right hand pointing

If you frequent the online places where poets tend to go, you probably have seen videos by Swoon, AKA Marc Neys. Marc, among other creative things, makes videos featuring poems. This issue features a Swoon video based on three poems which also appear in the traditional format (backed by luscious orange) in this issue.

We went through the usual process of reading submissions, accepting some, and rejecting others, often painfully, until we got our usual number of 20-24 poems. Marc then went through these, blind to the authorship (but, as far as we know, not blind to anything else) and chose for the video "Something," by Kathleen Kirk, "Summer's End" by Howie Good, and "Short Lines on Winter" by Guy Traiber. Kathleen Kirk has appeared on RHP before. Howie Good is a regular contributor to almost every poetry journal on the web. (I wonder if I bet $10,000 that Howie is the most published poet in North America, I'd lose that sum. I don't think so.)  Guy Traiber is a new contributor, and we are pleased to have him on board. Congratulations to these poets and a very special thanks to Marc for his willingness to make this very substantial contribution to Right Hand Pointing. 

After 10 years, Right Hand Pointing has jumped on the Pushcart. We are happy to announce our Pushcart nominees. For this we must thank associate editor Laura M Kaminski, who went through a year's worth of writing on RHP to pull a group of candidates, from which we together selected the nominees.

It's a good thing Laura took this on. If it were me doing it, I might be about ready to name the 2007 nominees.

The 2014 nominees are below. Note that two of the six are from this current issue. 
 

Clarence Wolfshohl: “Pinto” (from RHP chapbook Equus Essence)

Brian Cooney: “[in my lunchbox]” (Issue 78)

Philippe Shils: “dry baby” (chapbook/print edition Hey Hey Pretty Baby)

Howie Good: “How to Be a Bluesman” (from the book Fugitive Pieces)

R.T. Castleberry: “Borrowed Gloves” (Issue 81)

Annie Stenzel: “On Witnessing the Descent of Another Into Depression” (Issue 81)

Congratulations to all these poets.

I want to take this time, as I always do, to thank our wonderful team of editors, Laura M Kaminski and the legendary F Troop, F. John Sharp and F. J. Bergmann. And thank you all for your ongoing support. 

Have a superior December. Buy this present for someone and most of your money will go to feed someone. Or this one and contribute to a equestrian program for kids with disabilities. Remember that the publisher (me) does not keep one dime. More impressively, neither do the authors. This business model, by the way, (and please don't laugh at the use of the term "business") is unusual. It is a business that is designed to lose money. If, as so many of you have told me, I am such a genius (this is the very nuanced subtext of so many submissions to the journal) why am I only worth about 11 million dollars?

Stay warm!

Dale