Poems in OCHO

It’s funny how sometimes you can feel closer to somebody you’ve never met than to people you see every day. This is the way I feel about poets with whom I have communicated via the Net and email, as well as through submission inivtations and so on. One of the poets whom I feel would be a good friend if we lived in the same city is Philadelphia-based Adam Fieled, whose prose has been feaured in Cordite and who recently invited me to submit work to a print offshoot of US webzine Mipoesias. I’m pleased to say that after sending Adam some poems, he duly got back to me to let me know he’s chosen two – ‘The Day Britney Died’ and ‘More Sun Than Clouds Sprinkles Early’ – for publication in OCHO #11, out now through Lulu.com. This is the second Lulu-printed book I’ve been in and it’s just arrived in the mail! I look forward to reading it! In the meantime, my head is spinning at the idea of Adam reading out The Day Britney Died at a reading somewhere in the USA. The fact that he also correctly identifies the poem as a Frank O’Hara pastiche/tribute/ripoff (though it wasn’t that hard, I guess), also fills me with joy. I wish I was reading poetry in the USA at the end of summer, instead of teaching poetry in Hawthorn at the end of winter. Having these poems published, however, has made me think a little more about two things. Firstly, why don’t more of us poets cover each others’ work (by which I mean use readings as chances to introduce the works of other poets by reading them aloud)? And secondly, what policy should I have with regards poems on this blog that go on to be published – should I remove them from the blog if they get accepted elsewhere on the web, and replace them with a link? Should I also change the Cordite submissions policy to specifically include (or else not include) poems already published via blogs? Too many questions, too little time.