As Congress Rushes For Election Break

• US backs 'torture' methods to question terror suspects
• Bob Woodward says Bush "increasingly removed from reality"
• Bush Dishonesty Ratio: 485 to 2

Recycling Poems

• Wednesday, I received rejection letters on two submissions... but they are on material that I am very pleased with and will go right back out. A form of recycling I suppose.
• House Adopts Measure Allowing U.S. Wiretaps Without Warrants The House Leadership is willing to put the U.S. Constitution through a shredder for the sake of doing the ONLY thing they believe they can run on and that is the "fear of terror." These are the losers this country elects.
• Interesting fact: Allen Ginsberg's archivist says Ginsberg had more then 300 volumes of journals.

Wednesday Poet Series No 3

This week, the Wednesday poet is one I have greatly admired. Sharon Olds was born in San Francisco. She graduated from Stanford University and the received her Ph.D. form Columbia University in New York and currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

That I am aware of, Olds has eight major works published the first Satan Says in 1980. These were followed by The Dead and the Living, The Gold Cell, The Father, The Wellspring, Blood, Tin, Straw, The Unswept Room, and the latest, Strike Sparks: Selected Poems published in 2004. I am personally most familiar with Satan Says and The Father, both of which resonate with a frankness and detail that is reflected in most everything of hers I have read or heard.

Like Sylvia Plath, Olds seems to push work out from within relating things most personal. I've seen her quoted as saying, "I wish I wrote more about the world at more distance from myself." While she might wish that, her talents have been well served by her approach.

Her first book Satan Says, received the inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award. The Dead and the Living won the 1983 Lamont Poetry Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award while her book The Father, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and was a finalist for The National Book Critics' Circle Award.

Some of her poems: The Unborn The Borders The Clasp Topography

One of my favorites among her poems is The Blue Dress, which unfortunately I have not found a link for as of yet. If I am able to, I will update this post.

In closing, I suppose I would be neglectful if I did not mention that Olds was the New York State Poet Laureate from 1998 - 2000.

Tags: Wednesday Poet Sharon Olds Poet

Poet tells freshmen to scribble, not Hi-Lite

"The ideal reader is someone who reads with a dictionary and a pencil," he said. "You create a dialogue, a visible one, between yourself and the author," says Billy Collins, imploring freshman at University of Oregon to just say no to Hi-Liters.

I'M READING: an advance reading copy of The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice - First Journals and poems: 1937-1952 Allen Ginsberg / edited by Juanita Lieberman-Plimpton and Bill Morgan.

Boston University Professor to Talk on War and Poetry Sept. 28 ~ Boston University Professor James A. Winn will discuss his current book, "War and Poetry," Thursday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. in the University of Wyoming College of Business auditorium.

I Missed National Punctuation Day

Sunday was National Punctuation Day and I missed it, which I suppose is not quite the same as missing a period.

Poets I Have Read This Past Week

The following is as near an accurate list of poets I have read this past week as I can recall.

1. Harold Penter
2. Stanley Kuntz
3. Donald Hall
4. John Ashbery
5. Amy Davis ( local KC area poet)
6. Elizabeth Bishop
7. Missi Rasmussen (local KC area poet)
8. Adrean Rich
9. Sylvia Plath
10. Naomi Shihab Nye
11. Eileen Tabios
12. Lucinda Lawson

Tags: poets

The Problem Of Accessibility

The Problem Of Accessibility "In fact, I have always firmly believed that poetry is about communicating an experience through art. The reader necessarily has to bring their faculties to bear, and maybe do some work. But beyond some pretty basic requisites, I've always felt that poems should be accessible. " ~Robert Peake

I often enjoy reading Robert's blog, but I must disagree with him on this point. I see the standard of accessibility as a burden that handcuffs any artist, including poets. To say that what one writes must be accessible is no different that insisting that poetry be written in strict form. Or even that it must be written in free verse. Such limitations are all nonsense.

I don't feel, as some will tell you, that what Billy Collins writes is evil. I do indeed enjoy much of his work. But I an quite frankly tired of the lame game in poetry, those who would insist that it must be this way or that or else!

If poetry is about communicating an experience through art, as Robert firmly believes, why is it the poet cannot choose whatever medium he or she sees fit to best carry their artistic message? Do we tell paint artists they "must use only oils" never pastels or water color? That it must be on canvass? Do we tell musicians that you must play music only in minor keys? That you must have a set tempo and only work with certain instrumentation otherwise it is not art? That photographic art must be in full color no black and white allowed?

I do enjoy Billy Collins. But if all the poetry I read was in the same mold, how boring would that get? And where then would the art be?


Tags: Robert Peake Billy Collins Poetry acessibility in poetry artistic