Review of 2024: Part Three

Autumn of 2024 was busier than ever for Wheelsong Books. This is part 3 in our review of the year. Part one can be read at this link and part two can be viewed here.

August

As August began, Wheelsong's next publication was released. It was Storming Oblivion by the mercurial New York poet Peter Rivers. This book was Peter's first full collection of published poetry and it certainly caused a small storm with its moody cover design and extraordinary poetry. 

Writing about his debut collection, Peter says:

This collection represents a journey through my own expression, recognizing the potential value within my own voice. Storming Oblivion will present tales of love, loss, fear, doubt, feelings that lack reciprocity and more. Travel with me on my road to self-discovery as I share the deepest parts of my soul with you in my quest for self-acceptance.

September

As the summer drew to a close and the leaves began to change colour, Wheelsong Books published an amazing collection of poetry titled Stealing Fire.  Written by Irish poet Tyrone M. Warren, Stealing Fire is a radical departure from much of Wheelsong's previous offerings. Tyrone is a poet with a difference. He speaks from his own experience about a number of challenging issues including domestic abuse, urban alienation and addiction. His writing is visceral, stream of consciousness style and it utterly captures your attention. Tyrone lived in London for many years but recently made his home in the idyllic Cornish countryside.

He says about his own writing craft:

It’s been a hard graft starting from scratch again and I feel a sincere gratitude to have had this opportunity like God heard my heart and I had the clarity to see and read the signs.

October

The much awaited Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 5 was published as Autumn decended. Edited by myself, with able assistance from Brandon Adam Haven and Charlene Phare, WSPA5 features poetry from all six continents, and has become just as popular as all its previous siblings. The cover art is a photo I took from street level of skyscrapers in Manhattan while working in New York in 2015. 

Containing poems in many styles and diverse themes, WSPA5 is an excellent addition to anyone's poetry collection, and features a number of new poets previously unpublished. 

As ever, sales of every book contribute to Wheelsong's charity donations, with more than £6,500 ($8,100) so far being given to Save the Children to help feed, provide health care and educate children in crisis. Wheelsong will continue to create these books for as long as there is an audience to read them. 

November

The final book of 2024 was published in November and it was quite a pleasant surprise to many poetry fans. Circus of Circles by young Irish poet Aoife Cunningham caused quite a stir, not only due to its fiercely vibrant cover art, but also because of the way the book created a new dimension for Aoife's dynamic and powerful spoken word performances. 

Much of her work in the book derives from personal mental struggles and dark, painful places, as well as life in a lage Irish family, but as ever it is all delivered with her inimitable wit and humour. Aoife presents her art with grace and style, always infused with the unmistakeable culture and charm of the Emerald Isle. 

We hope to hear a lot more from this talented young poet in the coming years. 

December

In the final month of the year Invisible Poets reached the significant milestone of 50,000 members. Less than 2 years old, the group thrives from a range of activities including several regular live shows from the UK, USA, Brazil and other countries, energising experimental poetry exercises and engaging writing challenges, many of which yield a diverse range of poems and creative works shared on the site. 

To celebrate reaching 50,000, Wheelsong has created a special T-Shirt which presents the slogan 'Poetry Against Poverty'. Needless to say, every sale raises a fair amount of money to support children in crisis across the globe. In the new year, Wheelsong has plans to establish an online store selling a range of merchandising that will further support Save the Children. Watch out for announcements on the group sites!

Previous parts of this annual review are available:

Review of 2024 (Part One)

Review of 2024 (Part Two)

Steve Wheeler

Review of 2024: Part Two

The first part of this annual review can be read at this link.

May

As the summer of 2024 began to break through, May saw the publication of Marmalade Hue by Oldham poet Donna Marie Smith. There's a story behind this cover. During the production stage Donna and I discussed the title of the book, and I asked her to come up with a title that lent itself to imagery. Marmalade Hue was chosen because it immediately conjured up a picture in my mind. The image was one I took of trees in winter, which I then colourised. 

Donna's gritty, down-to-earth but very humorous and touching book has been quite popular, and has attracted some glowing reviews, including this one by American poet Gregory Richard Barden: 

This wonderful book of poetry is filled with so much beautifully expressed content, presented with eloquence and charm, I would recommend this for everyone – get one for your nightstand or coffee table, and take this marvellous journey through poetic excellence!

June

As the month of June began, Wheelsong published its next collection of the year, by Gregory Richard Barden. Melancholy Moon is the first of several collections that will be published by Greg through Wheelsong. Greg's eloquently crafted poetry deserves a much larger audience than he currently enjoys, and hopefully this book will begin to make him more visible in the poetry community.

Greg is a master of the fixed form genre of poetry and his stunning poetry is very rich in both imagery and metaphor. It's quite exciting to anticipate what he will create in his next book.As Mark Massey remarked in his review: 

Greg Barden’s collection of poetry touches every emotion. His sonnets are perfection. This book needs to be in your collection.

July

There has been a demand to publish a second collection from Matt Elmore ever since his first book, Constellation Road hit the bookshelves. In July Wheelsong finally released a superb collection from the Kentucky poet that we hope does justice to his poetic genius. Matt creates poetry that is breathless, relentless and thrilling. In Average Angel, he conjures up a very enjoyable sequence of poems that challenge, thrill and amaze.

In Matt's own words:

Average angels surround us. They give more than they take. They make life worthwhile and they light up our lives. Do you know any? This is about them… Life is a game of opposites. Positive and negative, pleasure and pain… life and death. There are many who cannot reconcile the good from the bad because there seems to be such little hope without some form of unseen intervention.

August

My own book of new poetry, The Infinite Now was published in August of 2024. It contained a collection of diverse themes and styles. I think it's my most sophisticated book to date, but I won't blow my own trumpet. I'll introduce my brass section instead:

This extraordinary volume ... is a magnificent achievement of poetic excellence, inspiring spirituality, and exceptional beauty. Steve Wheeler is a modern master creating an immense breadth and depth of poetic forms and intriguing themes. – Linda Powers O'Dell

From the preface, through the verse-gilded pages, to the very last punctuation point, this book is a rich and varied glimpse into the realms of a prolific poet and a wondrous imagination. Every selection is a new spell-binding story that will leave you breathless, enriched, and wanting for more. Of all the many anthologies I have read of late, this one was the hardest to put down. – Gregory Richard Barden


The final part of this annual review can be read at this link.

Steve Wheeler

Review of 2024: Part One

2024 has been a busy and very productive year for Wheelsong Books and Invisible Poets. Here is the first of three parts of a comprehensive review of our achievements and successes over the year.

January 

The goal Wheelsong Books set itself as a publisher in 2024 was to publish one book each month. The first book off the Wheelsong press in 2024 was a collection of my own poetry from 2020-2023, titled All the Best (this is usually how I sign off an email). 

The poems in the collection were drawn from a number of previously published books including RITE, Shocks & Stares, My Little Eye and Nocturne. It contains poems such as Yasmina, I Ordered an Uber and a Hearse Showed up Instead, and many more.

What may have baffled some readers is the section headings which were all named in Latin or Greek. That's just me having a little fun with language!

February

As an online poetry community, Invisible Poets celebrated its first birthday in February 2024, a milestone commemorated by the publication of Invisible Poets Anthology 1. IPA1 is a collection of premier poetry all of which has featured in Live Poets Society shows. The best of the best poetry featured in the book, which is still on sale today to raise money for Save the Children. In total, the book featured more than 350 poems and at just over 300 pages, is the largest volume Wheelsong has published to date.

The cover art is a split image of artistic graffiti I found in a motorway underpass just a half mile away from my house. My daughter Amy Wheeler took the image, which features me in a green hoodie. The separated image of the hooded poet has since become the icon for Invisible Poets, and now features on our charity T-shirts (of which more later). 

March

As the first signs of Spring began to appear, we were working on the final touches of a wonderful collection by American poet David Catterton Grantz. Previously an educator, Dave's poetry has an ethereal lyrical quality that has to be experienced to be believed. Shadows into Light really showcases his unique talent as a poet, and although it may have been the first Wheelsong publication, it was in fact his fifth published collection. 

His work is summed up nicely by Ellis Ralph, wordsmith and singer-songwriter: 

Grantz is an expected surprise, a familiar novelty, dependably unpredictable in form and content, style and mood ever shifting his ideas, and yours. Strap in and ride shotgun in whatever vehicle he’s driving, to wherever it goes. He knows the way.

April

The Wheelsong Poetry Anthology is becoming a regular twice-a-year event, with contributions drawn from five or more large poetry groups across the online network. Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 4 was edited by me, ably assisted by Donna Smith and Matt Elmore, and what a difficult job we had! We received more than 500 submissions in just 3 weeks, and systematically waded through each, to select the very best of the best. I think the editorial team managed to do a very good job, as the collection clearly indicates. It's a great book, well worth a read, and hopefully it will become a classic in time. 

The beautiful image was donated by David Catterton Grantz to grace the front cover of our flagship publication. All proceeds are donated to our favourite charity, Save the Children and every sale raises enough to feed a malnourished child for almost a month. 

Continue reading the review of 2024 in these posts:

Review of 2024: Part Two (May-August)

Review of 2024: Part Three (September-December)

Steve Wheeler

Experimental Poetry 19: Sonic poems

The spoken word can be extremely powerful.  It can impact heavily on the emotions because it's a sensory mode we use constantly, and the human voice can convey a rich variation of inflexions, tones and nuances of emphases. Furthermore, the current generation is a listening generation. You just need to sit on an underground train, or stand in any public place to see how many people are using headphones or ear buds connected to their devices.

Have you tried to record yourself reading your poetry? Have you ever used music or sonic effects to enhance your poems? It has never been easier to embellish an audio track with additional content such as a rythmic beat or soundscape. Be careful if you want to use someone else's music. Most music is copyrighted, so you'd need to obtain permission. 

If you'd rather streamline things, you have two options. 1) create your own music (this is the topic for another blog post) or 2) find copyright free music you can use for free without any legal hassle. Always check the terms of use for free music. 

If you choose the music first, listen to it as you write your poem. As you do so you may find that you begin to adapt your lines and phrasing to the tempo of the track. This takes some practice but the aim is to fuse your words with the music so they become one entity, one piece of art. In good sonic poetry, the words and the sounds complement each other. 

The most effective and unique sonic poems feature sounds and utterances rather than recognisable words or phrases. Try writing while avoiding the use of words. 

Steve Wheeler 

Computer Plundering (Writing Our Own Poems)

Poets unite!!

The blatant attack on the originality of the collective poetic soul continues as AI sucks the blood of our human family emotions and spits it back out in the name of art. Yet is the poetic “art” AI offers subjective, when held up to the light of the human world to judge?

What determines the merit of AI authenticity? Who holds the keys to the expression and perspective representing the kingdom of humanity? WE DO!!! The dreamers of dreams and actors upon a stage unapproachable by the algorithms and viperous poison of computer plundering.

I am continually shocked at the audacity of humans to use computers to write poems and consider it as viable as masterworks we have cherished for generations. The ability to create fresh and conceptually original work has propelled artists for centuries. 

I’ve dreamed for years of a poetry renaissance that brings poets together in one concentrated effort to find an explicit and profound beauty in truth. This truth is one that machines will never recognize. They can only copy, paste, and adapt to our organic navigation.

An all out war against the constraints of the current rules of poetry is evident and always has been. Apathy has brought many so called poets to the point of allowing computers to do their homework and get celebrated grades. It’s time to drop out of this school of thought.

There is a school of poets that are dedicated to perceiving, creating, and reciprocating all the emotions of dreams only we as humans can dream. What does this mean? 

DREAM YOUR OWN DREAMS POET!!! DRAW FROM EXPERIENCES AND MAKE A PERSONAL STATEMENT THAT IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE!! YOU ARE THE POET… NOT A BLINKING BOX OF LACKLUSTER LIGHTS!!!!! BE THE BEST POET YOU… AND ONLY YOU… CAN BE!!!!!!!

Matthew Elmore

Author Of “Constellation Road”

& “Average Angel”

 

10 ways to survive Invisible Poets

This week we reached 50,000 members. It would have been a lot more, but not everyone who has been in the group has stayed. Quite a few people have come to a sad end on Invisible Poets. Many of those who have been removed (or in Moderator parlance - 'walked the plank') for being rude and abusive, or for peddling porn, or for deceiving members with scams. These are the undesirable people we don't want in our group. They make the group unsafe, uncomfortable and cause a lot of grief. You can thank your vigilant moderator and Admin team for the lovely, creative and supportive place that Invisible Poets has become. 

There are also a lot of members who don't seem to be able to cope with the way Invisible Poets is run. Some leave the group because they think they are being ignored by other members, or they are being victimised or marginalised by moderators. This is a shame, because they are sadly mistaken, and tend to leave the good ship IP needlessly. 

Here are 10 key tips for you, on how to survive and thrive in the group:

1) Don't stand idly by and hope that people will come to your poem and laud it with showers of comments, love hearts and thumbs ups. It won't happen if you simply share your poem and sit back. Your poem won't show up on the timelines of members because Facebook has an algorithm that only makes you visible to others when you interact with them. So here's the first tip: Read other people's poetry and comment on it, or tap the Like button. That way you'll be more visible. 

2) Don't get angry and blame Admin or Moderators if your post or comment is refused. Post rejections usually happen automatically. The system is set up to reject certain key phrases that usually occur in spam and scam robot posts. Another reason your work may be automatically rejected is if you have no user picture.  Choose an image (either your own photograph, or some other image) that represents your account. That way your posts and comments will not be automatically rejected.

3) Watch the live shows whenever you can. Not only are they entertaining, they contain a lot of information and you also get treated to the very best poetry from the group, several times each week - and all for free!

4) Give more than you take. This is not just altruistic (see point 1 above) but it does mean that if you start to read other people's work you will learn more about your own art of writing poetry and will probably pick up a lot of new ideas about how to develop your writing skills. 

5) Regularly check the Features section at the top of the group page. Contained there are all the recordings of previous live shows where members' poetry is read out, poetry writing challenges, group news and other gems that might just give you some ideas for new poems.

6) Please don't post your own poems in the comments section of someone else's post.  Some people do this when they see a popular post because they think it will gain them a bigger audience. This is not welcomed in the group, because not only it is self seeking, it's very rude. 

7) If you wish to promote your own books or publications, please make sure you share poems from the books, otherwise you'll be disappointed when a moderator removes your post for breaking the group rules. 

8) Read the blog (yes, this one). There are many excellent posts on here about all things poetry, including explanations of terms, new ideas for poetry writing and a series on experimental poetry. It's there for you to learn from, so please use it whenever you wish.

9) Don't share poetry that you haven't written yourself. We do not permit people to plagiarise the work of others. It is illegal (it breaks copyright laws) and it is dishonest (theft). We also prohibit the use of Artificial Intelligence tools to create poetry. Anyone who does this is not welcome in the group.

10) Finally, please treat everyone in the group with the respect you feel you deserve yourself. Being kind to others doesn't cost anything. A supportive comment, a few kind words or a good piece of encouraging feedback goes a long way. You never know, you might meet people on this group that you'll be friends with for life.

Steve Wheeler

Founder of Invisible Poets