I have had the pleasure of having four of my poems published in the Jet Fuel Review out of Chicago. These poems are a part of their Fall 2014 issue. I was quite crazed this fall moving from Stony Brook, NY to San Antonio, TX, so this was welcome news for this poet! Read on if you are in a poetry mood on a cold and nippy January day (it is even gray and nippy here in San Antonio!). One of the poems features the Caribbean, if that is an incentive, another a summer backdrop. I also have one on sleep, if that seems more apt: http://www.jetfuelreview.com/previous-issues/issue-8-fall-2014/poetry/alexandra-van-de-kamp/

Film-Infused Workshop

I am teaching an online poetry workshop starting July 7th for a month this summer on Film and Poetry. You need not be a film expert to enjoy and revel in the world of the moving image. The playful, mesmerizing world of the movies is an especially apt "playground" for poets and has a rich history. This workshop will explore how cinema and our own movie-watching experiences can intersect with and feed our poetry. I am teaching it through The Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative, which offers reasonably-priced, high-caliber online poetry workshops at a friendly price. Reading up for this workshop, I found out Jean Cocteau, who I primarily know as a French, surreal film-maker from the 1920's, 30's and 40's, was first a poet and playwright. I have always found his rendition of Beauty and the Beast especially captivating and dream-like. I had not known before watching his film, that Beauty and the Beast was originally a French Folk Tale, or so I believe.

Feel free to check out the link below for my film-infused poetry workshop and to spread the word: Film-Infused poetry Workshop

Two New Poems in Rose Red Review

I am excited that two of my poems have been recently published in Rose Red Review--a dynamic online journal that offers an array of poetry, fiction, visual art and more. I was first introduced to this journal by Diane Lockward, a wonderful poet, who mentioned it in her lively, extremely informative blog on poetry and daily life called Blogalicious.

So if you feel like dipping into a little poetry today, here are the two poems currently on view (that makes them sound like a pair of shoes or an evening dress in a department store window, doesn't it?) at Rose Red Review. The first poem is called "I've Decided to Write the Greatest Poem in the World" (which, of course, I knew was an impossible task, and I chose this title partly for its absurdity). However, It found it a fun poetic premise or task to take on.

The other poem: "A Scandinavian Hotel in Couplets" was basically given to me in a dream. Consider it a surreal, slightly weird take on the family reunion tradition. But, yes, my subconscious put me into this strange hotel with most (if not all) of my family members--all of us adults now and somewhat grappling with where we were in life. I feel like I merely painted out in words the images I had been surrounded by in this dream. Feel free to visit this "hotel," if you feel like reading a second poem.

I have recently had the pleasure of having one of my poems published in the poetry journal 32 Poems,which offers a wonderful, intelligent selection of poems--none of which can be longer than 32 lines! As a contributor to the spring/summer 2013 issue, I had the opportunity to be a guest blogger for one week and to comment on one of the fellow poets published alongside me in the recent issue. I chose an imaginative, richly-textured poem written by Sarah Crossland.

If you enjoyed as a child the dream-like plot of the movie The Wizard of Oz, I suggest you read Crossland's poem "The Tin Man Full of Bees" and my musings on it.

Just click the hyperlink and enjoy!

http://www.32poems.com/blog/6605/spells-realized

Poem "Suspended Breath" just published!

If you are curious to read a poem that manages in 33 lines to mix Greta Garbo, snow and mammograms, read on! My poem "Suspended breath" was just published in the online journal: LI Quarterly. I am happy to be alongside other talented Long Island poets as well, such as Lynda Opyr, Annabelle Moseley and others.

http://www.poetrybay.com/liquarterly/liqwinter12/AlexandravandeKamp.html

Moonrise Kingdom

Last weekend, I had the luck to see Wes Andersen's newest film: Moonrise Kingdom. Before I could read any reviews of the film, I already knew I loved it. Each scene is like a Joseph Cornell Box: jeweled with details, luminous, Matisse-like broad strokes of color, and objects salvaged from 1965--my birth year. There is a ton of nostalgia in this film about a childhood many children will not experience now--before ipods and iphones when you could sit on a rainy summer afternoon and listen to music on a portable turntable or use binoculars to look out at the natural world all afternoon long. Don't get me wrong, I understand the wonders of all the new gadgets inhabiting our lives now, but it is as if Andersen is forcing the viewer to slow down while watching this film. Each framed scene is a still-life of a moment he has painstakingly created and put before our eyes. It is as if he wants to say "Slow down--watch this one place or one chair for a while." There is a lot of sadness in this film. Many of the adults are dissatisfied and a bit forlorn with where they have ended up in life, but it is set against so much brash beauty that the vividness of each scene affirms while not flinching away from the more mournful tone at times. It may first appear, on the surface, as merely a children's story. However, it is very adult in its matter-of-fact tone and the children-story atmosphere is a frame for a very adult story.

It is a coming of age story that takes place during one summer in a fictional landscape (that feels like an island off of Northern Maine or Nova Scotia). Two twelve-year-olds rebel and runaway to camp out for a few days. There is a lot about cub scouts or boy scouts in this film (not a topic I would normally get too excited about), but Andersen brings the intricacies of his "Khaki scouts" so to life that you find yourself even enjoying the interiors of their tents. The Khaki master (Edward Norton) sips cognac and smokes cigarettes in his tent while recording his daily captain's log. The rituals of camp life and boy scouts becomes another culture or stage upon which human defeats and triumphs play out--frame by vivid frame.

I won't give away the plot, but this felt like an art gallery of wonderful images, while, at the same time, telling a powerful story about the bold steps it takes to find yourself and to escape the innate sadness of playing the "adult" roles we are so often given. I recommend it for a rainy or sunny afternoon. Either way, you will have felt like your eyes and body truly traveled somewhere new and relished in its unforgettable hues and textures.

Featured Poem on Verse Daily!

A poem of mine, published in the journal Arsenic Lobster, was recently featured on VerseDaily. It's a prose poem based loosely on my experiences searching for a place to live on the Northern Fork in Long Island. Let's just say I looked at some thirty odd houses and apartments before settling on an apartment for my husband and I in downtown Port Jefferson Village (see above). Nothing like traipsing around from one recently-vacated domicile to another or chit-chatting with various landlords/owners to get a taste of the quirkiness of humankind. The experience made me a bit philosophical, and the poem came out of the paraphernalia of that experience. Feel free to take a peek at the poem on VerseDaily and to explore the other prose poems and pieces in the Arsenic Lobster website.