Dana Goodyear - Poet & senior editor and staff writer at the New Yorker will appear at the Kansas City Public Library in the Halzberg Auditorium - 14 W.10th St. - Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday - September 5th. Reception is at 6:00 PM and program begins at 6:30PM.
Goodyear will discuss her debut book of poetry, Honey and Junk. Goodyear first hit my radar screen when she became one of the 18 debut poets of 2005 that were featured in Poets & Writers.
I've read a few of her poems and she is remarkably impressionable with creating an undercurrent to her often melancholy voice.
I’m scaling down this weeks summit and being careful, but not particularly graceful in my descent. Monday and Tuesday were relatively speaking manageable days. Wednesday was on the other hand, one of those days where it all falls apart and topples down on you. So today, I continue down the incline, but with concern as not to create an avalanche behind me.
There are but two days left for people to respond to my survey on the sidebar about rewrites. I want to blog some next week on revisions and while such a survey is of course not scientifically representative of the poet population as a whole, it will give me some idea as to what readers here might consider their norm. So please, don’t make be beg, (I look so undignified) if you haven’t done so already, take a moment to respond.
Couple of bits from my journal this week:
The lady up the street powered up her nose / in a mammoth snub / I flashed an Indian corm smile / like I wanted her approving curtsy
Afternoon slumps / Holding its hands in its pockets
I would watch her sleep / Sometimes in silent fog
You popped my bubble wrap / In italicized arrogance / I popped yours in return
So you wake up one morning and "poof" you're the poet laureate. Okay, it didn't quite happen that way. First you get a call from out of the blue and you mull the offer around in your crowded head, bounce the idea off family and finally call back and say, "yes, I'll do it."
Then comes that fateful morning when you realize "you are it!" This has come and passed for Charles Simic. So what's going on with him?
For all the fan fair and hoop-la about raising the interest in poetry in this country by recent past laureates, Simic is not as passionately optimistic. He views Americans as a people who are not particularly proud of our literature and he is not inclined to believe you can force the issue. Oh, I'll admit that a part of me wants to be more idealistic about the picture than that, but perhaps Simic is more reality grounded here. At any point, we all really do know that the evangelism of poetry is not going to bring everyone the their knees in verse.
If I were asked to do a state of the union on poetry, I believe first of all, not a lot of people would tune in. There is a large segment of society who really could care less. Still, for a good many people poetry remains a valued commodity. And like the American economy, the leading indicators here are truly mixed.
It seems fewer presses are turning out poetry. Yet we are seeing poetry all over the Internet. There are few economic success stories among contemporary poets, yet MFA programs are everywhere. To be sure, there are a significant number of people who do in fact turn to poetry, but it is also true that this is a representatively low percentage of the American public. Simic is right, as a nation we do not proud of our literature, poetry or otherwise. Our interests are splintered and divided among so many possibilities it is like vying a piece of the Nielsen ratings.
Of course I want to see poetry promoted. And I am already pleased to know from things Simic has said that he is not about to set out to define what poetry is or should be to readers or poets. To create "ramps for poetically handicapped people" (borrowing a phrase from Billy Collins) is not going to bring America to some profound awakening about poetry. The best we can do is to support the art, gain exposure for it, and let it reach those who are receptive to it.
Simic is in his own right a very talented poet. I believe he can be a outstanding ambassador for the art. Like everyone else, we'll have to set back and give him time to develop his methodology.
It's Monday and and of course I wish it wasn't. Of course next week I have Labor Day to look forward to. But that is then and this is now. I hate that it's Monday. (sigh)
This month, another poetic voice was lost with the passing of poet and short-story writer Grace Paley. The 84 year old Paley was also a prominent political voice in the '60s and '70's in pro-peace and anti-nuclear rallies.
News this morning.... Alberto Gonzalez is resigning. Nice start. He still needs to be prosecuted along with a host of others in the Bush administration.
President Bush's speech at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Independence Day in 2004, invoked the nation's highest ideals: "On this Fourth of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds. ... Free thought, free expression, that's what we believe," Bush told the crowd.
Ringing words. Unfortunately, the White House advance team didn't get the memo. Or the message. But the taxpayer got a bill for $80,000. Click here to here about the $80,000.
A worthwhile slide show called Workspaces: Donald Hall - - A Slide Show can been seen here. Thanks to Cindy for the link.
Couple of other items....
Thanks to those who have responded to the rewrite / revision survey in the side bar. It's still open so please respond if you haven't.
I still have a few of my broadsides, Give Me Some Everyday Religion a poem of my own with an Anne Sexton epigram on it. If you'd like one. just e-mail me with your address.
I want to talk about revisions of poetry in the near future. In the meantime, if you've been writing poetry, please take the survey in the sidebar on the revisions. Think in terms of the average number of times you are likely to revisit a poem to consider making changes. Getting a better idea how others approach this could make this discussion more informative.
I was ecstatic at the news the Charles Simic was to become the new poet laureate because I had only recently discovered his poetry and found him to be an excellent read. This week however, I read a piece in the Boston Globe that only accentuated my excitement.
David Mehegan of the globe staff wrote a piece in Simic on August 18 that provided a little more insight into Simic the laureate. Mehegan reports that Simic doesn't yet have a plan for his term but says, "All those sentences that begin with, 'Poetry must...,' 'The purpose of poetry is to... , 'Readers of poetry should...' -- 'I will not complete any of those sentences." I can't say enough about what a delight it is to hear these words.
Even after Donald Hall's tenure as poet laureate, the handcuffs that Ted Kooser slipped around poetry still leave marks on its wrists. Simic is insightful enough to see the divisiveness trying to mold and shape what poetry is or should be has brought to the art. Enough!
If you are my age, you may remember Art Linkletter and his program and later book, Kids Say The Darnedest Things. A recent AP wire story about Presidential candidates and their gaffes, has the makings of a first class reality TV show.
A few gems:
Republican candidate Mitt Romney - Defending the decision by his five sons for not enlisting in military service by uttering the following, "...one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected." Romney later tried to clear the air and said he didn't mean to compare their campaign work to military service. Yeah, well duh.
Republican Mike Huckabee has referred to Arkansas as a "banana republic" as well as jokingly attributed his 110-pound weight loss to spending time in a concentration camp. Way to go Mike!
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,demonstrated fuzzy math skills when he drastically overstated the death toll from a Kansas tornado, saying "ten thousand people died." The real number was 12. As in one and two with no zeros following.
Good old Republican Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York City during the Sept. 11 attacks, claims he was at ground zero "as often, if not more, than most of the workers" and was exposed to the same health risks. Ok, I don't think his photo opps were the same as digging through the rubble and I suspect there is a wee bit of exaggeration on the time as well.
It's good to be back at home. I was so delighted to see Cathy (wife) at the airport last night. Plus, I had a great night of sleep. Best in a long time. What is not good, is this morning I see little things around the house that belong to Meghan and it's sad because I miss her terribly already.
Talked to her on the phone late last night when we got in. She had made a new friend on campus (which delighted me) and I know she is going to do so well there. I am quite proud of her.
I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow. I imagine my plate will be quite full. It is normally, so this is only going to to set me back. (sigh) But I have decided to keep a smile on my face and roll up my sleeves.
Good News!!! I had a card in the mail when I got home that Dana Goodyear is going to be in town in September. I have greatly enjoyed her own poetry as well as some of her commentary I've read. I am looking forward to meeting her and hearing her read!
I read with amazement this article about the retirement of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. After all this time he blames the GOP losses in the midterm election on American impatience.
I won't even bother to discuss the numerous scandals among GOP House members which he denied lead to the Republican electoral demise. But I will take issue with the insistence that the American people are impatient where the war is concerned.
Patience, or lack thereof is only a small part of the electoral revolt where the war in Iraq is concerned. It is far more than impatience. He ignores the fact that the vast majority of America realizes that they were mislead in the first place. There was no compelling reason for the US to make an unprovoked strike on Iraq. Information about possible nuclear concerns were grossly exaggerated and information at the time suggested so. We had UN inspectors in the country again surveying the situation.
It is true that the existing government in Iraq was wrought with human rights abuses, but so is the Sudan, so is China, Sri Lanka, Labia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Colombia, Turkey and the list of places with major human rights abuses goes on. Where is the U.S. response in these places? The fact is that our government and in particular the Bush administration found it politically expedient to go to war with Iraq, and they believed it would be a short campaign and there would be minimal causalities. They shifted resources from Afghanistan (a real stronghold for anti-American extremists) to Iraq.
For all the bad you could say about the Saddam Hussein, he did after all rise in power with behind the scenes help from the United States government. Further there existed a stable government environment that was not susceptible to outside interference in the region.
What Representative Hastert ignores of fails to understand is that we know the truth about Iraq and it is an ugly scar in the history of the U.S.
At last count, we've lost at least 3,699 U.S. servicemen and women in the ear in Iraq. At least 25,000 Americans have been wounded. This Mr. Hastert is a pretty heavy price to pay for what amounts to a lie. Your President was bound and determined to go to war in Iraq to the extent that he would present less than honest assessments of facts. That is a polite way of saying he lied.
On the other side, the price has been worse. By other side I am speaking of Iraqi citizens. Bush's war has created a vacuum in leadership in country where there is no consensus among the Iraqi people themselves. There are deep divisions between neighboring people. To the point of bloody civil strife on a daily basis. The death toll in one day alone in a northern Kurdish province that was previously one of the quieter spots is now at least 400.
We've destroyed so much of the countries infrastructure, in the capital alone they are lucky to have an hour or two electricity a day. One seriously has to ask the question, are they better off today than under Saddam?
Efforts to create a democratic government in Iraq have had only partial success. While the structure of a legislative body now exists, the divisions between the Iraqi people themselves are so deep that this brave body of men and women that rick their own lives daily are in worse gridlock than anything we've ever witnessed here in America.
Given this, and the fact that this whole mess has in fact lead to greater disdain for America Islamic people worldwide, how exactly has this made us safer?
In all this it is amazing how prophetic Dick Cheney was in 1994. The question is what lead to his mental lapse?
Congressman Hastert needs to understand that the American people are not simply an impatient bunch. No, we realize that George Bush pulled a Gulf of Tonkin on us (see here, here, and especially here) and are angered and the loss of lives on both sides, the loss of American prestige, the monetary cost of over $450 billion of non-budgeted tax money and counting , and creating a cause celeb for recruiting anti-American terrorists. If THIS is not a crime against the American people and humanity as a whole, I don't know what is.
In the course of my visit, I have now misplaced a shirt and shorts. Considering I came with extremely limited clothes this trip, and they seem to be disappearing at the rate of one item a day for the past two days, I could have difficulty being able to dress for the flight home by Saturday.
The trip is truly a mixture. I have greatly enjoyed being able to see my oldest daughter. That's been a blessing. I am however homesick- missing my wife tremendously, and beginning to feel a bit emotional already about the fact that when I leave, my youngest will be staying behind. So the emotions for the trip are a bit like taking a jar and putting the good and the bad together and shaking them up. What you get is pretty messy emotionally.
Writing has been difficult. Still a sampling of my journal from the last few days:
These are not afterthoughts / That spill over the levee / But plateaus of articulation
Things I wanted to say in deep cobalt blue
Raining syllabic utterances
His skin circumcised by a combination / Of sun and shifty motivations
We saw in him all the signs / Of a man able to straddle / the Continental divide
UA Poetry Center moves into new home (here) : According to Gail Browne, Executive Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, they will begin moving to a new facility on Wednesday. With more than 60,000 items it is one of the largest such centers in the country. I'd like to browse through this when they are finished.
Classified evidence debated / Court likely to allow suit against AT&T (here) Wednesday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco - hearing arguments about President Bush's clandestine eavesdropping program, appeared inclined to keep alive a lawsuit accusing AT&T of illegally letting the government intercept millions of Americans' phone calls and e-mails.
Acclaimed poet Pavel Chichikov debuts on Catholic Radio International (here)
My oldest daughter who lives in Phoenix argues that with no humidity it's a dry heat and that isn't as uncomfortable. Of course she has been here long enough that the remaining uncooked braincells may still believe this. My last visit was during the Spring Training period of the year several years back. It was hot then, but nothing like it is now.
I saw the ASU campus yesterday with youngest daughter. Heat aside it's a pretty nice place. Tomorrow I should see even more of it.
Last night we watched "A Night's Tale" which I really enjoyed. The pop-culture aspect of it was pretty entertaining.
My writing the past few days hasn't been entertaining. It's been pathetic. Heat, change of environment? Who knows.
Arrived late last night in Phoenix on a mission to safely deliver youngest daughter to Arizona for her next phase of education at ASU. The picture here is taken from the car window in Flagstaff.
Slept so-so last night. Awoke this morning and checked into the office to deal with a couple of matters.
Having a diet coke and trying to orientate myself to the day. Staying with my oldest daughter who I haven't seen in gee, I guess about three years.
Evidently I upset Storm's (the cat) apple cart. Sitting in his place on the couch. Taking over the bedroom where he's been hanging out lately. He had already made it know that I was an encroachment. But when bedroom was readied for me he was totally pissed of. You would not have believed the mean-mugging stare!
Of course I had to stop in Winslow, Arizona of Eagles fame in the song Take It Easy . First time I ever came out here we made a road stop there at a little shit & get place and as we were getting in the car I kept saying Winslow, Arizona over and over to myself and as we were driving away it hit me why it was familiar. Duh!
I'd like to say that the scenery was so inspiring that I stayed up last night writing great material. In the alternative, I'd like to say I slept well. Unfortunately neather would be accurate.
Words seem to get in the way tonight. The wrong words. And where there are no words, this silence screams the blood curdling chills of language face down in a roadside ditch. So newly dead the flies of disquieted expectations have not even noted the gruesome occurrence as yet.
The ink in my journal tonight reeks of this death.
It's Tuesday, it feels like it should be Wednesday and I wish it was Thursday. How's that for defying reality? Further, I really have no idea why I wish it were Thursday.
I've always considered that Virginia Woolf was never in short supply of thoughts to express. Nor timid about getting them out. I found an interesting quote that is one of the more profound statements I've heard attributed to her. "If you insist upon fighting to protect me, or 'our' country, let it be understood soberly and rationally between us that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits where I have not shared and probably will not share." -Virginia Woolf It seems very evident that Woolf sees war largely the sexual aggression of men (emphasis on gender). I don't suppose I am qualified to challenge or uphold the psychological pretexts of such assumption, but it is rather profound that she is serving notice that she shares no such stake in these actions. A strong stand that I have to admire.
This is the start of a grueling week of getting things in order to be out of the office for a week. So much to do, so few nerves left to stretch.
A few bits from my journal this last week:
a pretentious line from a love song / neither recalls the tune
tracing a smile with his finger / her red lips kiss his index
the days are ruled / by tweezer fingers /picking here, picking there
crystal frost clinging to the bony flesh /of the best face one could put forward / under blistery circumstances
a mind is a terrible thing to use when it's fucked up
no one's here but scamper feet / who've come to witness my headache- / a mind with anxious classical thoughts / the Greek gods eavesdrop through paper walls
~0~
755 for Bud
You there when history was made I saw you in high def You didn’t want to be there Your face said as much Your looked so uncomfortable in your skin
Later you talked on your cell I wonder who it was There was no excitement in your face I was excited for him You should have stayed home
The following 41 Democrats grew weak at the knees when Bush suggested some may be soft on the war on terrorism.They voted with the Republican House members to give the president an even more powers of surveillance by a 227 to 183 vote.
They are:
Jason Altmire (4th Pennsylvania)
John Barrow (12th Georgia)
Melissa Bean (8th Illinois)
Dan Boren (2nd Oklahoma)
Leonard Boswell (3rd Iowa)
Allen Boyd (2nd Florida)
Christopher Carney (10th Pennsylvania)
Ben Chandler (6th Kentucky)
Jim Cooper (5th Tennessee)
Jim Costa (20th California)
Bud Cramer (5th Alabama)
Henry Cuellar (28th Texas)
Artur Davis (7th Alabama)
Lincoln Davis (4th Tennessee)
Joe Donnelly (2nd Indiana)
Chet Edwards (17th Texas)
Brad Ellsworth (8th Indiana)
Bob Etheridge (North Carolina)
Bart Gordon (6th Tennessee)
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (South Dakota)
Brian Higgins (27th New York)
Baron Hill (9th Indiana)
Nick Lampson (23rd Texas)
Daniel Lipinski (3rd Illinois)
Jim Marshall (8th Georgia)
Jim Matheson (2nd Utah)
Mike McIntyre (7th North Carolina)
Charlie Melancon (3rd Louisiana)
Harry Mitchell (5th Arizona)
Colin Peterson (7th Minnesota)
Earl Pomeroy (North Dakota)
Ciro Rodriguez (23rd Texas)
Mike Ross (4th Arkansas)
John Salazar (3rd Colorado)
Heath Shuler (11th North Carolina)
Vic Snyder (2nd Arkansas)
Zachary Space (18th Ohio)
John Tanner (8th Tennessee)
Gene Taylor (4th Mississippi)
Timothy Walz (1st Minnesota)
Charles A. Wilson (6th Ohio)
Thank you for bringing us closer to a police state!
Jilly presents an interesting take on the selection of poet laureates in the U.S. While this is not totally new information to me, she has presented some good reference material and demonstrates the tendencies toward NE geographies and the male gender. Much will be made of it because much was made of it the last time, a NE male then too.
In my own humble view, there are quite a few women I believe would be excellent candidates. I am perhaps more bothered by the gender issue than the geographical one. Why? I suppose being from the Midwest I should have been jumping for joy at the Kooser appointment. It turns out that his being from a neighboring state meant little of nothing to me.
I believe what may say a lot about the latest selection, and a very positive way to view it, would be that Simic is a first generation immigrant to the U.S. This at a time when our own Americanculture seems to be at such odds with our own Americanheritage. Simic was born under the dark shadows of very troubling times in his native land. I've seen in his work a more worldly view of life and I think this is a good time for Americans to experience a poet with such background.
It was not long ago that another blogger poet Cindy turned me on to a poet that had somehow slipped under my radar in spite of his acclaim. I've previously mentioned this in earlier blog posts. The poet is Charles Simic. Imagine my surprise when reading my e-mail, I learned that Simic has been named to fill the Poet Laureate post this fall replacing Donald Hall who will only serve one term due to his health.
This is somewhat a bittersweet moment in my view as I have especially enjoyed the Hall period. Hall was such a refreshing voice to me following Ted Kooser. Kooser is enjoyable, but in my view lacking in the depth that Hall's work shows. Additionally, while Kooser was and remains a strong advocate for broadening the consumer base of poetry, I believe he has done so at the expense of dividing those in the literary arts themselves.
Simic is an immigrant. He was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in1938. Living as a child under the shadows of Hitler and Stalin. His family came to the U.S. in 1953.
Like Kooser, Simic is not a difficult read. Like Hall, there is clearly more depth to his work. He is no Bly or Ashbery, but he is a brilliant mind and I have enjoyed what work of his I have read. I believe he'll bring a positive voice to the position.
I got a new pair of glasses last night. It had become so frustreating to read for any extended length of time and I am pleased to say the new ones are making a ton of difference. I don't believe my old Rx was that off, but I have always believed they got my measurement of my puples off and so for reading it was a bitch. They never were quite right and over time with even slight changes in my vision, the issue worsened. I really feel for those who need glasses but do not have them.
Watching the San Francisco Giants play the (cough) LA Dodgers I was taken in by a couple of poetic moments on the field. No, nether of them had to do with Barry Bonds hitting #755. That quest continues. The unlikely source of this artistry on the field came from the new arrival Rajai Davis a young fielder from the Pirates organization with very limited major league experience. He came in a deal that sent pitcher Matt Morris to Pittsburgh and will give the Giants another player to be named later.
While somewhat disappointed about the trade, Young Davis came up with a fantastic fielding play in center and firing to 2B to cut down a Dodger hitter challenging the young fielder for a two bagger. In the 8th, he safely bunted on, had a stolen base, then went to third on a wild pitch and was latter driven home. Oh, did I mention he hit safely in I believe the 5th? The kid definitely has wheels. ###
(sigh) I know who the winneris in Rupert Murdoch's acqusition of the Wall Street Journal. Sadly, I think I know who the loser is as well. ###
"Two things come to mind that are euphoric for me. One is the universal euphoric: sex. The other is when I create something that moves me." ~ Paul Simon
The other day when I stumbled upon Picasso's obsession quote that I posted, I found his positive take on obsessions remarkable in that I generally hear the term used in a disapproving light. So I am setting here with my hands like a balance thinking of the counter weight of the good obsessions and the bad ones. Flashing lights and sirens go off in my head. The can be indication of scary things about to happen or it may be that it is really a good idea ( the line on this can get fuzzy).
Since one of the thing I like to do in my poems is to create a strong dissonance, I thought what an opportunity. So I am thinking of a series of poems on different obsessions. So I will be brainstorming on obsessions for a few days. Maybe it can become a compulsion; or not.
And I could not pass up this bit of news to share.... 237 Reasons to have sex. Psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin say they have catalogued a total of 237 reasons people dance between the sheets.*
* not all of the reasons in this article are condoned by Stickpoet Superhero. Some may have a pathology that is unhealthy; additionally this may not be a totally inclusive list. Their may actually be many more reasons to have sex than have been disclosed here and Stickpoet Superhero assumes no liability for any omissions or errors.
Dana Goodyear - Poet & senior editor and staff writer at the New Yorker will appear at the Kansas City Public Library in the Halzberg Auditorium - 14 W.10th St. - Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday - September 5th. Reception is at 6:00 PM and program begins at 6:30PM.
