I’m not glued to twitter. I was a long time in coming around to it. There are a lot of things on twitter I don’t care about. Gretchen Rubin I discovered by way of twitter. The 2 minute and 13 second video is what Gretchen Rubin is all about. Enjoy it. I did.
In considering my own I’ve realized sadly that I don’t often give this a lot of thought. There are times when I hope my poetry will inform. When writing something with a social of political flavor to it, informing can be a big part of it. But sometimes there is no underlying message, just an attempt to provide a different way to view something. Stepping outside the box to show something outrageously different. How a person might look to a catfish on their plate…
I read an interview of a poet recently and there was some discussion of poetry entertaining. Strange as it might seen, I never really considered poetry to be about entertaining readers, though I suppose it is safe to say that I have myself felt entertained by poetry that I have read.
Do you set out to entertain when you write? What do you generally see as the best value of your finished poem?
Wanted to take a few moments to call a couple of things to your attention.
As federal regulators prepare to vote this month on "network neutrality,”, twenty House Republicans — including most of the Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — sent a letter to Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski today urging him to delay the Oct. 22 vote on his plan. The neutrality plan would prohibit broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against certain types of Internet traffic. Broadband providers would like to regulate the speed at which sites load for customers. They would for instance like give preference to their own site and perhaps create premium commercial sites that would have speed preferences.
On the Senate side, , Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, is considering legislation that would prohibit the FCC from developing Net neutrality.
What is it with these people that they want to stick it to consumers and provide another windfall for corporations?
The Dodge Poetry Festival started in 1986 as an initiative funded by the Arts and Education Programs of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The biennial even easily has attracted close to 20,000 participants to each of the 12 events. But the economic downturn brought news that the festival would be cancelled for 2010. In what may be the best Arts related economic news so for this year, Dodge decided to resurrect the popular event -- the largest poetry gathering in the country. The 2010 event will move to a more urban setting as it was announced that the festival will encompass the performance spaces at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center as well as at least two local churches, the New Jersey Historical Society and parts of Military Park.
The good news come just a year before the event is to occur. It was January when the word came that the 2010 event would be put in ice. The 2008 event cost about $1.3 million to produce. The Foundation had lost considerable equity in investments, nearly 30% during the recession last fall and winter and the latest development is exciting news.
"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing." ~ Anais Nin
I can’t recall the last time I received a personal letter from someone. By letter I mean one of those things that came via the U.S. postal service and landed in my mail box and waited patiently for me to arrive home. E-mail, I have plenty of.
So there is a real novelty to letters. As I mentioned in and earlier blog post I am reading Anne Sexton A Self Portrait in Letters. I’ve read the published letters of numerous poets over the last few years. Plath, Ginsberg to name a couple. Plath’s Letters Home are remarkable in that they provide a rather contrived communication with her mother. If you read any of her biographies (I’ve read countless) and or her published journals you will quickly see two Plaths. The one she wanted her mother to see and an altogether different one. It is against that strange paradox that I find Sexton’s letters refreshingly genuine. She seems to say what she wants and there is little evidence that she tries to control her message. In fact, it is not uncommon for her to follow up one letter with another one with an apology or some sort of disclaimer for something in an earlier note.
Many poets in the 50’s through at least the 70’s were quite prolific writers between friends and peers. One amazing thing I noted about Sexton is how quickly she managed to correspond with significant poets of her time. With barely a year of writing under her belt, Sexton was corresponding with W.D. Snodgrass, Carolyn Kizer, Nolan Miller, John Holmes, etc. With Snodgrass she corresponded quite frequently and her letters suggest he returned the favor. Sexton in fact used nick names in her communication with Snodgrass that suggest they developed a significant friendship. “Dearest Snodsy, Dearest De, My dear night clerk".”
With Snodgrass Sexton would discuss poems, things going on in a Masters Class with Robert Lowell, the progress of her manuscript, etc. I suppose it is not surprising that her work was well received so quickly because she was able to get it in front of people in position to help her very early on.
In her letters she refers numerous times to the fact that she in not a strong speller. Sometimes her letters meander around. “Christ. I’m off again.” Anne writes to Snodgrass, “Talking in circles. My darling, the peanut butter calls.” These early letters also detail the toll that the decline of the health of her parents is having on her and reference her therapy as well and Dr. Sidney Martin’s encouragement that she write for it’s therapeutic value.
I loved the bluntness with which she wrote Robert Lowell in September of 1958 about her efforts and desire to enroll in his Masters class and her assessment of how this was viewed by the registrar’s perception of this. “Today, with 90 dollars in my fist, I called the registrar’s office. However, it seems they are not bouncing with joy at the thought of a “special student” with no particular degrees. A Mr. Wilder said that I would have to wait until after registration and see if there are too many students in the class.”
As I plow onward though this book I will stop from time to time to share things I believe to be of particular significance.
Today I ran down the street to the Federal building to visit their cafeteria over the lunch hour. Exiting with my purchase, I headed back up the street to my office. The wind was wicked crazy and it brought with it chimes from the carillons at St. Mary's Episcopal Church across the way. The music from this red brick church daily fills the downtown air. Today it was playing a tune from the Sound of Music… “i simply remember my favorite things and then I don’t feel so baaaad.” Suddenly I felt like clicking my heels and dancing. This prompted me to wonder, “what if life is really a musical?”
