Poetry & Poets in Rags

The poetry news this week is riddled with questions of ethics and morality. Joy Harjo has resigned over this. Anne Marie Macari is being sued in another storyline. The case of Pier Paolo Pasolini arises again, as does Ted Hughes' relation with Sylvia Plath. Reverend Geoff Waggett does not want Patrick Jones reading his poetry in public buildings. And the question arises, should parents be forewarned that poet Gayle Danley will be teaching their children how to write their personal stories, how to make poetry from their pain. These stories are all in News at Eleven.

We begin, however, with three articles about the selection of the next poet laureate of Great Britain, how it could be done, and who the "contestants" are. How much should the people be involved, how much should it be a poetry idol contest? In Great Regulars, Andrew Motion has words of wisdom and advice for whomever takes the position.

And, as always, lots more good reading. For you who are inside the US, Happy Thanksgiving Thursday. For everyone everywhere, thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

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Rus Bowden · at 7:44 PM

"The time has come to start a debate on who the next poet laureate should be, how the post should develop and the entire direction of poetry in this country."

Ministers freely admit to being impressed by the way popular TV programmes such as Pop Idol manage to galvanise huge audiences into backing their favourites.

They add, however, that they will not ape "exact voting processes" which pick a winner after candidates are eliminated one by one in a series of telephone votes.

from Telegraph: Public to be given say in selection of poet laureate
also Telegraph: Poet laureate options
also The Times: Who will be the new Poet Laureate?

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Rus Bowden · at 7:42 PM

as the one school in the country with a poetry-only master's degree program. And administrators blame the program's former director, who they say stole NEC's faculty and students and re-created its program at Drew University in New Jersey.

So far, six faculty from NEC's small master's program have left Henniker for Drew University, according to a lawsuit NEC has brought against its former director, poet Anne Marie Macari, and Drew University.

from Concord Monitor: Poetry program heads to court

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Rus Bowden · at 7:39 PM

in a program "that has been so deeply compromised" and that she didn't trust the University to uphold the rights of its students and faculty.

"The Chavez-and-students sex-site debacle was mishandled," Harjo said. "Because of this, the creative writing program lost face and credibility locally and nationally. Those of us--a majority of the creative writing program--who pushed for a proper ethics investigation based on policies already in place were retaliated against for speaking up. This whole situation could have been handled in a way that was respectful to all parties. As it is, only the rights of one person was considered."

from Daily Lobo: English professor resigns over administration's actions

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Rus Bowden · at 7:37 PM

as flip sides of a coin: "The fantasy of isolation, the fantasy of intervention: they create recluses and activists, sometimes both, in us all." By mapping these contradictions so scrupulously, Wineapple allows Dickinson and Higginson their full measure of humanity.

Covering some of the same ground, Christopher Benfey's A Summer of Hummingbirds isn't, properly speaking, a biography. It is an account of a cultural moment, the summer of 1882, when the literati were breaking sexual taboos and finding a metaphor for this liberation in hummingbirds, which had been popularized by early-nineteenth-century naturalists.

from The Nation: Her Nature Was Future: Emily Dickinson's White Heat

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Rus Bowden · at 7:35 PM

limited space, you explore all the areas, all the little corners that you think that something might go into. Every day I learn new words, and discover them like new land.

"My mother tongue is so inside. It would be painful for me to try to distance myself from my mother tongue. It is too comfortable. The question I ask is, 'In which language do you sigh?' The language that you do that in is your mother tongue. I sigh in Persian, but I think in English. That's a very significant factor in mastering a language. And the next level is, you dream in that language." [--Maryam Ala Amjadi]

from Pavland News: Iranian poet Maryam Ala Amjadi embraces the adventure of writing in English

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Rus Bowden · at 7:33 PM

who studied history not only avidly but with a scholar's respect for detail and meticulous attention to nuance, would have recognized the dangers of abstracting people from their historical surroundings; and nowhere is this more true than in the case of Cavafy himself. To be sure, his work--the best of it, at any rate, which is as good as great poetry gets--is indeed timeless in the way we like to think that great literature can be, alchemizing the particulars of the poet's life, times, and obsessions into something relevant to a wide public over years and even centuries. But the tendency to see him as one of us, as someone of our own moment, speaking to us in a voice that is transparently, recognizably our own about things whose meaning is self-evident, threatens to take a crucial specificity away from him--one that, if we restore it to him, makes him seem only greater, more a poet of the future (as he once described himself).

from The New York Review of Books: 'As Good as Great Poetry Gets'

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Rus Bowden · at 7:31 PM

came from one of these borgate--Tiburtino III. Built in 1935 on marshland, Tiburtino III is still periodically flooded by the Aniene, a tributary of the Tiber, its Fascist-era tenement blocks now blanched ochre, with peeling green shutters. The tenements are not the "human habitations" promised by Fascism, "but coves of disease, of violence, malavita and prostitution", in the words of Pasolini. Yet the outskirts, strewn with broken washbasins, chicken coops, prams, shoes and old tyres sprouting poppies, present a characteristically Pasolinian pasticcio of the poetic and the squalid.

from The Times Literary Supplement: Pasolini's Roman poetry

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Rus Bowden · at 7:29 PM

with Christian Voice in Cardiff, he [Patrick Jones] said: "I was hoping that maybe they would come out and have a debate.

"That's within my rights to do that.

"My book didn't set out to be provocative at all."

Reverend Geoff Waggett, of Ebbw Vale, said he was dismayed that the Llanhilleth reading was going ahead.

He said: "Freedom of speech is important and people are certainly entitled to express themselves in poetry.

"But when that poetry is both blasphemous and obscene and when one of our public buildings is used for the proclamation of such material, I then need to question the moral values of those who have responsibility for those buildings."

from Gwent Gazette: Controversial reading by poet Patrick Jones goes ahead despite protests

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Rus Bowden · at 7:27 PM

of the creative process, as shaped by his own engagement with--and artistic avoidance of--his psychic dramas. In another letter to [Moelwyn] Merchant, he confesses a belief that "whatever we work at, in the way of imaginative creation, operates as a conjuration, a ritual summoning of all energies associated with the subject matter--from levels that our normal activities can rarely tap. And those energies are good or bad for us--helpful or destructive--almost in the style of demonic entities--according to our subject matter, & the moral-imaginative interpretation we make of it."

from Truthdig: Regina Marler on Ted Hughes' Letters

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Rus Bowden · at 7:25 PM

is similar to that of her slightly older contemporary Lavinia Greenlaw, but possesses less of that quality once memorably described by Andrew Motion as combining "an excited way of seeing with a calm way of thinking". Where Greenlaw's work possesses the unmistakable erotic charge of strong poetry, Bryce's is for the most part flatter, on occasion almost affectless.

Or perhaps it is more correct to say that Bryce's work yields its significance a little less readily.

from The Guardian: The spider in the glass

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Rus Bowden · at 7:21 PM

she [Gayle Danley] tells the 11-year-olds, "I want you to close your eyes [and picture] when something changed in your life and how you felt that day." After a minute or two, she asks, "Anyone saw something when you closed your eyes and it kind of made you sad? Or real happy?"

A few students nod. Danley calls on those with raised hands with, "Yes, princess," "Go ahead, gorgeous," and "Talk to me, handsome."

A girl in a polka-dot shirt tells the class about the day her dad took her shopping and told her to buy whatever she wanted. Then he bought her lunch, she says, and announced that he was leaving town. "I never saw him again," the girl tells the class, through tears. "I really miss him." Gayle gives her a tissue, holds her hand.

from The Washington Post: The Poetry of Pain

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Rus Bowden · at 7:15 PM

Keep enough time for your own writing. That is not just a question of getting up an hour earlier; it means the more difficult task of preserving staring-off time, thinking time. The laureateship takes over your life. An American publication described it as "a double-edged chalice". A ridiculous mixed metaphor, but true enough.

from Andrew Motion: The Guardian: Between the lines: Andrew Motion's advice to the next poet laureate

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Rus Bowden · at 6:59 PM

of the nation," Snyder writes in an introduction to "The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder" (Counterpoint, $28, 321 pages). "I was from German and Scandinavian working farmer/logger/fisherman world of pre-WWII Puget Sound, Allen from the New York City Immigrant Left. We met in a backyard in Berkeley, and again in Kenneth Rexroth's wood-floored apartment in the foggy Avenues zone of San Francisco. . . . We argued a lot and were not easy on each other. I made him walk more, and he made me talk more. It was good for both of us."

from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Bookmarks: Beat poets: 40 years of letters

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Rus Bowden · at 6:58 PM

a father relinquishes a small corner of his control, opening up his son to risk, so that he can experience the beauty of the world.

Danger and beauty coexist, they are partners in this dance. The father learns that to protect his son too much is to exclude important truths about the world -- that sometimes beauty can assuage loss.

[by Joe Benevento]

Expecting Songbirds

We stopped feeding the birds

from Walter Bargen: The Post-Dispatch: Missouri Poets: Joe Benevento

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Rus Bowden · at 6:57 PM

I've kind of lost my language, and yet I write these poems to bring back my language, and so I put it into the poem, and so then I'm using my language again. So in a way it's kind of like a little push to, like, you know, don't lose it, bring it back, or work for it.

Heilery Yuselew: And once you start using it, you just keep grabbing more and more and more. All of a sudden, you have all these words in your head. So they're there and you can't forget. Like our poems, we can't forget them no matter how hard we try.

from Jeffrey Brown: PBS: Newshour: N.M. Spoken World Club Explores Indian Identity, History

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Rus Bowden · at 6:57 PM

"Read, read, read. Read everything." But remember that the good stuff is the most rewarding.

Our 10 highlights

•The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt with illustrations by David Small

•Flight: New and Selected Poems, by Linda Bierds

from John Mark Eberhart: The Kansas City Star: Notables from the noteworthy Books of the Year

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By John Mark Eberhart

God sits upon a throne

of diatomic hydrogen, the smallest

from John Mark Eberhart: Parchute: Universe

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Rus Bowden · at 6:56 PM

one that he no doubt wishes he could retain throughout the day. He declares that it is very "sweet" "to sit alone with the class"; he can perceive that his teaching is reaching them like a "stream of awakening." A transference of knowledge passes from the teacher to the students, "whose brightening souls it laves/For this little hour."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Lawrence's "Best of School"

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The teacher/speaker metaphorically compares his recalcitrant students to "hounds" that pull on the leash trying to free themselves from his instruction. They do not want to learn, and he does not want to teach. They are dogs who "hate to hunt" the knowledge to which the teacher is trying to lead them.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Lawrence's Last Lesson of the Afternoon

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Here is the truth: "suddenly, the wind lashing my chest,/the infinitely dense night dropped into my bedroom." Now the reader understands that the speaker in not in fact languishing in this surreal nightmare but has simply had a "dense night dropped into his bedroom."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Neruda's "Ars Poetica"

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The "rising/empty planet" brings joy. Then the speaker appends the following phrase that hangs unconnected: "great stars clear as vodka,/so uninhabited and so transparent." There is great adventure in visualizing a star that is as clear as a Russian beverage. The speaker is suggesting the joy that would be attainable once he and his companion "arrive there with the first telephone."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Neruda's The Future is Space

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The speaker then avers that he can find no reason to reprimand the Muse, who knows no "hatred." With human beings, the speaker can read changes of mood in their physical face with its "frowns, and wrinkles." The human will display "moods" easily read by those who take note, but the Muse, being ethereal, can steal away as surreptitiously as she steals in.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 93

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Rus Bowden · at 6:55 PM

A Whole New Mind, that right-brained, creative people are critical for future business. According to him, the MFA is the new MBA, so perhaps after the buffer of student loans and cheap student health insurance dissipates, your child will sell out and pursue something with a more tangible return. But do not be mistaken, she is not wasting her time. And I assure you, her creative work has met enough opposition that she can't possibly be deluding herself.

from Kristen Hoggart: The Smart Set: Ask a Poet: Fatherly Advice

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Rus Bowden · at 6:54 PM

his plan:

"By books that 'changed America,' I mean works that helped to create the intellectual and emotional contours of this country. Each played a pivotal role in developing a complex value system that flourishes to this day."

My chief complaint with Parini, then, is his word choice, not his title choice. Helping to create "intellectual and emotional contours" is not "change," but influence.

from Bob Hoover: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 'Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America' by Jay Parini

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Rus Bowden · at 6:53 PM

to accommodate George and his nightly return to our kitchen, and now, as if he knew the cage was for him, he'd decided that it was time to go. I was both vastly relieved--and bereft. Never again would he bury unmentionable objects beneath the sofa cushions in the kitchen, or slot Schmackos dog chews into the toaster.

from Frieda Hughes: The Times: Monday Poem: A dream come true: After four years, Frieda Hughes has finally built her garden paradise

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Rus Bowden · at 6:52 PM

of the nonfiction winner, Annette Gordon-Reed (for "The Hemingses of Monticello"), and poetry winner Mark Doty ("`Fire to Fire"), who cited the election and his recent marriage to his male partner: "We are on a path to equality for all Americans and nothing is going to turn us back."

from Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Mail Tribune: Matthiessen wins National Book Award fiction prize

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Rus Bowden · at 6:51 PM

is endured by loving those close to us ("when we were together/in a white room"). The poem moves from large to small to large again. By contrast, in "If I May," Mississippi poet Brooks Haxton drolly springs from the worldly occasion of receiving a poetry prize to a God whose existence is--though scientifically dubious--praiseworthy:

from Mary Karr: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

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Rus Bowden · at 6:50 PM

by Ellen Bass

While the remnants of cake

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: After Our Daughter's Wedding by Ellen Bass

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A Deer in the Target
by Robert Fanning

I only got a ten-second shot,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: A Deer in the Target by Robert Fanning

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The O's
by Baron Wormser

My grandfather is lying in the hospital bed

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The O's by Baron Wormser

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Runways Café II
by Marilyn Hacker

For once, I hardly noticed what I ate

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Runways Café II by Marilyn Hacker

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Snow
by George Bilgere

A heavy snow, and men my age

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Snow by George Bilgere

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The Story of My Life
by Jennifer Michael Hecht

Each day goes down in history, wets its feet

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Story of My Life by Jennifer Michael Hecht

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Translation of My Life
by Elizabeth Spires

I remember the past.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Translation of My Life by Elizabeth Spires

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Rus Bowden · at 6:50 PM

to discover a quarter on the sidewalk can make a whole day seem brighter. In this poem, Robert Wrigley, who lives in Idaho, finds what's left of a Bible, and describes it so well that we can almost feel it in our hands.

Finding a Bible in an Abandoned Cabin

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 191

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Rus Bowden · at 6:49 PM

more deeply into the experience. As the hunter seeks to take another being's life, he also confronts his own mortality, his own "uncertain ghost." He confronts a memory "so deep," which is the underlying nature of humankind: We are predators, and this poem does not make apologies for this survival skill.

Hunting Again

for Pete

Things are different out here,

from Denise Low: Ad Astra Poetry Project: Michael L. Johnson (1941 - )

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Rus Bowden · at 6:48 PM

but not quite. "Limb" and "hair" have utterly different functions and textures, almost as different as those of the oak dresser and the fragile, crooked-legged insect. And only one of the couple is peacefully asleep. The other is awake, and observing--eternally vigilant, as the writer has to be, looking in, looking out, trying to name the world and make sense without loss of mystery. The unnameable is present in the poem, too.

[by Naomi Foyle]

Your Summer Arm

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Your Summer Arm

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Rus Bowden · at 6:47 PM

fits into the book because a big part of the struggle with me in writing this book was that, after September 11th, after Katrina--and I live in New Orleans now--after terrible things happen: what good is a writer, a poet? Poetry seems kind of trivial. Some people will argue, I have friends who are poets and they'll argue that, well, "It's still a refuse, it's still a place you can go for hope and things like that": poetry, you can still get that out of it. And I suppose that's true. But I always felt that certain things in the news, non-fiction, or real experiences were always stronger than poems themselves to a certain degree. So in the book there's a lot of struggle with being a poet in a time when things are supercharged politically and there's lots of terrible things going on in the world.

from Belinda Subraman Presents: Mark Yakich and The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine

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Rus Bowden · at 6:44 PM

"Poem Written at Morning" by Wallace Stevens

"I chose to read this poem because it looks at how we experience the world around us, through aesthetics and multiple sensory intake."

from BU Today: The Favorite Poem Project: Poem Written at Morning

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Adam Sweeting, an associate professor of humanities in the College of General Studies, reads an untitled 1877 poem by Emily Dickinson.

"Although she doesn't use the term 'Indian summer,' Dickinson allowed the season to seem like this jarring interlude that suddenly interrupted the normal flow of temperatures and time," says Sweeting, whose book Beneath the Second Sun: a Cultural History of Indian Summer was published in 2003. Sweeting's research focuses on the interplay between cultural and natural forces in 19th-century America.

from BU Today: The Favorite Poem Project: Summer Has Two Beginnings

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Rus Bowden · at 6:44 PM

Hemingway's Ghost

Spent the better part of an afternoon

from Express-News: Poetry: 'Hemingway's Ghost'

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Rus Bowden · at 6:43 PM

Ausable Press recently published his second book, "Made Flesh." He is currently a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence in Bogotá, Colombia. When not globetrotting, he teaches at the University of Wyoming .

Uncouplings

from Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: Poems by Craig Arnold

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Rus Bowden · at 6:42 PM

by Janet Frame

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: The Happy Prince by Janet Frame

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Rus Bowden · at 6:41 PM

with her choric word manic because the insistence on condition could become melodramatic and oppressive, but it's a proper risk, a poet's risk. In any case her strengths are clear from the first three lines where scale and voice are established. [--George Szirtes]

from The Guardian: Poetry Workshop: Writ small

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Rus Bowden · at 6:39 PM

by Stanley Moss

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Peace

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Signing Ceremony

by Clive James

from The New Yorker: Poetry: Signing Ceremony

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Rus Bowden · at 6:39 PM

Portsmouth

The smells, the sounds, the ocean and the fun

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: Portsmouth

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Rus Bowden · at 6:37 PM

By David Ferry

from Slate: "The White Skunk" --By David Ferry

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Rus Bowden · at 6:36 PM

Atonement There Is Betwixt Light and Darkness

To be a we, we must include

from Zeek: Three Poems

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Rus Bowden · at 6:32 PM

of his time. He was always ready to make Chaucer and his contemporaries accessible to readers who were not medievalists: Chaucer; An Introduction to Chaucer, Chaucer in His Time, and Chaucer and His World are among his titles. His publications were not only in scholarly prose. He wrote verse, too, and was proud that his poetry received the Seatonian Prize of the university 11 times.

from The Times: Professor Derek Brewer: Scholar and Master of Emmanuel College

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Rus Bowden · at 6:31 PM

program, and he wrote various guidelines for the treatment of minorities and women in textbooks. He was the author of "Poppies and Other Poems" and a screenplay, "In His Way."

A former adjunct professor at the College of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, and chairman of the Department of English, St. Francis Preparatory School, Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Egan served as a lay advisor to the Council of American Bishops and as educational director of the Assumption parish council in Morristown.

from Daily Record: Roger E. Egan: 87, publisher and educator

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Rus Bowden · at 6:31 PM

and was often of epic length; a single poem could fill an entire volume. There was little high-flown abstraction in his poetry, and little lofty diction. Writing in colloquial free verse and butting normally disparate subjects against each other, he deliberately blurred the boundaries between the animate and inanimate, the mythic and the mundane, the sacred and the profane.

The title poem of "Not So the Chairs" opens this way:

The tables slept on their feet

like horses

from The New York Times: Donald Finkel, 79, Poet of Free-Ranging Styles, Is Dead

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Rus Bowden · at 6:30 PM

and noted poet Dr. Peter Hilty, 87, died Thursday at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Hilty taught English at Southeast Missouri State University from 1962 to 1991, where he established the poetry journal The Cape Rock.

Mary Miller, a former student who also attended the same church as Hilty, said he "instilled in his students a love of words."

from Southeast Missourian: Retired professor Dr. Peter Hilty dies at age 87

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Rus Bowden · at 6:29 PM

writing poems and short stories, and painting.

He spent the first 87 years of his life in Western New York. He moved to Windsor in 2001 and then to Florida in 2004.

from Windsor Beacon: Richard E. Jones (1913-2008)

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Rus Bowden · at 6:28 PM

into English, she [Eileen Kato] also translated Japanese waka, a traditional Japanese poetic form that preceded haiku , into Irish, and old and modern Irish poetry into English.

Her translations are included in several seminal collections, including Twenty Plays of the Noh Theatre , Twelve Plays of the Noh and Kyogen and Traditional Japanese Theatre: an Anthology of Plays.

She also published many scholarly articles on Irish and Japanese literature in such journals as Monumenta Nipponica and the Journal of Irish Studies.

Her true love was poetry and she had a particular devotion to WB Yeats.

from The Irish Times: Mayo woman who became a member of the Emperor's staff
also The Japan Times: Eileen Kato, special adviser to Emperor, 'waka' translator, dies at 76

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Rus Bowden · at 6:28 PM

dedicated to Yanka Kupala and Francisak Skaryna, research works focusing on modern poetry, a textbook about the history of Belarusian literature, books for Belarusian children, and translated a number of works by French, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish poets into the Belarusian language.

Shortly before his death, he sent to a publishing house his 101st book, reminiscences about renowned Belarusian author Uladzimir Karatkevich.

His poetry is distinguished by romantic notes, soft humor and folklore allusions.

from Belarus News: Poet Aleh Loyka dies at age of 77

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Rus Bowden · at 6:27 PM

"Osage" heritage. She enjoyed beading and made jewelry and other designs. Marianne was a wonderful cook and had a great sense of humor. She wrote poetry; liked fishing; loved animals and flowers; and collected antique bottles. She was in touch with nature and preferred to be out of doors.

from The Coloradoan: Marianne Sokoloski

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Rus Bowden · at 6:26 PM

caring for her flowers and garden. She bottled peaches until her 100th birthday. A talented seamstress, she was always sewing clothes for her family. She also made many beautiful quilts, upholstered furniture and wrote beautiful poetry.

from The Spectrum: Clara Sorenson

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Rus Bowden · at 6:23 PM

had written, lauding her faith and underscoring her strong desire to help anyone in need.

Her mother, Cindy Tracy, tearfully read a prayer Kelly had written in January. At the time, Kelly felt helpless and lost while trying to aid a friend with his troubles.

from The Arizona Republic: Gilbert teen killed in crash remembered Friday

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Rus Bowden · at 6:22 PM

to his home after the jam sessions, was known to play for hours on end.

"You almost couldn't pull him away from the piano," Ross said.

The only known recordings of his music are private tapes from concerts, which Lorenz Wheatley hopes to release on compact disc.

Mr. Wheatley wrote poetry, studied dictionaries and word origins and taught himself Latin, Arabic, Spanish and German. He was an excellent cook and chess player and could often be found at the chess tables in Dupont Circle.

from The Washington Post: Jazz Pianist, Mentor Lawrence Wheatley

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Rus Bowden · at 6:20 PM

of play," said friend and former colleague Candyce Rusk, of Austin, Texas, and Provincetown. Rusk described her as "a deeply talented intuitive, poet and teacher," who "had much compassion for those involved in domestic violence disputes" when she served as a police dispatcher. "She was one of the first of a series of magical people I met in Provincetown in the early 1990s. Linda was a force to be reckoned with, purposefully striding down Commercial Street in a crushed velvet cape, flowing red-blonde hair."

from The Provincetown Banner: Former Provincetown psychic murdered

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