The Public Has Spoken

The Results are in click here. My sentiments exactly!

Another Poem published...

Autumn Sky Poetry edited by Christine Klocek-Lim has published one of my poems. The current Volume 7 can be seen here. My poem, We Missed can be seen directly here.

Do check out the other poetry in this edition. Christine has done an excellent job putting it together!


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Separating the Art from the Artist... or can we?

A New York Times article [Poetry Prize Sets Off Resignations at Society] details a controversy that has grown within the Poetry Society of America, but it seems to me it has raised even larger questions for the world of arts and literature, questions which I have not formulated a view as of yet.

The issue within the PSA centers around an award, the Frost Medal, which has been awarded to the poet John Hollander. The worthiness of Hollander's poetry itself is not in question, but a statement made by Hollander referring to referred to West African, Mexican and Central American as “cultures without literatures," and an interviewer on NPR who had paraphrased him as saying, “there isn’t much quality work coming from nonwhite poets today.”

Should such remarks be taken into consideration by the PSA or any organization seeking to honor a poet, writer or artist of any kind? Or, should the artistic work they produce be the soul basis for such recognition? The Hollander incident is of course not an isolated incident of controversy among poets. Ezra Pound for example is widely know for his anti-Semitism. Should that fact detract from the literary appreciation of his work? Can we appreciate great works of art and literature without bestowing accolades and honors upon the artists themselves?

No, I still don't have and answer to these questions, and I am sure this is not likely to be the last time this issue arises.

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But do Presidents?

Reuters News Service reports that President Bush, today told a group of New York school children, "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." The gaff was part of remarks the President made while urging the extension of his education program, No Child Left Behind.

And yesterday, when the President was at the U.N. to deliver a major address, a draft of President Bush's speech to the U.N. General Assembly was posted online with phonetic spellings and other markings that weren't supposed to be seen by anyone outside the administration. [source]

Books On Trial

Last night I attended a event at the Kansas City Public Library in with authors Shirley & Wayne Wiegand presented a factual account of a historic 1940 incident in which Oklahoma County officials confiscated the entire contents of a local bookstore then put the proprietors and patrons of the store on trial not for anything they did, but for the contents of the books on their store shelves.

The story of their arrest, conviction and the battle for some three years to get their convictions overturned is an interesting and chilling one. The implications of this care are far reaching when considered against some of our government's actions today. Not only were these individuals victims of the governments fear of communists, but the basic fundamental rights of our constitution were victims as well.

I was especially surprised how significant racial overtones were in the prosecution of this case. I know Oklahoma is a southern state, but not the deep south, and none of the defendants were black. It was their association with civil rights issues that were paraded before the jury.

Over the next three years, the public outcry as news of this case spread throughout the U.S. ultimately sent this matter to a appellate court and the convictions were overturned. Libraries and Universities throughout the country cited that they were likely equally guilty based on the fact that many of the books the prosecution cited in their case were on their shelves as well. No evidence of any subversive or violent actions by the defendants to overthrow the government were ever presented. It was all purely based on the contents of the bookstore and the inflammatory suggestions that these individuals would dare suggest that blacks and whites have equal rights.

It is a story worth reading. The book: Books on Trial - Red Scare in the Heartland - authors Shirley & Wayne Wiegand

OMG!!!!

I missed Stick Poets 4th year anniversary! Sept 2, 2003 was the first post on this blog. Imagine that.


By the way, while you've been able to subscribe to e-mail feeds of Stick Poet Superhero for a long time, the new service I'm using now is so much better. It actually works! Over the past couple of years I've used two different services that ultimately had issues. The sad thing is that in giving them up, especially the oldest one, I lost a lot of subscribers. But of course they were no longer receiving their posts due to the problems which drove me to change.

I noticed the other day a bit of a spike in the number of people subscribing to Stick Poet posts and that's been encouraging. Slowly they are coming back.... and some new ones I hope!

If you haven't and would like to - it's easy, just add your e-mail to the subscribe box on the left sidebar and click. You will get an email that requires you to confirm and then after that, once a day you'll get all the posts for that day in one e-mail.

Poets will bare their souls, and everything else, tonight

Poets will bare their souls, and everything else, tonight: "The Poetry in the Raw event is a fundraiser to help several of the poets travel to Halifax, where they will compete against eight other teams in the National Slam Competition. It takes place next week at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. 'The readers will be disrobed and unfettered tonight,' promised shayne avec i grec, a former member of the team, who now acts as coach. He said the idea of stripping came from two previous events in which he decided to read in the buff -- and garnered a surprisingly keen audience." [full story]