"Stop,don't do it!"

One woman examines our future in Afghanistan through an unlikely window.  She recalls a Sharon Olds poem titled, I Go Back to May 1937.  As America awaits the next move on the Afganistan front from the President, Carla Carlisle is asking some very good questions.  Read Story Here

Poetry Series Spurs Debate on the Use of an Old Slur Against Latinos

Poetry Series Spurs Debate on the Use of an Old Slur Against Latinos


By DAVID GONZALEZ

The word sounds retro, but its corrosive power lingers. Once a cruelly common taunt that mocked the way Spanish speakers pronounced “speak,” it set off fights, shattered friendships and trampled feelings.

Now that word forms the title of a poetry series — “Spic Up/Speak Out” — at, of all places, El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, on Saturday.

Organizers say that the provocative title is intended as a postmodern take, inviting dialogue and debate over issues of identity. Some of the participating poets have embraced the title as a symbolic inversion of the word, that neutralizes its sting. But others are not so sure.  Read story here.

Talk On Wallace Stevens' Poetry At Tunxis Campus Farmington, CT

 

This looks really interesting, if anyone is close to Farmington, CT on December 3rd it might be worth taking in.

If any readers make it to this, I’d love to hear from them about it.

Submitted by Melissa Lamar, Tunxis Community College, on 2009-11-23.

The public is invited to attend "Philosophy of the Supreme Fiction: In and Beyond the Metaphysics of Wallace Stevens," a free talk by James Finnegan at Tunxis Community College on Dec. 3, from 1-2:30 p.m., in Founders Hall. Lunch will be provided.
Finnegan will explore the common ground of poetry and philosophy, with Wallace Stevens as a guide and muse. Hartford's most noted poet and once one of its more prominent insurance executives, Wallace Stevens has often been studied for the philosophical character of his work. Considered a true American heir to the English Romantic poets, he was also influenced by philosophers as diverse as Nietzsche and such pillars of American pragmatism as Ralph Waldo Emerson and George Santayana. With verse so invested in the problems of epistemology and metaphysics, Stevens' poetry has been freshly examined in the light of current philosophical trends with each new decade. However, the unique way he explores the interaction between imagination and reality resists dissection by logicians and diehard rationalists.
Finnegan is a poet, thinker, and founder of The Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens, a Hartford area arts organization that supports the cultural legacy of Wallace Stevens and promotes poetry in the community. With Dennis Barone, he edited "Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens" (University of Iowa Press, 2009). Finnegan's poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry East, The Southern Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review among others. He is a senior vice president at Lee & Mason Financial Services, Inc.
The lecture is one of a two-part "Proof & Possibility" series of talks on philosophy and the history of ideas. For more information, call 860-255-3623 or 860-255-3500, or e-mail jabbot@txcc.commnet.edu. Visit Tunxis at tunxis.commnet.edu. Tunxis is located at the junction of Rtes. 6 and 177 in Farmington.

Technorati Tags: Tunxis Community College,Wallace Stevens quote

 

My recommended poet for the week

I wanted to recommend a poet to read this week that some of you may not be familiar with.  I always enjoy it when someone else pointed me in the direction of a poet that is new to me. If their writing hits the spot with me it’s like finding a four leaf clover or a great Chardonnay that is new  to me.
I’ve read Cecilia Woloch and I love the genuine nature of her writing. You get the impression that she confronts herself when she writes and I feel this allows her the write from a read position of strength.  Her book Late is among my favorite of contemporary poets and while I’ve not yet purchased a copy of her newest book Carpathia, there are two poems in particular that I’ve read that confirm for me this book too is going the be a keeper.
Fireflies which can be found here is a recitation of vices that anyone could get snared by and say, “that’s me!”  I love the admissions of among other things,
“driving too fast and not being Buddhist
enough to let insects live in my house”
In the title poem Carpathia, which can be found here,  Cecilia has a tremendous knack for interweaving history with the contemporary.   Her poetic voice in this poem spans a wide range.  She’s like singer hitting notes octaves apart!

Technorati Tags: Cecilia Woloch,Late,Carpathia,Fireflies

And my voice changed

 

I’ve been looking forward to the Elton John-Billy Joel concert at the Sprint Center in Kansas City on December 1st but learned it’s been postponed till February. [insert sigh here]  On a positive note, my tickets for the Kansas City Symphony’s production of Handel's Messiah with 250 voice choral accompaniment arrived in the mail yesterday!  To this day I get chills down my neck when I hear the Hallelujah Chorus.  Going back to grade school, we would sing this in Choir.  I recall the stories – and there are many, of King George standing at the beginning of this chorus, thereby causing everyone else to stand, and how this tradition has lived for the hundreds of years since.

The funny thing about my memory of this was that my voice was high then and I was placed in the choir section with the older girls [mostly 7th and 8th graders] singing soprano. They were forever teasing me and making me blush. I became like some kind of mascot to them. The choir director [I bet most grade schools have had this position cut from their budgets long ago] preferred the term descants to soprano, or at least used it as often if not more. As a mousy little kid who hears thing but didn't always get them, I for years though she had called us “desk hands” and could never find anyone who knew what the hell I was talking about. It’s funny how such things come about and decades later you realize why no one knew what you were talking about. It’s like a light comes on and “well duh” it wasn’t desk hand! Oh, and my voice changed!

Technorati Tags: Elton John,Billy Jole,Handel's Messiah

photo credit: Michael A. Wells

Journal bits

Haven’t don this for a while. From the pages of my journal…

• Noted quote - “Some ghosts are women, neither abstract nor pale, their breasts are as limp as killed fish.” ~ Annie Sexton
• sometimes we are as much alike as we are different… separated by a difference / of views smacked down on the table / one hand a royal-flush / the other unworthy of mention here.
• One woman nurses the masses / and breaks bread to disperse. / Another swears by formula, / their are no expiration dates / on breasts but we know them  / to have an end life.
• Toy soldiers are always frozen / in some conscripted position.
• Chunks of sky fall/ beneath the urban path / of the Action News helicopter / but go unnoticed below.

Technorati Tags: Journal Bits,Anne Sexton

I like it when good things happen to poets who deserve it!

 

Congratulations Ivy Alvarez on your Pushcart Nomination! Way to go!

Technorati Tags: Puschcart Nomination,Ivy Alvarez

The Final Poem - by Andree Chedid

I selected a poem by Andree Chedid that I like to feature here today -  click on the link   The Final Poem

Flarf Collective goes public

This captured my attention today...

Just last week, the Flarf Collective made its long-exclusive listserv public, welcoming poets who use material from people's Facebook status, search histories and chat room discourse, techniques that have also become known as flarf. [Story here]

Retreat of sorts

Dog sitting for my son this weekend. It’s become a mini writing retreat of sorts.  I’ve stayed off TV – so I’ve not had that distraction. Also worked on some “office work” and in-between took our sick car to the shop for which the issue remains unresolved. 

In terms of writing, I’ve done some on my laptop and some in my journal. It helped to brake up things to give my eyes a change of focus. By late last night my eyes were pretty fuzzy and my head spinning. I did ultimately unwind listening to some music from Yusef Islam a.k.a. Cat Stevens. Some of his music is especially comforting like the denim jeans he sings of in Oh Very Young.

One of the neat things about writing this weekend is that I started with an epigraph from Anne Sexton and was able to write for a while and hit a wall.  I stopped for a while and read some of her work just to get my mind to move beyond where I was.  Later I was able to go back and successfully write more. Not from the original draft but with a new slant from the epigraph. Again I hit a wall, but I have parts of the two different drafts that have portions that show promise and will at some point I am confident prove useful. Then later this morning – another whole draft – this one the process has reached conclusion. It’s very workable and I already know some changes I will make; tighten it up and work on line breaks and toy with the stanzas trying to get the best flow from it and improve it lyrically. This one has a broadly political / philosophical tone and these are so hard to do without preaching. This will not be preachy.

That is my roundup for the weekend. I’m going to stop now and write a bit longer and head to bed. Morning comes soon.

Technorati Tags: writing weekend

A Little Saturday Mischief

 

A Few Poetry Workshops You May Have Missed

• Feline Elegies - or nine chances to get it right.
• Potato Poetry - Mashed, fried, baked and other poetic devices.
• Would you, could you with Hamlet? Exploring similarities of Seuss and Shakespeare.

Technorati Tags: poetry workshops you may have missed

Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

 

Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

Award-winning poet CD Wright visits Columbia to deliver a lecture on the place of poetry in the public discourse.

By Laura Oseland

Published Tuesday 10 November 2009 07:13pm EST.

View post history

How does poetry keep on keeping on?

This is what award-winning poet CD Wright will discuss for the Creative Writing Lecture Series at the School of the Arts on Thursday. Her lecture, “Concerning Why Poetry Offers a Better Deal than the World’s Biggest Retailer,” explores the position of poetry within the public discourse, as an artistic force in the commercial and social environment in which we now live.

Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

Technorati Tags: CD Wright,marketing poetry

What Does it Say About FOX News when Comedy Central is More A More Accurate Source for News?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Sean Hannity and Rep. Michele Bachmann(R-MN) two peas in a pod!

Technorati Tags: Jon Stewart,Michele,Sean Hannity,FOX News,anit-health care reform rally

Hold on I’m Not Unnerved by Women’s Poetry

I occasionally read the Books Blog at guardian.co.uk and today Jo Shapcott caught my attention with the title Do women write ‘female’ poetry? 

I suppose my interest was principally raised because I’ve given a fair amount of consideration to the realization that my list of poetry reading as well as my favorite poets to read is weighted significantly in favor of female poets. I’ve not quite figured out for sure why though the exploration of this will likely make for a later post.

I don’t think Sharpcott really ever quite adequately defines what makes female poetry. I think I expected more of the blog post but it did come away with a couple of interesting thoughts. Sharpcott comes to this conversation by way of a panel discussion at the Aldeburgh poetry festival. I was somewhat taken back by the fact that she reported  that the women on the panel decided  it was important not to let gender dominate their writing ( at least initially ) in order that the language can lead it in unanticipated directions, BUT it was pretty clear that such thoughts are not expected of men, their poetry is set as a kind of default mode. I have trouble seeing this “default mode” she speaks of.

The second thing that bugged me about this piece was the the statement that women are happy to devour anything that is good (I hate the subjectivism of good here) male readers are sometimes nervous of poetry books by women. I suppose I was put here to be the counterbalance among men and I tend not be be unnerved by poetry written by woman.

Technorati Tags: gender in poetry,female poetry

Mary Biddinger has Done It Again or Defibrillating Your Poem While You Can

First it was How to kill a poem (before it even starts) and now she gives us How to defibrillate a poem (before it's too late).  Biddinger is cracking me up. But seriously I’m glad to know that "Just Me Being a Shithead” constitutes a poetic device.

Technorati Tags: just for poetic fun

Journal bits….

A few lines from recent journal entries:

• the legacy that lives / in us all is the blue veins of fear / that rise up from the soles of our feet.
• the blue taste of fear-  this they will remember / because they know how it feels / to the touch, they know / how it tastes and they know / how it smells.
• Reading Anne Sexton today- her poems “In the Beach House” and “Song for a Lady" I like the lyrical quality of both of these, especially the first one.

Technorati Tags: journal bits,Anne Sexton

Are we listening?

My wife was visiting my daughters in Arizona this past week and I got this test from her and as I read it come across my phone I was nodding my head… “yes, yes!” I acknowledged her message and she said what she sent me she was a quote on a poster at ASU. She said she knew I would appreciate it. She knows me well.

What she sent me was a quote from Alberto Alvaro Rios – poet and professor of English at ASU [pictured here left] and it’s a poignant expressing of the task of writing.  What she texted me follows:

“The public job of a writer is to write. But the private and secret job of the writer is to listen. Writing itself is finally clerical but listening is a life’s work. By listening we must include the sweetwork of the eye the skin the tongue the nose. This then is the true  language of writers. The language of listening.” ~Alberto Alvaro Rios.

A life’s work… This is so very much related to what my conception of being a poet is about. Listening, observing, seeing things that you might otherwise miss. Seeing things in a variety of perspectives. Searching the natural world, your own soul and the history of the human experience. Putting this all together and recording it. This is to me what being a poet is all about.  Listening and letting what you hear inform what you write.

We all have heard the mantra, Read, write, re-write..  I believe listen needs to be a part of that cycle of process.

 

Technorati Tags: Alberto Rios,listening,job of a writer / poet

Sparks!

I shot this picture recently with my trusty phone camera. Hence we are not talking the highest quality of photograph.  Still, I like it because I picture in it the  jumbled wires that crisscross the mind.  Receptors I suppose. I envision them as quiet here… I suppose because if they were busy at work thinking, I would suppose that they would have little sparking neurons racing around the receptors.

Why am I writing about this? Good question. I don’t really have an answer. Sometimes I just like to look at something and turn it into something else.  Looking at things differently is a great way to enrich one’s creative process. Hopefully my receptors are firing on all cylinders and racing around sparking new ideas, pulling from other data in my mind and creating new data.  One can hope.

Technorati Tags: creative thinking

Low Battery

This week has been especially stressful and that has to a great extent impaired my writing. For the most part, I attribute this impact more to my energy level than anything else. Stress can be quite an energy drain.

I’ve had creative bursts of ideas, just not the energy to adequately deal with them. Nor have I the energy to keep up with my reading, the energy to write those few extra lines or a few extra minutes to get every out of my head and onto the page. I’m well aware of the dangers fleeting thoughts pose. The ones you never recover. That is usually one of the first casualties of this kind of energy drain.

I promise myself to do better tonight.

What the poem wants...

Earlier this morning, I roughed out onto paper a couple stanzas of something trying to become a poem. At lunch time I revisited it and decided I think I can build upon it and take the poem somewhere when it wants to be. Right now there are more pieces of it in my mind that it wishes to connect with on a page. Later, I hope to bring them together and see where it is they wish to go together.

kcur: : Poet Phil Miller Delves into Relationships in New Collection (2009-11-04)

Listening to KCUR on the morning drive... This interesting piece on a locallly connected poet, Phil Miller.


kcur: : Poet Phil Miller Delves into Relationships in New Collection (2009-11-04)

In the tumbleweeds of my mind

I'm way behind the curve in the horizon. Had internet problems over the weekend and they extended into the week and I was just too tired to mess with anything last night. Slowly I will get back up to speed. 

In the meantime - Mary Biddinger got my attention and brought a smile to my face with this...  How to kill a poem (before it even starts).  Really liked:  "Turn on several fans so that tumbleweeds of pet hair cartwheel across the floor." How did she even know?

My Internal Clock is BoNkERs!

This morning I’m really messed up. I already am messed up this time of year but the clock change last night simply has jerked me around more. As a result I’m this swirl wind rolling about and not sure where I’ll be when I land or more importantly what time it will be.

Technorati Tags: time change

Full day & Play Ball!

Settling to watch the World Series game tonight.  Looking for a good game tonight with the series tied 1 game apiece and the series moves to Philadelphia.  Pulling for the Phillies!

Today was busy. Brought some work home from the office for the weekend.  Did some of it today and saved some for tomorrow.

Send of poetry submissions.  Printed out hard copies of some of my work to sift through looking for manuscript material that I already have to assess what I still need to work on. Lots of stuff I intentionally didn’t print out. I messed around on some rewrites as well.

Made the dogs happy – taking them for a walk.

Chatted with one of my daughters for a good half-hour today.  She’s away at school and I’m missing her, so it was a real treat.

Made dinner tonight for my wife who spent day at the office.

If the game isn’t too late ending, I’ll probably read a bit before turning in. Not counting on a quick game though.

Happy Birthday Sylvia

Sigh….  I’m often tuned in enough to think this time of year that the 27th is Sylvia Plath’s birthday but I almost missed it this year. She remains a strong influence in my poetry tastes so I am often thinking about her on the anniversary of both her birth and death. Kudos to IVY for keeping the memory alive!
If you are headed soon to a Halloween party and want a costume idea with a literary theme go here.  What a fun bonus for those in Emily Dickinson costumes…. Hand out plastic flies while reciting the immortal line: "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died..."
Yesterday, Poet Kelli Russell Agodon opened up and shared a lot of information about the making of her latest book that will be out next fall.  Her blog post, The History of a Manuscript, details the path to publication of her manuscript titled Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room.  If you are thinking in terms of working towards publication of a manuscript, read this post. This recommendation is not meant to discourage anyone, but introduce a bit of reality to the process. As I’ve said here before, Kelli’s first book, Small Knots is among my favorite poetry books. Her work inspires me and her talents establish her as a poet whose advise I take seriously. 

Technorati Tags: Literary costumes,Kelli Russell Agodon,Sylvia Plath,Ivy Alvarez

Journal Bits

It's that time again...

• the paper absorbed everything and said nothing
• the night is an unsettled dog
• Mary Oliver quote - “Do you think the wren ever dreams of a better house?"
• the exit signs determined in their request
• it's a casual uncaring / not rooted in any harsh disinterest / more maladaptive to the day at hand
• losing myself in the moments of a hair cut / or the making of a spare key / that light headed tingling that forgets everything / suspends all thought in mid air

You Don’t Say….

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' ~ Garrison Keillor

Actually, I think this is a splendid quote.

 

Technorati Tags: censorship

It was an Apple Betty Kind of Sunday

 

The cooler weather, the fall leaves, I don’t know it was just calling me. Besides I bought some Honey Crisp Apples yesterday at Target… it just seemed the right thing to do. I got no complaints.

It has been dark here all day. We had thunder earlier that sounded like war planes had hit the field by us. Was very unnerving to the dogs.

 

I was thinking yesterday and this morning both about what seems to be a difference of late on how distraction affects me when writing. For the longest time I never seemed bothered by conversation in the same room. Television, or any excessive movement around me, I just took in stride and kept on writing. This has however become increasingly annoying to me and I’m not sure why.

It could be that I am trying to be more attentive to what people around me are saying. However this would not explain why the TV was not annoying to me before when I wrote but can be not at times. There definitely seems something has changed; but what? Before this mysterious development, I always prided myself in the fact that I could pull out my journal and pen and write anywhere, anytime. I just know some smartass out there is thinking I’m going through the writers change in life.

Technorati Tags: food,apple betty,writer distractions

Robert Pinsky at Midwest Poet Series

The Midwest Poet Series has hosted some wonderful poets over the years and yet last nights reading by Robert Pinsky is a standout among the many readings I’ve witnessed there myself. This is my first personal encounter with Pinsky, who by the way turned 69 this week and doesn’t look it.

His reading or let me call it an interaction with the audience was a lot different then most poetry readings in that he was very laid back and mingled stories with his poems and mid way through took questions and requests for poems to read. Yes, requests. This was particularly impressive because it implied on one hand, that he was confident there would be people in the audience well enough read on Pinsky, that they would have poems in mind that they wanted to hear; and that he would be able to produce those poems from his volumes of work quickly without fumbling through said work. It went perfect!

According to Pinsky, he would be a musician rather than a poet were it not for one thing; his lack of talent. Still, he is more than a casual musician and his love is the Sax is evident. I think the lyrical aspect of his poetry suggests that he is very tuned into sound.

Another strong component of his writing is the way he threads history through his poetry. He suggests that he writes for the dead, and quotes a mantra, “We do not worship our ancestors, we consult them.” He is big on the past, big on culture and the mingling of them together.

His presence is on of reassurance. He’s a very peaceful man. Even when he talked of his anger of the things he saw during the Bush years, he was even tempered and never raised his voice, but you knew he was indignant.

A few of the poems he read, Poem of Disconnected Parts, Shirt and The Night Game.

Poem of Disconnected Parts is such a terrific example of his pull of history and culture together to inform his poetics. Shirt is such a moving poem. Again history meets the art of poetry.

It’s no wonder Pinsky was Poet Laureate for three years- he is the perfect ambassador for the art. After a brilliant reading, he was most humble to the audience as he left the stage. You felt it was he, who was honored to be in our presence.


Hear and Read Shirt

Read Poem of Disconnected Parts

Idle Hands...

Finish this sentence: Idle hands are ___________. Did you answer the devil’s tools or devil’s plaything?

How long can you sit with idle hands? Do you ever? Is this how you start to write?

In the most recent issue of Poets and Writers magazine there is an article about a writer who talks about stillness as he writes. “I’m very tolerant of stillness. I don’t mind sitting there for half an hour. I’d rather not move my hands just to move them; I’ll wait for the right thing.” Jonathan Lethem is a novelist not a poet, but his approach to initiating work on a page is maybe not a bad one even for poets. I sometimes will start with a line of something that comes to me. Maybe two or three different lines till something I feel something take hold. But when I think about my blog post on Monday and the Anne Sexton quote that I committed to thinking about all this week I’m thinking a lot more about the idle hands approach. The wisdom in the Sexton quote suggests listening hard. “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard,” Sexton says.

It’s easy when you have a routine that says your take thirty minutes and write that you want to start writing as you sit down. The clock is on. Go! Such routine can probably create bad habits just as well as it can create good ones. But just as silence can be useful on a page, maybe it’s not a bad place to start to center yourself / your writing. In “The Artists’ Way” I think the morning pages are meant to drain out of your system all the residual sludge that can otherwise stain your work if you can’t get your mind off it. So maybe to start with, we should pause. A nice pregnant pause of sorts and then begin to create on the page as something surfaces.

Thought for the Week from Sexton

I saw where Cecilia Woloch celebrated the launch of her new collection of poetry titled Carpathia on Sunday.  I’ve read Woloch’s book Late which was outstanding and will be interested to read Carpathia at some point and see how it compares. If anyone gets an opportunity to read it soon, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Robert Pinsky is in town Thursday for the Mid-West Poet’s series at Rockhurst University. I’ve got his reading on my calendar and looking forward to it.
Thought for the week from Annie Sexton - “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”

Calling it a night – or whatever

Is the weekend coming to an end? Where did it go. I’m not rejuvenated yet.  As my wife would say, if I go to sleep morning will come and another day (workday)… sigh!

I did get a new rough draft of a poem together today. Read some Sexton… it (she) was speaking to me.

Submission -  yes I forced myself to get one out tonight. 

Squeezed in an Open Mic. I didn’t read tonight, just wanted to be a listener. A critical ear.

My daughter texted me yesterday to tell me she saw Where the Wild Things Are. I was so jealous.  Loved this book!  The movie looks really good.

The winner is...

I’m excited for Kelli Agodon - winner of the White Pine Poetry Book Prize! The judge for this year was Carl Dennis, poet who wrote Practical Gods, which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2002.




Kelli’s winning manuscript Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room will be published in fall 2010.  Her book Small Knots, published 2004 is already among my favorite poetry books. I can't wait to read Letters. Congratulations Kelli!

Tides

There is a real tidal wave that has come over me and is pulling me back into the sea of writing. I feel I need to write to stay afloat.

Just Wondering

Do you ever wonder what the worst writing of the best writers looks like? Those poems and scratching that never make it. Aborted poems.

A year ago or so there was a book published with some of Elizabeth Bishops unpublished work. "Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments," by Elizabeth Bishop a collection of her material which drew a lot of criticism because it is presumed she would not have wanted to see it in print. Anyway, when I’m having a bad day or string of them with writing, I wonder what a string of bad day writing might look like to a W.S. Merwin or Sharon Olds or maybe Mary Oliver.

 

Technorati Tags: bad writing days,aborted poetry

Thought for the day

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. ~ Carl Jung

 

Technorati Tags: happiness

Journal Bits

I haven’t done any journal bits for a while so here we go…  Just a glimpse of some of my journal writings. Some of these are from free writes, some from drafts, some simple observations an occasional quote that strikes my fancy.

• 10-12 Forty is still this side / of the curvature of the earth / I see it but I can’t touch it.
• 10-11 The ash tray is dormant. / It occupies space / on the end table / to grandma’s old lamp. / Its empty nest stopped begging / for attention it never gets / about seven years ago.
• 10-09 I saw the winter / slip and slide / nearly out from under you / and the plans you alone held to. / My hands were afraid. / They wanted only to hold / your hands tight / as physically possible
• 10-07 The price for this hunger / a layover of hollow thoughts
• 10-07 If there is a purpose for writing poetry, to me personally it is part personal discovery and part a feeling of some immortality.
• 10-04 When baseball ends  / for the year  and the night /  creeps into the morning hour / the dark will eat you.
• 10-02 “I am not alone / and never will be /  your absence is my company.”  Claribel Alegria – translated by Carolyn Forche’

Technorati Tags: Journal bits

What I’ve been Up To This Weekend

 

Finished the off a poem draft – at least as far as I feel I can go today. At  that point when you’ve nothing more to add and can think of any more to cut, so it will sit a while and I’ll revisit it at another time.

Picked up a copy of The Complete Poems of anne sexton yesterday at Boarders. When you have a 40% off coupon it’s time to go buy a book.

I got an email telling me that Autumn Sky Poetry No 15 is out.  I always enjoy reading what the editor - Christine Klocek-Lim has selected for each issue, so of course I had to check it out.  This issue has some outstanding work in it.  A few if the poems that really impressed me:

• The Trouble with Hope  by Cheryl Snell
• Two Voices:  Frida’s Heart by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
• Prototype of a Dream Machine by Kristine Ong Muslim
• We Leave the Beaches for the Tourists by Ira Sukrungruang
• After the Tsunami by Katherine Riegel

 

Technorati Tags: Autumn Sky Poetry,Cheryl Snell,Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda,Kristine Ong Muslim,Ira Sukrungruang,Katherine Reigel

 

 

Don’t Pass This Up…. Two short minutes & 13 Sec.

 

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.

 

Technorati Tags: The Happiness Project,Gretchen Rubin

The Hunger of a Child

The price for this hunger

a layover of hollow thoughts;

a weakening distraction.

Eyes roll back

in unlevel sockets

to canvass the heavens

for some bright hope

that signals the stomach

to squelch the pangs.

What is your poetry supposed to do?

So you write poetry…  and you do this with what objective in mind?  I’m curious about what writers most hope to achieve when their poetry is read by someone. I know there are probably more then one answer for most writers, but I’m asking you to think about the majority of your poetry.

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?

Technorati Tags: objective in poetry,message,entertainment valut

Monday Matters

Wanted to take a few moments to call a couple of things to your attention.

REPUBLICANS  are threatening  Net-neutrality.

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?

A LITTLE GOOD NEWS FOR POETRY IN A BAD ECONOMY

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.

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Thought For the Day

"I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing." ~ Anais Nin

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Anne Sexton Letters Part I

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.

Technorati Tags: Anne Sexton,Anne Sexton A Self Portrait in Letters,Robert Lowell,W.D. Snodgrass

What if Life Really is a Musical?

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?”

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Local Kansas City Poetry & Arts Scene

• Friday, October 2, 2009 - 7 pm - Poet Richard Newman will read from his new book Domestic Fugues (Steel Toe Books, 2009). The reading at  the Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Saturday, October 3, 2009 – 1pm -  African American poet Kimberly Britton reads from newly published work.  Kansas City Public Library, Southeast Branch, 6242 Swope Parkway, Kansas City, Missouri.
• Wednesday October 7, 2009 – Noon - WORKSHOP @ THE LANDON CENTER ON AGING -3599 Rainbow Blvd, Kansas City, Kansas. Free to those 55 and older. "Improve Your Mental Health Through Writing" will be taught by Maril Crabtree.  Call 913-588-3094 to register.
• Friday, October 9, 2009 – 8 pm - Pamela Garvey and Carl Bettis  Riverfront reading series at the Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri
• Friday, October 9, 2009 –6:30 – 8:00 pm - Art Walk Poetry featuring Glenn North at the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library, 625 Minnesota, Kansas City, Kansas.
• Wednesday, October 12, 2009 5:30 pm - Billy Collins, Former United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads at Kansas State University, K-State Alumni Center Ballroom, Manhattan, Kansas.  Contact Elizabeth Dodd, Department of English for details. Tele:785-532-6716.
• Friday, October 16, 2009 – 7 pm - Caryn Mirriam Goldberg, Kansas Poet Laureate -  reads at Border's Books, 91st & Metcalf, Overland Park, Kansas – contact Border's  @ 913-642-3642.
• Sunday, October 18, 2009 8 pm - MAIN STREET RAG
  Hosted by Shawn Pavey with poet Christina Pacosz reading. Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7 pm - Poets Brian Daldorph and Bill Bauer at  Writers Place Poetry Reading Series @ THE JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY - 9875 W. 87th, Overland Park, Kansas.
• Thursday, October 22, 2009 Reception 6 pm & reading 7 pm - Robert Pinsky  guest of the Midwest Poets Series. Poet laureate of the United States from 1997-2000; Rockhurst University, 54th Street and Troost, Kansas City, Mo.  Admission to Midwest Poets Series is $3.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
• Monday, October 26, 2009 - 8:00 pm Wriiters Place Open Mic
  Hosted by Sharon Eiker - Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.
• Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 10:00 am- 1:00 pm
  The Art of Poetry - This workshop is intended for beginners and others interested in hearing, writing, talking about, and understanding the beauty of poetry. Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania -Kansas City, Missouri.

Special Exhibits -  Keltie Ferris: Man Eaters  At Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art- October 23, 2009–February 13, 2010

Keltie Ferris is a post digital painter, employing formalist strategies and materials—oil, acrylic, sprayed paint, and oil pastel—to create enigmatic and visually seductive abstractions.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art -   American Art on Paper: Impressions of the Southwest and Mexico  October 14, 2009— April 11, 2010

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Thought for the Day

Saints have no moderation, nor do poets, just exuberance. ~ Anne Sexton

 

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Around the Net This Week

A few things that I found on the internet this week. Some are in the humorous category. Others I found interesting in a variety of ways.  Things I liked, things I learned from, etc.  Anyway, if you missed any of these, then you might want to check them out.

• Death by Bananas.  I found this nifty piece of work by Daniela Edburg on The Big Window. This falls mostly under my Humor Department.  You’ll find a link on The Big Window to a host of other photos by Edburg in a whole “Death By” series.  I was struck by these because they remanded me of some interesting photo shoots that one of my daughters did in college.
• Maya Ganesan it seems, is no average 12 year old writer. Her book Apologies to an Apple (actually written at age 11) is highlighted in a virtual book/blog tour by poet Kelli Russell Agodon, author of Small Knots on her blog Book of Kells.  While I’ve not read Maya’s book yet I hope to. Small Knots I have read, and reread and count among my favorites.
• Joannie Stangeland offers an interest pictorial of fall grape harvest for those like me who enjoy wine. Check out Crushed. Umm…  I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay, thank you!
• Pigs in JPs!!!!  Yes.  This clip is adorable. Thanks Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Technorati Tags: Aimee Nezhukumatathil,Joannie Stangeland,Kelli Russell Agodon,Daniela Edburg,Maya Ganesan

I did the “S” word!

It’s cool here today. Not unpleasantly so, but it is a sign of things to come.

I made a pot of chili for lunch. It seemed like a good day for it.

I’ve read today, written, and yes, the “S” word.  That would be submitted material least you think it is something more adventuresome.  Over the past year, I’ve taken to considering it a burdensome task. It wasn’t that way always, but it has become my least favorite part of writing poetry.

In looking through my material I realized I need to better organize it. By that I mostly mean review my material and decide it some of it perhaps needs to go back into the work folder. I do have a few things that I’ve been sitting on that perhaps are really ready.  I just don’t like to rush them off.

I brought some work home from the office as well this weekend and I really ought to tackle on of those projects tonight… then I won’t have so much to do tomorrow.

I got eaten up on the deck this afternoon, sitting with the dogs. I fear tonight will be a Benadryl night.

Off to make espresso!   My earlier one got pitched while it was cooling down.

Anne Sexton – Early Writing Success

Anne Sexton’s public persona was not unlike that of Sylvia Plath’s. Both were women who seemed to be transfixed by 1950’s mores. Both had histories of mental instability. Both were poets. Both ultimately took their own lives. The final writings of both might well have foretold their suicides.

Plath’s mother saw to it that Sylvia had an academic background.  This is where the two differ. Anne was not interested in pursuing an academic path, she did attend finishing school and for a short period of time was a fashion model.

Sexton married at the age of 19 and following the birth of her first daughter required hospitalization for postpartum depression.  The birth of her second daughter heightened her depression and it was at the nudging of her therapist that she began to write.

What I find particularly impressive about Anne Sexton is that in 1956 Anne saw a program on educational television, “How to Write a Sonnet.” After Christmas Anne unveiled her first sonnet to her mother, knowing her mother had suffered an unfulfilled literary dream and would likely be a fierce critic.

In September of 1957, she enrolled in a poetry workshop at a Boston adult education center. She met the poet Maxine Kumin there. She would forge a lifelong relationship with Kumin that resulted in routine workshopping of poems by both as well as a deeply personal friendship.

By Christmas of 1957 Anne presented he mother with a stack of poems written and rewritten over the previous year. During 1959 she submitted poems with tremendous success to top flight lit magazines. Poems were taken by The Hudson Review, The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, and in April of 1959, signed a contract to publish her first book, To Bedlam and Part Way Back.

According to Anne Sexton a Self-Portrait in Letters, I learned that on her 1960 Joint Income Tax forms with her husband, she listed herself as “Poet” and it would clearly seem that she had earned the right do so, taking an incredible and unconventional path to success as a poet. 

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