Chad Parenteau's Lost Causes, 6-4-25

Back in the tunnel after reaching the light

I’ll Tell You the Chad News First

The above photo is from this past weekend at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. I held a workshop on blackout poetry in Saint Peter’s Church on Saturday afternoon.

You didn’t read it in last week’s newsletter because I never posted anything about it. I haven’t run any kind of workshop in at least a decade and never as many as initial booking promised. The prospect of the workshop— which I submitted the proposal for to Mass Poetry—was terrifying me.

In the end, I enjoyed myself working with over twenty participants and hope to make contact with them as they send me the results of their blackout and erasure poems. It was the highlight of what’s been a tough first half of the year.

I want to thank once again everyone who attended. It was a phenomenal experience.

Between that, Molly’s graduation and an unexpected emergency, you can see why I had such a light week.

Buy My Two Books

My two collections All’s Well Isn’t You and Cant Republic: Erasures and Blackouts are available for purchase.

All’s Well has been called “[a]stunning work of original poetry that delves into the Bukowski-esque nether-regions of the psyche and comes up shining with a rollicking, stunned silence of the three-in-the morning, whiskey-soaked poetic journey into the hazy memory of yesterday.” Order it here.

Cant Republic was recently called “an interesting, provocative, and ultimately terrifying rumination on the words of one of the most divisive figures in modern politics.” Order it here.

You can also pay me $15 directly through Venmo (@Chad-Parenteau-1) to get a signed copy and something extra. I hope to have copies of All's Well Isn’t You when it’s less scary to make big purchases.

I appreciate your support.

Stone Soup Poetry

Thanks again to Black Byrd for being our last anniversary month feature. Read the latest Stone Soup Croutons poem, “Hands In.”

We kick off June with an all-open mic. I might be late. Lee Varon is our next feature. The information will hopefully be up soon.

Oddball Magazine

Click here to read poetry by Bailey Brooke, Mark States and Noah Berlatsky with visual art by Eric N. Peterson, Peter Urkowitz and Ira Joel Haber.

Thanks to Mike Mesterton-Gibbons for the opening timely poem and Grady VanWright for the timely essay. Kudos to cartoonists Anne Skove (“She Who Laughs Lasts” and Comics Spotlight contributor David Warner.

Tuesday gave us Jason Wright’s Jagged Thought poem column. Thursday and Friday, fellow poem columnists James Van Looy (It’s All One Thing), Janet Cormier (Bamboozled No More!) and Bruce Wise (Wise Words) finish off the week.

See Me Read This Monday

I’ll be reading for the Contro-Verse Open Mic on Monday, June 6. I’ll probably post a note on Substack later this week.

Tapping My Old Language Poetry Work

Ode to My Second Appendix Part Eighteen. Read "Fluid" over at my Patreon.

Miscellaneous

Check out my website and get a lot of the news before it winds up in this newsletter. Also includes links to my other social media.

Check my blog out for exclusive content and poetry news not related to Stone Soup.

My work on Medium should be going up soon.

Had fun the last week TikTok. More coming up.

I want to put something up on Patreon soon. Maybe a poem every Sunday or Monday if it’s sustainable? Or go back to Tuesday posts maybe.

Thanks for reading down this far.

Chad