It's Friday - yeah!

A few poetry items of interest:

While Elizabeth Bishop published only about 90 of them in a handful of books, the Library of America is publishing a new collection of her poems and prose. PBS, who in my estimation has a reputation for providing some wonderful reporting on poetry, has a story about this here.

An East St. Louis woman has filed suit in U.S. District Court against Gillan Graphics and Awards, Inc., alleging it sold copies of a poem she wrote for her mother. Felicia Gayden claims she owns a copyright on a piece of original poetry, entitled "Dearest Mother" which was taken to Gillan for framing by the Plaintiff for presentment to her mother. Gayden later realized Gillan Graphics was selling a framed version of her poem with title and minor changes. [Story here]

The Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) Poetry Series opens with Li-Young Lee [ Story here]

On a political note, Thumbs Up for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who would not be intimidated by President Bush over the deadline on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When the President continues to thumb his nose at Congressional oversight I am glad to see she has the courage to stand up against his pressure. There needs to be more transparency in surveillance when American citizens are involved and when the administration has a history of acting without court authority where there are specific legal system in place to provide protection of rights.

John McCain Panders on His Own Principals

When presented with an opportunity to a choose between voting to extend the Army field manual's prohibition on torture to the CIA and pandering to the right wing of his party, John McCain chose pandering over his principles.

[Note McCain in a Republican presidential debate on Nov. 28, 1007]

McCain said that the Army Field Manual should be the gold standard for interrogations: I would hope that we would understand, my friends, that life is not 24 and Jack Bauer. Life is interrogation techniques which are humane and yet effective. And I just came back from visiting a prison in Iraq. The army general there said that techniques under the Army Field Manual are working and working effectively, and he didn’t think they need to do anything else. My friends, this is what America is all about.

[Now comes the defining vote]- "I made it very clear that I think that water-boarding is torture and illegal, but I will not restrict the CIA to only the Army field manual," and with that McCain votes against torture restrictions and flips on the issue.

Now just as a side note. I've had a great deal of respect with John McCain in the past. Not saying I agree with him on many issues, but I have generally believed him to be an individual of high integrity. That said I find this issue, which he has for so long professed to be a high principal of his, to have vanished so quickly. Perhaps this is just the first of many flip-flops.

Review - Forms of Intercession

“Today I am medium rare. Don’t touch me.” So begins the first line if the poem Forms of Intercession, the title poem in Jayne Pupek’s book published by Mayapple Press. Throughout the book, Pupek pokes around at medium rare subject matter. It seems there are few things that inhibit her writing which can be both disturbing and refreshing.

Each new page seems to contain a poem that is scarcely able to clutch the edge of its page and as the reader, you find yourself hanging onto each line, each raw emotion in a desperate attempt to intercede and keep it from falling into the darkness of nowhere. I had to check my own hands for blood stains when finished.

For all the dispare, Forms of Intercession isn’t all that fatalistic. No it touches a core reality of life… that it is “full of broken combs and blisters. Still we go on, / because it is in us, the need for continuance, / that sliver of persistence inside every cell.” I found it a very artistically mature and straightforward read.

Forms of Intercession

What the poem wants

"The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be." - John Ashbery

Have you ever stopped for a moment to ask yourself what the poem wants? Ok, chuckle if you want, but people are always trying to force something out of a poem that they believe is secretly hidden by the poet. Something he or she hopes you'll look for, but never find. I know this because more than one person has suggested the same.

When I write a poem, I may well have something in mind, but I may not. For the most part what I have in mind is of lesser significance that what the reader finds in the poem. By that I don't mean what I've hidden and they have decoded, but rather what that poem speaks to them in their own voice.

When someone tries to discern what I am saying in poetry, they may well become befuddled. My advise to readers of poetry is to let the poem become yours. Once that has happened, you'll know what it is telling you.

I've read with interest the posts of several poetry bloggers who have started a Confession Tuesday weekly post in which they fess up to little sins, misgivings, shortcomings, whatever that get in there way of their writing. Sometimes the posts are quite serious and others good for a few chuckles. Example: Kelli confesses she keeps bags of sunflower seeds on hand at her desk and wonders if she is part squirrel. She also admits that choosing between Hillary and Barack is like making Dessert choices. I suppose it is a really good exercise in self examination none the less.

I was intrigued by the link she posted this week to a story that The Church of England's recommending a Carbon Fast for Lent.

Well I will confess the period of frustration over nothing but crap flowing from my pen since last week seems to have passed last night. [Insert sight of relief here] When these come, they give me fits and this last one has been especially discouraging, so I am glad it seems to have passed.

I'm currently reading Forms of Intersession, by Jayne Pupek. Watch for my review of it here soon.

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Scalping Poetry Tickets

mood: upbeat
listening to: nothing


The Super Bowl is in the history books. So you went to bed last night with a smile on your face, or a frown depending on who you were rooting for and you have a dream. In the dream people were scalping tickets to a poetry reading. But wait, it isn't a dream!

The fastest sellout in the 20 year history of Seattle Arts & Literature has occurred for Poet Mary Oliver's appearance Monday at Benaroya Hall (2,500 seating capacity) in Seattle. People have been searching Craigslist for tickets - where Roland Crane of Tacoma, finally nabbed on for the price of $100.

If you think this is a fluke, Oliver's appearance in Portland on Tuesday is also sparking a ticket frenzy. And yes, the 2,700-seat Schnitzer Concert Hall for Portland Arts & Lectures has already sold out.

Someone evidently has forgotten to tell those North westerners that poetry is dead.

Sucky writing - sigh

mood: depressed / headache
listening to: nothing

Writing this weekend seemed forced and pointless. This was frustrating. The weather is a downer. Did enjoy the Super Bowl and I'm not really a football fan.

On an upbeat note- I had a great idea for a poem come to me that I will start working on tomorrow.