Tuesday, November 17, 2009

November 17th Poetic Ticker Clicking

News Article Tape:
Blog Entry Tape:

posted by Rus Bowden at 10:34 PM 0 comments links to this post

November 17th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags


In News at Eleven, we cover a lot of Asian ground. We begin with poets dancing in Afghanistan, then to a soldier who was in Iraq, then to South Korea, where the poems of teens defected from North Korea have been translated into English for us, then to South Asian women as reported by one from Pakistan, then to a Tibetan given a 15-year sentence. We then go to Dorothy Parker, then to Maya Angelou, then to Natasha Trethewey. And, by the way, two of our Great Regulars, Fatima Bhutto and Fiona Sampson, are written about in articles linked to from News at Eleven.

There is more from our Great Regulars not to be missed. In this section, to give a few men a shout out too, be sure to click into the articles by Terry Eagleton, Adam Kirsch, and Robert Pinsky. If you're from the USA, and would like some poetry with a Thanksgiving Day theme, click in to see what Garrison Keillor has on the table. And how about those poems by Kim Addonizio and Liz Waldner? Good stuff.

I'll let you get to your reading. It's a chock full and quality week for news in poetry. Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: For the first time, over 100 poets

and writers from all over Paktika and the surrounding provinces of Ghazni and Khowst came together to read, write and share poetry, Nov. 12.

The attending poets gathered within the Shura Hall in the provincial capital of Sharana for a two-day event.

Ten years ago, this sort of event would be unthinkable under the harsh Taliban regime that forbade any sort of artistic expression.

from Combined Joint Task Force--82: Poetry and peace

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:14 PM 1 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Army Veteran Brian Turner turned his

experience in Iraq into poetry. His book, "Here, Bullet" captured several awards and also helped to earn him the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship. Under the rules of the scholarship, he is required to spend a year outside North America. Turner also contributes to the Home Fires blog on the New York Times website. Below are some selections from "Here, Bullet."

"A Soldier's Arabic"

from Here and Now: Veteran Brian Turner's Poetry

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:14 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Deceptively simple in style,

these poems convey stark, poignant scenes from the students' own lives, including loss, separation, and hunger. The title of the collection alone evokes the clandestine nature of their journey to South Korea, of young lives lived in shadow to avoid arrest and repatriation to swift and certain punishment in North Korea.

Part I: The Letters I Could Never Send

Father
By Ma Sung Hoon

from Radio Free Asia: The Moon Is Up' Pt I
also Radio Free Asia: The Moon Is Up' Pt II

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: There was concern in her eyes

when she [Fatima Bhutto] said that writing is an art born from people's difficulties in their community, politics and family. She is proud of South Asian women explaining brave traditions common among South Asian countries, specifically the emerging voice of the women. She had both the air of confidence and a whimsical smile only a South Asian woman could have, when she said, "I think many Non-South Asians are surprised how brave our women are in speaking to the public through writing and poetry. We see many female writers in South Asia who write about pressing and conflicting matters. They are strong and creative," Fatima explained with a smile.

from Violence Is Easy; It Also Limits People Says Fatima Bhutto

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: [Kunchok Tsephel] founded his website

on Tibetan arts and literature in 2005, together with a young Tibetan poet Kyabchen Dedrol. The website, which was shut down by the authorities several times over the past few years, was self-funded with a mission of promoting Tibetan arts and literature.

According to his friends, Kunchok Tsephel is in poor health after nine months of detention and interrogation and there are fears for his welfare. Until his detention, he provided the main source of income for his family; his wife, who is also a government worker, is currently caring for their sick daughter.

from Phayul: Founder of Tibetan cultural website sentenced to 15 years in closed-door trial in freedom of expression case

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:12 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Given the astringent quality of so much

of [Dorothy] Parker's verse, it is not surprising to learn that her long life was not a happy one--indeed eponymously not much fun--replete with sad childhood, alcoholism, abortions, suicide attempts and betrayals by friends and lovers. Not everyone liked her and she may well have been her own worst enemy, but when Lillian Hellman is your best friend, who needs enemies? In any case, Parker seems to have been one of those writers capable of using her genuine angst and the painful experiences of her life as that grit so necessary to produce her poetic pearls.

from Washington Times: 'Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: "I told her then: 'If you ever

run for anything, I've got your back. I'd never heard of Senator Obama. So when she said she was running for president I said, 'I've got your back.'"

When it became clear that Hillary could not win, some Democratic party grandees asked her to try to persuade Hillary to step down. "I told them, 'I'm backing her. I'll step down when she steps down.' When she stepped down, I went over to President Obama."

She concedes that she never thought America would put a black man in the White House in her lifetime.

from The Guardian: Maya Angelou: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:10 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: The poem ponders "evidence" of her mother's misery

with a detached precision, arriving at a conclusion that suggests what may be the psychological truth of her mother's numb acceptance of her situation: "her thin bones/settling a bit each day, the way all things do."

That detachment keeps [Natasha] Trethewey compelling, because almost any topic can be approached for its historical value, as a clear-eyed comment on life's injustice--not as a victim or an oppressed person might see it but as a survivor with a firm grasp of her own history.

from New Haven Advocate: Formal Chaos

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:09 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: This belated second volume will blow away

some of the murk befouling the poet's reputation. The years 1923-25 were torture for [T.S.] Eliot. He was chronically hard up. His first wife Vivienne was an invalid, often mad with pain, and criminally mistreated by her expensive doctors. He held a senior position at Lloyds bank. When a patron, Lady Rothermere, helped him set up his own, "ultra-Tory" literary quarterly, The Criterion, Eliot drudged at the bank by day and slaved at the editorial task by night.

from Financial Times: The Letters of T.S. Eliot

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:09 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: On one side, "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"

by Rupert Brooke ("And is there honey still for tea?") and Henry Newbolt on why Robert Bridges is the greatest poet of the age ("The joy that abounds from these poems is from a bluer heaven than any other that has shone over England"). On the other side, Marinetti's manifesto for futurism and Ezra Pound on his hopes for the poetry of the next decade ("It will be as much like granite as it can be . . . austere, direct, free from emotional slither"). It's the old guard versus Modernists, with manifestos flying like grenades.

from The Guardian: A Century of Poetry Review

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:09 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven (Back Page): "In the Musée des Beaux Arts"

by WH Auden Auden's poem is one of the most famous examples of ekphrasis: the recreation in words of a work of art. It describes Pieter Brueghel's painting Landscape With the Fall of Icarus, in which a man falls from the sky, but "the white legs disappearing into the green/Water" are made incidental to the scene. The ploughman goes on ploughing and the ship sails past.

from The Guardian: Ten of the best: examples of ekphrasis

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:08 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: They both crack up. Life is good

in the house built on art and love. [Jim] DiBartolo and [Laini] Taylor are a fun couple--"they're adorable," says Arthur Levine, the publisher of their new book--but their success is built on talent and hard work, not being lucky and cute.

In the eight years since they arrived in Portland from the Bay Area, they've gone from working in restaurants and selling art at Saturday Market to establishing themselves as a productive, critically acclaimed creative team.

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Northwest Writers at Work: A marriage of words and drawings

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:41 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Great poems and novels are like

slow-burning fuses. As they enter into new, unpredictable situations, they begin to release new meanings that the author himself could not have foreseen, any more than Goethe could have foreseen commercial television. For [Walter] Benjamin, it is as though there are meanings secreted in works of art that only come to light in what one might call its future. Every great drama, sculpture or symphony, like every individual person, has a future that helps to define what it is, but which is beyond its power to determine.

from Terry Eagleton: New Statesman: Waking the dead

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:40 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Although [A.F.] Moritz soundly relies

on poetry to support his observations and open-ended conclusions, he nonetheless provides an intelligent, coherent and reassuringly moving take on "what man has made of man," the phrase, BTW, William Wordsworth (1770-1850) inked in "Lines Written in Early Spring," making of Moritz's meditation one rewarding read worth the time it will take you to park your browser and view its bounty online.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: A. F. Moritz: 'Lines Written in Early Fall'

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Throughout this post, you will hear person-to-personally from but a small fraction of the writers and artists who call the award-winning poet, editor, photographer, humanitarian, baseballogist, publisher, husband, father of five (with Donna Gervais), business partner (with Brian Fox) and stalwart Catholic grandpa their literary saviour, in the finest and firmest secular sense of that word, myself included.

This story, then, one I am privileged to relate to you, Dear IOW Readers, is as much about this utterly incredible small press (that, to date, boasts nearly 500 titles in its past and current catalogues), as it is about the fact it continues to exist and make such a difference in the lives of so very many readers and writers.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Une lettre d'amour à la famille Gervais et Black Moss Press

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:39 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: The speaker dramatizes the couple's wedding,

fancying that their souls "stand up erect and strong," and as they draw closer and closer together in the silence, facing each other, they resemble two angels who will merge into one. But before they merge, she allows the tips of their wings to "break into fire/At either curvèd point."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Barrett Browning's Sonnet 22: When our two souls stand up erect and strong

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The reader then understands that the speaker is not merely reporting about physical butterflies she has actually seen with her physical eyes; she is making a metaphorical comparison of the nature of thoughts, for it is only thoughts have the power to appear out of nowhere and vanish beyond the sky with such felicity and velocity.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's Two Butterflies went out at Noon: A Mystical Flight

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The speaker then draws the listener's eye to the "sky" where "the larks, still bravely singing, fly." But the songs of these brave birds are hardly audible because the war is still ongoing, and the sound of the guns nearly drowns out the birdsongs.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: McCrae's In Flanders Fields: Poppies and Crosses

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:39 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: "We wanted the list to reflect

what we thought were the top 10 books of the year with no other consideration," said [Louisa] Ermelino. "It disturbed us when we were done that our list was all male," she added, without apology.

There are several things objectionable about the choices, such as the inclusion of several inferior writers, but what has the 'Net hopping mad is the absence of a woman.

from Bob Hoover: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: What's 'the best'? Go figure

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:38 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Alexandria, 1953

by Gregory Djanikian

You could think of sunlight

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Alexandria, 1953 by Gregory Djanikian

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Cranberry-Orange Relish
by John Engels

A pound of ripe cranberries, for two days

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Cranberry-Orange Relish by John Engels

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Grapefruit
by Ted McMahon

My grandfather got up early to section grapefruit.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Grapefruit by Ted McMahon

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The Hero's Luck
by Lawrence Raab

When something bad happens

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Hero's Luck by Lawrence Raab

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Manners
by Howard Nemerov

Prig offered Pig the first chance at dessert,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Manners by Howard Nemerov

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Middle School Band Concert
by Christine Rhein

Their uniforms--starched white shirts,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Middle School Band Concert by Christine Rhein

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My Father's Football Game
by David Wagoner

He watched each TV game for all he was worth, while swaying

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: My Father's Football Game by David Wagoner

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:38 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: To countless generations of Bible readers,

Jeremiah has been a prophet--indeed, the Hebrew prophet par excellence, his very name a synonym for warning, chastising, and exhorting. To [David] Rosenberg, however, the person (or people) who wrote this book is primarily a poet, whose "main form is the prophet's oracle"--much as we might say that Shakespeare's main form was the sonnet.

At most, prophet was Jeremiah's day job, the conventional mask he put on in order to voice his poetry more effectively.

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: The Prophet's Pen

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:37 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: There are lots of poems in which

a poet expresses belated appreciation for a parent, and if you don't know Robert Hayden's poem, "Those Winter Sundays," you ought to look it up sometime. In this lovely sonnet, Kathy Mangan, of Maryland, contributes to that respected tradition.

The Whistle

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 242

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:37 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: In the long poem "Sleep and Poetry,"

written during a bout of insomnia, he cries out "for ten years, that I may overwhelm/Myself in poesy; so I may do the deed/That my own soul has to itself decreed." And later in the poem he reiterates this sentiment with these lines: "And they shall be accounted poet kings/Who simply tell the most heart-easing things./O may these joys be ripe before I die."

Nowhere in Keats' work is this dread expressed more clearly and forcefully than in his lyric Elizabethan sonnet "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be":

from Anthony Maulucci: Norwich Bulletin: On Poetry: Tragedy of Keats' life, death shown in his many works

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:36 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: The Puritan and the cowboy in one.

The combination represents a tempering balance of dualities: steadiness and adventure, calculation and risk, skill and chance, caution and greed, the cool reality of numbers interacting with the warm reality of luck--getting hot or not. That is the recipe that makes poker a great American invention. (An invention, like jazz, with pre-American roots.) As Walter Matthau says, in a beautiful sentence McManus quotes: "Poker exemplifies the worst aspects of capitalism that have made our country so great."

from Robert Pinsky: The New York Times: The Cheating Game

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:36 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Together they form the portrait

of a man and a boulder; they are also the celebration and song of a particular region, its wildlife, its history, its native and immigrant cultures. But these Stone Poems are good travellers: they talk to any reader willingly, as if they shared our own profoundest memories, too.

vii

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Stone Poems by Douglas Skrief

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:35 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Aliens Who Barely Exist

by Luis Rivas

_________ barely existed.

from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Blaine, Rivas and Cox

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:33 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: [Robert Louis] Stevenson continued

to write until he died at age 44 from a brain hemorrhage on December 3, 1894; hours earlier, he had been dictating a passage of "Weir of Hermiston" to his wife.

Stevenson's books and stories have been adapted for film and television several times over the years. According to UNESCO, Stevenson ranks 25th among the most translated authors in the world.

from findingDulcinea: Happy Birthday: Robert Louis Stevenson, Author of 'Treasure Island'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:33 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: In this week's Poetry Corner,

we feature the work of poet Josephine Dickinson, author of the book, "Silence Fell." She lives in Alston, the remote Cumbrian mining town high in the Pennines, since 1994.

June

Evening. A cool June. Hand in hand

from Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: Poetry Corner Featuring the work of poet Josephine Dickinson

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:32 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Tin

posted by Rus Bowden at 8:32 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Loving Cyrus

by R. Dwayne Betts, November 2009

You’ve learned it 34 years too late and it wrestles

from Guernica: Poetry: Loving Cyrus

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Exercise

by James Longenbach

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Exercise





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Sad Verso of the Sunny ____
by Liz Waldner

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Sad Verso of the Sunny ____




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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:28 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: By Kwame Dawes

)))) Listen

Kingston settles on your skin,

from PBS Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'Storm'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:27 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: [by Jeanne Baron]

posted by Rus Bowden at 8:27 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: By Marian Aitches

Oh, you know now how wrong

from San Antonio Express-News: Poetry: 'Fall in the Hill Country'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:27 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: "Consciousness"

By Ellen Wehle

from Slate: "Consciousness" --By Ellen Wehle

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:26 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: That's partly what the poem

is about. The rain is for me the astonishing dailiness of all this death, so much of it from war and violence.

I used some Iraqi women's names because that's what I thought about, the women there who were dying and losing their loved ones. And the four American soldiers were listed in the San Francisco Chronicle that day, part of the ongoing body count.

from The Washington Post: Poet's Choice: 'November 11 --2004' by Kim Addonizio

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:23 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Poems: Arisa White

It is Evidence

There's a small current in my lover's hair.

from Zeek: Statelessness

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:22 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Two things were at the center of

[Marcus] Alloway's heart--his family--and his school--Sidney Lanier.

"He said mom, I want to grad as a Poet of Lanier. He loved Lanier High School."

After high school Alloway had planned to become a firefighter, simply because he wanted to save lives.

from WSFA 12: Remembering Marcus Alloway

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:54 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: In his retirement [Herb] Brokering

served 11 years as a staff associate for Wheat Ridge Ministries, an independent Lutheran charitable organization based in Itasca, Ill., that awards "seed" grants to health ministries. He was an ambassador for Wheat Ridge, promoting and encouraging the seeding of new ministries of health and hope around the world. After leaving that role in 2007, he continued to write devotions for Wheat Ridge, sharing many of his hymns, poems, prayers and stories. Wheat Ridge recognized him as "Poet Laureate of the Lutheran Church."

from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Herb Brokering, Lutheran Hymn Writer, Author, Poet, Dies

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:53 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: In addition to musicians, he [Art D'Lugoff]

booked comedians and put on off-Broadway shows like One Mo' Time, nominated for a Grammy in 1979.

"He presented every kind of entertainment imaginable," said longtime friend, Riverdale resident and jazz producer George Avakian, recalling unusual events like the first-ever performance of a Soviet jazz group and frequent poetry readings.

from The Riverdale Press: Legendary club owner Art D'Lugoff dies at 85

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:53 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Clarice [Benson] was a sweet and generous girl

who easily attracted friends. She bubbled with curiosity and creativity. She checked out 2,200 library books over the last four years of her life. She wrote poems. She had a horse named Angel.

from Clackamas County News: Mentally ill Estacada teen sought help before fatal crash

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:53 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: At the same time, he [Thomas Eagan]

continued writing poetry, plays, and novellas. He also established a literary publishing company, Aran Press, which concentrated on publishing plays, poetry, and novels by budding authors.

(Aran Press)Egan wrote more than 20 novels, novellas and collections of poetry; as well as over 70 plays--many of which were debuted here in Louisville, and later produced by stock companies across the country.

from Louisville City Hall Examiner: Louisville poet, author and playwright Thomas Eagan dies

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:52 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: According to the Internet site, OET.PL,

Nikos Hatzinikolaou--a poet, translator and historical author--had translated works by 538 Greek writers and 130 Polish authors.

He had published over 100 books and organised the International November Poetry Meetings and the International Poetry Festival in Halkida, Greece.

from Greek Reporter: Poet Nikos Hatzinikolaou passes away

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:51 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Donald Dean Graf] spent a lifetime

in teaching and coaching. He will always be remembered by his athletes as a friend and caring leader. Never short of words, Don published several books of poetry and received numerous awards.

from Valley Courier: Donald Dean Graf, 73

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:51 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Karl] Kroeber made a name for himself,

and proved just as prolific as his famous family members, by writing extensively on American Indian literature, literary criticism, and art history. His most recent book was "Ishi in Three Centuries," about the last member of the Yahi, a group of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California.

Some of Kroeber's most well-known and beloved classes included his courses on Children's Literature, Native American Studies, and Romantic Poetry.

from Columbia Spectator: Columbia mourns loss of Karl Kroeber

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:50 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Elaine Johnson's h]obbies included

international travel, sewing, gardening, aerobic exercising, knitting, writing poetry, hiking, baking & cooking

from St. Peter Herald: Elaine Johnson

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:50 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: In a condolence message the Deputy Chief Minister

said that Mrs. Sharan Makkar made a niche in Punjabi literature with his unique style in the Punjabi poetry and socially relevant Punjabi fiction.

from PunjabNewsline.com: Sukhbir condoles death of Poetess Sharan Makkar

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Besides being the founder member

of Rafiabad Adbi Markaz, [Aziz] Naaz served as the general counsel member of Adbi Markaz Kamraz.

His poetry portrayed all the sensitivities of Sufism. One of his famous poems 'Kral Nama' which speaks about the ups and downs of human life was not only acclaimed by the poets and the literary people but was praised by commoners as well.

from The Daily Rising Kashmir: Naaz passes away

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Robert Lee Pulver] eventually cataloged

over one million words for his puzzles. He also wrote several poems. Being a passionate aficionado of the World War I hero, Sgt. Alvin York, Mr. Pulver wrote a poem to honor him. The poem, which he presented to Sgt. York's son, is on display at the Sgt. York Museum in Pall Mall, Tennessee.

from Chillicothe Gazette: Robert Lee Pulver

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:48 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Frank Richards] then went on to teach English

and history in Goldington and Newnham before becoming head of drama at Pilgrims School until he retired.

Since then Frank took up writing plays--including one about John Bunyan--comedy and poetry and it is thought that he has produced more limericks than anyone else.

from Bedfordshire on Sunday: Prolific limerick writer, playwright and teacher dies aged 89

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:47 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Mahmud Shahrokhi, a.k.a. Jazbeh,] wrote much

of his poetry and many articles on Sacred Defense and on issues of sacrifice and martyrdom of the soldiers during the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq. He lost many of his relatives in the devastating earthquake at Bam on December 26, 2003, which worsened his illness.

"In the Mist of Caravan", "Pain of Anemone", "Manifestation of Love", and "Sweet Odor of Garden of Wisdom" are among his credits.

from Tehran Times: Poet Mahmud Shahrokhi dies at 82

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:44 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Earlier this year, [Paula] Stanley

was named a leadership fellow by the International Alliance for Invitational Education for her role as editor for the Invitational Education FORUM, according to the Roanoke Times archive.

Her collection of poetry, "Finding Endurance," was published by Pocahontas Press in 2007.

from The Roanoke Times: Popular RU professor dies

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Soon, [Fred] Starner was regularly trekking

to Northern California to visit the "hobo jungles" in Dunsmuir, once a thriving railroad town. As he regularly performed at National Hobo Assn. gatherings, he found that many younger hobos were unaware of their shared history of music, poetry and stories.

So he set out to preserve it in a documentary he co-produced and appears in called "That's the Ticket Roadhog: The Hobo's Song."

from Los Angeles Times: 'Banjo Fred' Starner dies at 72; folk singer documented hobo music and culture

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:42 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Reg Windett] had always been a lover

of words and books, and the greatest pride of his old age was in the thriving poetry group he formed in 1996.

He was a prolific poet. His verses might not have always scanned perfectly but they were full of quirky humour and imaginative observation. Some were just fun--like his last, provoked by finding a marmalade jar on Mount Ararat--but others had a serious point, adroitly made.

from The Guardian: Reg Windett obituary

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:40 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Mr. [Edward] Woodward, a gifted singer,

recorded albums of music, poetry and audio books while continuing a stage career. He had various acting roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his Broadway debut in 1963 in Charles Dyer's comedy about a timid soccer fan who spends a night with a London prostitute, "Rattle of a Simple Man."

from The Washington Post: British leading man personified 'the actor's life'
also The Guardian: Edward Woodward: A life in clips

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posted by Rus Bowden at 7:39 PM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

November 10th Poetic Ticker Clicking

News Article Tape:
Blog Entry Tape:

posted by Rus Bowden at 11:24 PM 0 comments links to this post

November 10th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags


Our first article is from the New York Times and contains poems commemorating the Berlin Wall coming down 40 years ago. This is followed by links to articles that have to do with Veterans, Remembrance, or Armistice Day, which is tomorrow. The Back Page is on Ben Shephard accusing Andrew Motion of plagiarism. This item has three links, one from The Times with Shephard's accusation, the next from The Guardian sympathetic to Motion, and the third the poem in The Guardian at the center of the controversy. By the way, five of the links in News at Eleven are to articles in The Guardian.


Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:56 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Twenty years ago tomorrow,

the Berlin Wall came down. The Op-Ed editors asked nine poets--Eastern European, American, Russian and German--to write new works inspired by that event.

[by C.K. Williams]

Wall

from The New York Times: What Fell Apart, What Came Together

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:44 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Poverty is difficult enough

without PTSD.

Here is the score for some of the finest of the finest higher education system in the world. Undergraduate veterans enrolled: Stanford: Four in the freshman class. Dartmouth: 8. Yale: ? Harvard: ? Princeton: ? Bunker Hill Community College: Hundreds.

Let's hand out [Wilfred] Owen's poem this week and see what we can discover.

from Inside Higher Ed: The Old Lie: Dulce et Decorum Est

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Of those 60, according to one

of the most remarkable literary works ever written about Scottish sport, 45 were to be killed on active service in the First World War.

Mick Imlah, who died in January of motor neurone disease aged just 52, published just two full books of poetry. His second, The Lost Leader, contains 'London Scottish (1914)', a masterpiece of brief grief.

from The Scotsman: An entire team wiped out by the Great War

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: There are occasionally fresh flashes

of insight from [T.S.] Eliot, too, though one of the most remarkable--a 1917 letter to the editor on the horror of trench warfare--largely quotes another letter by his soldier brother-in-law, Maurice Haigh-Wood. "Wounded men hanging in agony on the barbed wire, until a friendly spout of liquid fire shrivels them up like a fly on a candle" is also indicative of where the poet of The Waste Land came from.

from Telegraph: The Letters of T S Eliot: review
also The Guardian: 'I cannot go on'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:42 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: They were almost comically unlikely

to get results, and not just because [W.H.] Auden was seven years older than [Benjamin] Britten, then in his early 20s. But his obsession with leading Britten into bed did result in a series of poetic masterpieces. The lyric "Underneath the abject willow", from March 1936, is addressed to Britten: "Walk then, come/No longer numb/Into your satisfaction."

from The Guardian: 'Love's a little boy'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:42 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: But it is a letter to his son Nicholas,

who would also take his own life years later, that stands out as one of the most tender expressions of paternal love and encapsulates [Ted] Hughes's sentiments: "The only thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough . . . didn't love enough. Nothing else really counts at all."

from The Observer: Letters of Ted Hughes selected and edited by Christopher Reid

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:40 PM 1 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: There's no nostalgia, bursts

of easy outrage, teary laments, self-pitying cries, or transcendence in [Rick] Snyder's poems. Alienation isn't touted as an affliction that is endured or understood only by the poet, but recognized as a condition that we all inhabit.

Understanding just how detached and passionate one must be to register what the world and we have become, Snyder doesn't try (as Baudelaire did) to "distil the eternal from the transitory" because to do so now would be an escapist response to the post 9/11 world we inhabit.

from The Brooklyn Rail: The Poet of Post-modern life

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:39 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: "I draw on references from my childhood

or things that are on my mind, whether that's Michael Jackson or David Bowie," he explained. "I like not feeling like (my work) is high brow or low brow, in terms of the cultural references, but that there's a mix from both."

The result is a personal and cultural pastiche that is distinctly American, a theme [Terrance] Hayes grapples with in his work. Being engaged with politics, race, identity and history are essential to his understanding of American writing, but he doesn't limit this engagement to one focus.

from The Courier-Journal: Poet Hayes uses painting to relax

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:38 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: Many of Steve [Dalachinsky]'s poems

were written on the spot at concerts or clubs in New York. Jacques [Bisceglia]'s pictures were taken at other times, shot mostly in Parisian settings or at concerts and festivals elsewhere in Europe or Africa. This "game" is thus a magical one, creating again and again a unique synergy between place and time, between the today on the page and the yesterday of sound and light.

from The Brooklyn Rail: Gentle Beauty Spilled

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:38 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven: [Amiri] Baraka repeats the word "Who"

over 170 bars, with lyrics that change from show to show: Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying/Who talk about democracy and be lying/Who/Who/Who/Who?

"You know that poem that he always gets in trouble for saying?" asked Wiley. "That one, he always makes it relevant to the time. It still has that timeless quality." It's not clear to what extent Baraka writes things out ahead of time, and what just comes out on the spot.

from East Bay Express: Digable Poet

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:37 PM 0 comments links to this post

News at Eleven (Back Page): ". . . Of the 152 lines in An Equal Voice,

all but 16 are taken directly from A War of Nerves. There is a word for this. It begins with 'p' and it isn't poetry.

"There is a further issue. My work can be lazily ripped off like this, without any recompense--what did The Guardian pay [Andrew] Motion for copying out my research? Yet every time I quote a line of poetry in a book, I have to pay. . ." --[Ben Shephard]

from The Times: So what if I copied work says Sir Andrew Motion, Shakespeare did all the time
also The Guardian: Poetic injustice for Andrew Motion
also The Guardian: An Equal Voice

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:36 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Crystal Williams was a finalist

for an Oregon Book Award for poetry this year for her book "Troubled Tongues." At the ceremony, she saw only three African Americans--herself and two friends who came to support her.

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Poet wonders about lack of diversity at the Oregon Book Awards

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:22 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Kim Baker has been a teacher of writing

in colleges and businesses for 19 years. She currently works as a writing coach at the Roger Williams University School of Law. Her poems have been widely published online and in print. Her poem "The Secret Life of Hair" received an Honorable Mention award in The Poetry Society of New Hampshire's national contest. Nonsense!

I believe in nonsense,

from Tom Chandler: The Providence Journal: Sometimes poetry can just be fun

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:22 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: "For many years the poetry world

has belonged to older writers. Few young poets were published and fewer were nominated for major prizes. An invitation to a poetry reading conjured thoughts of warm white wine in a pokey bookshop," claim the editors. Really? What about Simon Armitage, who published his first collection at 26, Owen Sheers (ditto), or Kathleen Jamie (aged 20)? What about Carol Ann Duffy, whose first collection came out when she was in her teens? Or Pollard and Byrne themselves, who brought out their debuts at 20 and 26 respectively?

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Voice Recognition: 21 Poets for the 21st Century edited by James Byrne and Clare Pollard

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:21 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: The Saturday afternoon get-together

included a fabulous menagerie opening with a video clip of country musicians playing Sweet Georgia Brown to the beat of a single-cylinder farm tractor (which poet Jirgens described as "hilarious!"). Jirgens himself then took to the stage to relate a strange-but-all-too-true tale concerning the vigilante cultural-guerrilla UnterGunther group's effort to secretly repair the tower clock adorning the Panthéon in Paris.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: BookFest Windsor: Groovy coolness!

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On the occasion of his milestone 75th B-Day (Sept. 21st), the legendary Chelsea Hotel, a landmark of New York City artistic and BoHo culture, installed and subsequently unveiled a plaque to honour Canada's premier poet, novelist, filmmaker, artist, singer-songwriter, Zen monk Jikan, two-time Grandpa and, now, accomplished on-stage skipper-maestro Oct. 23rd, the date one of this country's most promising candidates for the Literature Nobel wowed the crowd during his intimately enthralling appearance @ Madison Square Garden.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Leonard Cohen: The latest on the greatest

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:21 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: She applies the commercial metaphor

because of the trade taking place between the two lovers.

She suggests that she is receiving the lock from the head of her poet/lover with all the gusto that one would experience upon receiving whole loads of cargoes from ships; the speaker exaggerates the value of that lock by asserting that it "outweighs argosies."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Barrett Browning's Sonnet 19

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The speaker is reminiscing about her feelings "a year ago" before she had met her belovèd. She sat watching the snow that remained without his "footprint." The silence surrounding her lingered without "thy voice."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Barrett Browning's Sonnet 20

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The little boy had curls that looked like "a lamb's back." The speaker comforts little Tom, however, telling him of the efficacy of having a shaved head instead of all those white curls.

Because the pair will be working in chimneys sweeping out the black soot, they need to have shaved heads so that the soot will not become lodged in the hair.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Blake's The Chimney Sweeper

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The speaker then asserts that the clock "proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right." The speaker has demonstrated some consternation about his night walks through the city; his timid reaction to the watchman reveals that he felt he probably should not be out so late at night, but then upon seeing the clock, he reinterprets time, realizing that time is neutral, and only the human associates appropriateness with time.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Frost's Acquainted with the Night

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The ant was laboring, as ants are wont to do, and the speaker is impressed with ant's virtuosity. But the speaker makes the apparently rational claim that the ant "will never live another life but this one." But to counter this appalling notion of living only one life, the speaker offers, "if she lives her life with all her strength/is she not wonderful and wise?"

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Oliver's Reckless Poem

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Thus the mind because it is "at purest play" is not motivated by necessity; it has "no need to falter or explore." It is merely searching the endless possibilities that exist in the unknown. Like the bat, it knows without being able to see logical pathways that "obstacles are there." So the mind like the bat seems to "weave and flitter, dip and soar," and they both are able to navigate the sheer darkness "in perfect courses through the blackest air."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Richard Wilbur's Mind

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The speaker is observing the moving loveliness of the landscape as it is "shown by hasty, racing peddler windshield screen." He metaphorically compares the car's windshield to a peddler who is selling his wares--in this case, offering the observer all the beautiful scenes, past which the car travels.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's Mohawk Trail

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:20 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: And despite all our wounds,

we keep going back to the front lines, because we know that with every reader who pauses over a poem, every struggling student who overhears one line and remembers it and recites it to a colleague, every time we make someone's heart go from indifferent to sad or grateful, we are taking a step in the right direction. We can't measure it, but we believe it.

[by Yehuda Amichai]

Memorial Day for the War Dead

from Kristen Hoggatt: The Smart Set: Ask a Poet: Word Choice

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:19 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: The incident got me to thinking,

though, about other content, namely book reviews, that sit unchanged for years even though the reviewer might have second thoughts. Would it be fair or ethical to revise those reviews because the critic has rethought his or her opinions?

The question arose after I read James Wood's dismissive critique of Richard Powers' new novel, "Generosity," in the New Yorker.

from Bob Hoover: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Do-overs: Internet's treasure

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:19 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Wallace Stevens wrote, "People should like

poetry the way a child likes snow, and they would if poets wrote it." Poets yielded turf to prosers when Dickens started capturing gritty urban landscapes that people were actually slogging through, while poets kept writing about fairies or knights in armor. That's where your "elevated" artistic sensibility gets you.

from Mary Karr: Publishers Weekly: The Monday Interview

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:18 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Dancing

by Margaret Atwood

It was my father taught my mother

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Dancing by Margaret Atwood

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No Direction Home
by Charles Wright

After a certain age, there's no one left to turn to.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: No Direction Home by Charles Wright

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A Pair of Barn Owls, Hunting
by David Wagoner

Now slowly, smoothly flying over the field

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: A Pair of Barn Owls, Hunting by David Wagoner

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Psalm for a Lost Summer
by Maura Stanton

1.By the rivers of Estes Park, there we sat down, yes, we sighed, when we

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Psalm for a Lost Summer by Maura Stanton

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The Sacred
by Stephen Dunn

After the teacher asked if anyone had

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Sacred by Stephen Dunn

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The Thumb
by Peter Schneider

In a nanosecond David lost his thumb,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Thumb by Peter Schneider

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Twenty-three
by Liam Rector

When he was 23 and beautiful

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Twenty-three by Liam Rector

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:18 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Brain scientists say that the neocortex

tries to make sense of the world by asking the hippocampus to replay certain images long enough for a structure to emerge. A poet notices a caterpillar, say, and thinks on it over time, and out of that musing comes "Advice From a Caterpillar," which recommends molting and self-reinvention, along with cryptic behavior to confuse predators. ("If all else fails," it concludes, "taste terrible.")

from David Kirby: The New York Times: Animal Planet

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:17 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: I love poems in which the central metaphors

are fresh and original, and here's a marvelous, coiny description of autumn by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck, who lives in Illinois.

Like Coins, November

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 241

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:17 PM 1 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Flowers

Just before dying I discover love.

from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-Notes: Flowers

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:16 PM 1 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: We're reminded of Native American

smoke signals, for instance. It's as if, by retreating to the forest, Thoreau is opening up to its history and spirituality. The "messenger" also suggests the morning star: the piercing wonder of Venus hanging far above clear water, "circling" in its planetary orbit and yet luminously still.

As the poem continues the mood deepens and darkens. A "departing dream" evokes a sense of disillusionment. Is the rural idyll coming to an end?

from Christopher Nield: The Epoch Times: The Antidote--Classic Poetry for Modern Life: A Reading of ‘Smoke' by Thoreau

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:16 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: A: It's interesting that both the

14th-century Italian and the 20th-century Pole were exiles: Dante unjustly banished from Florence and my friend Czeslaw for much of his life a forbidden figure in Poland. In both cases the imagination is eclectic, syncretic, cosmopolitan, though deeply rooted in one place, one language. Both make one realize that translation, in the root sense of carrying-across, is impossible as an absolute, literal process. On the other hand, both poets carried many things across, between and among different cultures.

from Robert Pinsky: The Southeast Review

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:15 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: It is one of the most accessible

of the dialect poems: any moments of puzzlement are easily resolved by saying it aloud. You don't need the Dorset glossary--except perhaps for "hatch" in the second line--meaning "a little gate".

[by William Barnes]

Our Be'thplace

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Our Be'thplace by William Barnes

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:14 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: That is why Maxine [Clarke]'s quip

has been so much on my mind. To define means to demarcate, to set limits, establish boundaries.

Ignorance, however, is practically boundless. The sum of human knowledge is a small and fragile oasis right smack in the middle of a vast Sahara of ignorance. Usually, we do not even fully know the little that we do know — hence the law of unintended consequences.

from Frank Wilson: When Falls the Coliseum: That's What He Said: The sum of human knowledge is a small and fragile oasis

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:14 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: by Robert Morgan

Fern Glade

As wind stirs through an opening in woods,

from The Atlantic Monthly: Poetry: Fern Glade

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: [by Annie Freud]

The Best Man that Ever Was

I was never required to sign the register

from The Brooklyn Rail: Annie Freud with Marek Bartelik


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Deliberate Proof

by Vyt Bakaitis

Quiet, please

from The Brooklyn Rail: Deliberate Proof

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For Jonas by Way of Magritte

by Vyt Bakaitis

This table is not a table

from The Brooklyn Rail: For Jonas by Way of Magritte

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Unlike the Trees

by Frank Sherlock

This is not exactly there

from The Brooklyn Rail: Unlike the Trees

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Pueblo Woman

By Devreaux Baker

My first night on the black mountain I found a black stone,

from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Three Poems by Devreaux Baker

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Priscilla S. McKinney

November 8, 2009

The grass turns;

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase: 'Autumn Song'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:10 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: The Burglary

by Linda Pastan

from The New Yorker: Poetry: The Burglary





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Fireflies
by Dave Smith

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Fireflies



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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:07 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: [by Sid Miller]

An airplane in one's driveway, fueled

from The Oregonian: Poetry: 'Independence'

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:07 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Hit children's television show 'Sesame Street'

celebrates its 40th anniversary Tuesday. Please enjoy Cookie Monster's hilarious poetry reading below.

from PBS: Newshour: On Sesame Street's 40th Birthday, Kermit and Cookie Monster

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:07 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: [by Garry Layman]

A gaggle of daisies

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: A gaggle of daisies

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:06 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: Though part of the New York School,

famously celebrated in Donald Allen's The New American Poetry, Guest never had the kind of public career some others did. The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest will go a long way toward enhancing the visibility and pertinence of this work. Read in toto, these poems demonstrate Guest's unwavering commitment to ceaseless re-invention and a refusal of all forms of parochialism.

from Powells: Review-A-Day: Revelations in Verse

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:05 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: "Daily Threads"

By Wyn Cooper

from Slate: "Daily Threads" By Wyn Cooper

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:05 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: But [Robert] Conquest is not just solving

a verbal puzzle here. This reconstruction reads remarkably like his own short lyric "Song" (TLS, April 1954) in which "little winds of love/Come from a fabled south/Over exhausting oceans" to turn into a poem "that only speaks of love". If there is a nod, there, to Housman’s "The winds out of the west land blow", it turns, here, into a generous, full-blown tribute.

A Housman Torso

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: A Housman Torso by Robert Conquest

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:04 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: I could not get his first two lines

out of my head, and it seems that my poem was a way of trying to break that aural spell. It became, oddly, a poem both about the porous barrier between the living and the dead, and about the role language plays in crossing that barrier, which is one of [Miron] Bialoszewski's great themes. It became in the end also--or so friends tell me--a poem about the role of eros in translation.

from The Washington Post: Poet's Choice: 'Terminal Etude' by Alissa Valles

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:04 PM 0 comments links to this post

Great Regulars: On the Line

By Arielle Greenberg

Four or five Jews.

from Zeek: Poem: On the Line

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posted by Rus Bowden at 9:01 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Francisco] Ayala was among the last

of a generation of leading poets and intellectuals of the venerated "Generation of '27," which included Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas and Luis Cernuda, and he was a leading Franco opponent during the civil war of the late 1930s. His father and a younger brother had been executed at the start of the war.

from The Washington Post: Acclaimed Spanish writer was a resolute opponent of Franco

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:59 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: But [Bill] Cowee quickly established himself

as a brilliant poet, founding the Ash Canyon Poets with John Garmon in 1987 and later getting a collection of his poetry, "Bones Set Against the Drift" published by Black Rock Press in 1997.

"Bill's volume did leave a mark--the poems rang true to this landscape and the people who make the Great Basin home," said fellow poet and friend Shawn T. Griffin. "He articulated a clear vision of the West . . . and he did it with careful attention to detail, to sound, to imagery."

from Nevada Appeal: Poet's work continues to leave mark after his death

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:58 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: [Jerry Davidoff] played tennis and enjoyed words

and literature. He had an extensive catalog of poems memorized and typically directed his children and other young adults to his copy of Webster's Third New International Dictionary to look up the meaning or etymology of words.

Frequently adorned with a bow tie until his retirement, Davidoff presented a professorial affect and did not lightly suffer lapses in grammar, word usage, nor courtesy, often loudly and aggressively correcting transgressors.

from WestportNow: Jerry Davidoff, former Board of Ed, RTM Member Dies at 83

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:58 PM 0 comments links to this post

Poetic Obituaries: Talented in many ways,

she [Pauline H. Ducharme] wrote poetry, did embroidery and crocheted. She was a wonderful cook and was well-known for her wonderful bread, hot-cross buns and cinnamon rolls. A devoted mother and grandmother, she will be greatly missed.

from Arizona Silver Belt: Pauline H. Ducharme, 86

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posted by Rus Bowden at 8:55 PM 0 comments links to this post