An American Sentence 4

I’m compelled ask the question are we safer today from ourselves?

Search for Missouri's Next Poet Laureate

Governor Jay Nixon has signed an executive order establishing the procedure for selecting  Missouri’s second poet laureate. The new laureate, who will replace Walter Bargen is to be named in January.

Nixon has an advisory committee that includes three representatives from the Missouri Center for the Book and two individuals named by the Governor. This committee of five is charged with soliciting, publicizing and encouraging nominations for the post. They will develop additional selection criteria, [minimal criteria established by the executive order: resident of state, a published poet, active in the poetry community, be willing and able to promote poetry in the state throughout the two-year term], reviewing and evaluating the nominations, and recommending candidates for appointment to the Governor.

The committee is comprised of: Thomas F. Dillingham, Associate Professor of English at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri; Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of an independently owned bookstore in St. Louis; Carl Phillips, Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis; Kevin Prufer, author of a number of books of poetry and winner of three Pushcart prizes as well as an National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, from Warrensburg, Missouri; and Cheryl D.S. Walker, poet, lawyer and native of St. Louis.

I’m delighted to see the Governors approach to this appointment. Given this is nearly the end of December I would have hoped the committee would have had a little more time to give to the process. Those named to the panel appear to be reasonable choices for the search; I am however disappointed that the five member panel has a heavy St Louis tilt.

It would be nice to see at least one Kansas City area person on that panel.

A copy of the application for for consideration can be found here.

What I'm Reading

I started a new book today.  Winter Pollen - Occasional Prose edited by William Scammell.  The book is  a collection of reviews, essays and articles by Ted Hughes, much of which originally appeared in newspapers, magazines and journals. I'll let you know what I think of it once I get a little deeper into it.

Is tomorrow Monday again? [heavy sigh]

Unconscious Mutterings week 361

You say... I think:

1. Classified :: ads

2. Praised :: child

3. Censored ::  book

4. 2010 :: decade

5. Lamp :: shade

6. Alternate :: lifestyle

7. Script :: post

8. Handsome :: man

9. Eager :: beaver

10. Meeting :: business
 
 
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Take a deep thought...

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. ~Thomas Gray

Christmas has passed, the snow hasn’t

Snow came to visit us for Christmas but I understand it was pretty much making the rounds all over the Mid-west.

Thankfully our travel yesterday was safe. It was all local but the highways were still challenging. Visited my son & had a Christmas meal with him at his house. Cathy cooked a scrumptious lunch.

So we saw a son and on of our daughters. The other two daughters were out of the area but at least they were able to see each other.

It’s so quiet quiet here today I can hear myself thinking. Ok, maybe an exaggeration but not much. Actually I was thinking about some of the books I read this year. There were some  impressive poetry collections published.

By far most of the books I read this year were in fact poetry books. Otherwise biographies and some political non-fiction and baseball non-fiction. I’m wondering if I would best be described as a narrowly focused reader or a poets dream come true?

An American Sentence 3

Silence is the white space around all the chatter we see on a page.