Summer Green

Brand new poem inspired by photo I took yesterday - enjoy!

Summer Green

Hot, humid

August day

Blue burnished

Cloudless sky

Cool, crisp fronds

Restful, fresh

Clean, clear spears

Summer green

© Alice Vedral Rivera - 8/8/2015 7:45am

Event - Chicago Book Expo

Shadows on the Carpet Trilogy

I will be at the Chicago Book Expo this Saturday, at the Tamale Hut Cafe Writer's Group table. If anyone can make it, I would love to see you there.

Free Admission

Saturday, December 6, 2014

11am - 5pm

Columbia College

1104 S. Wabash Avenue

Chicago

Poemhunter

I am sad to announce, that due to the proliferation of ads and the addition of videos with my poems being read by a really creepy automated voice with an ad running after a couple of lines of the so called 'reading', I have pulled most of my poems off of the Poemhunter website.  The poems on the pages were literally overrun and lost among all the advertising that was placed around them.  

My relationship with Poemhunter began when 3 of my poems were selected to appear on the site when it first started in 2003.  I was not aware of this until a friend from the Czech Republic let me know that he had found my poems on the internet on the Poemhunter website in 2005.  I checked out the site and started posting more of my poems.  In those days, there was an active community of poets that regularly checked out works of other poets and commented on them. There was also a forum where poets could exchange ideas, discuss form, content, etc.  In the forum, the discussions sometimes were very heated and on occasion digressed to trading insults.  However, there was enough intelligent discourse to keep participating.  I was proud to be one of the poets included in The Poemhunter Anthology, 2005 Inaugural Issue.

When the forum was over run by a few vile zealots who had created alternate personas and indulged in trading insults with themselves and others, I didn't visit the forum much but I still posted poems and read poems written by others.  Once in a while, I was inspired to write poems about the mudslinging on the forum. I couldn't help but peek in once in a while - it was kind of like a bad train wreck that you couldn't keep your eyes off of.  It became so bad that the site had to assign a moderator for the forum.

As this free site grew, there were problems with the website being able to handle the traffic and with funding of the site as well.  Ads were placed on the pages with the poems (which I could tolerate) but then certain words within the poems started to be highlighted so one could click on the word and be taken elsewhere.  When I complained about the blue highlighted words being a distraction and even changing the meaning of my poems by putting emphasis on words I did not want emphasized, I started to have problems accessing and navigating the site.  However, the blue highlights were eventually removed.  

At this time, PH had activated a feature that enabled people to reproduce poems that they read and liked but failed to put in safe guards so various poems turned up on other sites with someone other than the original poet as author of the piece. It took PH a while to fix that. Also, some of our poems were shared with other poetry sites, which was ok with most of us as long as credit was given to the original author.

Because I continued to have difficulty accessing and navigating the site, I didn't post much from 2008 - 2012.  I had even tried to remove my poems but the site wouldn't let me.  I should mention that while I was not the only one having difficulties with the site, many others had absolutely no problems whatsoever. 

In 2013, I was able to access and post on Poemhunter without an issue and so I started posting some of my poems again.  I was locked out of the ability to rate the poems I read even though I had never given anyone a rating lower than a 7 and I usually only rated the poems I felt should get a 9 or 10.  I found that the site was being heavily moderated and censored. 

The forum still has most of the same issues but the nastiness is censored out by a delay between posting and actually being able to see the post.  It makes real time conversations impossible but given the alternative, understandable.  

It used to be that you could put a link to your website/blog or book publisher in your poet bio area.  No outside links are allowed anywhere on the site now.  In other words, I am not allowed to effectively promote my work on PH, but PH can use my work to gain revenue for itself. 

There are so many new poets on PH and many of them send out mass 'please read and like my poem' messages.  Quality has diminished as quantity has increased.  I still can find a few good and interesting poems including some among the 'English as a second language' poets, but it is increasingly difficult to enjoy reading a poem when it is overshadowed by so much superfluous junk.  You eye is automatically drawn away from the poem to the smartly colored, twinkling ads for other parts of PH as well as other advertisers. 

It pains me that what was once a wonderful site for poets has turned into such a hodge-podge of scrap material that effectively defeats the original purpose of PH by burying the poetry in dung.

So quasi-farewell Poemhunter, you can bury my few remaining poems in dung, but you cannot take away the friendships I have made with some amazingly talented poets over the years. 

Fire Art

After yesterday's misadventure, I decided to share something upbeat.  This poem, "Fire Art", was inspired by the awesome work of Dale Chihuly.  I was first introduced to Chihuly in 2002 when he exhibited his art at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago.  After seeing it with my husband, I was so taken by the beauty of his pieces that I then took family members who were visiting from the Czech Republic to see it.  That was not enough and I persuaded someone I worked with to come so I could experience the joy a third time. In 2011, while visiting my son & his family in Seattle, I persuaded them to take me to the museum so I could revel in his magical world of glass once again.

photo taken from the Chihuly web page

Fire Art

Glowing colors in

Free flowing glass

Emanate strength

Fragility

Asymmetrical

Architecture

Large images

Strange unique grace

Insightful designs

Delightful art

My heart – my soul

Engage in awe

© Alice Vedral Rivera – 8/26/12

Inspired by the glass art of Dale Chihuly

Shadows on the Carpet III Available on Amazon

I have been very busy this past month and a half and did not have time to post the fact that Shadows on the Carpet III was available for purchase on Amazon.  So here is the link - better late than never.

Shadows on the Carpet III on Amazon

...from desolation to restoration...

Shadows on the Carpet II Available on Amazon!!!

"Shadows on the Carpet II" is now available for purchase on Amazon!!!  I am so excited. Join the journey and navigate through the darkness - these poems are mostly relationship commentary poems with some social/political undertones.

Available on Amazon

Snapshot in Time

I have received the proof of "Shadows on the Carpet II" and need to make just 1 small adjustment.  While I do that, I will share 'Snapshot in Time' from the Torment section of the book along with the photograph that inspired it.  The photo was taken by my photographer friend, Michaela Varekova.

Snapshot in Time

photo by Michaela Varekova

Nature’s cruel

Parody

Of her life

Kodachrome

Excerpt from

Her journal

Above pale

Gold lit high

Strung wires

A gray and

Angry sky

Spilling blood

© Alice Vedral Rivera - 2008

Shadows on the Carpet III

Now that Shadows II is done and should be available on Amazon as soon as I receive and ok the proof, I am working on the 3rd and last book of the trilogy - hitting rock bottom and the climb up. Tell me what you think of the cover.

book cover by AVR

Just Another Day

While I am waiting for approval for the 'Shadows on the Carpet II' book cover & manuscript, I will share one of the poems from the Fallen section including a link to the audio version.

Just Another Day audio 

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Drawing by AVR

Deeply distraught

Her soul in distress

She shares herself with

Him in as many

Ways as possible

Within time constraints

Of parameters

Chosen by them both

She realizes

The futility

Because it is not

Enough and she knows

It cannot be any

Other way - forced

By circumstances

Beyond her control

As he - oblivious

Unknowingly sticks

Daggers into her

Heart and twists them

© Alice Vedral Rivera  - 2006