Camille Paglia on Art / Poetry

Last night I heard Camille Paglia speak here in Kansas City. She was promoting her new book, Break, Blow, Burn, Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems. I'll share a few thoughts on here presentation & viewpoint.

To start with, she has not trouble speaking her mind. Given her notoriety as a feminist, I thought this would likely shine through, however it didn't. I found her to be thought provoking and I tended to be in agreement with her more often than not in terms of substance.

An example: I agree with her that great art (poetry included) never remains the same. She urged people to go back and review art that they have found strikingly significant in the past and consider what it is saying to them today. Five, ten, or fifteen years later we see it different via our life experiences. I totally agree with this, and while this is not revolutionary or new to me, I appreciated her way of expressing it.

Her view of what makes a good poem centers on the quality usage of language and words of vitality. She prefers the personal read on the page to reading poetry aloud. And I tend to agree that how the poem hangs on the page, its visual presentation is important.

She was highly critical of existing established academic programs these days and maintains that Art belongs to all of humanity, not simply to an elite coterie.

She used "the term"accessible which of course is not the most positive word in my vocabulary and I would not specifically find it necessary to define poetry that for my buck, would stand the test of time.

I glanced at the book, though they were sold out. Mine is expected in on Friday. I was guessing the Plath poem she selected would be Daddy or Lady Lazaruss. It was Daddy.

Ms. Paglia speaks at a 90 mile an hour clip (I kid you not) and it taxes an ADD mind, but I found the experienced to be worthwhile.

I am anxious to get into her specifics in the book and when I do, I'll likely have more to say about it.


Tags: Poetry Art Break, Blow, Burn Paglia

To Be Sure Is A Good Thing...

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you." ~A.A. Milne

Saturday - all is quiet

Bitter cold descended upon us overnight. Gone are the 60 degree January days we knew were too good to be true. Last night it was single digits. We had a touch of snow, but even that was scant and chased away by the cold.

Last night I managed to get three more poems off bringing my total submissions for the year to date at 13.

The mail has come, no rejections - only a utility bill, the latest Poets & Writers and a slew of junk mail, catalogues and material mostly for my daughters. My wife lamented no mail. I reminded her no mail can be a good thing.

My daughter picked up a couple of books for me last night as some discount book store. The Night Abraham Called To The Stars by Robert Bly, and Augusten Burroughs book, Running with Scissors. I've been wanting to read this book for some time. It will have to wait however for me to finish my current read.

That is it for now, I'm off to clean in my office.

Site visitors

Just wanted to mention that some of the readers of stickpoet this week have visited the site from these places:

• 13 from Van Texas
• 3 from San Joes
• 2 from Calgary, Canada
• 2 from Stirling, Scotland
• 2 from Blue Springs, Missouri (almost my backyard)
• 1 from Erode, India
• 1 from Toronto, Canada
• 1 from Sarasota, Florida (spring training is coming soon!)
• 1 from White Plains, New York
• 1 from Detroit, Michigan
• 1 from San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 1 from Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 1 from Schenectady, New York

Just to name a few. Thanks to everyone for dropping in.

A summary of this years publication activity

January

Submissions to publishers / journals - 8 poems
Submissions accepted - none
Submissions rejected - none

February

Submissions To Publishers / journals - 2 poems
Submissions accepted - none
Submissions rejected - none

Totals for year

Submissions - 10
Accepted - none
Rejected - none

Note: I should have 3-4 more going out over the weekend.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000

Guardian Unlimited Special reports Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000


With the list numbers growing swiftly, Timothy Sparapani, a privacy rights expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU's response was one of incredulity, and alarm that many people are likely to be on the list by mistake, with serious impact on their lives and few, if any, means of getting themselves off it.

Tags: civil-liberties

Poetry Rules Valentine's Day Online

Poetry Rules Valentine's Day Online

In the week ending February 11 - leading up to Valentines Day - the search term, "love poems" grew 83 percent. This outpaced searches for Chocolates, flowers and other gifts normally associated with Valentine's day during the same time period.

This news is a positive indication on the general publics view of poetry, at least in a broad context.

Other interesting demographics information can be seen at the story linked.