, as I wrote a few new haiku today that are in addition to the NaPoWriMo daily haiku I set for myself, as well as another poem that I'll try to polish before the next reading.
On top of that, Mignon Ariel King was kind enough to publish another poem of mine, Epiphany, in her U.M.Ph.!Prose online journal.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Hrm
Trying out this Windows Live Writer which is specifically for blog updates. Looks easy enough, but it’s not like doing it the “old-fashioned” way was particularly hard. Not that I’ve been able to really keep up with the blog anyway. Working weird hours takes a lot out of you, and I just feel like a vegetable when I do have time to write.
That said, I am working on a new poem, finally. The first in a long time. Thank God something sparked an idea.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Work
Is exhausting. No new poetry in awhile because I'm just too damn tired after working overnight at Target to do much of anything useful. Haven't submitted anything in awhile either, but I'm going to revisit the haiku I wrote in April with an eye at writing some more and sending them out somewhere.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Another New Poetry Credit
"The very strange thing that occurred to me on my way to work through the pouring rain this morning" has been published at U.M.Ph.! Prose e-zine. Click the link and scroll down.
Full poem reposted after the break too.
Full poem reposted after the break too.
Friday, July 31, 2009
New Poetry Credit
Glass: A Journal of Poetry has published my poem "How to Achieve Immortality" in its latest issue.
Full poem after the break, too.
Full poem after the break, too.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Check out my review of Paul Steven Stone's Book "How To Train A Rock."
Video also posted after the break.
Video also posted after the break.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
DungeonLand!
Alright, so the poetry muse has left me currently dry for words. However, a new bug is buzzing in my ear, and that is DungeonLand! I'm in the process of designing a table-top roleplaying/board game for younger kids to help teach reading and basic math. Obviously I have an ulterior motive - that is to help teach my daughter to do those things.
I've been busy with this the last week, have a rough draft of rules currently being critiqued in various places, and have spent, all told, 24+ hours making art for it. Sadly, that accounts for only 5 creatures so far - four of the six basic characters and only one monster. That said, each successive creation takes less time but gets a little more complex, as is to be expected with learning curves. (A contact sheet of the images so far is after the break.)
You can see the rough draft of the rules at RPG.net and DragonAvenue.com. I'd appreciate any of you RPG playing friends taking a look and being honest.
I've been busy with this the last week, have a rough draft of rules currently being critiqued in various places, and have spent, all told, 24+ hours making art for it. Sadly, that accounts for only 5 creatures so far - four of the six basic characters and only one monster. That said, each successive creation takes less time but gets a little more complex, as is to be expected with learning curves. (A contact sheet of the images so far is after the break.)
You can see the rough draft of the rules at RPG.net and DragonAvenue.com. I'd appreciate any of you RPG playing friends taking a look and being honest.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Evening Watch Reviewed by Hugh Fox
This is the kind of reviewing I could only have dreamed of. Pinch me.
Book Review by Hugh Fox
Review reprinted after the break.
Hugh Fox on Cameron Mount's Evening Watch
Evening Watch.
By Cameron Mount
2009; 27pp;Pa; Ibbetson
Street Press, 25 School Street,
Somerville, MA 02143.$10.00.
Review by Hugh Fox
Cameron Mount is Mr. Sea/Seaside. That’s the real center of his whole world-view: “A wall of solid noise is headed my way/visually and aurally moving ashore,// Waves build crescendo as timpani drums/puntuated by strikes and crackles of light/and thunderous cymbal clashes that echo/across the building surf.//Thirty-knot winds tear through sea grass/perched atop protective dunes, whistling like flutes...” (“Surfside Orchesta,” p.22).
He’s refreshingly unpretentious and classroomish, although he does have an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Of course Emerson College specializes in communication, not pretentiousness and that’s what Mount specializes in too, getting it across, so you walk away from his work not turned into a golliwog of confusion, but a satisfied partcipant in the variations of Mount’s sea-visions. Not that he’s Mr. Super-Simplicity either, but has just enough artfulness to smack it to you effectively: “The cyan sky houses/a yellow sun and cotton clouds/as it arches over azure seas/and the foam-flecked northeast wind.//Zephyrs carry sea gulls, terns,/turk’s heads hung from mast heads...” (“Evening Watch in the North Atlantic,” p.3).
His six years in the Navy didn’t hurt either, and although he’s very New England centered, a member of the Bagel Bards, Somerville’s top-drawer poets-getting-together society, there’s a lot of historical-international geographical overseeing in his work too: “moss growing in the sidewalk cracks of Istanbul/counterfeit Malese casino dollars/tracer rounds bouncing off the Sargasso Sea...Diamond Botanical Gardens on the island of St. Lucia/Sonoma cacti in the American desert Southwest/wild bamboo in a village near Shanghai.” (“Green,” p. 20).
A fascinating combination of Mr. New Englander and World Viewer, but no matter where in the world he goes, he’s always sea-oriented, the ancient past, the present moment, whatever future may come along, it’s always refreshingly sea-centered: “Heralds of the western Med,/they greet us at the Gibraltar gates/the Pillars of Hercules, harbingers/of our approaching task......” (“Flying Fish,” p. 10).
***** Hugh Fox was the founder and Board of Directors member of COSMEP, the International Organization of Independent Publishers, from 1968 until its death in 1996. Editor of Ghost Dance: The International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry from 1968-1995. Latin American editor of Western World Review & North American Review, during the 60's. Former contributing reviewer on Smith/ Pulpsmith, Choice etc. currently contributing reviewer to SPR and SMR. Listed in Who's Who: The Two Thousand Most Important Writers in the Last Millenium, Dictionary of Middlewestern Writers, and The International Who's Who. He has 85 books published and has another 30 (mainly the novels and plays and one archaeology book) still unpublished on the shelves.
Book Review by Hugh Fox
Review reprinted after the break.
Hugh Fox on Cameron Mount's Evening Watch
Evening Watch.
By Cameron Mount
2009; 27pp;Pa; Ibbetson
Street Press, 25 School Street,
Somerville, MA 02143.$10.00.
Review by Hugh Fox
Cameron Mount is Mr. Sea/Seaside. That’s the real center of his whole world-view: “A wall of solid noise is headed my way/visually and aurally moving ashore,// Waves build crescendo as timpani drums/puntuated by strikes and crackles of light/and thunderous cymbal clashes that echo/across the building surf.//Thirty-knot winds tear through sea grass/perched atop protective dunes, whistling like flutes...” (“Surfside Orchesta,” p.22).
He’s refreshingly unpretentious and classroomish, although he does have an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Of course Emerson College specializes in communication, not pretentiousness and that’s what Mount specializes in too, getting it across, so you walk away from his work not turned into a golliwog of confusion, but a satisfied partcipant in the variations of Mount’s sea-visions. Not that he’s Mr. Super-Simplicity either, but has just enough artfulness to smack it to you effectively: “The cyan sky houses/a yellow sun and cotton clouds/as it arches over azure seas/and the foam-flecked northeast wind.//Zephyrs carry sea gulls, terns,/turk’s heads hung from mast heads...” (“Evening Watch in the North Atlantic,” p.3).
His six years in the Navy didn’t hurt either, and although he’s very New England centered, a member of the Bagel Bards, Somerville’s top-drawer poets-getting-together society, there’s a lot of historical-international geographical overseeing in his work too: “moss growing in the sidewalk cracks of Istanbul/counterfeit Malese casino dollars/tracer rounds bouncing off the Sargasso Sea...Diamond Botanical Gardens on the island of St. Lucia/Sonoma cacti in the American desert Southwest/wild bamboo in a village near Shanghai.” (“Green,” p. 20).
A fascinating combination of Mr. New Englander and World Viewer, but no matter where in the world he goes, he’s always sea-oriented, the ancient past, the present moment, whatever future may come along, it’s always refreshingly sea-centered: “Heralds of the western Med,/they greet us at the Gibraltar gates/the Pillars of Hercules, harbingers/of our approaching task......” (“Flying Fish,” p. 10).
***** Hugh Fox was the founder and Board of Directors member of COSMEP, the International Organization of Independent Publishers, from 1968 until its death in 1996. Editor of Ghost Dance: The International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry from 1968-1995. Latin American editor of Western World Review & North American Review, during the 60's. Former contributing reviewer on Smith/ Pulpsmith, Choice etc. currently contributing reviewer to SPR and SMR. Listed in Who's Who: The Two Thousand Most Important Writers in the Last Millenium, Dictionary of Middlewestern Writers, and The International Who's Who. He has 85 books published and has another 30 (mainly the novels and plays and one archaeology book) still unpublished on the shelves.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Cameron Mount's Reading— From "Evening Watch"
For those of you who couldn't be present at the reading, here's me reading two of the six poems I read.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
First Review of Evening Watch by Irene Koronas
The first review of my book is up at the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene and it's a good one!
Review posted after the break.
Evening Watch
Cameron Mount
Ibbetson Street Press
2009 $10.00
To order:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/evening-watch/7182268
“By day I repel all boarders.
My front door peephole is
now a full-fledged porthole.
Staring out into the past
of everyday actions and reflecting
six years of service back.”
Usually I read from the beginning to the end of a book, but, for this book of poems I read the first poem and then the last poem, “dry dock sailor,” before I attempt all the rest of the writing. It’s important for me to understand, or to try to relate to the ship, in this case the poems as they move straight through whatever obstacle the ship stirs its way through, in this case the poems stir up all the experiences one has when on duty. The ebb and flow, the relationship of words crashing onto my mind, my feet are swept up and I fall, swimming to shore with the surety of a life jacket. Cameron Mount is a poet who will take any subject and refine it, direct the verse until it shines, “From the darkened bruise of the star-strewn moon-lit pitch to the eclipsed light of dawn.”
If you haven’t bought this book of poems, I suggest you run and catch a copy.
“Navy Wife
He came home broken.
He avoids me at night
leaves me alone on the couch
loses himself in empty drivel
turns on, tunes in, drops out.
Internet.
He thinks I don’t notice
when he surfs for porn-
his compulsions get him over,
off, as if I have no ears,
but it saves me his advances
later when he comes to bed
after midnight, spent.
He spends all day in that chair
when he can, when he shouldn’t.”
Irene Koronas
poetry editor
Review posted after the break.
Evening Watch
Cameron Mount
Ibbetson Street Press
2009 $10.00
To order:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/evening-watch/7182268
“By day I repel all boarders.
My front door peephole is
now a full-fledged porthole.
Staring out into the past
of everyday actions and reflecting
six years of service back.”
Usually I read from the beginning to the end of a book, but, for this book of poems I read the first poem and then the last poem, “dry dock sailor,” before I attempt all the rest of the writing. It’s important for me to understand, or to try to relate to the ship, in this case the poems as they move straight through whatever obstacle the ship stirs its way through, in this case the poems stir up all the experiences one has when on duty. The ebb and flow, the relationship of words crashing onto my mind, my feet are swept up and I fall, swimming to shore with the surety of a life jacket. Cameron Mount is a poet who will take any subject and refine it, direct the verse until it shines, “From the darkened bruise of the star-strewn moon-lit pitch to the eclipsed light of dawn.”
If you haven’t bought this book of poems, I suggest you run and catch a copy.
“Navy Wife
He came home broken.
He avoids me at night
leaves me alone on the couch
loses himself in empty drivel
turns on, tunes in, drops out.
Internet.
He thinks I don’t notice
when he surfs for porn-
his compulsions get him over,
off, as if I have no ears,
but it saves me his advances
later when he comes to bed
after midnight, spent.
He spends all day in that chair
when he can, when he shouldn’t.”
Irene Koronas
poetry editor
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
New Published Poem
It's online at U.M.Ph.! Prose. It's called "In the Interest of Saving Time Tonight, I" and is about 3/4 of the way down the page.
It's also reposted after the break.
It's also reposted after the break.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Another Taste of My Chapbook - in Audio
Eden-A Brothel Near Gdynia. Trying something a little different here--using Facebook video this time.
I recorded these using my desktop microphone and Audacity. That was the basic MP3 creation. For the video, I just used Windows Movie Maker and layered the picture of the cover over the MP3. Pretty simple actually.
I recorded these using my desktop microphone and Audacity. That was the basic MP3 creation. For the video, I just used Windows Movie Maker and layered the picture of the cover over the MP3. Pretty simple actually.
Audio of Evening Watch
If anyone has purchased my chapbook and would like to have audio of me reading the poems, I have MP3 files of each poem available. Please contact me for more information.
Below is "Evening Watch in the North Atlantic" just as a bit of a teaser.
Below is "Evening Watch in the North Atlantic" just as a bit of a teaser.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sun, Night, Evening - an erasure poem
I was turned on to erasure poems about 5 years ago and every once in awhile I turn back to them. This one was written in December and then promptly forgotten. But I found it again, and I like it.
Poem after the break.
Poem after the break.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Advertising
I bought web adspace for Evening Watch at Facebook. I probably didn't offer enough money up for the budgeting, but the general idea seems to be working. I wish it had a better click-through-rate, but considering what the ad is, what the space allows, and what I've budgeted, it is maxing out the budget each day this past week so far. I just wish I had access to see how many copies were actually being sold.
I may buy another ad on Google AdWords, but first I want to see a hard copy, which should be next week.
I may buy another ad on Google AdWords, but first I want to see a hard copy, which should be next week.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
And Another Acceptance!
"How To Achieve Immortality" was accepted by Glass: A Journal of Poetry.
Time for a new round of submissions soon after I get back from Jersey.
Time for a new round of submissions soon after I get back from Jersey.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A New Publication Credit!
This time from online journal Sketchbook, a journal of Eastern and Western Short Forms. They took a haiku, a short haiku sequence, and a Fibonacci poem. Check it out here and be sure to check out the rest of the web journal.
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