Burdock 6 submissions

In the interest of formality this is a call for submissions to Burdock 6.
I'm trying to aim for an all women issue (not womyn, not that there's anything wrong with that).
Guidelines for submissions are as follows:

Poetry: send 5 poems via email at burdockmagazine@gmail.com or burdockmagazine@yahoo.com
Sticker size poems must be ten lines or under (this includes spaces between lines). Longer poems are welcome and encouraged as well.

Prose: send up to two pages of prose (essay, fiction, or mock interview) use a 8 and a half by 5 and half inch page with half inch margins for measurement.

Art and photography: all work must be in Jpeg and and in black and white.

Spelling errors and poor puncuation will be added at the editor's discretion.

Return of the Dead Wrestlers

Karl Saffran's Dead Wrestler Sonnets were mentioned in the Chapbook Corner Round Up 2008 on the Rain Taxi website.



"Teppichfresser Press brought out Karl Saffran’s hilarious though elegiac Dead Wrestler Sonnets." http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2008winter/chapbookcorner.shtml



I believe this constitutes a review. I could be wrong. In any event if ever the DVD of the show is made available the phrase "hilarious though elegiac" Will be on the back cover, or maybe the front. I will even put the hyphen Noah Eli Gordon, Rain Taxi.



Or maybe Karl can use this phrase in the author's note for his first volume of Selected Poems, provided of course he isn't responsible for the selecting process. He is concerned about his legacy.


The part of the performance can be viewed by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPrA7W7f2o8&feature=channel_page

For what it's worth I still think the best commentary on Karl's poetry came via the MilwaukeeWrestling. com message board. Keep in mind that up to that point this thread was started to help promote the show (lotta good that did!) but after the show it got a bunch of posts and was the longest on the message board for a month or two and the longest one up to that time, of course I did my part to keep the fire going but it all started with a post courtesy of Silas Young, a local wrestler who was not on the card that night.

SO I saw the book of poems for dead wrestlers and how disrespectfull. I just wish I was there so I could spit in the face of the douche who wrote them. Thats whats wrong with this business you got goofs who dont know teh first thing bout wrestling running shows women hanging out telling everyone there sisters with Sheri Martel and that there a womens champp that wrestles once a year which i doubt that. Or the guy who comes to BCW and tells people he has a thousand finishers. Quit being IDiots and get trained pay ur dues and then keep your mouth shut.

Thankfully, Karl has little to fear from Silas http://www.myspace.com/silasyoung123, he won't fight anyone for unless the pay is good.

If P then Q

Go to this link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GabeSpangler

If you think these clips from my show look great (as edited by Gabe Spangler) then you should 1) ask how you can buy a copy of the DVD 2)offer to sponsor Keith for the Woodland Pattern Marathon 3) date Keith* 4) hire Gabe to edit your wedding/bahmitzfah/high school reunion/swingers convention footage into a DVD 5) watch them over and over again!!!!

You get the idea.

 *suggestion to date Keith valid in WI,ME, and select Canadian provinces. Suggestion subject to change. Chicks only. Suggestion not redeemable for cash or tobacco products. Watch videos for further suggestion. 

Woodland Pattern Marathon

I've signed up for the 2009 Woodland Pattern Marathon. This is my first time participating in the marathon so I don't want to look too bad when I hand in my sponsorships list. What I'm saying is this: Sponsor me!
You can give any amount but 35 dollars gets you an all day pass to the event.
I'm in the late shift posse. I'm reading at 11pm but there are several people to see during the day. Just click on the title of the post to check it out.
-Keith

How far does a burdock travel?

So everyone knows you can take some of the poems out and put them in odd or cool places. Well to make that idea more interesting I'm asking anyone who has a copy of any past Burdocks to send me a picture of the poem in action and I'll post it on the blog.
Post a poem somewhere take a photo send it to burdockmagazine@gmail.com and I'll feature it on the blog here.
Past ideas have been bathroom stalls, in the pages of an anthology (to cover up lesser poems), and the bumper of the poetry bus. But NOBODY, myself included has done any of these, the bus was gone when I got back. If you're in the NY area I suggest also sticking Mike Begnal's poem on something Mets related, the picture would be worth it.
Thanks to Aisha and Charlie for the advice. I hope to see something interesting.

Illustrations by Jeremy Mericle

When I asked him to draw the cover for issue one all I told him was I needed something that would take up the whole cover and not leave too much white space. Not that I dislike voids but I just felt like having something big with a logo feel to it. Jeremy is a versatile illustrator. A graduate of MIAD (Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) he came to the conclusion that most of the modern art coming from academic institutions relies less on anything put on canvass and more on what the artist puts on paper in mission statements. Illustrators have the luxury of allowing stories to dictate goals. As an illustrator his preference for narrative allows him to work with short fiction but his knack for picking out interesting images enables him to work with poetry as well, in fact, his thesis was drawing illustration for the poetry of Omar Khayyám. Another example of this is his work for Jonathan Lohr’s first chapbook Watertown’s Plank Road. The images Mericle chose from the short manuscript demonstrated his skill as an illustrator as well as the understanding and insight that is required to work with poetry in order to enunciate, but not overshadow, the written word. In addition to these contributions he also drew an excellent illustration for the story "Flying Saucer Nights" by Jim Hazard in Burdock the Two. He is currently at work on his own children's book.

Burdock 5 gets some press!

I'm so lazy with updates but luckily the Shepherd Express is on the ball. Click the blog title for the article. It's a nice write up. Thanks to Aisha for taking the time to do something I should have done! With any luck in a few days I should have some contributor info up.