There are a good number of contemporary poets that are not Merwins or Ashberys that nevertheless are exceptional practitioners of the craft and don't get near the attention they deserve. Here are my list of ten who's work I especially appreciate. (they are in no special order)
If you're like me this April, your e-mail swelled beyond the capacity to read on a daily basis. Much of it is due to the influx of poems and poem related material during National Poetry Month. One such e-mail was from PBS Online News Hour with Jim Leher. They do a periodic feature piece on a poet and they are always top notch video feeds with bibliographical information and usually a poem or two. The email was to promote their latest, a visit poet Bob Hicok. I'm familiar with Hicok and I will get around to listening to their piece, but in taking the link to the PBS site, I saw a previous piece I had missed on another poet who I stopped to check out. The poet, pictured above, was Nathalie Handal.
I've missed anything about Ms.Handal up to this point on my poetry radar (which may need servicing) and this was an astonishing discovery. She is well traveled, having I've lived in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the United States, and the Arab world. And while her roots are Palestinian, she is clearly a poet of the world.
I have found some of her poems and posted a few of their links here:
And here us the PBS Video:
Another Video of Nathalie Handal reading - you might need to turn the volume up a bit. This poem captures a portion of the beauty that she compresses within the language of her work. A soft but mighty voice.
In many respects she reminds me of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
In 1991 the United Nations General Assembly established May 3rd as World Press Freedom Day. This year there have been a number if international incidents that underscore the fact that there are governments around the world that continue to suppress news journalists from doing their job.
Just since January there are a significant number of members of the press who have been assassinated and a larger number imprisoned throughout the world. Take a look at this list of news journalists who have paid the ultimate price for their work:
Assassinated journalists and media workers
Raja Assad Hameed (Pakistan)
Reporter for the daily Nation and Waqt TV Channel
Killed on 26 March 2009 in Pakistan
Jawed Ahmad (Afghanistan)
Reporter for the Canadian media, including CTV News.
Killed on 10 March 2009 in Afghanistan
Haider Hashim (Iraq)
Correspondent for the private TV broadcaster Al-Baghdadia
Killed on 10 March 2009 in Iraq
Suhaib Adnan (Iraq)
Cameraman for the private TV broadcaster Al-Baghdadia
Killed on 10 March 2009 in Iraq
Ernesto Rollin (Philippines)
Journalist for local radio DxSY-AM
Killed on 23 February 2009 in Philippines
Jean Paul Ibarra Ramírez (Mexico)
Photographer for El Correo newspaper
Killed on 13 February 2009 in Mexico
Ando Ratovonirina (Madagascar)
Reporter for the privately-owned Radio et Télévision Analamanga (RTA).
Killed on 7 February 2009 in Madagascar
Said Tahlil Ahmed (Somalia)
Director of Horn Afrik Radio/TV
Killed on 4 February 2009 in Somalia
Bruno Ossébi (Republic of Congo)
Columnist for the online newspaper Mwinda
Killed on 2 February 2009 in Republic of Congo
Francis Nyaruri (Kenya)
Journalist for the independent Weekly Citizen
Killed on 29 January 2009 in Kenya
Shafiq Amrakhov (Russian Federation)
Owner and editor of the online regional news agency RIA 51
Killed on 19 January 2009 in Russian Federation
Anastasia Baburova (Russian Federation)
Journalist for Novaya Gazeta
Killed on 19 January 2009 in Russian Federation
Orel Sambrano (Venezuela)
Editor of a weekly magazine ABC
Killed on 16 January 2009 in Venezuela
Uma Singh (Nepal)
Journalist for daily newspaper Janakpur Today and Radio Today FM
Killed on 11 January 2009 in Nepal
Lasantha Wickrematunga (Sri Lanka)
Editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper Sunday Leader
Killed on 8 January 2009 in Sri Lanka
Basel Faraj (Palestine)
Cameraman for the Algerian TV network ENTV and for the Palestine Broadcast Production Company
Killed on 6 January 2009 in Palestine
The Roxana Saberi Matter
Roxana Saberi is a 31 year old journalist with joint U.S. and Iranian citizenship. She has been residing in Iran for six years where she's been studying for a masters degree in Iranian studies, and reporting for NPR, the BBC, ABC News and other international news organizations. Her plans were to return to the U.S. this year when she completed a book about Iranian culture she was writing.
Saberi was arrested at the end of January initially for purchasing wine (alcohol is banned in Iran) then officials alleged she continued to work as a journalist after her credentials were revoked. This finally converted to charges of unspecified "espionage."
On April 18th she was convicted and sentenced to 8 years of jail in a trial that was short of any international standards.
If you do nothing else to mark this this Word Press Freedom Day, click on these two sites and add your voice to the call for Roxana Saberi to be freed.
I can feel the lazy days of summer ahead, but they aren't quite here yet.
Any of you seen the movie Prairie Home Companion? It was a movie I had been wanting to see. My wife was not real interested and we never saw it when it came out. Cathy did however record it on our DVR knowing both my daughter and I wanted to see it. We've had it for a week or two now, and Cathy decided to make a night of it. We got pizza and settled in and watched it. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Both Cathy and my daughter Shannon by the end were fighting to stay awake. Neither were impressed. My wife's explanation as to why I might have enjoyed it was that it reminded her of my poetry... inaccessible.
On a related note, I subjected my immediate family to only one poem this Poetry Month. They seem to believe they are subjected to way more then any sane person should have to endure through their connection to me. So I sent them on the last day of April one poem. They all received one poem from me. I chose the Billy Collins poem, Introduction to Poetry. The poem concludes with the following two stanzas....
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Now Cathy liked the Collins poem, but she responded in an email, "It's the poet that needs to be tied to the chair and beaten with a rubber hose for writing an inaccessible poem...and I'm sure we all know what poet I am talking about. :)
May 1st and I've taken a break from writing today aside from my daily journal entry.
The break from writing a poem is suiting me well so far. There's almost a hour left of the day, I suppose I could get the itch, but I'm thinking not. Who knows, perhaps overnight I might wake up with some brainstorm. Hey, it has happened.
I realized one of my poems that had previously been publish was added to the Johnson County Kansas Public Library's poem a day feature on their Internet site. It can be seen here.
"Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them." ~ Charles Simic
