The 5-2 : Crime Poetry Weekly

Jackie Sheeler

2012-01-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

LT. MACHINE

He neither smiles nor frowns, the attack
passionless, casual

imprecise.
When casting scarlet clouds at motionless targets

precision is superfluous.
Vicinity, proximity,

downwind: sufficient.
He makes a second pass across the line

just in case. Filling in the blanks, you might say.
He neither smiles nor frowns,

flourishes the canister
arms-length, like a cardsharp shooting his cuffs

before the deal. Winning is inevitable.
If he smiled.

If one tooth
glinted under the rusty bush of his mustache.

If his eyes narrowed or his plump
chest heaved,

if he screamed
I got your education right here you little pricks!

while all hell spurted out the silver cannon dangling
from his long blue sleeve,

he might appear to be alive.
But no. Silent, he neither smiles nor frowns.

Jackie's video for "Lt. Machine":

Jackie confesses: Anonymous made me do it. When they posted that piker's six-figure salary and home address online, I looked at his beautiful house on Google maps, sent him a pizza and started to write. Or. Well. Maybe it wasn't Anonymous. It was the memes. Yes, definitely, the memes. He pepper-sprayed the Last Supper! And the holy bush of Marilyn Monroe, her white skirt airlifted by a passing subway. Entrapment. I had no choice. Guilty as charged.

JACKIE SHEELER's latest collection, Earthquake Came to Harlem, was a finalist for the 2011 Paterson Poetry Prize. She is presently working on a memoir, teaching in prison, and occupying Wall Street.

Appearances by Contributors

2012-01-28T08:32:00.000-05:00

5-2 and Lineup Contributors: If you'd like to publicize your upcoming readings or events, e-mail g_so AT yahoo DOT com. I'd be glad to post the information here.

#verseday Peer Pressure

2012-01-26T06:40:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 26. My topic this week is peer pressure.

Write a poem about peer pressure by noon Friday, January 27.

Randall Avilez

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

OUTLAW AT PEACE

when they asked me about the law
i told them i was an honest man
i swore on the bible but they did not care
life for them must be hollow

i asked what exactly an outlaw was
they gave me vague answers
i lit a cigarette not particularly worried
they read my sentence

a few years on drug possession, trafficking didn't stick
no one chokes on swallowed pride
the judge looked hard and mean
as i walked, i said, i regret nothing and god is forgiving

nobody tells a drug addict to be a drug addict
they just let him commit suicide in silence
and i liked that
slowly dying under blue skies

Randall reads "Outlaw at Peace":

Randall confesses: "As a kid I may have had a run in or two with California's drug laws. I remember realizing early on that they were more of a nuisance than any kind of rehabilitation or deterrence to drug use. That is probably more of a crime than anything I did."

RANDALL AVILEZ is poet and musician from southern California. He is currently attending Fullerton Community College and can be reached at avilez DOT fletch AT yahoo DOT com.

Ways to Record for The 5-2

2012-01-21T22:57:00.001-05:00

When your written work is accepted to The 5-2, I give you the option to submit an audio/video file of yourself reading the work. Another option is to let me or another voice of The 5-2 record for you. A third option, as of today, is to call my dedicated voicemail and record your poem as a message.

#verseday Sestina

2012-01-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 19. Today, try writing a sestina, like this week's 5-2 poem.

Write a sestina by noon Friday, January 20.

Kimberly Poitevin

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

RAILWAY SESTINA

You and I had walked along those tracks
just months before. The dead brown leaves
crunched beneath our fearless feet. Our path
glowed beneath the moonlight. We held hands.
Far off, a whistle blew its shrill alarm.
The train approached, then passed. We went our way.

It's summer when two more come by this way,
perhaps already doomed. The railroad tracks
lead from a party to her home. His arm
wraps close around her waist. This time the leaves
are lush and green. She tucks one of her hands
in his back pocket. In wait, the psychopath

watches their approach and blocks their path.
He takes their money, finds a cunning way
to use their belts and his to bind their hands
and feet. He boldly stops them in their tracks
with just an old screwdriver. When he leaves,
they work the knots, but he's back soon, one arm

cradling a large rock. She sees alarm
flash across her lover's face, the path
splatter red with blood and brain, believes
she’ll die here too. But no—he goes away
once he's raped and beaten her, backtracks
the way he came. On the news, her hands

still shake. As cameras pan her face, those hands,
I think of us, nineteen, of how your arm
wrapped round me then. I think of those tracks,
the ways we might have crossed the psychopath.
of how, unlike them, we'd have walked away
unscathed. The heart believes what it believes,

and stubbornly, naively, mine believes
so long as you're with me, his brutal hands
can never touch me. You always find a way
to subdue him, or maybe we disarm
this man together, choose a path
of more resistance: fight, then flee those tracks.

But when you free my hands, say, "run away!"
I cannot leave without you. We must go arm in arm
or not at all. Our paths are joined. We follow in their tracks.

Alison Dasho reads "Railway Sestina":

Kimberly confesses: "In 1997, two college students in Lexington, Kentucky were attacked near some train tracks by a serial killer dubbed 'The Railway Killer.' A one-time boyfriend and I had walked the same tracks together just months earlier. Back then I still believed that being accompanied by a man was enough to guarantee a woman's safety."

KIMBERLY POITEVIN lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. Her poems have most recently appeared (or are forthcoming) in Poetry Quarterly, 14 by 14, elimae, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change.

Confidential

2012-01-14T06:37:00.001-05:00

In many instances, 5-2 poets are not set up to send in audio/video files themselves. I'm always looking for people to perform the poetry featured here. To credit performers properly, I've redone the "Editors" page, renaming it "Confidential". It will include bios of our voice talent who read 5-2 poems besides their own.

E-mail me if you'd like to join the growing roster.

#verseday Luck

2012-01-12T05:13:00.000-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I came up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 12. My topic this week is luck.

Write a poem involving luck (good luck, bad luck, blind luck, Andrew Luck...) by noon Friday, January 13. Incidentally, The 5-2 is currently accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the elements together.

Charles Rammelkamp

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

SOME LIKE IT HOT

Give us this day our daily lust,
in the heart,
as Jesus would have it,
adultery no less a fact for merely thinking it.

I sit in the darkened theater
watching Marilyn Monroe singing
"I'm Through with Love,"
wrapped up in a gangster fantasy
accompanied by an aching erection,
me fucking the daylights out of her,
over and over and over
on the train down from Chicago,
in the Miami Beach hotel,
on Osgood Fielding's yacht,
a cinematic fantasy so vivid,
I swear I smell those female odors;
my nostrils dilate
like flowers opening to morning light
and my fingertips feel
the viscous female fluids.

More than a fleeting thought, a passing desire,
but then again,
nothing more than thought, either.
The lights come on.
The movie's over.

Gerald So reads "Some Like It Hot":

Charles confesses: "Some Like It Hot, the movie about gangsters during Prohibition, has always been one of my favorites. My poem, 'Some Like It Hot,' is part of a series I wrote called 'Give Us This Day,' with titles like 'Our Daily Day,' 'Our Daily Sorrow,' 'Our Daily Laugh,' 'Our Daily Blasphemy'."

CHARLES RAMMELKAMP lives in Baltimore and edits the online journal, The Potomac. In 2012 Time Being Books will publish his collection Fusen Bakudan involving missionaries during the Vietnam war, and a chapbook of poems entitled Mixed Signals is forthcoming from MuscleHead Press.

#verseday Epiphanies

2012-01-05T02:24:00.000-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, January 5. My topic this week is epiphanies.

Write a poem about an epiphany by noon Friday, January 6. Incidentally, The 5-2 is currently accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the elements together.

Kent Gowran

2012-01-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

THE CHRISTMAS ITCH

In the days following the turkey
his distance from her grew.

At the company holiday party the
Christmas itch it took him.

Beneath mistletoe the betrayal came across
subtle as a bell-ringer.

A run of Thursday afternoon receipts
from the Diplomat Motel.

A pattern of unfaithfulness at the height
of that most wonderful time.

And now the neon windows of bars
call out solace.

"Silent Night" plays low on the radio
disrupted by static.

And in the trunk of the family car
the axe is restless.

John Ricotta reads "The Christmas Itch":

Kent confesses: Christmas. Crime. The two go hand in hand. Just like those company Christmas parties I attended in the '90s. I was always surprised everyone stay cool. But maybe they didn't, and that axe might chop more than a family Christmas tree.

KENT GOWRAN was born in the country and lives in the city. His stories and poems have appeared in Needle, Plots with Guns, A Twist of Noir, My Favorite Bullet, Poetry Motel, Mystery Island Magazine, Driver's Side Airbag Twisted Savage, and other wild venues. He edits the webzine Shotgun Honey with two nefarious cohorts, and keeps a poor excuse for a blog at http://www.kentgowran.com.

Update: The Lineup #3 Ebook

2012-01-01T08:11:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone.

In April, I will be publishing a $2.99 ebook version of The Lineup #3 (2010) for Kindle and Nook, including seventeen of the original nineteen poets' work. Sarah Cortez sold the electronic rights to her poems elsewhere, and Carrie McGath opted not to have her poem reprinted.

The full-content print version is still available for purchase from Lulu.com.

#verseday Being Late

2011-12-30T05:00:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. Participants must draft poems by noon Eastern today. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. My topic this week is being late.

Write a poem about being late by noon today, December 30. Incidentally, The 5-2 is accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the three elements together.

Duane Spurlock

2011-12-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

Holiday sales job
Cashier desk customer surge
Skimming credit cards

Gerald So reads Duane's haiku:

Duane confesses: Pre-Black-Friday stress in the bank, unwilling witness to complaints: yoked by despair, choked by a tightening skein of fees. Everyone in the place slumped with the pressure of holiday economics. I thought about the larcenous methods clever folks might apply as leverage against the weight. The haiku was the result.

DUANE SPURLOCK is a writer and illustrator. His most recent eBook is A Quiet Night in the Dark in LaPlata, Missouri, 1942, which is available for the Kindle. A book he illustrated, The Bleeding Horse and Other Ghost Stories, written by Brian Showers, won the 2008 Children of the Night Award from the Dracula Society. He lives with his family in Kentucky, where they whistle, garden, and tell each other stories.

#verseday Endings

2011-12-22T04:27:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, December 22. My topic this week is ending.

Write a poem about an ending or endings by noon Friday, December 23. Incidentally, The 5-2 is accepting love- or passion-themed crime poetry if you wish to tie the three elements together.

Jay Stringer

2011-12-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

COLD CALL

He slams the door
in my face,
the polite form of
"Point that gun someplace else."

As if this itch
will scratch itself.

I'll try the back door.

Jay reads "Cold Call", followed by a taped confession:

Jay confesses: When Gerald first invited me to write a poem, I panicked. Then I tried to be clever, and failed. Then I took away the pressure of “writing a poem” and decided to write the shortest crime story I could, with no frills and no attempt to be smart.

JAY STRINGER is a High-Tech Low-Life. He’s an award nominated writer of novels, short fiction, and film essays. Born and raised in the Black Country, he is currently on the lam in Glasgow, but plots a permanent move to New York. You can find Jay every Thursday at DoSomeDamage.com, every five minutes at twitter.com/JayStringer and very occasionally at Stringerville.com. He's repped by Stacia Decker at DMLA.

#verseday Los Angeles

2011-12-15T08:06:00.000-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, December 15. My topic this week is Los Angeles.

Write a poem about Los Angeles by noon Friday, December 16. Incidentally, The 5-2 has a spot open in January 2012 that you could fill if you participate in this week's #verseday challenge.

C.J. Edwards

2011-12-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Late afternoon, 1300 block
of North Rural, summer shadows
stretching across curbed sidewalks,

Gawkers and young kids skulk
to peek, and whisper behind
their hands to each other.
Sirens scream
and choked cries
clot the air.

An officer's shout moves everyone back
a few feet, more than needed
to get out of the way.

Someone says two speeding cars
shot at each other.
"Crossfire."

The news later said he was only thirteen.
In the moment, no one could tell
how old he was.

When he was gone, the crowd pushed back
beyond the tape, stared while the officer
stood over a torn and bloodied

SpongeBob t-shirt.

Gerald So reads "Nothing to See Here":

C.J. confesses: There are many images that stay with you after more than ten years as a police officer. For me, one of the most vivid is what I saw when I responded to a person shot one summer afternoon in Indianapolis, and found a thirteen year old boy lying on the sidewalk with a bullet wound to his head. I stood over his bloody clothing until it was recovered by the Crime Lab, and didn’t leave the crime scene until late that night.

C.J. EDWARDS lives in Indianapolis, IN, and has been a police officer for eleven years. His work can been seen in American Blue: Real Stories by Real Cops from Varro Press, the online crime fiction journal All Due Respect, and the debut issue of pulp fiction quarterly Pulp Modern, now available at Amazon.com.

Love- or Passion-Themed Poetry Needed. Deadline: January 31, 2012

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm seeking original love- or passion-themed poems. Submissions do not have to be specific to Valentine's Day. Crimes of passion take place every day, and I may publish poems from this submissions call after Valentine's week. Please submit by January 31, 2012.

Aside from the theme and deadline, the usual guidelines apply. The 5-2 remains open to regular submissions as well.

Mug Shot

2011-12-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

I went through our CafePress shop today and created 5-2 and Poetic Justice Press-branded items. You can get the mug and t-shirt pictured for $12 each.

#verseday January

2011-12-08T03:22:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, December 8. My topic this week is January.

Write a poem by noon Friday, December 9, about whatever January brings to mind. Incidentally, The 5-2 has two spots open in January 2012 that you could fill if you participate in this week's #verseday challenge.

Holiday Poems Chosen

2011-12-08T03:14:00.001-05:00

I've chosen the 5-2 poems for the weeks of December 26, 2011 and January 2, 2011. They are a Christmas haiku by Duane Spurlock and "The Christmas Itch" by Kent Gowran respectively. Thanks to everyone who submitted holiday crime poetry.

David S. Pointer

2011-12-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

VIP SECURITY

No red rim hot tub
still dripping crime
facts in these lines,
only a Marine MP
presidential security
detail sent to protect
President Reagan’s
travel route. The
sergeant doesn’t care
if we’re overrun by
Mexican revolutionaries,
or more modern
ambulatory urban
beasts, or even
international terrorists.
He just hands Cpl. Welsh
and me scoped M-14s and
says Not on my watch—
a head shot’s fine, but
center mass will make
most up the chain happy.

Graham Powell reads "VIP Security":

David confesses: "VIP Security" is based on real events at Camp Pendleton and around Southern California in 1983. The poem eluded me for years, and then recently worked its way onto the page.

DAVID S. POINTER currently resides in Murfreesboro, TN. From age 18-22 he served in the USMC Military Police. His latest chapbook is Warhammer Piano Bar, available through Thunderclap Press at www.Lulu.com.

#verseday Firsts

2011-12-01T06:49:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, December 1. My topic this week is "firsts", "first of the month", "your first time".

Write a poem about a first or firsts by noon Friday, December 2.

Thomas Pluck

2011-11-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

JUST ICE

Your meaty callused paw
Always inches out of reach,
I've hunted you for decades
To bite the hand that never fed.

A faded yellow photograph
Is all I knew of your face,
Whiskey rocks in a jelly glass
And a jagged smile that said, "Later, kid."

The ultimate in disrespect
Is a so-called man who leaves his son
A useless gun in pocket,
A heart with no justice, just ice.

Tom reads "Just Ice":

Tom confesses: Missing fathers are a recurring theme in criminal backgrounds. I wanted to explore the feelings of abandonment and how they could become blind rage.

THOMAS PLUCK writes unflinching fiction with heart. His work can be found in Crimespree, The Utne Reader, Beat to a Pulp, Pulp Modern and most recently Lost Children: A Charity Anthology. His home on the web is www.pluckyoutoo.com.

#verseday Holidays

2011-11-24T03:16:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, November 24. My topic this week is holidays.

Write a poem involving a holiday by noon Friday, November 25.

Ray Succre

2011-11-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

TWELVE APOLOGIES

Mr. Arnolds, my neighbor five years ago: It was me. I'm the one who ran over your cat. I didn't even see it. I'm sorry that I suggested your daughter may have done it. I'm sorry.

Jan Arnolds: See above. I'm sorry.

Grandma J.: The coat you bought me last year? The one I always say I've just taken off whenever you call? I drunkenly lit it on fire five months ago. I'm sorry.

Amad, my old friend: Remember when I threw that monstrous party and you passed out, and by morning, some measly person had stolen your cigarettes and poured soup on your crotch? They gave me some of the cigarettes not to say anything, and the soup was my idea. I'm sorry.

My ex, Andrea: When I lost my job because of corporate cutbacks? That was a lie. I told my boss that if she talked to me that way again, I'd piss on her head. She fired me. I'm sorry.

Bookstore On the Bay: It was me. I stole all those books. I figured out how to remove the magnetic strips, and would do so while chatting up your clerk. I did this daily. He thought we were pals. I read all of the books I stole, at least. One a day for almost an entire summer. I'm sorry.

Little Lisa: We only went out for a single day in the third grade, and we broke-up because I wouldn't give you my pen. Listen, I told everybody we did it. I'm sorry.

Laurel, a waitress in Olympia, Washington: That guy who stole my wallet off the counter while I was in the restroom, which made me unable to pay for my coffee that one time? I didn't own a wallet. I'm sorry.

Safeway of America, Inc.: I was the one who stole Eraserhead. I gave you the wrong phone number which truly was an accident because I'd just moved into a new place with a new number, but you didn't check my I.D. and when I was about to sign the little rental agreement, I noticed the phone number I'd given had pulled up the first name "Esther", so, quickly and unfortunately for Esther and your company, I signed it "Antonio Banderas" and never returned the video. I'm sorry to you and I'm sorry to Esther and I'm sorry to Mr. Banderas, as well.

To a certain couple: Red fruits don't cause Alzheimer's disease. I made it up. You can start eating strawberries again. I'm sorry.

To Aaron from sixth grade: Though it’s been twenty years, I've still got your Nintendo game, Bionic Commando. I convinced you I had given it back and that you had lost it, but I just hadn't beaten the game yet. I moved to the other side of the country with it. I'm sorry.

To Kat, a neighbor in a high-rise apartment building I once resided in: Sixteen years ago, I needed to make a local call and my phone service had just been disconnected. You had offered to let my use your phone for local calls. I knocked but you weren't home. Later, I found the telephone service grid on the second floor, so I spliced into your line with my room's phone, thinking that it wouldn't really matter as long as I switched it back when I was done. When I picked up to make my important call, you were home and you were ordering something on it. The salesclerk couldn't figure out what ordering number your item was supposed to have, so you had to explain to him (and though you didn't know it, to me) that it was the jelly-apparatus on some page 36 . The Rhino II, I think it was called. I didn't mean to overhear it. I hope everything worked out and I'm sure blue was a wonderful color. I'm sorry.

Ray reads "Twelve Apologies":

Ray confesses: While confessional poetry is not my flavor, I decided one afternoon to try some, wanting to be as basic and pure about it as I could. The result: Twelve Apologies. Honestly, I have enough of a past that I could have made it Fifty Apologies.

RAY SUCCRE is an undergraduate currently living on the southern Oregon coast with his wife and son. He has had poems published in Aesthetica, Poets and Artists, and Pank, as well as in numerous others across as many countries. His novels Tatterdemalion (2008) and Amphisbaena (2009), both through Cauliay, are widely available in print. Other Cruel Things (2009), an online collection of poetry, is available through Differentia Press.

For inquiry, publication history, and information, visit Ray online: http://raysuccre.blogspot.com.

Layout Changes

2011-11-18T15:48:00.001-05:00

For greater functionality, I've changed some of the widget names and positions on-site:

You can click to the Poem of the Week from the "Updates" widget.
I moved the submissions address and RSS Feeds widget up.
My personal e-mail address is now on the "Editors" page.
I added an "In The Comments" widget that shows who's commenting and links to the poems they're commenting on.
I replaced the drop-down blog archive menu with a search widget.
The main page tab is now labeled "This Week"; the main page will display the current week's posts.
The former "Agenda" tab is now labeled "Appearances".
For the schedule of upcoming 5-2 contributors, click the "Contributors" tab.

#verseday Guilt

2011-11-17T06:20:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then draft poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, November 17. My topic this week is guilt.

Write a poem about a guilt by noon Friday, November 18.

Paul Hostovsky

2011-11-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

MY VISIT TO THE GARDNER MUSEUM

Isabella Stewart Gardner had a lot of shit,
a lot of very old and beautiful shit
from all over the world, going all the way back to
the Egyptian sarcophagi, which look a lot like bathtubs
though really they’re coffins. A whole lot of dead
shit in this museum, is what I’m thinking
to myself, not sharing that thought with the lovely
young woman who brought me here on our second date.
To share the world with the world, Isabella Gardner
built her eponymous museum in the Boston Fenway
in 1898. Now, a hundred and ten years later,
me and Celia are walking through its galleries, not touching
because it’s only our second date. And I think it’s obscene
the way she accumulated all this shit and shipped it
back to Boston. And I think it’s exactly what’s wrong
with America, the way we keep appropriating
shit that doesn’t belong to us, buying it up and
calling it ours. But I don’t tell Celia that because I want
to hold her hand now, which is presently pointing up
at an enormous gilt frame with no painting in it,
her sweet inquiring voice asking the well-ironed
museum guard standing next to it at attention: What
is this? And he tells us this is the Rembrandt
that was stolen a few years back, along with the Vermeers
and other masterpieces cut right out
of their frames, the way poachers cut the valuable
part of the animal right out of the animal,
leaving the bloody carcass behind for the world
to stare at aghast and brokenhearted. And I think
this is by far the most interesting thing in the museum,
though I don’t tell Celia that, her hand in mine now
as we listen together to the museum guard’s harrowing tale
of the enemies of art breaking into Isabella’s
rooms, and ripping the Dutch masters right out. Like a
rape, she gasps, squeezing my hand tighter. That’s when I
reach for her other hand, which she gives to me now,
so now we’re standing face to face, just inches
away from each other’s flesh-colored
flesh, which is making the museum guard very
uncomfortable. And he looks away. And I steal a kiss
from Celia. And then I cop a feel of Rubens.

Gerald So reads "My Visit to the Gardner Museum":

Paul confesses: We were walking around this famous museum full of famous art from all over the world, and there were lots of museum guards whose job it was to make sure you didn't touch. But I wanted to touch. Bad. And they've left the empty frames up on the walls where the infamous art thieves cut the canvasses right out in the infamous art theft. Infamy. Calumny. In flagrante delicto...

PAUL HOSTOVSKY is the author of three books of poetry, Bending the Notes (2008), Dear Truth (2009), and A Little in Love a Lot (2011). His poems have won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and Best of the Net 2008 and 2009. To read more of his work, visit his website: www.paulhostovsky.com.

Share Buttons

2011-11-09T04:11:00.000-05:00

I've added buttons to the bottom of each post making it easy to share what you see here by e-mail, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

First #verseday

2011-11-09T03:56:00.001-05:00

#verseday is a Twitter hashtag I've come up with to promote poetry writing. I invite Twitter people to suggest poetry topics by noon Eastern each Thursday. Participants must then write poems by noon Eastern Friday. The resulting poems can be submitted anywhere, including The 5-2 and NoirCon's First Annual Poetry Contest.

Even if you've never written a poem before, you're invited. Taking the time to think poetically can help your creativity on other projects. If you'd like to participate, tweet your topics, tagged #verseday, by noon Thursday, November 10.

My first #verseday topic is deadlines. Write a poem about a deadline by noon Friday, November 11.

Stephen D. Rogers

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

REMINDER

While sweeping the porch
My broom handle hits
The outdoor chimes
Ding, dong, cling, clang
Dropping me into the rocker
Sadly in need of repair
Letting the broom
Thunk against the rail
She always slapped the chimes
When she came home
If her assailant did the same
It must have been
The last happy sound she heard

Stephen reads "Reminder":

Stephen confesses: I think a lot about the things left behind, the time bombs waiting to go off and remind us of what was lost. A set of chimes hang above the outside deck...

STEPHEN D. ROGERS is the author of Shot to Death, Three-Minute Mysteries, and and more than 700 shorter pieces. His website, www.StephenDRogers.com, includes a list of new and upcoming titles as well as other timely information.

Christmas and New Year's Poems Needed, Deadline: December 1

2011-11-03T11:34:00.001-04:00

I'm seeking poems to run on The 5-2 the weeks of December 26, 2011 and January 2, 2012. The poems can involve Christmas, any holidays around the same time, New Year's Eve, or New Year's Day. Aside from the themes and deadline, the usual guidelines apply.

Chad Haskins

2011-10-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

APPARITION

I forgot how deep
the shallow grave was.

The photograph
is light and heavy in
my trembling hand.

There we are together:
A reminder of
what once was.

What did you do, precious baby,
to get your daddy to hold you
cheek to cheek?

Look at the pride in his eyes,
chin high
beneath a glowing smile,

embracing you
with both arms;
he can’t get close enough.

How did you
fuck that up?

Chad reads "Apparition":

Chad confesses: I stumbled across an old photograph of my father holding me when I was a baby; it stirred up many feelings because we have been estranged for a long time. The poem “Apparition” is a glimpse into my head and heart as I stared at the picture of us together.

CHAD HASKINS lives in Newnan, Georgia with his wife and two sons. Chad's poems appear in Rose and Thorn Journal, Untitled Country Review, Blue Collar Review, and are forthcoming in Powder Burn Flash and Yellow Mama.

Michael Chacko Daniels

2011-10-24T00:01:00.000-04:00

MISSING MAN, WINTER FLOWERS

Have you seen this man?
asks street poster nearby tree
bursts with winter blooms

Gerald So reads "Missing Man, Winter Flowers":

Michael confesses: Grey winter's day: I'm on San Francisco's Geary Street, past Polk—a haven of transiency. A tree in full bloom. "Why haven't I encountered this before?" I wonder. My eyes are drawn to a wall of scrawls. A poster of a beautiful young man: Gone missing. Hereabouts. The haiku comes.

MICHAEL CHACKO DANIELS, a former community worker and clown, San Franciscan, grew up in Bombay, India. He was a Volunteer In Service To America for five years. His haiku have appeared in Eclectica, Grey Sparrow Journal, and The Battered Suitcase. Book: Morning in Santiniketan (Haiku; Writers Workshop, Calcutta, 2010). Website: http://indiawritingstation.com/.

Bruce Harris

2011-10-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

HIT AND RUN

Too much?
Nova low-blows a pole.
Sparks.

Stiff.
Burnt rubber.

Radio chatter.
Flashlight.
Cop shows teeth.

Gerald So reads "Hit And Run":

Bruce confesses: "Hit and Run" was inspired by a real event, one that interrupted a good night's sleep. The bum left the scene of the crime, but he unintentionally left something behind. His car's front end, including the license plate.

BRUCE HARRIS is the author of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: About Type, published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box (www.batteredbox.com).

Kyle Hemmings

2011-10-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

ON THE LAM

You and your big fucking ideas.
Like we could get away from
your WrestleMania bull-necked
boyfriend who's a member of
seven coalitions of trigger happy men
without hair. So we're stuck ten miles
from the Texas border, a car
that seized Grand mal 'cuz
The Moose syphoned all the oil.
But I know what you'll say.
Everything's gonna be fine.
The clouds still look like cotton candy
and you got a whole ten bucks.
Things could always be worse.
Like your boyfriend could be watching
with a high-powered rifle
and a cup of café au lait.

Gerald So reads "On The Lam":

Kyle confesses: I was getting tired of writing these really poetic and cerebral and convoluted and post-modern responses to prompts in a poetry office. So, I felt in the mood for something more minimal and "dirty." So I did it, and I felt better.

KYLE HEMMINGS is the author of several chapbooks of poems: Avenue C (Scars Publications), Fuzzy Logic (Punkin Press), Amsterdam & Other Broken Love Songs (Flutter Press), and Fantasy Girls (Silkworm Ink). He has been pubbed at Gold Wake Press, Thunderclap Press, Blue Fifth Review, Step Away, and The Other Room. He blogs at http://upatberggasse19.blogspot.com/.

Catfish McDaris

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-04:00

I HOPE THAT'S PEPPERONI

Tony the boxer told me
about an Italian joint in
the neighborhood

Back in the 30's, the
owner killed his wife &
chopped her into tiny
bite sized pieces

I made the mistake of
telling my wife & daughter,
now every time we drive by,
my daughter makes stabbing

Motions in the air & squeals
like a dying mouse, to
accompany her invisible knife

Deciding this annoying habit
needed a remedy, I hid a bag
of catsup in my mouth

When we drove by, I bit the
catsup squirting it all over the
windshield, my wife & daughter
& blinded myself

We crashed through their
plate glass window & ordered
a pizza, while waiting on the cops.

Gerald So reads "I Hope That's Pepperoni":

Catfish confesses: This poem is about my 92-year old neighbor, it's true. Tony never drove a car in his life. The story about the pizza joint is true. I took poetic license with the catsup part. (in other words I lied my ass off).

CATFISH MCDARIS just finished a 30 year gig at the post office in Milwaukee.He's been published widely for 20 years. His most infamous chap is Prying with Jack Micheline & Bukowski. He has a joint hardcover with Ben John Smith at Lulu.com called Dancing Naked On Bukowski's Grave.

The Lineup #4 Ebook Now Available

2011-10-02T17:00:00.000-04:00

After eight months of research, programming, and testing, I'm proud to bring The Lineup #4 to Kindle and Nook.

Again, the ebook is formatted to preserve the integrity of the poets' original lines as written. Original lines as written begin at the normal, unindented position. If a written line does not fit on a single line of your screen, the rest of the written line will continue indented on the next line of your screen. This practice is seen in print when a poet's original line would exceed a book's required margins.

Eventually, ebooks of all four Lineups will be published.

Keith Rawson

2011-09-26T00:01:00.001-04:00

$25

the nurse
drawing my plasma
is having
trouble finding
a vein

she asks again
about drug use

and
about why I'm choosing
to donate
today.

her fingers shake,
her skin is blotchy

with whiteheads,
her voice is a cat's tail
slammed

in a rusty screen door.

I tell her,

I'm too lazy to work
for $7.50 an hour
rent is
due

in two weeks

and giving blood is easier
than sticking a gun
in someone's
face.

Keith confesses: "Simply put: The narrator is me circa 1995 in Flagstaff, AZ. It's a snippet of conversation between myself and a medical assistant who couldn't find a vein in either of my arms and ended up jabbing me nearly twenty times before she drove it home."

Keith's video intro and reading of "$25":

KEITH RAWSON's stories, poems, essays, reviews and interviews have been widely published both online and in print. He is the author of the short story collection, The Chaos We Know (Snubnose Press) and Co-Editor of the anthology, Crime Factory: The First Shift. He is a staff writer at LitReactor and Spinetingler Magazine. He lives in Southern Arizona with his wife and daughter.

NoirCon 2012 Poetry Contest

2011-09-24T12:35:00.000-04:00

Organizer Lou Boxer and panel moderator Edward Petit were kind enough enough to feature The Lineup at NoirCon 2010, which was attended by co-editors Reed Farrel Coleman and Sarah Cortez.

Pleased with the turnout, Lou consulted me about a poetry contest culminating at NoirCon 2012. Here are the contest rules and regulations.

Charles Rammelkamp

2011-09-19T00:01:00.016-04:00

PLEA BARGAIN

Her fingerprints all over then stolen cell phone,
Sequanda was in as deep as "Ya,"
her boyfriend who stabbed the young man
after midnight near the train station,
even after he'd offered his wallet,
trying to avert violence.

Sequanda kicked him as he lay bleeding,
then she and Ya fled to their apartment,
sending her unwitting cousin Waverly
to use the cancer researcher's credit card.
Sequanda fingered Waverly
when the cops came around.

But when the state's attorney offered a deal
to reduce Sequanda's sentence
if she came clean about Ya,
she changed her story,
and perjury, Ya's wrath, and Waverly's revenge
rained like ash from a burning house.

Gerald So reads "Plea Bargain":

Charles confesses: "Twenty years ago I served on a jury in which a convicted perjurer had changed her story to protect her husband, whom she'd originally fingered for a drug crime when the two were no longer together. Having reconciled with her husband, she was now singing a different tune. It's a familiar story."

Nancy Scott

2011-09-12T00:01:00.016-04:00

SMACK

Massive head trauma, internal injuries.
The child won't make it to morning.
The mother and the grandmother sit
in the waiting area.
They haven't been told yet.
The boyfriend, the babysitter, denies
he was high on smack, insists the child
was asleep in the playpen,
when he ran to the deli to buy cigarettes.
He can't explain how the toddler
got hit by a car on the highway
seven blocks from the apartment.

Nancy reads "Smack":

Nancy confesses: "As a caseworker employed by the NJ Division of Youth and Family Services, I interviewed the adults, but was unable to get the babysitter to admit that the child had wandered away from him while he was scoring smack. The case was closed and no one was charged."

NANCY SCOTT is the current managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S.1 Poets’ Cooperative in New Jersey. She is the author of two books of poetry, Down to the Quick (2007) and One Stands Guard, One Sleeps (2009) published by Plain View Press, and two chapbooks, A Siege of Raptors (Finishing Line Press, 2010) and Detours & Diversions (Main Street Rag, 2011) For decades she worked on behalf of abused and neglected children, as a caseworker for the State Division of Youth and Family Services, licensed foster parent, and advocate for changing archaic adoption laws. She is parent to three adopted bi-racial children, who had been in foster care. Her website is www.nancyscott.net.

Halloween Poem Needed, Deadline: October 1

2011-09-10T07:36:00.003-04:00

I'm seeking an original Halloween poem to run the week of October 31-November 6. Submit by October 1. Aside from the Halloween theme and deadline, the usual guidelines apply. I look forward to reading your work.

Seth Harwood's Kickstarter Campaign

2011-09-09T13:40:00.000-04:00

Less than an hour into Day 2, Seth Harwood's Kickstarter campaign reached its goal of $4,000 toward the fixed costs of publishing five titles in the next six months. Seth was a great friend to The Lineup: Poems on Crime, featuring our poetry in three episodes of CrimeWAV. You're welcome to contribute more to his efforts and receive the remaining fan reward packages.

Getting to Know You

2011-08-19T10:12:00.003-04:00

The 5-2 isn't officially eligible for Duotrope's interview feature until six months in, but I thought it would help our next six months of material if I posted my answers below:

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Poetry about crime.

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: Nerve Cowboy, Barbaric Yawp, Asinine Poetry, The Orange Room Review, Thieves Jargon.

Q: Who are your favorite poets?

A: Philip Levine, Donald Justice, Sharon Olds, Kim Addonizio, Sharon Bryan.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: I publish one poem per week year-round, including an audio/video clip of the poem being read and the poet's brief reflection on how the poem was written.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: Read these sample Lineup poems and archived 5-2 poems.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: An honest, powerful reaction to what the poet sees as crime. Confident in its tone. Nothing gratuitous.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: Sending too many poems at once. Our limits are two poems per submission e-mail. If your poem is accepted, please wait at least two months before submitting new work.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: Whatever they care to share. I don't pry.

Q: How much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: I read the whole poem to get a sense where the poet wants to go.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go though before it is accepted?

A: I sometimes suggest changes to a poem before accepting it.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: Busy, (I also write) but I usually reply to e-mail in a day or two.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: It's very important. Editors need a working knowledge of as many word processing programs as possible, and e-mail allows for much faster correspondence than snail mail. The 5-2's website format allows me to keep poetry on readers' minds year-round, and our video extras present our content in a fresh way.

Welcome to The 5-2

2011-08-16T07:15:00.004-04:00

As you can see by the blog revamp, I'm going full speed ahead with a Web-based format, all-new poems on crime weekly. The name 5-2 refers to the fifty-two poems that will appear in the course of a year. It also brings to mind police precinct slang. It's pure coincidence that the NYPD's 52nd Precinct is in the Bronx and I am a Yankee fan.

The 5-2 will publish its first poem, "Smack" by Nancy Scott, on September 12, 2011.

The site will include video clips and "signed confessions" by the poets about how the poems were written.

Help spread the word across the web.

Submit today.

Announcement

2011-08-12T06:44:00.001-04:00

Lineup co-editors Sarah Cortez and Richie Narvaez have decided to step down as their own projects and day jobs have gotten busier. The departure of two editors changes The Lineup's signature editorial process such that I don't know if or when it will continue. Richie was also responsible for the journal's interior layout. If The Lineup were to continue in print, we would need someone with similar expertise.

If this is the end of The Lineup, our editors, contributors, booksellers, and readers can be proud of four years and four volumes of crime poetry (soon to be released as ebooks). For now, as before the first Lineup, I'm testing the waters, seeing if there's enough steam to make something happen.

Here's what I have in mind.

If You Only Knew

2011-08-09T20:33:00.001-04:00

Appearing in the webzine BEAT to a PULP this week is the wry story "If You Only Knew" by Lineup #4 contributor John Stickney, inspired by fellow contributor Mary Christine Delea's poem, "If You Only Knew How Easy It Is To Break Into My House".

In February, BEAT to a PULP editor David Cranmer posted The Lineup #4's first review. In May, he hosted BEAT to a PULP's first-ever week of poetry, featuring poems by Frederick Zackel, Gerald So, and Keith Snyder.

Lineup 4 Ebook in October

2011-08-01T17:35:00.000-04:00

Publication of the ebook version of The Lineup #4 has been pushed from August to October, but the final reprint permissions were received today. The ebook will sell for $2.99 in Amazon's Kindle Store an BN.com for the Nook e-reader.

John Berbrich on The Lineup #4

2011-07-27T14:55:00.000-04:00

The proprietor of BoneWorld Publishing and editor of Barbaric Yawp gives Issue 4 a writeup in his latest newsletter, calling it "a marvelous idea" and the poems "sad, funny, graphic."

Thank you, John.

Reviewed in MYSTERY SCENE #120

2011-07-07T19:11:00.003-04:00

Betty Webb reviews The Lineup #4 on page 56 of the Summer 2011 issue, highlighting works by Charles Harper Webb (no relation), Jeanne Dickey, and Reed Farrel Coleman, concluding, "This startling collection, a combination of beauty and horror, is one of Poetic Justice Press' strongest yet."

Thank you, Betty.

Why a Poetry eBook?

2011-06-25T05:22:00.003-04:00

On the way to publishing eBooks of all four issues of The Lineup, Gerald So recently released We Might Have, an eBook of twenty-four of his own poems on love and chance, available for Amazon Kindle.

Below is a post from Gerald's blog about why he chose to e-publish poetry:

As a fiction writer as well as a poet, I could have published a novel or short story as my first e-offering, pricing it at the popular 99 cents. I chose to publish poetry first because I care about poetry's presentation in a way few larger publishers do, including self-publishing giant Lulu. I'm not convinced e-readers will phase out books. Frankly, I hope they don't. My thinking is, as long as new media are there, poetry deserves a foothold just as prose does.

Poetry is inherently more challenging to e-publish than prose, but that's all the more reason to do it. I invite you to buy my book, We Might Have, and spread the word that, despite extra hurdles, poetry can translate well to an e-reader.

Here's a video reading from We Might Have:

Bleed Me a River: A Domestic Violence Anthology

2011-06-12T08:58:00.002-04:00

Edited by Lineup contributor David S. Pointer, Bleed Me a River is a 128-page trade paperback featuring work by Antler, Gary Beck, Kimberly L. Becker, John D. Berry, Jolee Blackbear, Jennifer Hollie Bowles, Shirley Brazzo, Patricia Carragon, Alan Catlin, Dave Church, Cassandra Dallet, Sarah Daugherty, Doug Draime, Charles Firmage, Molly Gaudry, Cynthia M. Gregg, S.A. Griffin, Kenneth P. Gurney, Jessica Harman, Pamela Hirst, Stephanie Hiteshew, Karla Huston, Evie Ivy, Justin Jackley, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Elleraine Lockie, Linda Parsons Marion, Catfish McDaris, Mike Meraz, Todd Moore, Wilda Morris, David Pointer, Rhonda C. Poynter, Charles Ries, Kimberly Roppollo, Cindy Rosmus, Kristen Rueden, Jennifer Rybolt, Georgia Santa-Maria, Rebecca Schumeda, Gerald So, Joe Speer, Lela Norcross Wakely, Klyd Watkins, Kelly Jean White, J.T. Whitehead, Elaine Whitman, and Neal Whitman.

The book sells for $10 + s & h with all proceeds benefiting domestic violence shelters.

Clips from an Evening of Criminally Good Verse

2011-06-02T13:36:00.000-04:00

We were able to shoot video of almost all the poems read Tuesday night at NYC's Cornelia Street Cafe:

Thanks to everyone who participated and attended, and to the cafe management.

Announcement

2011-06-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

We are currently reorganizing. Any poems submitted from March 1, 2011 through today are free to be submitted elsewhere. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Gerald So (g_so AT yahoo DOT com).

May 31: Lineup Reading at Cornelia Street Cafe

2011-05-27T10:50:00.000-04:00

Join us next Tuesday, 6:00 P.M. at the Cornelia Street Cafe (29 Cornelia Street, NYC). Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez will be hosting and reading with Jeanne Dickey, Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson, and, in from Texas, Sarah Cortez. Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. $7 cover includes a free drink.

Keith Snyder reads "Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72" by Charles Harper Webb

2011-04-30T07:44:00.000-04:00

Several blog tour participants were moved by Charles Harper Webb's "Prayer for the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72". Keith Snyder was moved to create an audio presentation with which we end the tour.

My thanks again to the participants and audience. I hope we've sparked a lasting appreciation for poetry.

S.J. Rozan on the Lineup #4

2011-04-29T18:03:00.001-04:00

For the thirty-fourth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, New York crime novelist and writer of haiku S.J. Rozan took a timeout from MWA Edgar® Week to blog about The Lineup.

J.D. Smith on "From a Deposition"

2011-04-29T11:34:00.000-04:00

For the thirty-third stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Lineup #4 contributor J.D. Smith discusses his poem.

Stephen Blackmoore on The Lineup #4

2011-04-28T10:14:00.000-04:00

For the 32nd stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author Stephen Blackmoore at L.A. Noir.

Kent Gowran on The Lineup #4

2011-04-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

For the thirty-first stop on So Dark For April blog tour, Chicago's Kent Gowran at Blood, Sweat, & Murder.

Duane Swierczynski interviews David Corbett

2011-04-26T07:18:00.001-04:00

The thirtieth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour sees journalist, novelist, and comic book writer Duane Swierczynski interview Lineup #4 contributor David Corbett about Corbett's poem, "Bargain".

Lou Boxer on The Lineup #4

2011-04-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

NoirCon organizer Lou Boxer joins the So Dark For April blog tour, exploring the poet's role as witness and running down his five favorite Lineup #4 poems.

Cullen Gallagher on The Lineup #4

2011-04-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

For the twenty-eighth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Cullen Gallagher reviews The Lineup #4 at Pulp Serenade.

"Onion Street" by Reed Farrel Coleman

2011-04-24T03:43:00.001-04:00

One of Lineup co-editor Reed Farrel Coleman's poems was selected by Scott Montgomery, head of the mystery bookstore at BookPeople in Austin, TX, to be featured on BookPeople's blog April 20.

Kathy Slamen on The Lineup #4 Cover Photo

2011-04-24T03:19:00.001-04:00

For the twenty-sixth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, a post from our cover photographer, Kathy Slamen.

Ali Karim on The Lineup #4

2011-04-23T16:02:00.001-04:00

For the twenty-sixth stop on So Dark For April blog tour, thriller writer, reviewer, and personal friend Ali Karim chimes in at his blog, Existentialist Man.

Stephen Jay Schwartz on The Lineup #4

2011-04-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

For the twenty-fifth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, contributor Stephen Jay Schwartz explores how his appreciation for poetry developed and invites reader participation at Murderati.

The Winding Road to Lineup E-books

2011-04-21T11:49:00.035-04:00

By Gerald So

Though we take pride in The Lineup as a print chapbook, and would like to stay in print as long as possible, the co-editors and I have pondered reproducing The Lineup in e-book format since 2009. The major hurdle was preserving a poet's lines as written despite how e-readers might resize the text.

On February 21 of this year, I made Issues 1-3 available as PDFs. While these could loosely be called e-books, PDF is not the optimal format for e-readers.

On March 25, I used a free e-book code from Tyrus Books to download The Complete Amos Walker Short Story Collection by Loren D. Estleman. I downloaded Calibre to give myself the best reading experience short of an actual e-reader. (At the moment, an e-reader isn't something I'd use enough to be worth buying. Neither is a cell phone, but I digress.)

Calibre's .epub conversion features started me thinking anew about Lineup e-books. I'd heard .epub format was more or less HTML with some CSS, so as an experiment, I began formatting The Lineup #4's plain text in Sigil.

None of this preserved the poets' lines as written under e-readers' font-resizing features. The solution came from The Poetry Foundation's Alizah Salario. Applying Salario's CSS, if a single line as written does not fit on a single line of an e-reader screen, the rest of the written line continues indented on the next line of the screen:

Lines as written

Same lines enlarged

This practice is seen in print when a poet's lines as written would exceed a book's required margins. I had to apply the CSS to every line of poetry, but it was worth it to show respect to the lines as written.

I then found the best way to separate the poems from each other was to make a separate chapter for each poem, not just a few line-breaks between poems.

And finally I had to use precise wording when linking to the book's title page and Acknowledgments page so Calibre would create a proper table of contents for the Kindle/.mobi version.

With the content squared away, my attention turned to the cover. We have a fantastic, attention-grabbing cover thanks to photographer Kathy Slamen and designer John Collis, but I couldn't simply scale the image to fit a Kindle's 600x800 resolution. The original cover text looked squished on resizing; it had to replaced with slightly larger text:

The Lineup #4 .epub passed epubcheck validation, but Lulu.com did not accept it due to "file permission errors". Apparently these errors can be resolved with the Windows version of Sigil, but I'm working in the Linux version. On the bright side, I am able to upload the .epub and .mobi formats to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.

As one of the final checks, I've downloaded the Windows emulator Wine 1.3 and used it to run Amazon's free Kindle for PC app.

My thanks to ebook testers Richie Narvaez, Deshant Paul, John Ricotta, Keith Snyder, and Steve Weddle.

I have received the poets' and publishers' permission to reprint their work in in the Lineup #4 e-book. Projected publication date is October 2011.

In the meantime, an ebook of my own poetry, We Might Have, is available now.

James R. Winter on The Lineup #4

2011-04-21T08:09:00.002-04:00

For the twenty-fourth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author and reviewer James R. Winter spotlights "mitralleur" by Michael Casey as an example of how long crime can go unnoticed.

Wallace Stroby on The Lineup

2011-04-20T01:41:00.002-04:00

For the twenty-third stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, New Jersey journalist and crime novelist Wallace Stroby looks back on his contribution to last year's Lineup #3 and surveys The Lineup #4.

Press Release: An Evening of Criminally Good Verse

2011-04-19T15:26:00.003-04:00

Presenting an Evening of Criminally Good Verse

Tuesday, May 31st, 6:00 P.M.

@

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
New York, NY 10014
www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Please call (212) 989-9319 for reservations. Cover: $7.

Contributors Jeanne Dickey and Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson join editors Reed Farrel Coleman and Richie Narvaez reading from the recently published fourth annual edition of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Published by Poetic Justice Press since 2008, The Lineup invites poets' honest reactions to what they see as crime in fifty lines or fewer.

A limited number of The Lineup #4 will be sold at the reading. Copies may also be purchased locally at The Mysterious Bookshop (58 Warren Street, NYC). Visit Poetic Justice Press on the Web at http://poemsoncrime.blogspot.com.

Reed Farrel Coleman is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award for Best Novel. He has also received the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards, and has been twice nominated for the Edgar® Award. He teaches writing classes in mystery fiction and the novel at Hofstra University.

Jeanne Dickey's work has appeared in literary journals such as Passages North, RE:AL, Karamu, and The Good Foot. She is working on a novel, A Fanciful Glamour, which she hopes to complete by the end of the year, if not sooner. An except of that novel is forthcoming in the anthology The Unbearables Big Book of Sex.

Richie Narvaez has had work published by Mississippi Review, Murdaland, and Thrilling Detective, and in the anthologies Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, Indian Country Noir, and You Don't Have a Clue. He is the editor of the online humor journal Asinine Poetry.

Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson is a Canadian currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Hart House Review, Imago, Softblow, The Toronto Quarterly, Neon, Right Hand Pointing, and the anthology Killer Verse. Her first collection of poems The Victims Of Ted Bundy: Washington State is forthcoming this winter from Jeanne Duval Editions.

Anne Frasier on The Lineup

2011-04-19T11:02:00.002-04:00

The 22nd stop on the So Dark For April blog tour is Theresa Weir/Anne Frasier's Monkey with a Pen. Anne voices her support for The Lineup and shares her poem "Home" from The Lineup #3.

Plus, if you're wondering whether The Lineup is coming to e-readers, a comment on her post has the answer.

John Kenyon asks, "How could Ken Bruen not be in The Lineup?"

2011-04-18T05:57:00.002-04:00

A rhetorical question, of course. Ken embodies writing poetically about crime like no other. He had a poem in the inaugural Lineup, and his return in Issue 4 with "Funeral: Of The Wino" inspired Kenyon's post, the twenty-first stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

Hear The Lineup #4 on CrimeWAV

2011-04-17T17:17:00.002-04:00

The Lineup's third appearance on Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV features seven poems from Issue 4:

"A Story to Tell Our Daughter" by Keith Rawson (read by Gerald So)
"Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Bargain" by David Corbett (read by Corbett)
"Finding Opal" by Mary Agnes Dalrymple (read by Gerald So)
"Madonna Peed On My Face by Chad Rohrbacher (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Street Girls: Selected Memories" by Stephen Jay Schwartz (read by Schwartz)
"The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle (read by Peter Linari)

Listen with the player above.

Today is also Palms Sunday, named for Seth's debut novel protagonist, Jack Palms (Jack Wakes Up). The latest story featuring Jack, "Triad Death Match", is now available as an eBook.

Peter Linari reads "The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle

2011-04-17T08:44:00.004-04:00

The Lineup's third episode of CrimeWAV airs today.

Here's a behind-the-scenes video of actor Peter Linari reading "The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle, recorded by Keith Snyder. Our thanks to Peter, Keith, and CrimeWAV host Seth Harwood:

Get free USPS shipping on a single Lulu.com title

2011-04-16T17:26:00.001-04:00

Save up to $4.99 USPS shipping through April 30. Order one book at Lulu.com, enter APRILMAIL305 at checkout, and select Mail as the shipping method.

Founding Co-Editor Patrick Shawn Bagley on The Lineup #4

2011-04-16T14:16:00.000-04:00

Founding Lineup co-editor Patrick Shawn Bagley calls the latest issue "As Noir As It Gets".

5 Quick Questions from David Rachels

2011-04-16T13:59:00.001-04:00

Today on the So Dark For April blog tour: Fellow poet David Rachels asks five quick questions of Gerald So.

See our ad in Crimespree Magazine #41

2011-04-15T10:22:00.000-04:00

See the Lineup ad (designed by John Collis) in Issue 41 of Crimespree Magazine, with Don Winslow on the cover:

From David Corbett

2011-04-15T03:44:00.002-04:00

For the seventeenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, the following post from contributor David Corbett:

Gerald So asked me to comment about the experience of being in LINEUP #4, or on why I wrIte poetry, or how it differs from fiction. Here’s what I managed to dig up from the sludge of my confusion on such issues.

Why write poetry?

Poetry keeps you humble. It keeps you honest.

Nowhere are words—or intentions—more naked than in a poem.

A poem is like a new lover, one you don't yet quite trust. She lulls you, tricks you, brings you up short. Tells you exactly what you need to know, but don't really want to hear. Which is why you're crazy about her.

Poems are pools in which everything is deceptively clear, all the way to the dark cold bottom.

A poem reminds you that it’s not just the devil but the divine that’s in the details. Small things are sacred—just by being there. Or vanishing. Because sometimes a poem resembles the lost thing that one curious morning you come across where you least expected it. And sometimes almost wish you hadn't.

But a poem about crime? Isn't crime too melodramatic, too inherently huge? An aria, maybe. (Ask Tosca.) A rock song, sure. (Cue the feedback and crash cymbals.) But a poem?

As I read my fellow contributors' poems in this collection, I saw again and again how so many sought to capture that shock of silence either before or after the violation. The pinprick daze, the web of static, the moment when you're not quite sure what happened, or are stunned as to why.

Not the melodrama but the mystery of it, in the larger sense. The small weird horror of violence, the gaping hole it leaves in things, the tumbling emptiness just beyond the fabric of normality that crime always betrays.

The narrators in these poems, like the poets themselves, stand just this side of dumbstruck. They know words are cheap. They strive to use them wisely. I'm proud and humbled to have my work included among theirs.

BV Lawson on The Lineup #4

2011-04-14T10:36:00.002-04:00

Two weeks into the So Dark For April blog tour, for Poem in Your Pocket Day, we have two stops: BV Lawson's In Reference to Murder and Charlie Stella's Knucksline.

Paul D. Brazill interviews Keith Rawson

2011-04-13T09:56:00.001-04:00

For the fourteenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, author Paul D. Brazill interviews Lineup #4 contributor Keith Rawson.

Keith Rawson and Bill Cameron on The Lineup #4

2011-04-12T05:03:00.000-04:00

Two stops today on the So Dark For April blog tour: Lineup #4 contributor Keith Rawson recounts his creative past and return to poetry.

And author and friend of The Lineup Bill Cameron takes us through not one, not two, not three, but four readings of Issue 4, concluding along the way that:

A poem differs from a story in that a poem may not exist to lead us to resolution. A poem may not be concerned with replacing what we think with know with what we need to know. A poem may, in contrast, winnow down to the interstices between life's darkest details and so illuminate and reveal. It may not answer, but rather lead us to further questions. And in the very act of asking we may achieve understanding the clearest answer can't always provide.

Richie Narvaez puts out an APB on The Lineup #4

2011-04-11T07:06:00.002-04:00

For the eleventh stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, founding co-editor Richie Narvaez pointedly reflects on the tradition of crime in poetry and how The Lineup continues that tradition:

...[E]very poem can be seen as a crime poem. A stolen heart. A broken vow. A shattered reality. Paths are crossed. Conflicts ensue. Emotions recollected afterward. Or every poem might be seen as a criminal act. An act of independence. A rebellion. An assault on some status quo.

April 17: The Lineup's Third Episode of CrimeWAV

2011-04-10T20:18:00.000-04:00

The Lineup's third episode of CrimeWAV airs next Sunday, April 17, featuring seven poems from Issue 4:

"Finding Opal" by Mary Agnes Dalrymple (read by Gerald So)
"Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Bargain" by David Corbett (read by Corbett)
"A Story to Tell Our Daughter" by Keith Rawson (read by Gerald So)
"The Balance Lost" by Steve Weddle (read by Peter Linari)
"Madonna Peed On My Face" by Chad Rohrbacher (read by Richie Narvaez)
"Street Girls: Selected Memories" by Stephen Jay Schwartz (read by Schwartz)

Meanwhile on CrimeWAV, Mark Coggins continues to podcast his P.I. novel, The Immortal Game.

Guest blogging at Janet Rudolph's Mystery Fanfare

2011-04-10T09:36:00.000-04:00

For the tenth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Janet A. Rudolph invited me to guest-blog at Mystery Fanfare about the origin of The Lineup: Poems on Crime.

Janet is director of Mystery Readers International, the largest mystery reader/fan organization in the world. She also edits the nonfiction Mystery Readers Journal, each issue covering a different theme in mystery fiction. Thanks again for the invite, Janet.

Sandra Seamans on The Lineup #4

2011-04-09T08:37:00.000-04:00

Lineup alum and current president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society Sandra Seamans shares her thoughts on Issue 4 for the ninth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

Founding Co-Editor Anthony Rainone on The Lineup #4

2011-04-08T10:41:00.000-04:00

Founding co-editor Anthony Rainone will be adding to a running post throughout the day for the eighth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

Chris F. Holm interviews Lineup 4 Contributor Steve Weddle

2011-04-07T07:55:00.003-04:00

Writer and scientist Chris F. Holm interviews Lineup #4 contributor Steve Weddle for the seventh stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

Kathleen A. Ryan on The Lineup #4

2011-04-06T06:43:00.001-04:00

Writer, mom, and retired Suffolk County L.I. police officer Kathleen A. Ryan covers Issue 4 and all our National Poetry Month doings for the sixth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Women of Mystery.

Sample Poems

2011-04-05T19:25:00.003-04:00

Links to some poems that first appeared or were reprinted in The Lineup (Issue number in parentheses):

"110 M.P.H. in a Stolen Pickup" by Patrick Shawn Bagley (1)
"Bargain" by David Corbett (4)
"Serial Killer" by Sarah Cortez (3)
"Home" by Anne Frasier (3)
"The Collector" by H. Palmer Hall (4)
"What Wild-Eyed Murderer" by Peter Meinke (4)
"Witness Protection" by Gerald So (1)
"Mickey Spillane" by Gerald So (1)
"Creation" by John Stickney (4)
"Independence Day, 1976" by Wallace Stroby (3)
"Prayer for The Man Who Mugged My Father, 72" by Charles Harper Webb (4)

John DuMond on "Slider, Part 7"

2011-04-05T06:25:00.001-04:00

Investigator John DuMond of the blog Nobody Move! reflects on "Slider, Part 7" by Reed Farrel Coleman for the fifth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour.

Peter Rozovsky on "Creation"

2011-04-04T05:06:00.002-04:00

Detectives Beyond Borders' Peter Rozovsky highlights John Stickney's "Creation" for the fourth stop on the So Dark For April blog tour. Peter's entry concludes:

No one saves the world in these poems, no one takes over an entire town, knocks over a bank, terrorizes a city, or slaughters a classroom full of students. That would be too easy; that stuff is for the newspapers. These poems are about small crimes or about the quiet, intimate moments before and after big ones. Or rather, they remind us that for those most intimately involved — victims, perpetrators, survivors, a son who prays for vengeance on the man who mugged his father — any crime can radically alter the world. There are no small crimes.

Patricia Abbott on "Prayer For the Man Who Mugged My Father, 72"

2011-04-03T08:43:00.000-04:00

For the third stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Lineup alum Patricia Abbott praises the poetry of Charles Harper Webb.

Bill Crider on "Houston Oil Man Missing"

2011-04-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

For the second stop on the So Dark For April blog tour, Bill Crider discusses "Houston Oil Man Missing" by Germaine Welch. Bill also links to a blog post by Ellery Queen editor Janet Hutchings about mystery and poetry.

So it begins

2011-04-01T04:30:00.000-04:00

My friend and former boss at The Thrilling Detective Web Site, Kevin Burton Smith, asked for the first spot in the So Dark For April blog tour as a way of celebrating his site's thirteenth anniversary. Here is his commentary, poetic in itself.