A 2023 Pushcart Nomination!

      Always such an honor to be nominated. Thank you Robin Stratton and Big Table Publishing for the nomination, and for publishing many of my books. Although I Never Called You Beautiful does not appear on-line. It is within the pages Best of Timothy Gager: Poems, Essays, and Stories, 2002-2022. It also appears in another secret book, whish is sort of like a secret menu  item---and only one of those exists in the world. So, there's that. So very grateful to be nominated for the 18th time.

                                           Maybe #18 will be the charm?

This poem is not published on-line

Thrilled to have a new poem in Live Nude Poems

 I don't submit work all that often anymore, but I always want to submit to Heather Sullivan and Rusty Barnes who put out Live Nude Poems. 

The Story Behind the Story (in this case the poem, HERE Into The Silent Sea)

If you are sunk in a sea so silent who are you left hanging with? There are all kinds of deep sea critters, perhaps too ugly to cuddle up to. When the narrator says to them, looking up from the ocean, "nobody likes you," he could be referring to himself---hence, some "double-meaning love" within the words. You are just like them, and just like an abandoned sunken ship.  The other double-meaning  found within is that the moon features fields of basaltic lava referred to as seas, because early astronomers mistakenly thought they contained water. 

Also "metaphor love" about the end of a friendship, 

and very often the silence accompanying that. 

Imagine habitating with the likes of...

photo by Lisa Haley

 

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LIVE NUDE POEMS

Like the title says. 

lNP is a simple blog journal no frills (see masthead above) except the editors who know a thing are two about a thing or two. Funny thing about the sub-title you know it came from people asking, "What's Live NudePoems?" Well, it's like the title say, so, take a hike, son.  

If you dive into their submissions statement, you'll find this (so yahoo!):

In trying to sum up what our aesthetic at Live Nude Poems will be, we are drawn to the idea and function of poetry.  In our opinion, we’ve always believed that poetry must serve a purpose – to enlighten, to explain and by doing so, bring a greater understanding of self.  We have a job to do as poets, even if only to better know our own humanity.  We're certainly not here to argue what art is or why we write.  We write because we have to, and the work is unique to each of us.  Knowing that, we would like to showcase poetry that breathes and presents moments in time, work that helps us understand you, tells a story, changes the reader--if only for a second.

     

My poem, Dog Years, appears in Somerville Times newspaper today

 

Thanks to Doug Holder, who published my very first, in 2002. It's May 31, 2023 and we are still kicking. In this one, I compare an old (active, healthy) dog, to the decline of the physical human condition. 

My Best Reading Ever: Audience Support Helps

     It's really great when an audience gets it. Poetry, you know the thing that people say, "I don't understand?"

    Well at a packed house, they clapped, laughed, and sighed perfectly and appropriately---they were WITH. It's such a gift when a night like this happens, and I just wanted you to watch it for yourself (filmed by Lee Moss).

Thank you, with much gratitude.