September 4th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags

We add another writer to Great Regulars this week, John Freeman, and wa-a-a-ay overdue. He has two of the four articles you'll find on Kerouac. There are many excellent and varied looks at Kerouac these past few weeks. This amazing phenomenon makes me feel like the weather guy telling you to watch the sky for a once-in-a-lifetime, spectacular occurrence. More will appear next week too--for instance, from The Guardian.

Here we are, then, in the middle of a global look at Jack Kerouac. Last week, we started with two on him in News at Eleven, and we do the same this week. However, the two articles take a more negative view to his behavior and personality. One of them nearly asserts that the Beats were a bunch of drunks who changed the world by spontaneous alcoholic combustion. Anyone else in history, who has changed culture to the astounding degree that Kerouac has, did it with vision, focus and determination. That's how that works.

Much more in News at Eleven, excellent stuff, and then in Great Regulars that I leave to your discovery. But, speaking of the Beats, check out the Poetic Obituaries. Philomene Long is there.

In August, the InterBoard Poetry Community was honored to have Pittsburgh poet Deborah Bogen judge the monthly contest. I thank her publicly here. As I write, the poems she selected are at this link: IBPC: Winning Poems. And her commentary is here: IBPC: Latest Commentary. Both web pages are well worth exploring. She's fabulous.


Yours,
Rus

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IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

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IBPC Home

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