The Birth of Poets

A young Belarusian poet named Valzhyna Mort (Martynava) was featured in the recent issue of P&W. From that article came this great line... "Someone said we're born a poet from this wound inflicted on us by other poets' poetry."



In terms of my own experience, I feel a real kinship with this statement. There are a number of poets whose work has touched me in such fashion, but I suspect if I were to recall one single poem, from on poet that had this kind of impact upon me, strangely enough it would be The Blue Dress by Sharon Olds. Remarkably strange I suppose for a guy since it is written in the persona of a young girl and the main prop being a blue dress. Yet the poem speaks to relationships and lack of relationships and the very first time I read it there was a real visceral connection to this poem. This was not the first such instance, there are works particularly by Plath, and Sexton which impacted me, but perhaps the strongest I can attribute to a single poem was the Olds poem.



I wonder how many others writing poetry can point to a specific poem that profoundly inflicted a wound so great that did or could have been the birth of their own inclination to writing poetry?

Future of K.C. Lit Fest

The Second Annual Kansas City Literary Festival is past now and I noted that John Mark Eberhart, Book Editor for the Kansas City Star has a few observations about what the future might hold in store for this young event. His assessment, which appeared in the Sunday arts and entertainment edition of the Star, was a good honest look at the event.

Eberhart noted that the event did a good job of recognizing local authors and giving poets a strong presence at the event. But Eberhart sees a problem with the lack of big name draws. It isn't that they have not been booked, but in the two years hear - circumstances have lead to last minute cancellations of the top billed authors both years. Such things are bound to happen. That is why he urges the powers that be to book top name authors across several genres. It both broadens the pool of public interest and lessens the chance that the event looses it's top draw, as there would be more than one.

These suggestions are wise ones. If there was much of an increase in foot traffic at the event the second year, I could not tell it. I don't believe it was any less attended, but I didn't see measurable growth.

The planners do deserve a lot of credit. But there were shortcomings. The official web site was black till quite close to the event. Something I found inexcusable for an event that was anticipated even as last years packed up.

I can't say enough about the support they have given the poetry community. The poetry stage was well organized and featured a good cross section of local talent.

The organizers would do well to take Eberhart's Sunday article and use it to shape a blueprint for next years event. It would do a lot to assuring this thrives in Kansas City for years to come.

With a firm grip on my pen...

Jane Pupek had a link to a place for writer's gifts - her selection was "Will write for chocolate." I had to chuckle when I saw the one at the left. When the actor Charleston Heston passed away recently I made some disparaging remarks about his NRA affiliation and ardent opposition to handgun controls. My wife responded saying I should leave the poor man alone, he's dead. She went on and said your the same way about your pen. We'll have to pry it out of your cold dead fingers to get it away from you. She's right of course, but I've never accidentally or intentionally killed anyone with my fountain pen... yet.

Went to the half-price book store today & picked up a copy of John Ashbery's The Mooring of Starting Out: The First Five Books of Poetry. Two of the things I love about Ashbery's writing is his command of language and the pictures I contrive in my head when reading his work.

Last night, my wife and I watched ReCount on HBO. The chronology of events in those post election days in 2000 are worth every American reliving.

The recent catastrophic disasters to hit China and Myanmar are heavy on my mind. Add to that the rash of sever storm related death and distruction to parts of the Midwest, south and southeastern parts of the U.S. The need for 3.3 million tents in China is mind boggeling. Where do you turn to get that kind of need met overnight?

I heard Frances Richey on NPR this weekend - Soldier's Mother Bridges Distance with Poetry.

It's a compelling example of poetry that renewed a bond between mother and son.

Order & Reason

I’ve read many poetry books where I paused at some point and asked myself, “why is this poem here?” The sad thing is, many of these are very good poems, they simply don’t appear to belong where they are or even in the book.

Perhaps the greater art than writing the poems is arraigning their placement within a manuscript. It’s an agonizing task, but an important one none the less. The paint artist gets to work his or her subjects onto the canvas as the picture is coming into being, but the poet must take individual poems and piece them together like working a giant jigsaw puzzle.

I imagine most of the time poems are written without future consideration for a broader manuscript. I realize there are exceptions to this, but even when one is writing with a broader manuscript in mind, it is unlikely that the whole manuscript will be written in a concise order or that all of the poems will end up in the final manuscript.

I heard Katrina Vandenberg read in Kansas City sometime in the past couple of years. She is the author of Atlas, published by Milkweed editions in 2004. This week I read an extraordinary piece in P&W on the subject of ordering you for manuscripts that was written by Katrina.

Putting Your Poetry in Order sounds a bit like planning for one’s death but it’s not. Still, there is something very final about a manuscript. How and what you place in a poetry manuscript may well have a lot to do with how a potential publisher views the work and it certainly can be important to the consumer once the book is published. I know I have read some poetry books that seemed so disjointed that I will likely not give the poet a second try for a subsequent book of poetry.

If you have wondered about creating a reasonable continuity to your manuscript, and don’t have a clue other than thinking you must have a strong opening poem, then I recommend reading Katrina’s thoughtful approach. It may startle you to know that the placement of poem number two is as important as that first one.

My wife would laugh at what I am about to write here. It is helpful with poetry to have a reason to what you are doing. I find that if I have a reason for a word, for a line break, for an order to copy, then there is a greater likelihood I am creating something that will work.
Will everyone see “your” reason in the work? Probably not. But some will see it, and when asked by others, you’ll have something better to say than, “It felt right.”

Colors of spring & summer

One of the many things I like about spring/summer is the greening that occurs in Missouri. I'm not much of a heat person, so the spring weather is more to my liking, but the landscape coming alive with shades of green and the various other plant blooms that brings reds and yellows and blues, these sharpen my view of the surroundings. I also appreciate the longer daylight hours. I'm reminded how as a young boy I loved that stretch of evening that was browning down but not yet so dark I was required to come in.



I think these kind of nights fill me with an appreciation for colors and textures and words that allow images full of a range of shades to creep into my mind and work up something to put on a page.

A few bits from my journal of recent:

• Was it Bukowski that said/upright is so overrated?/If he didn't he should have.
• The weave pressing patterns/into my skin that rests/upon the rug of reverence/as I meditate on the life/of annoyances-
• Stories travel linear/ and mark their time with words/filled with suggestion
• counted votes spill upon the walk/in naked rawness so blistered/ by the divisions of public sentiment.
  

The Rush of Music

Wet fingers
curl under
pounding on the keys
of sticks and leaves-

the medley flows on
and on downstream
settling at last
in the depth of silence.

Quake Poetry

Many Chinese families have left remaining housing in recent days for fear of anticipated aftershock from the big quake that hit a week ago. They have pitched tents and bedded down for the nights away from structures in the event of more seismic activity. Still, another aftershock of the quake has been the influence upon poetry. Poets are finding ways to reflect upon what has happened in their writing. One such example was featured on NPR. Here you can see and hear 'Elegy' by He Xiaozhu. Even listening to He Xiaozhu in his native language without understanding the words, there is powerful poetry in the inflection and sounds.