Michelle Hartman's Blog

Just heard this morning that I won the 2022 John and Miriam Morris Memorial Chapbook Competition, sponsored by the Alabama State Poetry Society. I'm so proud and grateful for this organization's support of my work. Entitled, Anthropomorphism for Fun and Profit, it's 22 poems of a speculative nature. A good deal of the inspiration was the TV show Supernatural, and the photos of Jeffery Alfier, the editor of San Pedro River Review.

I also have work in May's issue of Poem, and work coming out in San Pedro River Review, and Windward Review, in the fall. Thank you all for reading my work. Please reach out of you have questions or comments. Stay poetic!

From my newest book, which is still looking for a brave publisher, "For What it's Worth". A political hard view with little humor. Here's a selection from the Global warming/California is on fire section -
Clear cut
We mourn these forests
we plunder if only
we could see the suicidal
tradition
started in these branches.

Sometimes the spectral hem
of a lavender cardigan
or the sole of a brogan?

A man dangles
to our left twisting
like a chrysalis from a twisted elm.

He swings round
gurgling from crushed
windpipe.

If he had a voice, he would curse
the lure of a good rope

and a sound branch.

But we who can’t
resist the lure of a dollar
will never understand.

I am so proud of my newest book, Wanton Disarray. Half break up poems and half erotic poems. After all you have to lose a few to appreciate the wins. I'm going to put a poem here to peak your interest.

The first time a

woman undresses a man
her hands shake, grappling
tiny buttons, smaller holes.
Her own body senses assaulted
by his lips, touch
the breeze as her own
clothes drop to carpet.
Every zipper a Herculean challenge
disorientation from the magic
of smooth sin, brush of fingertips
spell of mystery, surprise.
A miracle only once
this speaking
in secrets and sweets.

A thousand times you will try to recreate this.

But eventually even the memory
will be nothing more than
a whisper of lips
remembered on rainy days

Well, after a slight kerfuffle, my third book, The Lost Journal of My Second Trip To Purgatory, is finally coming out from Old Seventy Press. I plan to work with Child Abuse prevention agencies in various cities to do release promotions. This book is not for everyone. It is a stark first person look at carious types of abuse. I'm giving you a sample poem below so you can get an idea of the raw truth of the book.

Venn Diagrams
My upbringing left me in the intersection of the circles;
knows nothing about sex and desperately seeking love.
This is why the gods of irony are not invited to the cool parties.
So when you don’t know better and are told
that hitting and restraints are part of sex
you strive to look jaunty in your handcuffs.
With my family history, if you haven’t bought
a gun or pickax, then you’re not in a real relationship.
Until, well, you can’t. Then a fast helping of chocolate
chip cookies and Class 2 narcotics
and you leave that marriage in an ambulance.
Pigeons sat on my catatonic shoulders in the asylum.
It could have happened like Disney
but it happened like a restraining order.

It’s been awhile but I have a new book coming out this winter from Old Seventy Press. Titled, The Lost Journal of my Second Trip to Purgatory, and sorry, fans but this one is not at all funny. It contains poems about child abuse. A call to notice the increasing plague in this country of hurting, warping and killing the ultimate, defenseless human, it will be a hard but necessary read. I plan to work with the Casa and Children’s Alliance organizations in various towns to do book releases that in some way will help them to raise money. I hope to see all of you in the near future as I try to raise awareness and action on this topic. Please feel free to leave me questions, invites or comments. Thank you.

ALERT! My book release and signing party at the Northwest Hwy., Barnes and Noble has been moved from earlier date to May 16th at 7:00 pm. This is a Saturday night so really great for those of us who work. I’m hoping to have a large turnout even if you don’t buy my book. B&N has not been real open to poets because let’s face it poetry does not pay. So I’m hoping to fill the store up and cause at least a small uptick in their sales. So please come by and have a coffee and Danish but be sure to drop by.

BIG NEWS! My new book, Irony and Irreverence, was released this morning and is available on Amazon. If you would like to buy the book from me I’ll be reading at the following events:
March 28 at 5:30pm Dress Codes Reading at the Wildcatter Exchange II Saturday, Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth, Texas
April 3rd at Scissortail Literary Festival, East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.
April 5th at 2:00pm at the Paramount Theater in Oklahoma City, Ok.
April 8th at 11:00 at the Mountain View College Culture of Writing Festival, Dallas
I look forward to seeing you!

So I got a book published. And not just any old publisher but a real university with street cred no less. In my daily rounds, I glow and beam, looking for any excuse to work my book into the conversation. Unfortunately it is always the same;

“You got a book published. That’s fantastic, what’s it about?”

“It’s poetry”

“Oh”

And not just, ‘Oh” their shoulders drop and the light goes out of their eyes.
Several have actually taken a step back as thought I’ve said I had Hep C.
I’ve put up a page at Amazon and Poets and Writers, even broke a vow to never set a toe on Facebook but here I am. Nothing! Really large chunks of nothing edged in gilt bupkus. Then a poetry sage enlightened me. She said. “Poets don’t buy poetry and everyone else was taught to hate it in high school.” Really, is this the status of the poetry market?

So now I challenge people to go to Amazon and click on Look In the Book or if they are in front of me, I have them open and read it and one or two poems. Then they laugh or ask questions; and low and behold, they buy a book.

And that is what I’m asking you to do. Got to Amazon and actually read the sample poems. Google my name and read some of the poems published on line. I can almost totally guarantee that you will go back and buy the book. If not then I thank you for the effort and suggest that you try Charles Simic or Larry Thomas as you very well like their poetry. But do give poetry a try, we have changed a lot. And for what it’s worth my work is not your Grandmother’s poetry, unless of course your Grandmother was a fan dancer during the war.

Elton Trueblood wrote, “ a man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” Day after day folks work their jobs and go home to edit poems, stories and essays for a journal or magazine. A great many of them are not paid one red cent for their efforts.
But we, the reading public, get to enjoy poetry, stories and essays that would never see the light of day in the big well-known presses. And writers who do not possess an impressive vita have the chance at the published brass ring. I publish such a journal, Red River Review. The publisher and I work for no pay. And we have expenses just like the big boys do, domain name, hosting and so forth.
I try to comment on each poem and have edited many so that we could publish them; this in a day when most journals can take up to a year and then you get a form rejection. So it was with great joy that I discovered a new journal on the internet, Northern Liberties Review. They will be publishing two of my poems in an upcoming issue but more than that they need our support. They responded in 20 days and are producing a quality product. Go and read an issue or two. A bit of nice feedback couldn’t hurt either. Tell them Michelle sent you.