Ted Hughes Honored Today

 

Ted Hughes (left) is honored today by his inclusion at the Poet's Corner in the South Transept of Westminster Abbey.  The practice of honoring  the greatest poets with a tomb or stove is a 600 year tradition in Britain.  (pictured on the right is photo of some of the markers)

The list of those honored before him include the likes of Dryden, Browning, Tennyson, Shelly, Keats, Blake, Hopkins and Eliot.

Hughes' inclusion came after some heavy duty lobby  by a number of poets including Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage.  Britain's Poet Laureate from 1984 till his death in 1998 on might have though Hughes o be an early lock for the honor.

I've read a number of Ted Hughes' published works. While his first book, Hawk in the Rain is outstanding and won critical acclaim  when published in the late 1950's it is Birthday Letters, published the year he died that I most remember him for.  This work forever links him and his response to the final work of his first wife Sylvia Plath.

I have to say that while Hughes is a masterful poet, I have often wondered how long i would have been before his talents were truly recognized without Sylvia.  I was her belief in Ted and her dogged work typing manuscripts and sending them off that netted his recognition  for Hawk in the Rain. I have always seen Ted as the more laid back Brit and Sylvia with that American ambition driving him forward.

From the Hard to Believe Department

It's hard to believe Catch 21 is 50 years old.  I tried to recall my age at first reading it  and it threw me me.  I read it in the very late 1960's Probably '68 or '69 and did not realize that it was not not fresh off the presses then. Or maybe I knew but have forgotten.  It just seems that in my mind it was so relevant to the time.  Realizing that Joseph Heller actually began writing it in 1953 makes the story line even more remarkable to me.


also, a couple of notable local events...

Coming up: Sunday, December 11 - 2 p.m.
Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

Guy Masterson: Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales

Welsh-born actor Guy Masterson reads A Child's Christmas in Wales, one of the most popular works by Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas.

And at The Writers Place: Friday, December 16, 2011 7:00 pm
Holiday Holiday Reading and Party with the Music of Jim Abel and Kevin Hiatt
Readers will include Shawn Pavey, David Hughes, Michelle Pond, Martha Gershun, Tim Pettit, John Hastings, Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Carl Rhoden, Tina Hacker, Eve Ott, Susan Peters, and Phyllis Becker.
All donations will go to the Phil Miller scholarship.

Company Policy or Simply Hate?

U. S. Crane, LLC is a company with it's Corporate Headquarters in Waco, Georgia. It's principal business is Overhead Crane and Hoist Sales as well as replacement parts and Structural and Electrical Engineering for such products.   They recently made the news because the have promoted their stated company policy on bumper stickers which they have placed on the fleet of vehicles which the company operates in for their business.
As seen at the right, the bumper stickers read:  NEW COMPANY POLICY - WE ARE NOT HIRING UNTIL OBAMA IS GONE.  I don't know about you but I've never worked for a business in my entire life who put company policy on bumper stickers. In Human Resource memos, in Company Handbooks, but never as bumper stickers on vehicles.  Of course the use of bumper stickers for political discourse is widespread and time honored.  That is what really is the heart of the matter here with U.S. Crane.

Bill Looman, the owner of U. S. Crane would have you believe that he is just an American Patriot trying his best to save our economy from the President.  He has indicated that he wants to hire everybody but just can't afford to because of Obama's policies.  But Looman's motives actually go beyond the scope of any policies.

In a Facebook post-  Monday, August 8, 2011 at 5:30am, Bill Lomman, III says of President Obama, "HE HAS BEEN TRAINED FOR THIS AND HE IS A MARXIST/ISLAMIC TOOL TO TEAR APART OUR ONCE GREAT NATION." 

His Facebook post is titled DARE TO PREPARE AND WHY?  In it he goes one to list a series of steps he feel necessary for him to take.  The list is as follows:

1. START SEEKING AND NETWORKING WITH PATRIOTS OF LIKE MIND.
2. SEEK OUT AND FORGE FRIENDSHIPS WITH SURVIVAL SKILLS. THIS INCLUDED GROUPS SUCH AS OATH KEEPERS, MILITIAS, AND POLITICAL GROUPS THAT APPEARED TO HAVE OUR FOUNDING FATHERS CORE MESSAGE AND CONSTITUTION IN THEIR BASIC PHILOSOPHY.
3. BUILT AND STOCKED A FISH POND.
4. STARTED STORING FOOD.
5. SELLING WEAPONS THAT WERE COOL BUT WERE ODD CALIBERS AND WOULD BE HARD TO GET AMMUNITION FOR.
6. BOUGHT NEW WEAPONS TO REPLACE THE ONES I SOLD AND STOCK PILED AMMUNITION.
7. HONED MY HUNTING SKILLS AND LEARNED HOW TO COMPLETELY PROCESS ALL MY CATCH.
8. PERFORMED NEEDED MAINTENANCE ON MY HOME.
9. BECAME POLITICALLY ACTIVE IN MY COMMUNITY AND STARTED TO FORGE FRIENDSHIPS WITH OLD AND NEW FRIENDS THAT HAD SKILLS THAT MAY BE NEEDED IN THE FUTURE.
10. STARTED FURTHER TRAINING OTHERS AS THEY APPEARED WAKE UP TO PRESIDENTS PERCEIVED INTENTIONS WITH MARKSMANSHIP TRAINING, POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS, AND YES, EVEN RELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS.
11. DIVESTED IN STOCKS AND PURCHASED MORE PROPERTY.
12. DIVESTED IN RETIREMENT FUNDS AND MOVED THE MONEY TO SAVINGS TO PROTECT AGAINST WALL STREET VOLATILITY.
13. PURCHASED AN EMERGENCY POWER SOURCE AND AND FUEL TO SUPPLY THAT SOURCE. THIS POWER SOURCE WILL BE USED TO DRAW WATER FROM OUR WELL AND KEEP OUR COLD STORAGE RUNNING FOR AS LONG AS FEASIBLE.

My question is, after reading this, do any of you think this sounds like an individual who is especially
focused on his business operations and development of company policy?  It appears that so much more going on here some business' Human Resources policies on hiring. Sadly there are people who continue to drape themselves in the flag and religion to mainstream their ideological hate - and attempt perpetuate it and grow that hate.

Denise Duhamel - No Home Wrecker

Denise Duhamel is a poet whose wit and craftiness caught my attention a long time ago. Ooops, mayby it was not that long ago. Or heck maybe she was in grade school when I first read her poems. (How's that for a save?)  Anyway, she is the featured poet on How a Poem Happens for today.

In the interview questions by Brian Brodeur I especially enjoyed the question about inspiration and her comment about meting the muse halfway.  Great post!!

Do you believe in inspiration? How much of this poem was "received" and how much was the result of sweat and tears?
I do believe in inspiration and the muse. But I also believe you have to meet her halfway, show up everyday whether she shows up or not. As a writer, you (I mean, I suppose, I) have to be there to receive her whims. I write a lot of pages that never wind up in poems. When I reread my free writing, often a draft of a poem is there proceeded and followed by gibberish or cliché or nonsense. Then I excavate the draft and begin revising. I don’t believe in sweat and tears associated with writing because I love writing so much. I think of it as high-octane play and fun.

Catch the whole poem and interview here! 

Magpie Tales 93 / Poem: How Size Matters



How Size Matters

a time

a place to stop

a sofa

against a rock solid platitude

on the main street of a life

of obligatory divestiture

of  inflexible options

of throwaway propositions

of too big to fail

of too small to matter

Michael A. Wells

Magpie Tales 93

spiraling words

Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used. ~ David Lehman



 

Knock My Socks off Poetry Wednesday

A couple of poems that I've read recently that I especially enjoyed and I feel are worth a read...

Ben Parkers'  Sharing the Task that appeared in Rose & Thorn Journal.


David Oestreich's In Praise of Coffee that appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry.