Poetry Reading

I'm reading at Beyond Baroque in the Mike Kelley Gallery on Dec. 12, 8pm, with three other wonderful poets –– Shivani Mehta, Richard Garcia & Katherine Williams. It'll be wonderful, at least they'll be wonderful, I'll be okay. Hope you can make it.

Online Poetry Class Begins Next Week


 I'm teaching an online poetry class for UCLA Extension's Writers' Program. 
Here's the info:


Creative Writing: Poetry
XL 136 English 5 units c
Available for UCLA transferable credit, this workshop combines writing assignments with an exploration of contemporary poetry. You look at forms ranging from the sonnet to prose poems, and develop your own voice. Each week the work of a contemporary poet is discussed and writing assignments are critiqued. The course goal is to finish with a number of polished and completed poems and understand the demands and rewards of living an inspired life through poetry. For technical requirements see page 4. Enrollment limited to 15 students.
Reg# 249985CA

Prose Poem workshop filled up!

My one day prose poem workshop at UCLA Extension, 2/1/14, is now filled. It's gonna be fun. I'll be teaching an online class for them in the spring. Hope some of you are interested. You can be in Moscow, Russia, or Rhode Island and take the class!

ADVICE

"Any fool can take a bad line out of a poem; it takes a real pro to throw out a good line."

THEODORE ROETHKE

Prose Poem Workshop Coming Up!

I'm teaching my annual one day prose poem workshop on Feb 1st.  Not only will you learn lots about the prose poem but it's entertaining and we'll write some prose poems in class.

Here's the link: https://www.uclaextension.edu/pages/Course.aspx?reg=Z7262&qe=true

I hope to see you there.

Rick

Oh, this was one of the prose poems written in last year's workshop.



The Legerdemain

Door-to-door sales is a tradition in my family. My mother bought me from a door-to-door salesman when I was five weeks old. I’ve sold everything door-to-door – from silverware to poison, drank Hemlock three times as a demonstration. Slowly closing the eyes is an effective sales tool. I was thirty-six when I sold my first tulip, a Red Emperor to a man on his way to a funeral, stopped him in his driveway. He held the tulip and sobbed. Selling tulips is selling desire. Other flower salesmen sell clichés. The tulip is a nightmare rehabilitated, closer to a human heart than a rose. Tulips are the ears of the dead. My work has hardened my knuckles. At the end of the day I sit in my car and watch the sun set in the rearview mirror. The Monte Flame is my favorite tulip, the way its orange and red petals cup every dirty secret you’ve ever told.

Intermediate Poetry Workshop

I'm going to be teaching an Intermediate Poetry Workshop at UCLA Extension beginning July 3rd.

Here's the link:  Intermediate Poetry Workshop

Here's a description of the workshop:  For those with some previous training in poetry, this workshop focuses on creating work which emphasizes lyrical and innovative language, personal insight, and individual voice. In addition, you refine your knowledge of a number of the craft's formal elements, including structure, imagery, metaphor, and pace, in order to stretch the boundaries of your creative experience. The goal is to produce work which is ambitious and resonant.

One day prose poem workshop this Saturday

This Saturday, Oct 20th, I'm teaching a one day prose poem workshop for UCLA Extension. It's not too late to enroll. It'll be fun. Hope to see you there.

Here's the class description:

Writing that Fine Line: A Prose Poem 1-Day Workshop 
What's the difference between the prose poem and a piece of short fiction? When should the poetic line give way to the poetic sentence? These are just some of the questions that are answered in this workshop on the prose poem. Other topics include imagery, metaphor, repetition, rhyme (yes, there could be rhyme in a prose poem), surrealism, and prose poem as fable. These give you a new understanding of the prose poem and a toolkit to draw upon for continued writing. Throughout the day, you put your new insights into action as you receive writing prompts from which to write your own prose poems in class. Practitioners of the art are discussed: Charles Baudelaire, Charles Simic, Nin Andrews, Pierre Reverdy, Peter Johnson, and Russell Edson, to name a few. You also receive a bibliography of prose poem books to guide your continued engagement in the form.

The Southern Review

I have two poems in the current new issue of The Southern Review. They're also putting up a recording of me reading the poems on their Audio Gallery. Take listen if you have a minute, just click here.

Writer's Program Publication Party

I'll be reading tonight at the UCLA Extension Publication Party, It's at the Skirball Center. Doors open at seven, reading starts at seven thirty. Hope to see you there.

Death Obscura book review

There's a review of my book, Death Obscura, up on the current issue of
The Innisfree Poetry Journal.
Take a look if you're so inclined.
"The first poem ("The Mandolin") in Rick Bursky's comic, tender, elegiac, and surreal second collection, Death Obscura, begins "This was the night the police chased the musicians from the roof . . . ."

And we're off on a romp through Bursky's fecund imagination, as if swept away with the Beatles from their 1969 rooftop concert. ..."

Workshop at UCLA Extension

I'm teaching an intermediate poetry workshop at UCLA Extension on Thursday nights starting April 19th. Hope to see you there!

Poetry Economics

The economics of writing poetry are unfortunate. Most journals don’t pay poets for their poems. Most journals don’t make money. Most of the time all the poet gets is a free contributor’s copy. No complaints here. Though when I say most journals don’t pay what I mean they don’t pay money. Those journals, and there are many, pay with respect for the writer and the work. I’ve been thrilled to have my poems in many of them and even continue to support those journals with a subscription. But recently I’ve had a poem appear in an anthology, Wait a Minute, I Have to Take Off My Bra, that's taking advantage of the writer’s who made the book possible. I was happy to let them publish my poem, didn’t even occur to me that I should be paid. When I saw the book was being sold on Amazon I sent them an email asking when I could expect a contributor’s copy. Their reply, it would be months before they sent contributors' copies, and this was followed by an email saying that I could buy books at a discount. Hmmm, they have time to sell the book but don’t have time for the people who made the book possible. Sending contributor’s copies shouldn’t be a troubling chore when it’s the only form of payment. The book has been selling for months. If and when they send a contributor’s copy I’ll let you know. Let’s start a pool and see how long it takes. I’ll send the book to whoever gets closest.

"Poetry just like painting is something that you have to give your entire life to – and that includes all your life." Jim Harrison

Poetry Reading In San Diego

Reading in San Diego this weekend, Sunday, Oct 9, 3pm.
Open Door Books, 4761 Class Street, San Diego.
Once again, I will try not to be boring.