Call for Atheist Poetry

Via Friendly Atheist and Incarnate Muse Press.

Incarnate Muse Press is currently accepting submissions for two poetry anthologies forthcoming in 2008. Incarnate Muse Press is seeking poems for its second atheist poetry anthology.

Confront, question, or deny the god of your youth, the sacred text of your culture. Express your disbelief, disapproval, doubt, or dismay. Looking for honest, thought-provoking poetry daring to speak against the social norm of belief and/or attempting to take the stigma from nonbelief. Interested in nontheism expressed positively rather than solely in opposition to theism.

Avoid gratuitous vulgarity and unfocused anger. We feel that atheism is often defined too narrowly and inaccurately. A theos means without god(s). If there is no god you believe in, if you are not a theist, you are, by literal definition, an atheist. These categories fit anthology also: humanist, freethought, agnostic, biblical revisionist, sacrilegious …

Up to 6 poems, SASE. Please write atheist in your cover letter or email subject title. Pays copies. Deadline: July 30, 2008. Need ideas? Send SASE for suggestions.

Incarnate Muse Press is seeking poems from adult survivors of childhood emotional and/or psychological abuse. We are looking for poems of high literary quality rather than poems that are simply cathartic.

We are not wanting to see poems about physical or sexual abuse, but about the other abuse, the one that can be much harder to recognize. Parental bullying, neglect, disinterest, mental illness, personality disorders, etc., interest us. Possible topics: loneliness, self-blame, confusion, deep feelings of worthlessness, anger, recognition, acceptance, healing, forgiveness, distance, the impact on your adult relationships, etc.

Up to 6 poems, SASE. Please write abuse in your cover letter or email subject title. Pays copies. Deadline: June 15, 2008.

Addresses for submissions:
Incarnate Muse
℅ Michelle Rhea
PO BOX 5756
SANTA BARBARA CA 93150-5756
or
IncarnateMuse@yahoo.com

An Evolution Christmas

I'm so darned proud of this poem that I wrote for the folks at Uncommon Descent that I'm going to post it here, too! I wrote it in only ten minutes! (Or maybe you can tell?) Well, I like it.

All the best to everyone out there!

UPDATED: pbfared was kind enough to ask to reprint my poem.

T’was the night before Christmas
and all through the world,
not a creature had evolved yet,
not even a bird.
The stars were all hung
from the cliff-tops it seemed,
but the roiling oceans
bubbled and dreamed.

The pre-Cambrian children
were snug in their sludge,
with visions of mollusks
and trilobite fudge

When, what with a patter
three kingdoms arrived
bearing the gifts of
two more, to make five!

On Cambrian! On Ordovician! On Silurian goo!
On Devonian! On Carboniferous! On Permian, too!
From the lowest prokaryotic to the tallest dinosaur—
now dash away, dash away, from the meteor roar!

So up the food chain the mammals grew,
with a brain-cage of goodies, and you and me, too.
And as Homo erectus was turning around,
Down from the tree St. Nick came with a bound.
He was covered in hair, from his head to his foot,
And his elves were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of sticks he had flung on the briar,
And looked like he was about to invent fire.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like breadfruit, his nose like a berry.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Making footprints in the creek bed, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger alongside his nose,
he startled the primates with his Ho Ho Ho!s

He sprang to a branch, and brachiated like mad,
and away his elves followed, for none had been bad.
And thanks to this we have speech to describe this sight.
So happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

UPDATED: Oh, sure. Now Panda's Thumb has the 12 Days of Disco REDUX (that's the Disco(very) Institute, kids).