Tuesday, May 29, 2007

May 29th Poetic Ticker Clicking

News Article Tape:
Blog Entry Tape:

May 29th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags


We are all over the world again this week, beginning at The Hay Festival. The Guardian newspaper is providing what they call Haycasts from there. These are not to be missed. Their page of them is first click in our News at Eleven. It's as if they wish so much we were there, that they are taking us. Also, in Great Regulars, Sarah Crown is outdoing herself on her coverage of The Hay. I wrote to her to thank her, and let her know how I hope what they are providing for us results in many hits.

That headline is so huge, I want to mention two articles that would normally headline for us in most any other week. One is an excellent review by John Freeman in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Natasha Trethewey Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Now I know I need to read it.

When murderous criminals, worse than most mob bosses, are in charge of reading scripture, money gets anted up for random professionals and sickos to kill good people. A fatwa has been issued against poet Taslima Nasrin.

Lots of great poetry and news on poets this week. Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

IBPC Newswire

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News at Eleven: Hay in your headphones

Can't make Hay this year? Never fear: we'll bring the festival to you with our daily Hay podcast - or Haycast, if you will. Presented by Sarfraz Manzoor, the 30-minute programme will be full to the brim with interviews with our pick of the festival's authors, features on Hay fashion and bookshops, and roundups of the daily highlights.

from The Guardian: The Guardian's daily Hay podcast

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News at Eleven: Or . . . if your taste runs

toward the grisly, you and your Muslim extremist cronies might offer $11,319 on the open fatwa market to buy a head; specifically, the head of "notorious woman" and dissident writer Taslima Nasreen.

Separated from her body, of course.

from The Morning Call: Fatwah can't silence 'warrior woman' poet

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News at Eleven: A brief return only turns the knife

for the exile.

"You feel that it is not your home that is in your mind, that it's somewhere else," Bei Dao said. "It belongs to a strange world to which you don't belong."

from The Sydney Morning Herald: Exile from land where royalties talk replaces culture

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News at Eleven: "No-one escaped,"

he [Oumar Farouk Sesay] says.

"Status did not matter. I began to realise that soon we all would exit and then I began to consider what would be left behind. This is why I wrote My Will."

from BBC News: Sierra Leone's poems of war

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News at Eleven: Namdeo [Dhasal] is a guerrilla poet.

In one phrase, one line, he’ll juxtapose dialect and the slang of Kamathipura with European references in very sophisticated Marathi. These shifts and transitions of register make translating him very hard. Translating someone like Namdeo is in a sense like Method acting--you have to find a space for him inside you, make room, and then act it out. [--Dilip Chitre]

from Tehelka: Street Fight Poet

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News at Eleven: It rained

the whole time we were laying her down;
Rained from church to grave when we put her down.
The suck of mud at our feet was a hollow sound.

The woman being buried is, one presumes, the poet's mother, but Native Guard doesn't have the whiff of the personal the way so much contemporary poetry does.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Poems give voice to the forgotten

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News at Eleven: [Roderick Joseph MacSween] is considered one

of Canada's most significant literary essayists and reviewers. And if that isn't enough, literary critic and poet Louis Dudek eulogized him as our "great unknown poet."

So why don't we know more about him?

from The Halifax Herald: MacSween: Canada's 'great unknown poet'

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News at Eleven: We know that the world

into which a child grows is always substantially different from that of his fathers, not only in terms of its physical changes, mores, attitudes and temperaments but also in terms of other subtle but substantial qualities to which his father has been desensitized as a result of the latter's extreme intimacy with the world. It is the recognition and apprehension of these qualities that make literary generations.

from Vanguard: Writers extending literary frontiers

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News at Eleven: [Gary] Snyder argued to the contrary

that nuclear waste remains a serious threat, and further, that any move toward nuclear energy and the large-scale enrichment of uranium would surely increase the risk of the spread of nuclear weapons. He bluntly called Lovelock's plea for more nukes "demented," and warned the crowd:

Keep your eyes peeled for trick arguments trying to lead us back to nuclear power.

from Grist: Gary Snyder: James Lovelock's arguments for nuclear power 'demented'

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News at Eleven: "I had my own bedroom

and I think it was a way of getting a bit of space. My grandfather gave me Alice in Wonderland when I was seven and I loved it so much that, when I finished it, I started writing some more of the story for myself. That book tipped me into this world of making up stories." [--Carol Ann Duffy]

from The Guardian: The great performer

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News at Eleven (Back Page): Our first visitor was a blonde

French woman wearing fishnet stockings, crop top and an over-sized belly-button ring, who asked us where we would like her to perform.

"Wherever you like!" we said, shifting nervously on the bed.

She elected to stand while she read us a selection of risqué rhymes, pausing only to smile seductively.

from The Argus: Poetry Brothel on Muesli Mountain

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Great Regulars: And to whet your appetites,

you can listen now to our preview Haycast, in which Sarfraz talks to Claire Armitstead, Clare Purcell of the Hay festival office and me(!) about what's coming up at this year's festival.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Listen to our Haycast preview programme

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Catching the train from Paddington to Hereford at the end of May is definitely one of the highlights of my year: those of you who've been up there in years past will know that unless you're a rigorous upholder of the Derridean view that il n'ya pas de hors-texte, there really is nowhere better for a book lover to be than Hay.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hooray! We're off to Hay

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In these few quiet moments before the crowds descend, the festival site feels oddly unconvincing - like a school without children, or a film set without actors. The walkways, food stalls, picnic tables and deck chairs are all in place, but nothing comes to life until the people are here to fill them.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: Settling in

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The festival is also taking its role as a pioneer of ethical, organic, locally-sourced eco-tasticness more seriously then ever: there are stand-pipes from which to fill your water bottles, solar panels dotted about the place and bins for all your different rubbish needs.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: stand back, it's all kicking off

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Sarfraz [Manzoor] talks to Beryl Bainbridge and her documentary film-maker grandson Charlie Russell about Beryl's Last Year. Beryl superstitiously believed she was going to die at the age of 71 and Charlie followed her for the year as she contemplated her own death. And books editor Sarah Crown talks to Steven Hall about his debut novel The Raw Shark Texts.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast: Beryl Bainbridge on death and Steven Hall on memory

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They have a board up outside the event decorated with dozens of words chosen by festivalgoers - from the sublime (freedom, peace, passion) to the ridiculous (gobbledigook, gallivanting), and even (philofocus, dodihendron) the made-up.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: the power of words

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Education Action, one of the festival's official charities, is using the 'Words for the World' campaign to draw attention to their support for education for children in conflict zones. Festival visitors are being asked to donate £1 to add their favourite word to a pinboard outside the charities' tent, and Education Action is calling on everyone from authors and journalists to politicians and members of the public to visit the website and add their own favourite words.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Hay snorkles for top words

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Anxiety-inducing as it undeniably is, however, I'm finding the podcasting side of this year's festival deeply enjoyable, and even managed a Guardian scoop of sorts when talking yesterday to David Mitchell, who revealed--exclusively, ladies and gentleman!--that his next book will be (and I quote) "a historical, Dutch-Japanese novel set in the Napoleonic war". Bring it on.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: I'm anxious, it's pouring, they're dancing

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Literary editor Claire Armitstead talked to Kiran Desai about her Booker-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss and Sarah Crown asks David Mitchell, author of Black Swan Green, what is was like writing a conventional novel.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 02: Gordon Brown, Kiran Desai and David Mitchell

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The pounding rain and tent-bowing wind were the perfect sound effects for this wild, natural poem: when [Simon] Armitage stood at the front of the darkened stage, lit up like an oracle, words and weather came together in a moment of symbiosis the equal of which I haven't seen at this festival or any other.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: A dark and stormy Simon Armitage

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Spotted

AA Gill, in a pinny, serving almond tart at the River Cafe event.

Dara O'Brian picking up where AC Grayling left off, on the dance floor at the Sky party.

A teenager picking her way through the mud, muttering, "This is worse than Glastonbury."

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Hay festival: Why is AA Gill in a pinny?

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Sarfraz Manzoor talks to Dave Eggers about his latest book What is the What, a memoir of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee separated from his family during the Sudanese civil war.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 03: Dave Eggers, Ian Rankin and a gastronomic tour of Hay

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Sarfraz Manzoor takes a look at what poetry is on offer at Hay. He talks to Sarah Crown about the Poetry Gala, which finds seven poets reading their work, then Gillian Clarke takes us on a tour of the Poetry Bookshop.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Haycast 04: Poetry Gala, Gillian Clarke, Richard Dawkins and Clive James

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Great Regulars: In the second quatrain, the speaker continues

to compare the attributes of the poem to those of a woman. He finds a woman to have bright eyes, but the poem’s eyes are even brighter and "less false in rolling." And what the poem gazes upon becomes gilded: it saves for future generations the subject that is placed into it.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 20

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Great Regulars: She is smoking and the cigarette

is almost down to the butt, being "fifty seconds from her fingers". If it burnt more quickly, the glowing embers might reach her skin and wake her in time to save herself.

from Frieda Hughes: The Times: Driven to the edge

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Great Regulars: Poem: "The Wind Blows High"

by Anonymous. Public domain.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: For the week of May 28, 2007

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In libraries and back rooms and parents' basements, men and women just like me are sitting at computers with stacks of books around them, legal pads full of notes, Post-its, index cards, photocopies, and they are trying to not answer the phone or check e-mail, trying to meet a deadline. It's like a lingering illness: There are good days and bad days.

from Garrison Keillor: Star-Telegram: Of making many books there is no end

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Great Regulars: Though the dog chose domestication,

cheerfully enjoying human food and protection, most of the world's species look upon us with justifiable wariness, for we're among the most dangerous critters on the planet. Here Minnesota poet Freya Manfred, while out for a leisurely swim, comes face to face with a species that will not be trained to sit or roll over.

Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 113

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Great Regulars: [Peg Boyer's] reference

to a central incident in E.M. Forster's novel A Passage to India operates as allusion should, as a compact, rapid inclusion of themes: in this case, the ambiguity of events, especially erotically charged events, the sinister underside of privilege, the prolonged receding and the long reach of colonial history, the interweaving of private life and social reality:

Playa Colorada

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

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Great Regulars: Just as one wouldn't try

to see the whole state in a day, the poems are best read a few at a time. Individually, they are like postcards. Wish you were here, the best seem to say, and you may find yourself wishing to visit. Before long. Before the tide comes in.

Night Beach (from "Deer Drink the Moon")
[by Peter Sears]

from B.T. Shaw: The Oregonian: Natural enchantments rule in Oregon poetry

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Great Regulars: For my part, when I read

the delirious mirth of an unskilful author, I cannot be so barbarous as to divert myself with it, but am rather apt to pity the man, than to laugh at anything he writes.

from Daily Times: Purple Patch: False humour --Joseph Addison

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Great Regulars: While the poems are often delicate

and grounded in a moment of particular calm, they also can bite, sting even, as their full import sinks in. I want to end with a small selection of his [Taneda Santÿka's] work, poems written during the fall over a number of years. All translations are by Burton Watson from “For All My Walking” (Columbia University Press, 2003).

234

from Good Times Weekly: Poetry: Along Comes Taneda Santÿka

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Great Regulars: Prelude

by Derek Walcott

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: Prelude by Derek Walcott

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Great Regulars: Wholesale Romania

by Chris Tanasescu translated by Ilya Kaminsky and Martin Woodside

from Guernica: Poetry: Wholesale Romania

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Great Regulars: Excavating 95th and Metcalf

By H.C. Palmer
(For Sharat)

from The Kansas City Star: Poet's Corner: 'Excavating 95th and Metcalf'

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Great Regulars: By Rachel Baker

Eating a Hershey Bar!

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Your Poem: By Rachel Baker






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By Stephanie Heinbockel

It was like any other day.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Your Poem: By Stephanie Heinbockel






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By Tara Lemma
West Deptford High School

The Wedding

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Your Poem: By Tara Lemma






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By Keeleigh McGowan

Inside This Object

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Your Poem: By Keeleigh McGowan






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By Coral Rudnick
Hammonton Middle School
Please

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Your Poem: By Coral Rudnick






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Great Regulars: Homeland Security

by Marvin Bell

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Homeland Security






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Never-ending Birds
by David Baker

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Never-ending Birds






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Wise
by Elizabeth Macklin

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Wise






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Great Regulars: The poet Nick Drake's first collection,

The Man in the White Suit, won the Forward Best First Collection prize in 1999. This second collection features a moving sequence of poems about the death of his father, poems which are no less intense or beautiful for the obvious ambivalence of the relationship they portray.

Along the study wall, maps of his world

from The Scotsman: Poem of the Week

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Great Regulars: "Two Novembers"

By Laura Van Prooyen

from Slate: "Two Novembers"--By Laura Van Prooyen

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Poetic Obituaries: [Frank Borchardt] loved poetry,

and was renowned for expecting his students to memorize German verse. He himself was learning Goethe's Faust by heart during the last months of his life, and recited its Prologue for his colleagues at one of their final gatherings in March.

from Duke University News & Communications: German Studies Professor Frank Borchardt Dies

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Poetic Obituaries: The following poem was written by S. Bose,

a writer-poet (Tamil) from Vavuniya, Sri Lanka and was translated by a friend of mine for Global Voices Online readers. Chandrabose Sudhakar or S.Bose was shot dead by armed men in his own home on April 16th, 2007.

from Global Voices: Sri Lanka: S. Bose (1975-2007), Poet, Editor & Writer

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Poetic Obituaries: The family has dedicated two trees

on Westwood Avenue in River Vale, each with a plaque in front of it, as a memorial for [Dave] Buschow. One plaque is inscribed with one of Buschow's favorite quotes: "Grow wild according to thy nature," and the other with a poem he wrote titled "Wind Chimes."

from The Record: Family sues school over desert death of River Vale hiker

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Poetic Obituaries: Pi [Chun-deuk] became known as

a distinguished poet and modern essayist. His masterpiece essay "Inyeon" (Karma) is included in middle-school textbooks in South Korea and remains etched in the memory of a majority of Koreans.

from The Korea Times: Master Essayist Dies

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Poetic Obituaries: How many times Major Robert Neal Collins, Sr.

(1921- 2007), US Air Force Veteran of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, flight instructor, lover of flying, read or quoted "High Flight" by John Gillespie McGee, Jr., I know not. But the poem so characterizes Mr. Collins that I reproduce it here in his memory and for our consideration as we observe Memorial Day, 2007.

High Flight

from Union Sentinel: A Memorial Day Tribute to Major Robert Neal Collins Sr.

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Poetic Obituaries: [Sayed Jamel] Houssein was a poet

and humanitarian who served as the "ambassador" to the United Nations from the Afghanistan government-in-exile during that country's war and occupation by Russia in the 1980s.

from Houston Chronicle: Houssein, poet, retired businessman

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Poetic Obituaries: [Mary Agnes Johnson] was a member of

the Fortnightly Study Club, the Writer's Club and the Piano Teacher's Club. Mary wrote many poems over the years, some of them eventually becoming published.

from The Mining Journal: Mary Agnes Johnson

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Poetic Obituaries: [Elke] Parker shared a poem Sean [Kennedy]

had written that she discovered in his room.

Grin

from Towleroad: SC Hate Crime: Mother of Sean Kennedy Speaks Out

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Poetic Obituaries: [Shirley] Klein was especially known for

her sensitive poetry that ranged from deep personal experience about love and desire for companionship to noting the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act to writing poetry specifically for rallies and protests that drew thousands of people.

from California Disability Community Action Network: Shirley Klein, Beloved Friend, Poet and Advocate Passes Away at Age 74 in Nevada City, CA--"Celebration of Life" Memorial to Be Held Saturday

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Poetic Obituaries: As well, tucked into the pages,

was an essay on Group of Seven artist Tom Thomson and a brief poem Jordan [Manners] had written in 2002: "I was outside walking in the snow/snow like a warm blanket/that warms the earth."

A 10-year-old boy from Jane-Finch who wrote poems and drew mature pictures and showed, from all indications, that he was a jewel, someone who could rise successfully from these mean and impoverished surroundings.

from The Toronto Star: 'Don't die, Jordan,' best friend pleaded

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Poetic Obituaries: [Theodore (Theo) Morris] once showed me

some poems he had written. I guess he was seeking my encouragement, as he would have been well aware that I could not properly evaluate the quality.

from Stabroek News: I knew Theo since the fifties when we would meet at his great aunt's home in Buxton

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Poetic Obituaries: Roy Ringer, a longtime aide and speechwriter

for former California Gov. Pat Brown who later worked as an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, has died. He was 88.

Ringer, who in retirement had been actively engaged in his passion of writing poetry, fell ill suddenly and died Sunday of pneumonia at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, his wife, Vivian, said.

from The Los Angeles Times: Roy Ringer, 88; longtime aide to California Gov. Pat Brown

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Poetic Obituaries: During his years of teaching,

he [John Robbins] also ran the soap box derby, coached various sports and special tutoring. He married Phyllis Huse on June 2, 1951, in Elcho. John enjoyed landscaping, politics, music and poetry.

from Green Bay Press-Gazette: Robbins, John

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Poetic Obituaries: Noted young poet Habibullah Sanji Sujawal

expired here on Thursday after a protracted illness. He was a cancer patient.

from The News International: Poet Habibullah Sanji expires

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Poetic Obituaries: Father [Conrad] Ly's [Li Shaofeng's] "literary skill

as a poet was brought to good use in translating the Psalms and canticles," the website says.

from Indian Catholic: Mainland Bishop's priest-brother dies after their reunion in Taiwan

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Poetic Obituaries: Kelly Wallace loved animals.

She loved her dog, Zero, and her two rats, Sophie and Chloe. She loved books and writing poetry. "Music and reading and words," says friend Nikkie Wordell. "Those were her life."

from The Phoenix: Kelly Wallace, 1983-2007

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

May 22nd Poetic Ticker Clicking

News Article Tape:
Blog Entry Tape:

May 22nd forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags

A new member board enters IBPC this week. Welcome:

The Waters!

Where are the Sri Lankan children? This is where we begin this week. And where are the Chinese writers? This is our second link. Poet E. Ethelbert Miller asks poet Kalamu ya Salaam, "How do you feel about the United States not accepting assistance from Cuba after Hurricane Katrina?" This is our fourth article. Will Donald Hall accept a second term as Poet Laureate? That's seven. How about living in Jack Kerouac's birthplace, w/d hookup, right down the street here for $1,100 per month? That's our Back Page link this week. And I'll leave Great Regulars and the Poetic Obituaries to your discovery.



Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

IBPC Newswire

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News at Eleven: The most interesting development

of LTTE's current recruitment drive was when their Aasthana Kavingian (Official Poet) Puthuvai Rathinathurai's grand son was forcefully taken away for training.

When Puthuvai Rathinathurai approached the captors to use his influence, he was bluntly told "you are an old Tiger and we are new Tigers".

from Daily News: Upsurge in LTTE child recruitment

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News at Eleven: But nearly 30 years after China

began dumping the Maoist system, aren't we missing out on something? Why are nearly all the Chinese writers we know living in exile? Or is it too early to expect anything else?

from The Sydney Morning Herald: Rock star poets and revolutionary verse

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News at Eleven: Versed in Chinese painting and poetry

of all periods, but especially that of the literati artists of the Ming and Qing dynasties; familiar with the reigning schools of official Japanese art; inculcated with Neo-Confucian thought and interested in Daoism and Buddhism, [Ike] Taiga was exceptionally erudite but not an aesthete; his work often has a visceral directness.

from The New York Times: In Japan, When Word Was Wed to Image

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