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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
September 29th forum announcement
Dear Poetry Aficionados,
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is back on for 2010. This is our Back Page story. It seems that metaphors are more body-based than you might think, and at the root of thought itself. This is our fourth story in News at Eleven. The Guardian ran a climate change special this Saturday, which drew poems from Carol Ann Duffy and Andrew Motion among others. You'll find links to these in Great Regulars. We begin this week with Mahmoud Darwish and peace.
Thanks for clicking in. Peace.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is back on for 2010. This is our Back Page story. It seems that metaphors are more body-based than you might think, and at the root of thought itself. This is our fourth story in News at Eleven. The Guardian ran a climate change special this Saturday, which drew poems from Carol Ann Duffy and Andrew Motion among others. You'll find links to these in Great Regulars. We begin this week with Mahmoud Darwish and peace.
Thanks for clicking in. Peace.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: [Mahmoud] Darwish once said in an interview:
"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."Just as a critique of poetry might only change the critic. Which brings us to a justification of this essay, though it's a pity that one should be necessary.
from The Tablet: Point of Departure
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News at Eleven: [Albert Goldbarth]: I really do have a belief
that the poems want to stand independently and be their own moment and shouldn't require a kind of backdrop any more than a movie does. No one expects Steven Spielberg to have to step out from behind the curtain and explain what he was thinking when he first got the idea for the Star Wars Trilogy. Alfred Hitchcock doesn't have to, the Red Hot Chili Peppers don't have to do it. For some reason, people always expect poets to have to--or even to be eager to--provide these kinds of crutches behind the scenes, insights into their work.from The Daily Gazette: Noted Poet Albert Goldbarth Speaks on the Poetic Process
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News at Eleven: [Walt] Whitman's deep influence on Nazrul Islam
is obvious. Wherever rebellion, revolution and youth have become the mainstays of his poem, he has unhesitatingly, followed Whitman's lead. There is nothing objectionable in following this lead because this only indicates self-identification, Nazrul has not only followed him, he has also translated him. His Agrapathik is a well-known poem. Its swift movement, the rapid rise and fall of a rhythmic pattern and its suitability for choric recitation have made it one of our dearest poems.from The New Nation: Whitman and Nazrul
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News at Eleven: Rather than so much clutter
standing in the way of true understanding, to [George] Lakoff and [Mark] Johnson these metaphors are markers of the roots of thought itself. Lakoff and Johnson's larger argument is that abstract thought would be meaningless without bodily experience. And primary metaphors, in their ubiquity (in English and other languages) and their physicality, are some of their most powerful evidence for this.from The Boston Globe: Thinking literally
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News at Eleven: Leonard Cohen's path to his sold-out
concert here Thursday night has been strewn with obstacles.Those seeking to ostracize Israel through an international boycott demanded that he call it off. When he offered instead a matching concert in the West Bank, Palestinians said no thanks. Amnesty International agreed to help him distribute the concert's proceeds to peace groups; Amnesty International withdrew.
from The New York Times: Leonard Cohen's Legacy for His Concert in Israel
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News at Eleven: The dissidents face several years
in prison if convicted.Vu Hai, a lawyer for [Nguyen Xuan] Nghia, said he had been officially notified that the trial of his client and five others had been postponed because one defendant was seriously ill. The trial was scheduled for Thursday and Friday in the northern port city of Haiphong.
A separate trial for another accused, Vu Hung, has also been delayed after it was set for Friday, the lawyer said.
Hung's wife told AFP she had also signed the appeal to Ban.
An eighth accused, the poet Pham Van Troi, 37, was to be tried Thursday in Hanoi. His wife and a lawyer said that, as far as they knew, the case was going ahead.
from Viet Tan: Relatives of jailed Vietnam dissidents appeal to UN
also Amnesty International: Viet Nam should release peaceful critics
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News at Eleven: [Sotheby's specialist Gabriel] Heaton said:
"Basically, he takes her as his mistress and he is never at any point saying he is going to be faithful to her but he expects her to be faithful to him and when he hears rumours that she isn't, she loses her job."In another letter [Lord] Byron talks about his time in Albania and Ali Pasha, the ruler, who impressed him as a "fine portly person with two hundred women and as many boys, many of the last I saw and very pretty creatures they were."
from The Guardian: Lord Byron's dig at William 'Turdsworth'
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News at Eleven: [Francis the Poet] brings his dog Daisey,
a bucket of chalk and poetry books. He rides a skateboard or drives his car from spot to spot--tagging even the far edges of the university."It takes a lot more planning than you'd think," he says of finding suitable places for the poems.
On a printed a map of the university, he circles good spots to chalk the ground. He keeps mental notes about slabs of concrete he has seen, and what poems would fit on each.
from The Arizona Daily Wildcat: Artist takes poetic license to the sidewalks
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News at Eleven: "[. . .] Back then, you were either very,
very rich or you had nothing."All this wealth also came with a developed aesthetic. "There is real attention to detail and precision here," said [Gareth] Williams. "The warriors nicely matched up the various parts of their battle dress. They were brutal but it was important to look stylish and neat when you went out to kill people."
from The Guardian: Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard casts Beowulf and wealthy warriors of Mercia in a new light
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News at Eleven: "The goal of the place is to make
everyone feel that poetry belongs to them," said Lee Briccetti, who has been executive director for 20 years. "Anyone can come and experience poetry in a new way that will deepen their relationship to language."In its new location Poets House has a rent-free lease through 2069 from the Battery Park City Authority. Poets House raised the money for construction of the interior, $11 million, from public and private sources, including $3.5 million from the city.
from The New York Times: Transparent New Home for Poetry
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News at Eleven (Back Page): Newark was selected yesterday as host
for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's signature poetry festival next fall, a decision one official said will shine a light on the state's largest city as "a major cultural capital."Although the foundation previously announced the 2010 festival would be canceled for financial reasons, Dodge decided to resurrect the popular event--the largest poetry gathering in the country--and present it in a new urban location.
from The Star-Ledger: Newark gets the words: It's hosting renowned poetry festival
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Great Regulars: Well, ultimately nothing lasts.
Everything is temporal, but some things last longer than others. There's an insight and wisdom in poetry that people keep coming back to for any variety of reasons. In very few words and a very concise way, poetry can be deeply moving. You don't have to read a whole book. You can read one page.[by Walter Bargen]
Photographing the Wind
from Walter Bargen: Riverfront Times: "Stressful and Exhausting": Missouri's First Poet Laureate Reflects on His Tenure
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Great Regulars: She admits to making numerous errors
but asserts that they all were small yet varied. After having experienced a number of years since having made all kinds of mistakes, she reports that "Now they have/come home/to roost." And now they are all the same, and they are arriving "with the same speed." Although they were small errors when she first committed them, they have matured and returned to her all grown up and all at once.from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Kay Ryan's Home to Roost
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Friendship is also a melding of two minds. The love between two friends pours forth like water from fountains, and that friendship resembles a rose growing between two "mind-branchlets." Best of all, the speaker avers that friendships is "the one thinking in two bodies." And that one, of course, is the Divine.
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's Friendship
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Great Regulars: Of the two, the mind exerts the greatest influence
on most of us. Unless we are gravely ill or deprived of basic necessities, our physical condition plays a secondary role in life. Hence, we should devote our most serious efforts to bringing about mental peace.
From my own limited experience, I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquillity comes from the development of love and compassion.
from Tenzin Gyatso: The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: Compassion For Our Fellow Human Beings Is The Key To Happiness
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Great Regulars: People who think of themselves as poets,
generally speaking, want to leave a legacy, great or small. We want future generations to read our work, whether it's one poem or 10 books of poems. Sometimes we project our meaning of life onto other beings: [by James Tate]
Teaching the Ape to Write Poems
from Kristen Hoggatt: The Smart Set: Ask a Poet: Life Sentences
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Great Regulars: How It Will End
by Denise DuhamelWe're walking on the boardwalk
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: How It Will End by Denise Duhamel
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Once in a While
by Mark Perlberg
Mother was agitated all morning.
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Once in a While by Mark Perlberg
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Pink
by Luci Shaw
Not a color I've wanted to wear--too
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Pink by Luci Shaw
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Sound of the Night Train
by Pat Schneider
Only once in every twenty-four hours the train comes through
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Sound of the Night Train by Pat Schneider
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Stadium Traffic
by Daniel Donaghy
You're on your way home
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Stadium Traffic by Daniel Donaghy
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What I Understood
by Katha Pollitt
When I was a child I understood everything
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: What I Understood by Katha Pollitt
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The Wild Swans At Coole
by William Butler Yeats
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Wild Swans At Coole by William Butler Yeats
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Great Regulars: I tell my writing students that
their most important task is to pay attention to what's going on around them. God is in the details, as we say. Here David Bottoms, the Poet Laureate of Georgia, tells us a great deal about his father by showing us just one of his hands. My Father's Left Hand
from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 235
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Great Regulars: 2084
by Carol Rumensfrom Carol Rumens: The Guardian: 2084 by Carol Rumens
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Its poignancy owes a lot, too, to the way the anapaestic rhythms take over in each stanza after the more regular rhythm of the opening line, seeming to exult in the free, swooping flight denied the bird. Much is left unsaid, and really ought not to need saying, as each foreshortened last refrain-line reminds us. [Paul Laurence] Dunbar's parents had known the agony of being slaves; Dunbar understands that there are other kinds of cages for their children.
Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Great Regulars: I have a couple of friends who,
I am sure, think that their theological debates have something to do with God or faith, and not simply with different sets of ideas about God or faith. (Of course, their disputes do have something to with God and faith, and some ideas about God and faith are correct, while others aren't, but ideas about anything are different from what they are ideas about: Theology is not religion.)from Frank Wilson: When Falls the Coliseum: That's What He Said: Wishful thinking and the mystery of who we are
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Great Regulars: As a scholar of English, philosophy
and religion, [T.S.] Eliot was sensitive to the relationship between theology and literature. "The Waste Land" explores apocalyptic images with Biblical allusions while four of his later poems, "The Four Quartets" ("Burnt Norton," "East Coker," "The Dry Salvages" and "Little Gidding"), employ religious symbolism.from findingDulcinea: Happy Birthday: Happy Birthday, T.S. Eliot, Nobel Prize Winning Writer
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Great Regulars: Brief briefing on the reds
by John Hartley Williamsfrom The Guardian: 10:10 Review climate change special: Brief briefing on the reds by John Hartley Williams
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The Spider by Kathleen Jamiefrom The Guardian: 10:10 Review climate change special: The Spider by Kathleen Jamie
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Virgil's Bees by Carol Ann Duffyfrom The Guardian: 10:10 Review climate change special: Virgil's Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
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Great Regulars: Solidarity:
A Poem for the UCB Mass Strike Rally
by the Labor Video Project
from MR Zine: Solidarity: A Poem for the UCB Mass Strike Rally
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by the Labor Video Project
from MR Zine: Solidarity: A Poem for the UCB Mass Strike Rally
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Great Regulars: First Leaf
by Lia Purpurafrom The New Yorker: Poetry: First Leaf
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Heaven's Eelby Charles Wright
from The New Yorker: Poetry: Heaven's Eel
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Great Regulars: By Robert Hass
)))) ListenTomales Bay is flat blue in the Indian summer heat.
from PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'September, Inverness'
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Great Regulars: Writing about [Elizabeth] Jennings in 1970,
Terry Eagleton said her poems always needed to guard against "an impulse to generalized, excessively proverbial statement". And that is what this one does: the last word--"untenanted"--may reinforce other religious clues--boxes carried off, ghosts, dread--or it may simply leave us where we started: in an empty house. Moving House
Soon the house will be filled again,
from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: Moving House
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Great Regulars: Jason Shinder describes the experience
of intimate connection in his stunningly direct and forthright last book, "Stupid Hope." The entire book was written under the shadow and stigma--the mortal terror--of a deadly cancer. Shinder tries to come to grips with dying too soon, and his testament shines with the light of last things. He can't linger much longer. He is furious with time, "which takes everything but itself." This gives special poignancy to the experience he names "Eternity." The entire poem is one sentence long--12 lines, which alternative between one and two-line stanzas. These create elastic units within the lyric, speeding up and slowing down the rhythm, isolating and intensifying individual moments. Eternity
from The Washington Post: Poet's Choice: 'Eternity' by Edward Hirsch
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Poetic Obituaries: After the publication of his last
poetry volume, Turner Cassity introduced his collection at a poetry reading by disclosing, "I never write about my own emotions, and I never write about the South." When asked by an eager observer what he wrote about instead, Cassity quipped: "I write about the wickedness of the world--that way I'll never run out of material."from The Emory Wheel: Cassity Remembered as Prolific Poet and Friend
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Poetic Obituaries: "He was a man who could be insightful
about president Jimmy Carter's defects and just as easily discuss Calvin's virtues, talk about Saint Teresa of Avila or his beloved Paarl. And he was one of our finest poets."Writer Rachelle Greeff said she had lost a conversation partner [in Izak de Villiers]. "At times in my life he was a father figure. I always saw the poet and the man of God first. He was a deeply, deeply spiritual person."
Former journalist and longtime friend, Fritz Joubert, said De Villiers was one of the most versatile writers and journalists.
from News24: Well-known poet, editor dies
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Poetic Obituaries: An only child, Cesalie [Henson] had just turned 18
on Sept. 13. Her mother said she was interested in attending the Savannah College of Art and Design and was a writer at heart, in love with fiction and poetry. "She was a very, very gifted writer," Henson said.
from Rome News-Tribune: Mourning a creative spirit: Mother, teacher say Cesalie was quiet and artistic
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Poetic Obituaries: A.S. Isma began writing in 1960
when his first short story "Kenang-Kenangan Hidup" was published in Tunas Belia, a publication of MPMB.The writer has written nearly 200 poems. His first poem "Desa Anak Derhaka" was published in Utusan Zaman in 1960.
Apart from Utusan Zaman, his poems were also published in Mingguan Malaysia, Berita Minggu, Majalah Guru, Angkatan Baru, Penulis, Gema Dunia, Mutiara, Dewan Bahasa, Dewan Masyarakat, Dewan Sastera, Mastika, Bahana, Karya dan Bintang Harian.
from Brunei Online: Prominent writer passes away
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Poetic Obituaries: Born in Antequera on 9th October 1909,
José Antonio Muñoz Rojas was a member of the Generation of '36 group of poets and was a co-founder of the ‘Nueva Revista' literary review.It was not until his later years that he received official recognition for his works. He was awarded the National Poetry Prize in 1998, the Reina SofÃa Iberoamerican Poetry Prize in 2002, and was a favoured son of AndalucÃa.
from Typically Spanish: Antequera mourns its much-loved poet
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Poetic Obituaries: Hindi poet Gaya Prasad Tiwari,
who had been twice awarded with the Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award, died here after he was run over by a train. The incident was reported from Aishbagh railway crossing under Talkatora police circle on Sunday morning. Tiwari was 89 years old.
from The Times of India: Hindi poet run over by train
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from The Times of India: Hindi poet run over by train
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Poetic Obituaries: While serving as Japanese ambassador
to the Vatican, Senegal and Morocco, he [Sono Uchida] devoted himself to spreading haiku, worked as an art critic, and became the first president of the Haiku International Association in 1989.
from Breitbart: Diplomat-cum-haiku poet Uchida dies at 85--Japan
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from Breitbart: Diplomat-cum-haiku poet Uchida dies at 85--Japan
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Poetic Obituaries: In the Telegraph Forum newsroom,
Mr. [Donald Eugene] Wynn trained dozens of reporters and instilled his own emphasis on comprehensive, accurate and clearly written coverage of hard news. His love of detail was complemented by a straightforward but graceful writing style honed earlier in poems and short fiction.from Bucyrus Telegraph Forum: Donald Eugene Wynn
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
September 22nd forum announcement
Dear Poetry Aficionados,
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Daisy Fried takes a look at Franz Wright for us this week. This is our first link. It is followed by some very interesting pieces. And I say "interesting" because that seems to characterize what's in the poetry news as we segway into the fall for some reason. Matthew Zapruder talks about poetry writing. Michael Rosen gets a workshop-like critique of a poem he just drafted from a child he premiered it to. The Best American Poetry is out, and David Lehman is saying, "Poetry criticism is at its worst today," and he names names. Our Back Page item is about a study that shows reading absurdist literature makes people smarter--interesting. My hypothesis is that Poetry & Poets in Rags does. So News at Eleven begins with a Franz (Frank Wright) and ends with one (Franz Kafka)--interesting.
And we have more, excellent poetry and thought-provoking articles abounding in Great Regulars; plus a full Poetic Obituaries. Thanks for clicking in.
If you get a chance, click into the IBPC pages at WebDelSol.com. The results are in for August. Here are the winning poems with George Szirtes' commentary: Winning Poems for August 2009.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Daisy Fried takes a look at Franz Wright for us this week. This is our first link. It is followed by some very interesting pieces. And I say "interesting" because that seems to characterize what's in the poetry news as we segway into the fall for some reason. Matthew Zapruder talks about poetry writing. Michael Rosen gets a workshop-like critique of a poem he just drafted from a child he premiered it to. The Best American Poetry is out, and David Lehman is saying, "Poetry criticism is at its worst today," and he names names. Our Back Page item is about a study that shows reading absurdist literature makes people smarter--interesting. My hypothesis is that Poetry & Poets in Rags does. So News at Eleven begins with a Franz (Frank Wright) and ends with one (Franz Kafka)--interesting.
And we have more, excellent poetry and thought-provoking articles abounding in Great Regulars; plus a full Poetic Obituaries. Thanks for clicking in.
If you get a chance, click into the IBPC pages at WebDelSol.com. The results are in for August. Here are the winning poems with George Szirtes' commentary: Winning Poems for August 2009.Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: The poem ends, "She was unhappy
just as I was only not as lucky"--almost glib in its bitterness. Is the tragedy, then, the poet-speaker's or the child's? Is she just another "fine human/hamster"?It's hard to tell if [Franz] Wright's strategies are faulty or brilliant; whether he performs, or unconsciously reveals, problematic character. Readers may find themselves wondering, "Why'd he do that?"--and that's as it should be with poetry.
from The New York Times: Dark Glamour
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News at Eleven: Maybe something more like a cadence.
Most poetry is "formal" in that way.And I think, secretly, that my poems actually do rhyme. It's just that the rhyme is what I would call "conceptual," that is, not made of sounds, but of ideas that accomplish what the sounds do in formal poetry: to connect elements that one wouldn't have expected, and to make the reader or listener, even if just for a moment, feel the complexity and disorder of life, and at the same time what Wallace Stevens called the "obscurity of an order, a whole."
from Los Angeles Times: Off The Shelf: Finding the pieces that turn writing into poetry
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