A Long Island Endeavor
Soliciting poems and photographs
for a forthcoming anthology:
Paumanok, Transition
Submission period begins November 15th 2019,
Must be postmarked by
March 15th, 2020 (deadline)
Welcome those who live or lived on Paumanok,
Brooklyn/Queens, Nassau/Sufflok.
(The 3rd and last book of a trilogy.)
You may know about
(1) Paumanok, Poems and Pictures of Long Island, about our natural environment, then
2) Paumanok, Interwoven, about people in relationship to one another. Now, with
Barbara Southard
our Poet Laureate in Suffolk County
and
Evelyn Kandel
our Poet Laureate in Nassau County
(3)
Paumanok, Transition
will be about the changes we make in our lives
or the ones that just happen to us
or someone we know
or don’t know.
Editorial Staff:
Richard Bronson, Carmen Bugan, Linda Dickman, Kathy Donnelly, Carolyn Emerson, Gladys Henderson, Mindy Kronenberg,
Robert Savino, Barbara Southard, Gayl Teller, Pramila Venkateswaran and Claire Nicolas White.
There needs to be rules, so here they are:
Into a snail-mail envelope addressed to —
Island Sound Press
c/o Kathy Donnelly
18 Main Street
Stony Brook, New York, 11790
send:
A) cover letter with:
1) the list of your poems/photographs (titled),
2) your name, address, phone number, email address and
3) a 5-7 line bio.
B) Theme is TRANSITION, must be OK for ‘children of all ages’ to read.
C) Your poems: just one poem on the page(s), any style: free verse, rhyme and forms. If published elsewhere, name the publisher, where it was published and date. (If you have retained copyright on your poem). If your poems have appeared in books, you may need permission from the publisher as well as your own.) Write your name after the poem.
D) Your photographs- Please send photos to , 5x7, 300 DPI, B&W or color. Photographs should be taken on Long Island. Those selected will be printed in the book from their original electronic files. I'll be working with Rob Bonanno at Color Images Photo Lab in Holbrook. Include your name, address, phone number, Title of the photograph and location of the photo. Photos are chosen to complement the poem. If a photograph selected is published elsewhere and you have retained the copyright, please send the name of the publication, publisher and date. You may need permission from a publisher as well as your own.
Poems and Pictures will be carefully selected.
The book will be available as an e-book at a nominal fee.
A printed book will need to be ordered
for no more than its cost.
Examples from the last book:
Terry Amburgey
ARRIVING ON PAUMANOK
Paumanok: "The island with its breast long drawn out.”
W.W. Brooklyn Standard
A Midwesterner, an inlander,
a lover of the interior,
arrives on Long Island. “Paumanok!”
he whispers, savoring his Whitman,
local aborigine. “Paumanok,” he says,
half aloud. He feels salt water swaying
on every side of him. He looks around
for the rows and rows of ripening
corn he’d sighted down since he was
pushed from the womb. None. Expressways.
“Paumanok,” he repeats, looking
at a map. “Manhasset…Mineola…Massapequa,
”he reads. He picks out the red and green lines
looping the long breast. He turns them
on his tongue like strange herbs.
“Cutchogue…Patchogue…Ponquogue,
”he intones. “Wantagh and Wickapogue.
”He feels a mist drifting in from the shore.
“Quogue and Nissequogue, Nesconsett
and Amagansett,” he sings. He hears the
surf spashing nearer. “Commack
and Speonk and Setauket,” he chants,
“Ronkonkoma, Ronkonkoma.” “Shinnecock,
Peconic.” In the middle of a fog
sliding inland off the sea like
the souls of the dead, he says, softly,
“Mattituck, Montauk.” He whispers,
“Paumanok, Paumanok.” He begins
to hear voices from the interior.
Norbert Krapf
R Robert Harrison
Paumanok
you spread your finned fingers
118 miles east from New York Harbor to Montauk Point,
stretch 23 miles north-south from Long Island Sound
to the southern Atlantic coast,
1,401 square miles of luscious you
Paumanok
you embrace more than 7.5 million devotees
between limbs of the Pine Barrens
from the peak of Jayne’s Hill to the kettle depths
of Lake Ronkonkoma, across emerald lawns
of Gold Coast mansions, past strip stores and busy malls,
along Poospatuck and Shinnecock Reservations
through native-named towns of Nissequogue
Massapequa, Canarsie, Patchogue, Amagansett, Asharoken,
Commack, Copiague, Rockaway, Manhasset, Sagaponack
your vineyards ripe with vintage abundance
arboretums and planting fields vibrant with blossoms
your tears of sorrow and happiness quenching us
enchanting us with your legends and mysteries
alerting us to your federally-endangered Sandplain Gerardia
your Roseate Tern, Bird’s Foot Violet, Piping Plover
teach us to love you, honor you, abide by your unspoken rules
educate us Stony Brook, SUNY, NYIT, Adelphi, Hofstra, LIU,
Dowling, Molloy, Nassau Community, Suffolk Community
museums, galleries, parks, preserves, aquariums, zoos
– with your brains and talent-show beauty, it’s no wonder you
are the most populated island of any US state or territory
Paumanok, home
to our Islanders, Mets, Ducks, The Big Duck,
the Hamptons wealthy with elegance
Jones Beach, the amphitheatre, the needle, the boardwalk
clamming, crabbing, floating
on your bosom of water
crossing your estuaries, your rivers, your flowing birth waters
commuting your byways, your highways, routes to your heart
ferries at Port Jefferson, Orient Point, Shelter Island
Fire Island Lighthouse
9 bridges and 13 tunnels funneling your lovers
across your historic land
Paumanok
you move us, yearn for our return
with major airstrips at LaGuardia, JFK, MacArthur
railroads, subways, buses, recreational trails, drive-ways
north-south BQE, Van Wyck, Clearview, Cross Island,
Meadowbrook, Wantagh, Seaford Oyster Bay , Robert Moses Causeway, Sagtikos, Sunken Meadow, William Floyd
east-west Belt/Southern State, Grand Central/Northern State,
LIE, Northern Blvd, Jericho Tpke, Hempstead Tpke,
Montauk Hwy, Sunrise
to sunset, you give of yourself, ask nothing in return –
mold us to deserve your generosity
help us to preserve your integrity
Paumanok
we worship you, the ground we walk on, plant in, grow on
arms entwined in fins, protect us from harming you, help us
conserve you, secure you, love us as we adore you
beloved Paumanok,
our Paumanok.
~ J R Turek
Did Albert die?
