Poetry & Poets in Rags

We have such a variety of topics this week, and our Great Regulars section is packed with more articles than most weeks. This is because a larger number than usual of our Great Regulars put articles out, but also, many of them, such as Judith Fitzgerald, Alison Flood, Hillel Italie, and Garrison Keillor have multiple articles. Plus, two stories that are covered inside Great Regulars, are also covered outside. The Oregonian brings us a poem by Marty Christensen, who is also to be found in our Poetic Obituaries section. And Great Regulars Alison Flood and Judith Fitzgerald both cover our first story in News at Eleven, the lead story of the week. A new poetry war is brewing. Geoffrey Hill, the Oxford University Professor of Poetry, has fired the first shot at the UK's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. That Canadian Judith Fitzgerald has thown a punch, makes it a global confrontation.

I'll let you get to your reading. Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:06 PM* 0 comments links to this post

with the Oxford Professor of Poetry comparing the work of the Poet Laureate to Mills & Boon.

In a lecture entitled Poetry, Policing and Public Order, Sir Geoffrey Hill launched an attack on Carol Ann Duffy for her eagerness to 'democratise' poetry.

Duffy has attracted the ire of traditionalists by suggesting communication by text messages and social networks were actually helping children develop poetry skills.

from Daily Mail: Poet Laureate compared to Mills & Boon romance writers in stinging attack by rival
then The Guardian: Carol Ann Duffy and Geoffrey Hill: truly poetic heavyweights

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:06 PM* 0 comments links to this post

to encourage Chinese to stage their own anti-government protests, Li [Dunyong] said. He said that Zhu [Yufu] denied the charges and denied posting the poem to any public online forum. He said he only shared it with friends.

Li said Zhu insisted the poem expressed his personal desire for freedom and democracy but that he never organized any actual protests. Li noted that the poem didn't specify any meeting time or place.

"It was meant to express his yearning for democracy," Li said.

from The Associated Press: Another Chinese dissident on trial for subversion
then International Herald Tribune: Rendezvous: Is It Poetry, Subversion or Both?

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:04 PM* 0 comments links to this post

as extinct, he [Adonis] says: "What is civilisation? It's the creation of something new, like a painting. A people that no longer creates becomes a consumer of the products of others. That's what I mean by the Arabs being finished--not as a people, but as a creative presence."

Adonis holds no hope that poetry can change society. To do that, "you have to change its structures--family, education, politics. That's work art cannot do".

from The Guardian: Adonis: a life in writing

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:03 PM* 0 comments links to this post

from his seemingly effortless stage presence to his ability, at 77-years-old, to look hipper than every bohemian skirted girl and bearded nerd-hipster hybrid in the audience--suggests that this is a man who is, innately, an artist in every sense. Including a keen eye for the aesthetic, "There's lint all over my black jacket," he told us, irritably brushing off his well-fit buttonless peacoat, "It's making me very unhappy."

from Culture Map Austin: A self-deprecating Poet Laureate? Mark Strand on his new collection and poets' former pop-star status

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:03 PM* 0 comments links to this post

two decades, Boland plays increasingly original and confident variations on traditional forms, myths, and themes. Again, she is often at her best when subtly reworking Yeats. In the witty and erotic "Song" (1975), she uses a rough-hewn Yeatsian ballad to overturn Yeats' typical formula of a doomed male pursuing an unattainable female ideal. Here the woman pursues--and succeeds:

'Look how the water comes
Boldly to my side;
See the waves attempt
What you have never tried.'
He late that night
Followed the leaping tide.

from Big Think: Woman In Pursuit: Eavan Boland, Yeats, and Irish Tradition

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:02 PM* 0 comments links to this post

and a lovely doorstop (all 1090 pages of it)--and it really belongs on the corner of every writer's desk for inspiration. Here is an Australian anthology of unprecedented scope and density, the wonder being that this range of verse has issued from so young and, until recently, so sparsely populated a nation. Actually, it reaches back to the First Fleet. Even those not drawn to poetry will find, and quite likely enjoy, familiar warhorses, while there will be surprises for all but exhaustive scholars.

from The Sydney Morning Herald: Australian Poetry Since 1788

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 7:00 PM* 0 comments links to this post

here at the back of the class, and grant that The Complete Poems is an almost fanatically painstaking and altogether admirable piece of work. The publishers, though betraying a hint of desperation in their efforts to make the volume seem attractive to the common poetry reader--is there such a creature?--are right when they urge that "Archie Burnett's commentary establishes [Larkin] as a more complex and more literary poet than many readers have suspected." That it does, and much else besides.

from The Guardian: The Complete Poems by Philip Larkin, edited by Archie Burnett--review
then London Evening Standard: Philip Larkin: The Complete Poems--review

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 6:59 PM* 0 comments links to this post

said Wolfgang Kubin, the German Sinologist, in a public lecture on Chinese modern poetry on Nov 24. He then contradicted himself in a carefully phrased way: "It is, however, still living. It lives at the edge of society unnoticed by the majority. Its readers are the few people who really appreciate good literature."

The young, it seems, are not among the latter faction. As older poets produce and are published less, and some have stopped altogether, some observers say no one is stepping into their shoes.

from China Radio International: Battle of Words over the Future of Poetry

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 6:59 PM* 0 comments links to this post

as a geopolitical columnist and author of books on criminal matters, but his first three books were poetry collections.

The Jonas Variations is one, too, but it reworks 50 other poets as thematic improvisations, imitative impromptus and more or less straight translations from Latin, French, Italian, German, Russian and Hungarian.

from Globe and Mail: Around the world in 50 poets

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 6:58 PM* 0 comments links to this post

poetry collection by Jonathan Galassi. Read more about Mr. Galassi and "Left-handed."

Still Life

from The New York Times: Excerpts: Poems From 'Left-handed' by Jonathan Galassi

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 6:57 PM* 0 comments links to this post

look for his interpretation of "French Movie" by David Lehman. First came extensive research on the type of camera used in the French New Wave era of the 1950s and '60s, which was created in 3D. Wenner then found interesting elements to highlight from the poem, deconstructing scenes into the smallest single element in a way that was still relevant and somewhat abstract. The result is a piece that uses a combination of 3D scene work and photographs.

"This poem was difficult to work with because it's very descriptive and specific, and references the French way of doing movies," remarks Wenner.

from Shoot: Poems Come to Life In Artful Interpretations From motion504

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:42 PM* 0 comments links to this post

hide behind a mask of anonymity and expose our lowest, our most intimate concerns before an audience that may include the entire world.

Stylistically, this generates a kind of vast in-joke. Regulars on 4Chan seem to despise newcomers and anybody who is not in on the specialised language--"newfags", they call them, as opposed to "oldfags". "Fags" is a frequently used suffix which seems to have become detached from its American role as an offensive term for gays. Similarly "nigger" seems to be okay on the site. Indeed, the only thing that seems to be positively discouraged--and suppressed--is child pornography.

from Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: 4Chan and Anonymous

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:41 PM* 0 comments links to this post

is a compilation of 11 poems taken from [Vikram] Seth's translations of the 8th-century Chinese poet Du Fu. The language has a remarkably direct, almost naive fullness of rhythm and rhyme ("From Changan walls white-headed crows took flight/And cawed upon the Western Gate at night").

from Charles Bainbridge: The Guardian: Poetry: in brief

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:41 PM* 0 comments links to this post

I used to write short plays for schools. In 1994, I was asked by a publisher if I could come up with something based on a folk story. I unearthed this tale about a girl who goes for a walk in a forest and meets a tiger who threatens to eat her. Thinking quickly, she says: "I'm the queen of the forest: if you eat me, everyone else will take revenge on you." It's a lesson in how to harness a greater power than your own. I decided to turn the girl into a mouse and add some more predators--and at that point I thought: "This has the makings of a good picture book."

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: How we made: Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler on The Gruffalo

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:40 PM* 0 comments links to this post

would lay down a pristine spoken-word version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven . . .

But, Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New York) winging his own way on the timeless treasure complete with . . .

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: James Earl Jones v. Chris Walken: A poetic Poe-down

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Former lawyer and current League of Canadian Poets member Fern G. Z. Carr recently achieved quite the distinction: Her biographical listing found its stellar way into The World's Lawyer Poets in conjunction with a research project conducted by Professor James R. Elkins of the West Virginia University College of Law.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Kudos to Fern G. Z. Carr, poet lawyer

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A simmering spat-storm burbling on the other side of the pond may well spill over into the international poetry world primarily because Oxford Poetry Professor Sir Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932) delivered a lecture on the state of the art and soundly put the UK's current poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, in her place. A poetic smack-down, if you will, one with "vicious," "spiteful" and "jealous" barbs from, for now, Sir Hill, a fact bound to change as the days pass us by since, as everybody knows, Duffy fearlessly — and occasionally foolishly — speaks her mind.

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: This just in . . . Carol Ann Duffy v. Sir Geoffrey Hill

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Of course, we at In Other Words also plan to introduce TAKE TEN, a Q & A feature showcasing la crème de la crème of Canadian poets, leading off with Brick Books versifier John Donlan, perhaps one of our best-kept genius secrets who, not unlike Tom Thomson, exquisitely captures the spirit of the contemporary wilderness in astonishingly vivid shades of crimson-golden blaze as well as a sheen of briny-metallic verdigris glaze . . . BTW, should you wish to participate in this soon-to-be-regular endeavour, please feel free to contact me . . . Discretion both expected and assured.)

from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: Wrap-up Wednesday

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:39 PM* 0 comments links to this post

around two-thirds of all books and 80% of fiction. They belong more frequently to book clubs, which are skewed towards female authors writing about female experiences, "the publishing industry has noticed this trend in reading habits", and it's the "midlist male author who writes about males" who is suffering.

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Battle of the authors' sexes continues

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"When the laureate speaks to the Guardian columnist to the tremendous potential for a vital new poetry to be drawn from the practice of texting she is policing her patch, and when I beg her with all due respect to her high office to consider that she might be wrong, I am policing mine," said Hill, in a lecture entitled "Poetry, Policing and Public Order". The Oxford professor of poetry has previously described difficult poems as "the most democratic because you are doing your audience the honour of supposing they are intelligent human beings", saying that "so much of the popular poetry of today treats people as if they were fools".

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Carol Ann Duffy is 'wrong' about poetry, says Geoffrey Hill

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"Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it's just not permanent enough."

For serious readers, [Jonathan] Franzen said, "a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience".

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Jonathan Franzen warns ebooks are corroding values

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Authors C.S. Lewis, Roald Dahl and Aldous Huxley all turned down honours from the Queen, newly released documents have revealed.

A freedom of information request saw the list of people to have rejected an honour between 1951 and 1999 and since died published last night by the Cabinet Office.

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Roald Dahl and CS Lewis among writers revealed to have refused honours

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Vladimir Putin has laid out his plans to compile a canon of 100 Russian books "that every Russian school leaver will be required to read" in an attempt to preserve the "dominance of Russian culture".

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Vladimir Putin plans 100-book Russian canon all students must read

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:39 PM* 0 comments links to this post

the speaker: he does not worship, probably doubts the very existence of Deity, likely is convinced that those who do "worship" are not as intelligent as he is, but . . . he has a slight inkling, a backburner mini-thought that if those silly worshippers are correct, then well, he's got it covered. He has one of those silly Bibles, and if you don't believe it, well, it's right over there. See!

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Poole's The Bible

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:38 PM* 0 comments links to this post

was a poetry nominee for "The Chameleon Couch" and Pulitzer finalist Bruce Smith was chosen for "Devotions." Other poetry finalists were Forrest Gander's "Core Samples from the World"; Aracelis Girmay's "Kingdom Animalia" and Laura Kasischke's "Space, in Chains."

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Eugenides, Lethem among critics' awards nominees

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OverDrive Inc., a major e-distributor for libraries, announced Wednesday the launch of a vastly expanded list for patrons, featuring not just e-books available for lending, but hundreds of thousands of those which include a collected of Edgar Allan Poe stories edited by Michael Connelly to foreign-language titles. Viewers can look at excerpts, purchase books from a retailer or request that their library add an e-book that wasn't being offered.

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: New library e-catalogs offer expanded selection

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:36 PM* 0 comments links to this post

She was very well regarded. Ellen Bryant Voigt started the program, and it's a testimony to her wisdom that she gathered these people, because nobody was a big deal. Heather [McHugh] was thirty-three or thirty-four, [Robert] Hass was thirty-eight, Louise [Glück] was thirty-eight, [Charlie] Simic was probably forty, Toby [Wolff] was thirty-three or thirty-four, Geoffrey [Wolff] was maybe thirty-eight. None of these people had made any money. Frank Conroy made a little money with Stop-Time. Oh my god, and Ray [Carver]. Ray was the first person we knew who made a lot of money. It was astonishing to everyone.

from Mary Karr: The Days of Yore: Mary Karr

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:35 PM* 0 comments links to this post

by Brad Ricca

She could always make

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Beautiful Sandwich by Brad Ricca

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Don't Look Back
by Kay Ryan

This is not

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Don't Look Back by Kay Ryan

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Going to Heaven
by Emily Dickinson

Going to heaven!

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Going to Heaven by Emily Dickinson

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Letter Home
by Ellen Steinbaum

I love you forever

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Letter Home by Ellen Steinbaum

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The Weight
by Linda Gregg

Two horses were put together in the same paddock.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Weight by Linda Gregg

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Winter Is the Best Time
by David Budbill

Winter is the best time

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Winter Is the Best Time by David Budbill

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Winter Twilight
by Anne Porter

On a clear winter's evening

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Winter Twilight by Anne Porter

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:35 PM* 0 comments links to this post

and working in the Washington, D.C., area, and she shares with many of us the experience of preparing one's self for a visit to the dentist. Do you, too, give your teeth an especially thorough brushing before entering that waiting room?

The New Dentist

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 358

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:27 PM* 0 comments links to this post

we now know that De rerum natura was the principal Latin influence on the greatest of Roman poets, Virgil, in emulation in his Georgics and refutation in The Aeneid--it's hard to overstate how radically prescient and threatening the philosophy that underlies it is. [Stephen] Greenblatt does a marvellous job of showing how, through the millennia, admirers of Lucretius, from Cicero to Poggio to his first English translator, Lucy Hutchinson, went to great lengths to gloss their enthusiasm for the poem as an aesthetic object with an incredulity towards its philosophical message. Even today, readers of this column may well find what Lucretius thinks "offensive." He's the only ancient poet whose ideas are still radical.

from Michael Lista: National Post: On Poetry: The poet of our age

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:26 PM* 0 comments links to this post

it is tempting to say--the ones he has been digging all his life to find--are those in "Left-handed," which is more formally inventive than his early work and includes a number of poems written in quick, sharp, extremely short lines. They read like livelier, more buoyant versions of the old ones.

In an essay for his 40th college reunion class book, Mr. Galassi wrote: "I find myself in the position of writing one of those class notes I can recall being startled and disoriented by in the past. In my mid-fifties, after nearly thirty years of committed marriage, I fell in love again, this time with a younger man." The version of the story in "Left-handed" is more indirect, the way poetry often is. A poem called "Middle-aged" begins:

from Charles McGrath: The New York Times: Contradictions of the Heart

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:25 PM* 0 comments links to this post

lives in Belfast, a town of poets and artists. In these two brave poems she describes the sudden death of her husband, and his mysterious return.

Sudden Death

from Wesley McNair: The Portland Press Herald: Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:25 PM* 0 comments links to this post

as the earlier book did, on a grounding in Kant's Critique of Pure Judgement: For Kant, as for Stewart, poems (and works of art in general) cannot be made in good faith with a predetermined outcome. Like persons, they set their own agendas. Like persons, they must be singular. Like persons, they must resist the intentions and goals even of their own makers. At the core of Poetry and the Fate of the Senses was the belief that "the face-to-face encounter we have with an artwork is deeply embedded in the meanings and conventions we bring to face-to-face encounters with persons." Poems are literally stand-ins for individuals in all their complexity, but complexity is only something that can be expressed in the exercise of freedom. This is what "useless" art is for.

from Ande Mlinko: Los Angeles Review of Books: The Scholar's Art (Scroll down to second article on page)

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:24 PM* 0 comments links to this post

"the death of a man still solemnly altered the space and time of a social group that could be extended to include the entire community," noted the historian Philippe Ariès.

Then mourning rituals in the west began to disappear, for reasons that are not entirely evident. The anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer, author of Death, Grief, and Mourning, conjectures that the first world war was one cause: communities were so overwhelmed by the numbers of dead that they dropped the practice of mourning the individual.

from Meghan O'Rourke: The Guardian: Grief--the great universal

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:24 PM* 0 comments links to this post

work on the Eastenders spin-off E20, and are deliberately scripting overuse of teenspeak in the character Fatboy.

The actor himself, Ricky Norwood, does a kind of last-stage filter on the words on the basis of whether Fatboy would or would not say he "tumped" him or "bonged" him. Arinze plugs in to his home background of Hackney but had the horrific experience recently, when talking to some young people a blink or two younger than him, to discover that he was already out of date. Emer's trick is spying on buses. While the kids are pumping out the chat, Emer's taking notes on her phone.

from Michael Rosen: The Guardian: Teens on TV: are they talking your language?

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:23 PM* 0 comments links to this post

the reader can enjoy "Francesca of Rimini" as a poem in its own right. The personal touches--the infidelities, if you like--are not slips, but planned insurgencies, and part of the poem's tough vitality. And when Byron risks using feminine endings (surely associated in his mind with comedy and irony) there is pleasure for the ear, as well as a little humour ("the long-sighed-for smile of her"). The concluding lines have a sense of dramatic fatality that is hard to resist. Even the harsh "smote" earns its place by contributing to the rich alliterative music.

Francesca of Rimini

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Francesca of Rimini by Lord Byron

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 5:22 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Maxine Kumin's "Which One" with a Science Times essay by Natalie Angier, "The Creature Connection."

from Katherine Schulten: The New York Times: Poetry Pairing: 'Which One'

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:36 PM* 0 comments links to this post

part grave, hushed, reverent--even before such things as a dead leaf falling from a tree--but it rises suddenly into piquancy, laughter and mischief. From the homeless person speaking to his only companion and auditor, his body, to a man's vivid lust for the village head's wife, these poems gather into sublime forms the many strands and sounds of both world and mind.

Four poems by Kim Sa-in
Translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé

Homeless

from The Caravan: Poetry: Homeless, A Secret Incident, Springtime Sea and The Depth of a Landscape 2

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:36 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Me and My Big Sister

If I hold on tight enough,

from The Christian Science Monitor: Me and My Big Sister

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:35 PM* 0 comments links to this post

by Edward Beatty

Shostakovich's preludes and fugues sanctify the living room,

from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Beatty, Orloski and Davies

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:35 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Supernovae

Theory cannot be tangible fact

from Granta: Supernovae

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:34 PM* 0 comments links to this post

By Roy Fuller

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: My Life

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:26 PM* 0 comments links to this post

less in its content, and more in its connotations.

An acrostic poem--one in which the first letter of each line spells out a word--A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky has been read for years as a tribute to [Lewis] Carroll's young muse Alice Pleasance Liddell, who inspired his famous protagonist.

Carroll met Liddell when she was a child in 1855, after befriending her elder brother.

from Huffington Post: The Weekend Poem: 'A Boat Beneath A Sunny Sky' By Lewis Carroll

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:25 PM* 0 comments links to this post

A Tory in Avalon is missing for 24 hours

from Morning Star: Well Versed: A Tory in Avalon

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:25 PM* 0 comments links to this post

by Tracy K. Smith

Listen To Tracy K. Smith Read Her Poem

History is in a hurry. It moves like a woman

from NPR: Newspoet: Tracy K. Smith Writes The Day In Verse

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:24 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Frisking the Cobwebs

from The Oregonian: Poetry: Frisking the Cobwebs

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:23 PM* 0 comments links to this post

is the one I wrote on the day that the stock market lost so much of its value, I was coming home from the store, and I actually saw this immigrant who was selling--or trying to sell--no one was actually approaching him--these scorpions made of what looked like twisted electrical wire.

And I had thought, well, this is going to be the new economy now. It seems like, if value can suddenly disappear that way, then what kind of value was it? It's a sort of magic value that they can create out of nothing, and then it can disappear.

from PBS: Newshour: In 'Money Shot,' Poet Armantrout Reacts to Financial Crisis in Verse

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By Rae Armantrout

Time is pleased

from PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'Around'

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:22 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Everyone knows

from Post-Bulletin: Poem: A poem by The Anonymous Political Poet

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:22 PM* 0 comments links to this post

but the title tries: It sounds like "book" and "box," and "nix" and "knocks," maybe even "knick-knack." To elegize her brother, Anne Carson has packed a study of night and nothingness in a cardboard container whose lid resembles a door, complete with the cut-out image of a keyhole. Through the keyhole, we glimpse a photograph of Carson's brother, in swimming trunks and goggles, expression unreadable. Swinging the lid upward to reveal the book within, we see that illustration again, on the cover. In Nox, doors lead to other doors, and questions to further questions, creating a confusion that alternately enchants and annoys. Soon enough, we realize Nox isn't a book at all, but a long sheet of paper folded up like an accordion.

from Powells: Review-A-Day: Tribute and Farewell

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:21 PM* 0 comments links to this post

this is

from San Antonio Express-News: Poem: 'Accustomed to Dark'

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:19 PM* 0 comments links to this post

The opening cluster of dactyls, reprised more slowly at the end of the poem, provides a rhythm against which the other lines are played off in a series of variations. And the form suits the subject. Tragedy is universal but every lament is unique. [Michael] Donaghy's death in 2004 was that familiar thing, a great loss to poetry, but his spell-binding music and lyric tenderness offer some consolation. As David Wheatley said in a review of Donaghy's Collected Poems, published in 2009, "Poetry this good runs deep . . . . [His] heartbreaking song is more than proof against drowning."

Tears

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: Tears

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:13 PM* 0 comments links to this post

Gus Van Sant, Katherine Dunn as well as Kesey who met Marty [Christensen] circa 1972 at a poetry reading downtown at Fool's Paradise, a dank, dungeonly off-Burnside dive where the Mexican bartender suffered a speech impediment to two languages and where performers including "the world's tallest midget" Bob Dylan look-a-like Corky Hubbard performed songs like "So Sorry I Came on Your Dress" and "Sleep with One Eye Open, Moshe Dayan." One night Kesey came into the tavern with Prankster second-in-command Ken Babbs. They set up an applause-o-meter in the back of the gloomy beer mill as Marty was reading from a portfolio of poems.

from Willamette Week: The Lost Poet: Remembering Marty Christensen
then Oregon ArtsWatch: 'My Flashlight Was Attacked by Bats': Farewell to poet Marty Christensen

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:12 PM* 0 comments links to this post

literary magazine Origin, edited by Cid Corman, Theodore Enslin, who has died aged 86, was often associated with the Black Mountain school of poetry. Indeed, his long poems, particularly Ranger, share the scale of Charles Olson's, and many of his shorter works can be as perfectly focused and crystalline as Robert Creeley's. While Olson's landmark essay Projective Verse set out the template for poetry with lines based on the human breath, Enslin's avant-garde work most often followed the structures of musical forms.

from The Guardian: Theodore Enslin obituary

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:11 PM* 0 comments links to this post

published and also founded a new genre of Urdu poetry called Azad Ghazal.

The litterateur, who was counted among the leading contemporary poets, had four volumes of poetry to his credit--Zakhm-e-Tamanna (1962), Rishta Goonge Safar Ka (1974), Pichle Mausam Ka Phool (1987) and Band Hota Hua Bazaar.

from Famous Urdu poet Mazhar Imam passes away

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:11 PM* 0 comments links to this post

essays, poems and short stories. Her debut book, The Cockerels and Other Stories, was published in 1974 and her breakthrough came in 2000 with The Second Man, which was nominated for the Ako literature prize.

from Dutch News: Doeschka Meijsing dies at 64

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*posted by Rus Bowden at 2:09 PM* 0 comments links to this post

short stories in Kale ruzi (Black Rose), a Romani anthology, [Vladimír] Oláh went on to be the first Roma accepted into the Czech Association of Writers. In 2006 he received the Milena Huebschmannova literary prize for his contribution to Romany literature.

from The Prague Post: Romani Poet Vlado Oláh (1947-2012)

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