Picked up three interesting books at the Library yesterday. They are:

• Breakfast Served Any Time of Day - by Donald Hall


• Your Own Sylvia - by Stephanie Hemphill


• Otherwise - New and Selected Poems - by Jane Kenyon

Another writer / poet friend of mine has started a blog - Scot Isom - you can check it out here.

Wow... Poet season baseball has been really incredible so far. Even without my Giants, I have been enjoying some exciting games. The Indians / Yankees series has been super! Go Tribe! What a nail bitter last night!

Journal Jottings This Week

From my journal this week:

• As if coded in some way the birds / converse clearly aware of the time / to the exact minute in spite of / the human element of relativity.
• One cannot pluck notion / from the tangled presence / of central air against the popular / theory of tidal pull.
• Free admission flourishes / where depressed economics / wrapped itself around disinterest.
• World hunger beware, her dimpled / diplomacy will restore world peace / to its proper priority.

Mind Policing in America

In spite of the Constitutionally protected freedom of speech, mind policing in America has been going on for a long time. This week, we celebrate Banned Books week. Each year libraries remind us that even today there are those who are vigilant in exercising their discretionary view of what you and I should be able to read.

Who are these mind police? Often they are simply mothers and other busybodies who for the most part are afraid of what might happen if one of their children, or God forbid, you or I happen to read something they disapprove of. Some of the books they target for reasons that seem quite silly on the surface. Still, their assault on this protected liberty (freedom of expression) is not silly at all. Here is a statical overview between 2000 - 2005.

• Most Challenged Books of 21st Century (2000-2005)
• Initiator of challenges 2000-2005
• Types of Challenges 2000-2005

In another stroke of irony, it's the 50th anniversary of the legal action surrounding poet Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." The publisher of Ginsberg's poet was put on trial contending the work contained obscene language, but a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem was not obscene. Still, half a century later, a New York listener-supported radio station WBAI decided not to air the poem because program director Bernard White fears that the FCC will fine the station $325,000 for every one of Ginsberg's dirty-word bombs. This concern was based upon recent actions by the FCC in numerous other imposition of fines to broadcast outlets. Instead, WBAI will include a reading of the poem in a special online-only program called "Howl Against Censorship." It will be posted on www.pacifica.org, the Internet home of the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, because online sites do not fall under the FCC's purview.

Half a century later and the battle over such censorship continues in America. In fact, in many ways the issue is even greater today and the Government has sought library records of individuals under the Patriots Act to see what we are reading, so they can make subjective decisions if we might be terrorists or who knows whatever else they may fear we are?

Queen Latifah Tunes into 'Trav'lin' Light'

From NPR / "My mom played 'Poetry Man' a lot when I was a kid in the house. I mean, she played that album endlessly," says Latifah, whose real name is Dana Owens.

Around the time Queen Latifah was choosing songs she would record for her new album, she happened to hear "Poetry Man" on the radio and thought she might like to try it.
"But since I knew this was one of my mom's favorite songs, I had to go ask her" what she thought about her daughter covering "Poetry Man," Latifah says.

Owens says she told her daughter: "You know Dana, that's not an easy song to do. And you have to do Phoebe Snow justice. If you're going to take on a legend's song, then you have to really step to the plate."

"She recently heard it and she really likes it," Latifah says. "She felt like I kind of followed the template but sort of made it my own."

full story

Trav'lin' Light' is Queen Latifah's second album of popular jazz and R&B songs.

14th Annual Juried Reading / Poetry Center of Chicago

14th Annual Juried Reading

Literary activist and award-winning poet E. Ethelbert Miller will be the final judge for The Poetry Center of Chicago's 14th Annual Juried Reading Competition. First prize winner will receive $1,500; second prize, $500; third prize, $250; five finalists will receive $50. Poetry by the eight finalists will be published in a chapbook by Dancing Girl Press, and all eight poets will be invited to read at an award ceremony in the spring of 2008.

The Juried Reading is open to all poets residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Poets may be unpublished or have published no more than one full-length book of poetry, not including self-published books. All submissions are blind; the jury and the judge will have no access to identifying information about the submitting poets.
Click here for more information and full competition guidelines

On the Lighter Side

This is too funny.... "We Want The Funk"

"In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things." ~ Rita Dove

I heard Charles Simic talking about the great thing in writing poetry is discovering things about yourself. How true!