THE CAMEL SALOON – ONLINE POETRY BAR

I’ve just discovered The Camel Saloon – The World’s Original Online Poetry Bar where ‘dromedaries, malcontents and jewels in the world’ are apparently all welcome. Thank you Russell Streur.

It’s a new year and of course, having written my new year’s resolutions (I joke) I am taking advantage of the break to write, write, write (I wish). I am though (no joke), trying to get myself a bit organized, updating CVs, blogs and most importantly the lists: poems to send; places to send to. You know how it goes.

I’m updating submission deadlines on journals I’m well familiar with and refreshing on others I have just made a note of in the past. The Blue Hour (poetry, prose, flash fiction and short story) has published some good poems online and produces a handsome annual anthology of work selected from those posted through the year.

This is where I stumbled on The Invention of Cali a photograph and poem by Russell which I like a lot. (Sometimes Doom’s Built into the Design of a Thing by Maureen Kingston also stays with me among others.) The Camel Saloon which he operates is mentioned in his bio - now how could I resist! I love these travels. There you will find an interesting range of poems from around the world. Just putting my hand into the glad bag as we speak to give you an example … How about the small poem Detention by Sylvia Cavanaugh or The Reverberations from 9/11 Seem Likely to Continue For Many Years by Ally Malinenko.

Other pages include Postcards where contributors have posted photographs from their home/work-bases in America, Australia, China, Denmark, England, India, Indonesia France, New Zealand, Wales … It’s a bit like carving your initials to prove you are there – but far more scenic or artistic (and it's encouraged). There is also a Bookstore page, Gallery and Bactrian Room. And talking of Bactria that’s how I discovered these exquisite Goddesses:

Goddesses, Bactria, Afghanistan 2000-1800 BCE. With thanks to Wikipedia and Creative Commons:

I, PHGCOM [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons