Poetry Month Quote - April 16

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words. ~Paul Engle, New York Times, 17 February 1957

Kansas City Area Poetry Events

Friday April 15 - Riverfront Series - Reading at The Writers Place 3607 Pennsylvania - K.C., MO starts at 8:00pm - participants in TWP Winter Poetry Workshop will read poems work shopped in seminar as well as other works.

Readers - Phillis Becker, Susan Carman, Joe Cecil, Ben Chapman, Meg Huber, David Hughes, Judith Bader Jones, Joan Langmack, and Kathleen Laverick.

Saturday - April 162:00pm - Westport Library - 118 Westport Rd. K.C. MO

Branching Out - The K C Public Library - Writers Place and KC Metro Verse team for a multi- event afternoon.

Poet Martin Espada speaks on the late poet Pablo Neruda starting at 2:00pm

Following this event Writers Places hosts a reception.

Then at 4:00pm - to 5:30pm KC Metro Verse hosts a Favorite Poem Project

Monday - April 25th regular monthly Open Mic at The Writers Place starts at 8:00pm

Thursday April 28th - Midwest Poets Series hosts poet Cornelius Eady at the Rockhurst University - Mabee Theater - 5225 Troost - K.C., MO. Enevt starts at 7:30pm.

Poetry Month Quote - April 15

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. ~Sylvia Plath

Poetry Month Quote - April 14

Poetry is not a civilizer, rather the reverse, for great poetry appeals to the most primitive instincts. ~Robinson Jeffers

Name Droppings

Here is a link to a really cool idea for "Poetry in the street" which had it's roots in Toronto, Canada. I like this idea. Actually I am hoping to do some in pastels on a sidewalk this month. Not exactly permanent, but the same general principal.


Have to do a plug. Christine Hamm has a new book- Safe Word which I have not seen yet, but I adore her work. I got a peek of one of the poems in it. Check it out - and/or buy it here. Check read her blog, this is all your fault here.

I read an interesting critical eye on poetry from Camille Paglia - link.

My new Poets & Writers came this week. Haven't had a chance to read but a just a bit of it last night.

Tom Beckett interviews Eileen R. Tabios - link.

Ok, I'm through dropping names for now...

Poetry Month Quote April 13

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." ~T.S. Eliot, Dante, 1920

Poetry Month Quote - April 12

"The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes." ~W. Somerset Maugham