Rag Reading Review

Last nights Main Street Rag poetry reading - held at the Writers Place featured Amy Davis ( left) and Missi Rasmussen (right) followed by an open mic.

Amy's poems were an ecliptic journey through some of her earlier work to the present. While some of these poems I've had an opportunity to hear before, there were several I had not. Her delivery was casual and with commentary that included interesting insight into some of the work. Not filler; but things that really enhanced the experience.

Missi's read was smooth and deliberate. Again, some material I was familiar with but lots of poems I had not heard before. There was a great deal of maturity in both the material and the poise with which she delivered it. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of new pieces of work she presented

During the opem mic period - Pat Berge read her poem One Good Day. A moving piece that you could have heard a pen drop as it was read.

Shawn Pavey gets high marks for the selection of these two young women as featured readers for the event. The Main Street Rag is a quarterly literary magazine based in Charlotte, NC and is co-sponsor of the monthly reading series. Pavey is co-founder.

Journal bits this week...

• conversations through cheese cloth/ripple the dialogue
• The last thing echoes its name/off the monument to a culture/unable to establish roots here
• I had a dream in the pitch dark. As disturbing as it was, it remains a shapeless void.
• Rain falling - acoustically pleasing. A single roll of thunder breaks through; then a second one. A lazy Saturday morning has broken out. [7-12]

What the Blogosphere is Saying About The New Poet Laureate

What others are saying about the new poet laureate - Kay Ryan...

• The New Modernest - Edward Lifson.com / "Me, I'm a minimalist. I like lots of it. That's a joke. But I've always liked the spare poetry of Kay Ryan."
• Bibliolatry / "Ever the modern gal, I like that her poems are short and deceptively easy to read."
• Books, Inq.: The Epilogue / "She's a hell of a poet, and a great person to boot."
• Little Fury / "Kay Ryan’s appointment to the post has potential, people, so I’m hopeful. By her own admission, Ryan is “an outsider,” though I suppose I dare you to name a poet who doesn't believe he or she is, in some fundamental human way, an outsider. Dana Gioia, maybe. Billy Collins. Yeah, ok, so give me a list of ten. At the very least, I find Ryan’s work to be magnificently energetic. "
• Notes on the Writing Life / "Ryan is skillful, accomplished, and more than deserving of this honor, but I don't much care for her poetry, which tends to be simple, spare, and playful. Just a matter of taste, really. Simic is a hard act to follow and is a personal favorite. I'm happy to see a woman have the honor again after so long a string of men, but I had hoped to see Jorie Graham named. Like Billy Collins and Ted Kooser, Kay Ryan writes poetry that is very accessible. Even a caveman could read it. Sometimes that simplicity appeals to people who don't read more complex or surreal poetry, so perhaps Ryan will draw a wider audience. And that will surely be a good thing for poetry."

Well, I was Surprised

Kay Ryan would not have been on my short list. Hell, she would not have even made my long list. I'm not referring to prospective Veeps, I'm talking about the next U.S. Poet Laureate. This is not to be critical of Kay Ryan, it has to do with the fact that she is a poet who has been completely off my radar. As such, I am quite frankly at a loss to assess my view of the news of her selection other than to express some feeling of relief that a woman was selected as it has been quite a drought for their gender.





What I do know about Kay is the following:

• She was born in California
• Educated at UCLA - both bachelor's and master's degree
• She's received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Guggenheim fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Union League Poetry Prize, the Maurice English Poetry Award, and three Pushcart Prizes.
• She has published six collections of poetry.

Others on Kay Ryan:

Dana Gioia: "Ryan’s poems characteristically take the shape of an observation or idea in the process of clarifying itself. Although the poems are brightly sensual and imagistic, there is often a strongly didactic sense at work."

J.D. McClatchy: "She is an anomaly in today's literary culture: as intense and elliptical as Dickinson, as buoyant and rueful as Frost.”

In the days ahead I'll be checking out her work and will likely be able to formulate a better view of this latest selection by the Library of Congress.

Poetry in the News

• As much as his left-brain produces equations, formulas and theories, his right-brain gushes sentiment, passion and feelings. Retired scientist Leonard "Barry" Barrington has written a poem a day for thirty years.
• Readers solve 'lost' poet mystery.
• Napa Valley Writers' Conference presents public lecture series July 28-31 / On Thursday, July 31, at 9 a.m., Brenda Hillman will speak on “Reportorial Poetry: Bringing Poetic, Spiritual, and Political Activism Together.” More on the conference.

Sonata

The third movement was less
obvious—

its sound rooted in the quietude
that often passes as peace, but is really
just a pause in fighting.

"Mamma Mia, here I go again/ My, my, how can I resist you?"

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm one of those

people addicted to the music of the pop group ABBA. So, when I saw the link on Jilly's blog today... well, I was very interested it what it had to say.

Can science explain why ABBA is so catchy? [ABBA story on Boston.com]

Sarah Rodman writes, "ABBA's songs continue to endure as what scientists have dubbed "earworms" 35 years after the band's first album was released. Like those little bugs, the tunes burrow into our brains and keep hitting the repeat button." I've always maintained that ABBA's female vocalists have one of the sweetest harmonies around. They are just about as perfect as humanly possible. And their harmony may in fact have something to do with this.

According to Daniel Levitin, author of "This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession," The ABBA model of the multiple voices is closer to "the chemical reactions we have to events in the world, for tens of thousands of years when we as a species heard music we heard groups singing it, not an individual and not an individual standing on a stage." Sorry Frank Sinatra and Miley Cyrus.

Levitin says their upbeat songs like "Money, Money, Money" have simple lyrics that makes them easy to sing along to. That he adds, gives listeners "an even more powerful hit of happy juice in the brain from dopamine."

But what about the sad and more contemplative songs? "The Winner Takes It All," for example.Here, brains produce an opposite but equally enjoyable reaction. "You get the comfort hormone of prolactin when you hear sad music," Levitin explains. That's the same hormone that's released when mothers nurse their babies. It's soothing.

The article points to a number of others individuals with the credential to speak on the subject of musicality and the brain... they all find reason to count the music of ABBA as infectious. A fascinating article and somewhat reassuring that I am not alone.

Now, I can't wait for the premiere of Mamma Mia. ...here I go again... My my, how can I resist you...