Sunday, March 03, 2024

Eulogy for Myron Siegell (11.7.41 - 3.1.24)

[Video courtesy of South Florida Jewish Cemetery]

*Pass/Fail*

In his head: Friday 1963 America; pop’s
teaching experience of 21: only a veteran
of marriage to mother for exactly five days—
October 25 & the Selective Service has him

standing on a line in his underwear and
lower Manhattan’s 100 Whitehall Street—
plus, at front a-this line he’s on: a bunch a-
bodies gettin’ blood siphoned into vials.

My father’s jiggling: Like twenty guys
just passed out; ev’rybody’s laughing
and the ARMY guys, you know how they get,
all yellin’ and screamin’, makin ev’rybody
turn around an’ shut up


A few hours further in all this, after
they graded his intelligence test, my father’s
sitting one-on-one in a small office at a small desk
w/ a guy in tight-uniform holding up his scores
in a militant right hand: You just graduated
with a B.S. in Accounting from N.Y.U.,
the guy says, and did this lousy!


Heaviness jiggles again.

After he’d finish’d the draft’s written exam,
my father comes outta Whitehall’s testing room
to walk into a guy named Bob Johnson—an old
Flushing High, 1959 frat brother—a guy he
hadn’t seen in, like, 4 years & they start
holy shitting each other, shakin’ hands.

Their reunion picks up from shared realities
of just graduating college & Bob goes: So,
how’d you do on that written exam?

& my dad whispers: I purposely flunked it.
Bob’s like: Why? & my dad says: ’Cause I
didn’t want to be a forward artillery observer
in Vietnam


Ho-ly shit! Bob is shocked.
Why didn’t I think of that? he says—

& my father then said he never saw the guy again.
...

Crazy, right? He was crafty, that Myron. Let’s back up a little bit:

OK, one wild Friday night in 1961, a sprightly 16-year-old girl named Elaine Wieder from Jamaica, Queens got all gussied up and went with her Gamma Kappa Delta high school sorority sisters to an NYU Beta Sigma Ro fraternity party near Washington Square. (O, to be young.) Elaine was dancing with a guy named Gerry Storch, but when she heard someone make a loud, rambunctious, “barbaric yawp” as he burst into the party, she looked over to see who it was...

Myron Ernest Siegell was born on November 7th, 1941. His parents, Benjamin and Pauline, were of Romanian and Ukrainian descent and lived in the East Village on 11th Street between Avenues A and B, right near Thompson Square. Myron grew up with his older brother Stuart, went to Flushing High, then graduated with a Bachelor’s in Accounting from NYU.

He told me once that, not only did he do folk singer Pete Seeger’s taxes, but Woody Guthrie’s taxes as well. Completely blew my mind. He even did Woody’s son, Arlo Guthrie’s taxes. It is impossible for me to not picture Myron with black horn-rimmed glasses, a pocket protector and one of those white-scroll adding machines — a total “square” in some smoke-filled office on Wall Street, meticulously calculating the deductions of my freewheeling folk heroes of the mid-century soundwaves. He said Woody would sit on the floor and stare out the window, waiting for the meeting to be over.

(By the way, who names their son Myron? And not just Myron, but Myron Ernest? Of course he was going to become an accountant!)

About 20 years ago, just starting my career, my dad was doing my taxes and he emailed me to confirm my occupation. Figuring he’d roll his eyes and just call me for the actual answer, I replied: “Lavatory Aviator.” No response. A week later I brought in my mail and there was my tax return. Wanting my refund, I immediately signed it, sent it to the IRS and embarked upon my exciting new career as a “flying shit-box pilot.”

He always let me be his crazy son. And I always did everything I could to make him laugh.

OK, trigger warning: I sincerely apologize in advance if this next section offends anyone or anyone’s family name. I simply couldn’t not include this:

Ready? Here we go: I don’t know how I even knew the line; I was only 10 years old. Around the dinner table with me sat my two older sisters, Alisa and Linda, and mom and dad. They were chatting about a friend of theirs, and, upon hearing said friend’s name, I blurted out a line that wreaked absolute havoc on my father’s functioning. Given recent events, this is odd to say, but one of the greatest things in the world was my father... when he couldn’t breathe. Everything jiggled and shook, turned read and teared up. In that moment, he was laughing so hard he was halfway outta his seat. What I said was: If you’re Lipshitz, then my ass talks. (Sorry!)

Easily an all-time favorite memory. I’d never seen someone lose it so badly. From that day on, all I wanted to do was make his belly shake. But recently, all he wanted to do was kiss the toddler and newborn cheeks of his granddaughters. That, and get the hell outta rehab and the hospital, and get back on home to mom. 60 years they were married. She was 18, he was 21. All those years together. I don’t know how you did it. All those holidays, cruises, meals, fights, illnesses, quiet moments, misunderstandings, and joys.

I love you, mom.

And for the longest time, that simple phrase was one of the hardest things for him to say. Myron had a world-famous smile, but, man, was he aloof! Stoic and aloof. Whenever my parents dropped me off at the airport, I’d say “I love you” and practically had to force him to say it back to me. It was so hard for him to say, his eyes would well up when he finally relented. But those watery eyes, they meant everything to me.

But then, all of that changed when my parents rescued that loud little long-hair Chihuahua, Riley. Dad would be all, “I love you, Riley” and “How’s my sweet baby boy” and mushy Riley this and are-you-serious Riley that. Linda and I would look at each other like “What. the heck. is happening right now? Where was all of that while we were growing up?”

Riley annoyingly barks at the slightest movement, but there’s no denying that that dog opened up my father’s world and helped him better express himself. My mom, too. So, to my little brother Riley, I am grateful.

What my dad lacked in words of affection, he made up for in gestures both grand & unassuming.

Every year for my birthday he’d take off work and take me (and sometimes mom) into the city to places like the Natural History Museum, MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim, the Intrepid—anything monumental enough to launch me properly into the next year of becoming.

He taught me how to draw Saturn so the rings looked like they were spinning. He taught me how to play chess, how to use chopsticks, and how to pull dandelions from the grass with a screwdriver.

In 1986 he taught me the edge-of-your-seat thrill of rooting for a winning baseball team. And in 1990, he taught me that if you take your son to the Douglaston Movie Theatre to see The Hunt for Red October, you could watch all 2 hours and 15 minutes of it, then go into the bathroom and hang out just long enough to be able to sneak into the next showing of Major League just as it was about to begin.

Like I said, he was crafty, that Myron. He was always calculating something.

The summer after my junior year of college, I was staying with my parents before I had to be at a job in the North Georgia Hills, and instead of me just taking a flight, dad had the idea to drive me from Boca Raton… all the way up... to Atlanta. He gave us the gift of one of those classic father-and-son road movies. Over the tires and miles, we talked about our lives and all the feel-good things you’d expect from such a box office hit. Time to hash things out and heal. We stopped for the night in Macon, Georgia and he got me a beer. I ordered Chicken Romano, had one of the best meals of my life, and then we went back to the hotel room to watch Michael Jordan win his 6th NBA title. Absolute perfection. The next day he dropped me off, I said “I love you”... and then he turned the car around... and drove the long road south... all way back home. Alone.

I still have your old dandelion-pulling screwdriver, dad. I still have a copy of our “Lavatory Aviator” tax return. And... in my head... I still have the sound... of the last thing... you would ever say to me :::

I love you, too.”
[03.03.24]

Thursday, February 08, 2024

Eulogy for Linda Siegell Kopp (6.16.72 - 1.31.24)

[Video courtesy of Thomas Aebisher]

02.08.24 — Good morning. On behalf of my parents, Elaine & Myron; my sister Alisa; and everyone’s handsome hero, Linda’s dear husband Michael, I thank you all for making the journey to be here with us today to celebrate my sister’s life and our collective love... for her. It is remarkable, yet not surprising, how packed this room is.

Now, I’m going to ask for a little audience participation. If you would please indulge me for a moment:

WHEN I SAY “LINDA” YOU SAY “LOVE” — LINDA / love / LINDA / love

WHEN I SAY “UP A-” YOU SAY “BOVE” — UP A- / bove / UP A- / bove

WHEN I SAY “SHE’S THE” YOU SAY “BEST” — SHE’S THE / best / SHE’S THE / best

WHEN I SAY “CHICKIE” YOU SAY “YES” — CHICKIE / yes / CHICKIE / yes

…Yes. Good job, everybody. Thank you. You didn’t see that coming, did you? I figured: If we’re gonna spend the day crying our eyes out, there might as well be a song about it. She was always singing, you know? You’d be having a conversation with her and she’d hear the reference of a lyric in what you were saying and she’d just start singing the song. For fun. Because it made her happy. I always loved that about her. “Damn straight,” right? Never failed.

OK… On the exact same day that David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was released into the world — Friday, June 16, 1972 — a little girl was born at Flowers-Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan. She was just 5 lbs. 3 oz. and allergic to milk. And the stars looked very different that day.

Knock-knock-knock... knock-knock.

A few days later, that little girl went home to Bayside, Queens with Elaine and Myron Siegell, and they named her Linda Pam. Linda, after Elaine’s grandmother, Lena Perez, and Pam after Elaine’s aunt, Pauline Rubin. Linda was immediately scooped up by an older sister, Alisa, and Myron began forming a bond with Linda that can easily be described as “daddy’s little girl.”

Say okayyy! Say okayyy!” Linda would cry whenever she wanted something. "Say okayyy!" As if he could resist.

Five years after Linda, I was born. Surprise! The family had moved to Roslyn, Long Island, and as I grew from playing with Legos on the floor to playing Legend of Zelda on Nintendo, the most unusual sounds began to seep through the wall that separated my bedroom from Linda’s: The Smiths, Morrisey, Erasure, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a whole howling galaxy of others. I was fascinated. I’d go into her room and find Linda lying on her bed, completely zoning out, just staring at the ceiling, absorbing song after song, searching for their meanings, taking space for herself — and not doing her homework.

Whenever one of us needed the other, instead of calling out their names, we would knock on the wall so as not to disturb the house — knock-knock-knock... knock-knock — and the other would be there in seconds. Until she left for SUNY Oneonta and the kind likes of Donna Wanna and Tom, Linda was my best friend growing up. Talking for hours, telling stories about Herricks High School and Sprout Lake and T-Y summer camp. We’d listen to the bands that Michael Robinson turned her onto, and when it was time to clear the table and clean the kitchen after dinner — a dinner, mind you, a dinner she most likely ate with one hand holding her fork while putting her food in her mouth with the other — we’d sing those songs to help make our chores less tedious. She always made it a party.

Knock-knock-knock, knock-knock.

When she was younger, Linda used to light matches in the basement of our house. Mesmerized by the danger and the glow, she loved the smell of smoke and matches. She definitely got busted a few times, but no matter how hard she tried, she never once set the house on fire.

Let it be entered into the historical record, Linda once asked, in all seriousness: “What’s Grandpa Ben’s first name?

You know when you were a kid and you got those stickers that were 3D and kinda squishy? There was that bump to them? When Linda was in first grade, she had to color in some shapes for an assignment, and when she handed in her paper, her teacher asked, “Linda, why is there dried Elmer’s glue all over your shapes?” Little Linda, in her absolute cutest, said: “Because I wanted to make them puffy.”

Linda was a schemer, mischievous and sparkling.

She came into my room one day with her hairspray hair, her high school report card, and a black pen. She had just transformed the F of a failing grade into a B and was about to forge our mother’s signature, but wanted me to make sure everything looked OK first. Linda was out-standing at forging our mother’s signature and she absolutely did it more than once. (Sorry, mom.)

She took me to my first concert: June 3, 1988, Depeche Mode at Jones Beach Amphitheater. I was 10. My goodness! She took me to see They Might Be Giants, and even Les Miz on Broadway starring none other than Tammy Jacobs as Cosette. The event and spectacle of a show was something Linda never wanted to miss. And I learned from the best.

When I moved from Pittsburgh to Orlando without a job the week before 9/11, she made a call and got me an interview at Cruise’s Only. Applying coupons to bookings, I quickly became the Employee of the Month and was gifted a free cruise, but none of my friends could go with me so I had no choice... but to take... my mom. Suuuper romantic. I wound up getting sun poisoning, but my family then spent the next 20 years booking cruise after cruise after cruise. Linda was always looking out for us. Pointing us all in adventurous directions. As many here can attest, if Linda ever loved you — at Herricks, at camp, college, work, wherever — if your spark and Linda’s ever truly found each other, she’d set you apart, you’d both glow brighter, and she’d stay in touch with you for the rest of her life: Christina Oliveros. Heather Schiffer. Marcy Pikus. Mike Silver. Jeff Tabachnick. Jean-Jean. Legends, the lot of you. That so many of you traveled to see her these past few years meant so much to her. / And to Michael. / And to my parents. / And to me.

Michael, my sister became who she was always meant to be when she met you. You gave her the space and the love to be her true self and we all took notice. What you did for Linda the first 10 years, and what you did for Linda these last six, should not and will not be forgotten. I thank you. I love you. We thank you. We love you. And I’m sorry “Gorgeous” and “Handsome” didn’t have more time with each other.

I miss my sister. I miss the bubbly, happy-go-lucky sister I had before she was ever diagnosed. I miss the always-positive Warrior Sister who showed us all how to face down the worst possible challenge with grace, and strength, and humor, and love. And now, today, I’m trying, I’m trying real hard to take comfort in the idea that whenever I need her, all I need to do is knock :::::

X-X-X… XX.

Thursday, January 04, 2024

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2023: 2 poetry acceptances + 9 rejections received; 1 new boss, Jeff Oaks sadly passed away + 1 baby girl born!
2022: 6 poetry acceptances + 30 rejections received; 4 "wordPlay ground" videos created
2021: 5 poetry acceptances + 24 rejections received; 1 chapbook published; named Montgomery County Poet Laureate
2020: 1 poetry acceptance + 3 rejections received; 1 new boss, 1 house bought, 1 car leased, 1 negative COVID test + 1 baby girl born!
2019: 5 poetry acceptances + 34 rejections received; 1 work promotion + well, I got engaged, planned a wedding and done got married!
2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received


Thursday, January 12, 2023

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2022: 6 poetry acceptances + 30 rejections received; 4 "wordPlay ground" videos created
2021: 5 poetry acceptances + 24 rejections received; 1 chapbook published; named Montgomery County Poet Laureate
2020: 1 poetry acceptance + 3 rejections received; 1 new boss, 1 house bought, 1 car leased, 1 negative COVID test + 1 baby girl born!
2019: 5 poetry acceptances + 34 rejections received; 1 work promotion + well, I got engaged, planned a wedding and done got married!
2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received


Thursday, October 13, 2022

From the archives: *BIG TIME* in the American Poetry Review (2008)

Appeared in the July/August 2008 issue of APR. Winner of the Goodreads Poetry Contest, May 2010. Click to enlarge.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

📢📢📢 An announcer’s announcement announcing the publication of a new poem: ANNOUNCER.

❤️ Many thanks to Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges for including my work in the incredible MAINTENANT 16.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Healing Verse Poetry Line: Week of June 20th

Friends, what's new in the whirlwind is that a poem of mine is this week's feature on the Healing Verse Poetry Line! Tremendous gratitude to Trapeta Mayson and Yolanda Wisher for selecting my work.

☎️ Call 1-855-POEMRX2 (1-855-763-6792) to hear me read "UPDATER." all week long. Dial for some care and healing today!

Follow @philacontemporary for updates on new entries to the Healing Verse Poetry Line. New poems drop on the line every Monday!

Monday, June 13, 2022

wordPlay ground: Ep. 4: The Baroness Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven

It's wordPlay ground, the new Facebook Live event hosted by 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate Paul Siegell. Each month, Paul livestreams from a different playground in PA’s Montgomery County and treats viewers to some of the most playful poems to have ever flipped his flamingoes.

Episode 4: THE BARONESS ELSE VON FREYTAG-LORINGHOVEN


Filmed on 05.28.22 at Grotto Flamingo with special guest Joanne Leva! Watch now :)

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

wordPlay ground: Ep. 3: e.e. cummings

It's wordPlay ground, the new Facebook Live event hosted by 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate Paul Siegell. Each month, Paul livestreams from a different playground in PA’s Montgomery County and treats viewers to some of the most playful poems to have ever flipped his flamingoes.

Episode 3: E.E. CUMMINGS


Filmed on 04.09.22 at Thomas Fitzwater Elementary School Park with special guest Joanne Leva! Watch now :)

Friday, April 08, 2022

MCPL Reading at Eclipse

As 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate, I:

* Contributed to: Red Door Recipies: The Ardmore Free Library's Community Cookbook

* Judged: Ardmore Library’s 2022 Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry Contest

* Created the "Laureate Lookback": Throughout the year on Facebook, I shined a light on poems of all the Laureates: from 1999’s Yolanda Wisher to 2020’s David Gaines and everyone in between

* Assisted in the early planning: Montgomery County Youth Laureate Program

* Co-created "wordPlay ground": For the past few months, Joanne Leva and I have been livestreaming from different playgrounds in Montco and treating viewers to short, interactive discussions on some of the most playful poems to have ever flipped my flamingoes.

Many thanks

Thursday, March 24, 2022

AWP PHILLY: MARCH 25: OFFSITE READING

An Omnibus House Party featuring writers from Writers Room, Painted Bride Quarterly, & Red Hen Press.

Featured readers from Writers Room: Norman Cain - Keyssh Datts - Lauren Lowe

Featured readers from PBQ: Sarah Browning - Kyle Brown Watson - Sadie Shorr Parks - Paul Siegell

Featured readers from Red Hen Press: Kazim Ali - Carlos Allende - Jan Beatty - Melanie Conroy-Goldman Lara Ehrlich - Carleton Eastlake - Beth Gilstrap - Sadie Hoagland - Jim Peterson - Diane Thiel - John Weir - Joan Nockels Wilson - Yuvi Zalkow

Facebook invite: here.

Friday, March 18, 2022

wordPlay ground: Ep. 2: Lee Ann Brown

Introducing wordPlay ground, the new Facebook Live event hosted by 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate Paul Siegell.

Each month, Paul will livestream from a different playground in Montco and treat viewers to a short, interactive discussion on some of the most playful poems to have ever flipped his flamingoes.

EP 2. LEE ANN BROWN

Filmed on 03.06.22 at Henry Lee Willet Park with special guest Joanne Leva! Watch now (12:25).

Tuesday, March 08, 2022

wordPlay ground: Ep. 1: Aram Saroyan

Introducing wordPlay ground, the new Facebook Live event hosted by 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate Paul Siegell.

Each month, Paul will livestream from a different playground in Montco and treat viewers to a short, interactive discussion on some of the most playful poems to have ever flipped his flamingoes.

EP 1. The Groundbreaking Minimalist Poet ARAM SAROYAN

Filmed on 02.12.22 at Evergreen Manor Park with special guest Joanne Leva! Watch now (6:08)

Saturday, January 01, 2022

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2021: 5 poetry acceptances + 24 rejections received; 1 chapbook published; named Montgomery County Poet Laureate
2020: 1 poetry acceptance + 3 rejections received; 1 new boss, 1 house bought, 1 car leased, 1 negative COVID test + 1 baby girl born!
2019: 5 poetry acceptances + 34 rejections received; 1 work promotion + well, I got engaged, planned a wedding and done got married!
2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received


Wednesday, July 07, 2021

[NOW AVAILABLE] The Tongue They Shared by Paul Siegell (Moonstone Press, 2021)

The Tongue They Shared is 24 pages of Paul Siegell mesmerized by live music, mental health, America, Philadelphia, and the beloved tomato.

Wonderful cover design by Shannon Callery.

Runner-up in Moonstone Arts' 2021 Chapbook Contest:
"Pay the bill. Leave the credit card behind." – There is elegance and grace in the light on the cityscapes and salvage yards of The Tongue They Shared. Paul Siegell spins you a couple times and gently pushes you into the Poetry Funhouse, with a wink to the masters: e.e. cummings and Ronald Johnson. You can hear this poetry breaking through to a new language – with a Philadelphia accent.
Leonard Gontarek, Contest Judge, author of Take Your Hand Out Of My Pocket, Shiva
[ GET YOUR COPY FROM MOONSTONE HERE ]

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Virtual Poetry Reading: 2021 Moonstone Chapbook Contest Winners – Kyle Laws, Faith Paulsen, Paul Siegell May 19 @ 7:00 pm

Zoom link here. Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737 – Passcode: 678146. Virtual Poetry Reading: 2021 Moonstone Chapbook Contest: First Prize: Kyle Laws – author of The Sea is Woman Runner-Up: Faith Paulsen – author of We Marry, We Bury, We Sing or We Weep Runner-Up: Paul Siegell – author of The Tongue They Shared

Friday, April 16, 2021

04.17.21- My first reading as Montgomery County Poet Laureate

Join Philadelphia Stories and the MCPL Program as we celebrate the winner, Caitlin Kossmann, along with the runners up, and Editors’ Choices of the 2021 Sandy Crimmins National Prize in Poetry. Also featured is the 2021 Montgomery County Poet Laureate, Paul Siegell.

Thursday, April 08, 2021

Sing it with me: "One baby to another says, 'I'm lucky to have met you'"

Nirvana is the band. Nevermind is the album. Spencer Elden is the baby. HOOK HAIKU is the poem. ONE ART: a journal of poetry is the journal. Mark Danowsky is the editor. Louisa Schnaithmann is also the editor. And today is the day, 27 years ago, Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home at the age of 27.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

I've been called many things, but this is the first time I've been called Poet Laureate. Absolutely wild. And away we go!

Tremendous thanks to the Montgomery County Poet Laureate program, executive director Joanne Leva, judge Ernest Hilbert, and all of the other judges and advisory board members. Gonna be a fun 2021!

Sunday, February 28, 2021

"an out-of-body wasabi experience"

Many thanks to the editors of Schuylkill Valley Journal (Vol. 50) for publishing these three "First" poems.

Wednesday, January 06, 2021

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2020: 1 poetry acceptance + 3 rejections received; 1 new boss, 1 house bought, 1 car leased, 1 negative COVID test + 1 baby girl born!
2019: 5 poetry acceptances + 34 rejections received; 1 work promotion + well, I got engaged, planned a wedding and done got married!
2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

M__TM___RE: "when Modigliani was"



Many thanks to Kiefer Logan, editor/publisher :: where is the river :: a poetry experiment.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ever watch THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH with subtitles on?



Ground Control to honored to have a poem in the newest issue of Cover Magazine. Huge thanks to editors Hanna Shea and Ryan Jeffrey Shea.

Thursday, January 02, 2020

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2019: 5 poetry acceptances + 34 rejections received; 1 work promotion + well, I got engaged, planned a wedding and done got married!
2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received


Tuesday, November 05, 2019

"The result is spectacular." Anne-Adele Wight reviews Take Out Delivery in Boog City #132



Boog City #132

“Like a waterwheel ablaze, everything is of the hunt, voracious.” The poems in Take Out Delivery burst at the seams with food, with the devouring of food, with the insatiable consumption of pop culture. Paul Siegell dishes out pizza, fortune cookies, Campbell’s soup, pasta, eggplant, tapioca, cassava, and Philly soft pretzels––all in the first eight pages. Even the title turns our minds toward dinner: what to get? where? how? The poem titles, each beginning, “We’ve Come for Your...,” remind us that we don’t live at the top of the food chain.

This book is a hybrid, a cross-genre work with its home in the 21st century. Groups of poems alternate with clusters of cartoons featuring the hot pepper people. Ingeniously assembled by an off-label use of punctuation marks, these beings have the genetic characteristics of Siegell’s earlier punctuation cartoons, but here they strut with special flamboyance. While “tightening up their grooviest of shoelaces,” one queries, “chaos cicada?”; the other replies, “impulse octopus!”

Always generous, Siegell agreed to let me interview him. When asked, “Who is the ‘we’ of the poem titles?”, he replied, “The hot pepper people.” They turn out to have names: Hemingway, Gorbachev, Tug McGraw, Rachmaninoff, Catherine the Great, Leonardo diCaprio, Cleopatra, and many more. Throughout the poems we find the names of famous people, public figures who traded privacy for immortality and whose names have contributed to defining pop, and not-so-pop, culture. Siegell says, “I spent my childhood watching MTV,” a medium in which everything has its defining name and its distinctive brand.

Wordplay drives the activities of the hot pepper people. Siegell describes his creative process: “It’s really hard for me not to play.” His strongest imperative is to sign his work by making it uniquely his. If he can’t say definitively, “This is mine,” he isn’t satisfied. Once he realized that “proper nouns were going to take the weight of this book,” the visual element became essential and the cartoons found their place. Throw in one more character, Jay Uxtapo, who personifies creative juxtaposition, and we’re off, circling in a vortex from which we emerge dizzy but well fed.

The recurring theme of a scavenger hunt unifies most of the poems. Jay Uxtapo presents “Pterodactyl scavenger hunt,” “Stark raving mad scavenger hunt,” “Manna from heaven scavenger hunt,” and many more. Siegell points out a subtle detail: in a clever use of assonance, each scavenger hunt is associated with another short “a” sound, which underlines the phrase.

For all its hyperactive scavenger hunts, Take Out Delivery is no bag of popcorn. About a quarter of the way in, Siegell realized he needed a serious theme to give the book more heft. Pop culture has its grim side, notably the 9/11 attacks. A line at the bottom of the copyright page clues the reader in to what’s coming: “Lucky numbers ∙ 9, 11, 9, 11, 9, 1, 11.” The first cartoon appears on page 9, followed by the first poem on page 11. Divided by cartoons, the poems occur in alternating groups of nine and eleven. Between the last two groups, a lone poem, “We’ve Come for Your Pause Button,” begins, “’Fire and smoke engulf the towers of the World.’” There follows “One of the saddest scavenger hunts ever imagined.” The 9/11 section brings a radical shift of pattern, rhythm, and tone. Siegell slams on the brakes in this moment of honoring the dead. Two empty squares, facing each other and each alone on its page, could look like brake pedals but represent something far sadder: the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers.

Under the calliope music a funeral march plays. For any American, references to 9/11 bring up the precariousness of survival. We comfort and distract ourselves with too much work, too much noise, excessive consumption. The book’s “moment of silence,” as Siegell describes it, forces a sudden examination of our fears.
In “We’ve Come for Your Train Conductor Hole Puncher,” a poem preceding the 9/11 section, Siegell drops one more hint by multiplying 111,111,111 x 111,111,111. This calculation involves 18 ones, or (you guessed it) 9 elevens. The result is spectacular.

––Anne-Adele Wight

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

"Coming Up 10th" in Every Pigeon

nice news: honored to have a chill little poem in the newest (& final) issue of Every Pigeon. huge thanks to Jubalee Penuliar and the rest of the generous editors.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Billy Penn calls my work "newly spicy" and "relatively brash"

In their post about The Philadelphia Inquirer's 190th birthday and switch from Philly.com to Inquirer.com, WHYY’s Billy Penn writes:

One of the three oldest surviving print publications in the country, The Philadelphia Inquirer was founded in June 1829 by John R. Walker and John Norvell. The latter man is the source of the paper’s moniker, which comes from this quote:

In a free state, there should always be an inquirer asking on behalf of the people.”

That motto informs a newly spicy tagline for the rebranded company. Answering the question of why “an Inquirer” seeks out information, it uses a phrase that’s relatively brash for the once-staid periodical: “Because they give a damn.”



The tone shift was entirely on purpose, per Parzych, who said it was intended to catch people’s attention and also “infuse some of the proud DNA” of the Daily News into the combined brand.

“Internally, it’s made people excited because, you know, we do give a damn. Philadelphia gives a damn, right?” she said. “We were really trying to encapsulate the passion that is Philadelphia.”

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

*UNDERSTANDING ADVERTISING* in PROLIT: A LITERARY MAGAZINE ABOUT MONEY, WORK, & CLASS



My lit is pro Prolit Magazine 🕺🏻🥂🚀 Many thanks to Patrick Blagrave and all his incredible work launching this new, important journal. Honored to help kick it off and be among such inspiring company!

Wednesday, January 02, 2019

backstage at the submission apparition exhibition

2018: 3 poetry acceptances + 1 fiction acceptance + 43 rejections received; (1 work promotion) + 1 Pushcart nomination!
2017: 10 acceptances + 50 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2016: 11 acceptances + 53 rejections received;
2015: 12 acceptances + 88 (54/34) rejections received;
2014: 9 acceptances + 31 rejections received;
2013: 12 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2012: 12 acceptances + 39 rejections received;
2011: 16 acceptances + 37 rejections received;
2010: 22 acceptances + 52 rejections received;
2009: 23 acceptances + 51 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2008: 25 acceptances + 73 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2007: 17 acceptances + 71 rejections received; 1 book accepted!
2006: 9 acceptances + 28 rejections received