Noir for the Ninth

Hello, everyone, and welcome back!

Our poetry link for today is to Small Press Distribution. Many poetry publishers are small outfits, and don’t have the money or manpower to deal with large distributors. Sometimes it can even be hard to find their books on Amazon. That’s where SPD comes in — there’s hardly a small press volume of poetry (or fiction, or nonfiction) that isn’t available from them. They also publish a monthly list of poetry bestsellers, which is a great way to keep up with what is new and interesting.

Our featured participant for today is Questions and Canards, where the valedictions are based on Paul Celan and Game of Thrones, and the cinquains take their inspiration from tai-chi moves!

And now our (totally optional) prompt. I’m a sucker for a good mystery novel, especially the hard-boiled noir novels of the thirties and forties. There’s always a two-timing blonde, a city that keeps its secrets, and stuck in the middle, a man who just can’t help but rabbit after truth. Today I challenge you write a poem inspired by noir — it could be in the voice of a detective, or unravel a mystery, or just describe the long shadows of the skyscrapers in the ever-swirling smog. After all, “you know how to write a poem, don’t you, Steve? You just pick up a pen and you write.”