Poetry & Poets in Rags

Our first three articles in News at Eleven are on three poets who either were or are jailed, with stories of torture and governments that would rather the world not see the truth. Our Back Page article, the eleventh, is about poet Joan Naviyuk Kane's remarkable spiritual quest into heritage. In between are seven top stories in poetry.

Among the poems linked to in our Great Regulars section is Baseball by John Updike, offered by Billy Collins, who is filling in for Garrison Keillor this month. This week, as each week, The Guardian's Carol Rumens brings us a poem for reading and discussion. She leads with her article, then the poem, then the open discussion you can log into and join.

We have dozens more articles in the poetry news this week, some in our Poetic Obituaries section. I'll let you get to your reading. Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:16 PM

poet Aron Atabek shuffles around a dimly-lit room. The guards accompanying him prevent any communication with his fellow prisoners; the hood that they've forced him to wear ensures that he can't even see them. This is the prize-winning poet's brief, daily exercise regime.

from The Huffington Post: A Prison within a Prison: the Plight of Kazakh Poet Aron Atabek

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:15 PM

wants to borrow Liao [Yiwu]'s atlas in preparation for his next life as a wandering ghost. Dead Chang got lost too many times in his present life, and wishes to visit his favorite haunts after he is dispatched with a bullet to the neck. Being told by this condemned man that they might meet again in the next world, Liao finds that his "limbs were quivering." Dead Chang asks him whether he is O.K., and "let out a sinister laugh. The deep crease between his eyebrows seemed to have opened up like a mouth, ready to swallow me."

from The New Yorker: Prison of the Mind

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:15 PM

sentence in a Chinese prison he was unable to accept his award in person, and his absence was marked by an empty chair at the ceremony. The Chinese authorities immediately banned the phrase "empty chair" from the internet. When he was told about the prize, Liu wept and said "this is for those souls of the dead", a reference to the hundreds of students massacred at Tiananmen Square.

from The Guardian: No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems--review

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:14 PM

When I awake, I am the beggar of the world.

The poems are called landays. Just two lines long with 22 syllables, they carry a bite. (One meaning of the word landay is short, poisonous snake.)

"This is rural folk poetry. This is poetry that's meant to be oral. It's passed mouth to mouth. Ear to ear. And the women have recited these poems for centuries," said [Eliza] Griswold.

from PBS: Short, Potent Poetry Offers Bite of Afghan Life

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:13 PM

by hatred for the faith, but rather by the way he believes that the regime twists Islam into a plaything. As he said to The Majalla, "Our problem is not with Islam or Islamic civilization, but rather its use for political ends which destroys society." He showed this by reflecting Sudan's rich history in poems that portrays the history of Sudan's multifaceted past. Al-Raddi's knowledge of his past allows him to flit from the relics that predate the Egyptian pharaohs to the Saharan trade routes that connected his country with West Africa, Libya, the palaces in Baghdad, Sicily and Andalusia.

from The Majalla: Refusing the Politics of Piety

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:12 PM

but this one, with its three brutal closing couplets, is much better. To steadily escalate a poem's intensity when each stanza seems to have hit the heights is difficult. [Lucille] Clifton does so by raising the stakes. She is clear about the psychic cost of what needs to be done to live better, or to live well at all, such as clearing out of the way unwanted living things. She herself had seen the matter from both sides. This is the third of four parts of "aunt agnes hatcher tells," from two-headed woman (1980):

from The Nation: Unsparing Truths: On Lucille Clifton

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:08 PM

Pro patria mori.

At a stroke Horace became the smug representative of imperialism, the éminence grise who sent millions of young men to ghastly deaths. For postwar iconoclasts such as Ezra Pound and the members of the Bloomsbury group, Horace was the problem, not the solution. Much more attractive than Horace's measured, ambivalent support of Augustus's Pax Romana were romantic young rebels such as Catullus, who said he did not care whether Caesar was pale or swarthy, or Propertius, who daringly looked forward to much later poets such as John Donne by making his mistress, not his emperor, the centre of everything.

from Financial Times: Horace saved my life

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:07 PM

has verified that the poem--"Two Sunflowers Move into the Yellow Room"--was written by a 1980s US poet, Nancy Willard, and published in an anthology of hers dedicated to [William] Blake's work, A Visit to William Blake's Inn.

from The Independent: School librarian puts the world straight on fake William Blake poem
then BBC News: School librarian finds fake Blake poem

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:06 PM

to write poetry about immigration policy, about Idle No More, about Canada's complicity in the Middle East, the Enbridge pipeline," Vancouver-based Fred Wah, a Saskatchewan-born poet who won the 1985 Governor General's Award, recently told an audience at an Edmonton literary festival. "I haven't been asked to do any of those things."

from The Vancouver Sun: Meet Canada's underused poet laureate: Vancouver-based Fred Wah bemoans lack of meaningful work

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:06 PM

Portuguese-American Poetry, edited by Alice R. Clemente and George Monteiro, is a remarkable collection of poetic offerings. This publication brings together representative work of twenty-four fine Portuguese-American poets. The volume covers a significant span of time, beginning with the poetry of Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), and continuing through living authors who have made significant contributions to the world of literature.

from Portuguese American Journal: Book: Portuguese-American Poetry--By Gávea-Brown--Review

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 6:05 PM

about 90 miles from Nome, sits a small, rocky island that used to be home to a couple of hundred Inupiat Eskimos. They lived in houses built on stilts, perched on rocky cliffs.

Then, about 50 years ago, the threat of rock slides, the spread of tuberculosis and the loss of men to World War II forced residents to relocate to the mainland. King Island has been a ghost island ever since.

Now, Anchorage poet Joan Naviyuk Kane has raised almost $50,000 through a crowdsourcing campaign to bring a group of former King Islanders and their descendants, including herself, back for a visit.

from NPR: Ghost Island Looms Large Among Displaced Inupiat Eskimos

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:27 PM

writing or committed to writing accomplished poetry today than has ever been the case in the history of the United States, either as a percentage of total population or as an absolute number. Because this means that, within the next few years, almost every American of a certain age will know or be related to someone who writes or is committed to writing accomplished poetry, which puts the workaday commitment to poetry so many Americans share front and center in the lives of millions and millions of Americans who are not poets.

from Seth Abramson: The Huffington Post: Why Is Contemporary American Poetry So Good?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:27 PM

you happened upon a sign that says "Lost poem" with a phone number to call, you could be forgiven for thinking it was some sort of joke.

But it's not.

from Marianne Combs: Minnesota Public Radio: State of the Arts: Your next poem is just a phone call away

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:26 PM

by John Updike

It looks easy from a distance,

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Baseball by John Updike

~~~~~~~~~~~

Distance and a Certain Light
by May Swenson

Distance

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Distance and a Certain Light by May Swenson

~~~~~~~~~~~

Do You Love Me?
by Robert Wrigley

She's twelve and she's asking the dog,

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Do You Love Me? by Robert Wrigley

~~~~~~~~~~~

On the Death of a Colleague
by Stephen Dunn

She taught theater, so we gathered

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: On the Death of a Colleague by Stephen Dunn

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sonogram
by Paul Muldoon

Only a few weeks ago, the sonogram of Jean's womb

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Sonogram by Paul Muldoon

~~~~~~~~~~~

Walking in the Breakdown Lane
by Louise Erdrich

Wind has stripped

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Walking in the Breakdown Lane by Louise Erdrich

~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome Morning
by Anne Sexton

There is joy

from Garrison Keillor & Billy Collins: The Writer's Almanac: Welcome Morning by Anne Sexton

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:25 PM

that is, a bolt tied to a door with a cord so long that the bolt rests on the ground--one may not use it to lock the door on Shabbat. That is, one may not do so in the medina, "the provinces," which is anyplace outside the Temple grounds. But in the Temple, "one may lock with it." What is the reason for this distinction?

The answer seems to be that the Temple, geographically a tiny area, is metaphysically on another plane from the rest of the world.

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: In the Talmud's Timeless Laws, a Vast Temple of the Mind

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:25 PM

who lives in Colorado, about the way children make up mythic selves that will in some way serve them in life. To create one's self as a palm reader is only one of many possibilities.

In the Planetarium

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 431

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:24 PM

By Thomas Carper

Il etonne lentement.

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

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:23 PM

The Acrobats

once we kissed

from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-notes: The Acrobats

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:21 PM

after Nazim Hikmet

greetings, kid

from Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: John Kinsella--Greetings

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:20 PM

and enjoy a fruit-laden summer cocktail. Marianne Burton's "Pissarro's Orchards" is a kind of postmodern sonnet, with the names of 13 different examples of fruit woven into its 14 lines. It's from Burton's first collection, She Inserts the Key, which is itself a variegated garden of delights.

Something that always endears me to a new poet is seeing the pleasure she or he takes in language for its own sake.

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Pissarro's Orchards by Marianne Burton

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:19 PM

by Maitreyabandhu

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: Putting Away Pictures

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:19 PM

of course, but I was so pissed that the first draft was written on a Southwest Airlines napkin by the time we landed in El Paso. And the story continues in the pages of ICT. . . . in 2013!

Disruption, Spring 1997

"An Albuquerque school board has refused to allow an Indian girl to graduate in a traditional shawl handmade by her grandmother, citing 'disruption' of the ceremonies . . ."

from Indian Country: 'Disruption, Spring 1997,' a Poem by Steve Russell

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:18 PM

Finches or Sparrows
First the wheezing wind, and then I saw them,

from The Oregonian: Poetry: What I saw in birds

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:16 PM

read by John Lithgow

I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges,

from PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'I Go Back to May 1937'

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:16 PM

When fate strikes mightily with all its force,

from Post-Bulletin: Poem: It's A New World

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:15 PM

in the deep stillness of high summer, something quiveringly erotic, "poised/and paused" on the very brink of release, but caught for ever in the "luminous/untrammelled now" of the poem. And yet the image of the bell, "rim-up after the stroke", gives way to a faintly comical one--drawn from Soviet Russia--of a composer cycling round and round the square on a bicycle "so as not to miss a note of the broadcast symphony".

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "Allington Cross"

~~~~~~~~~~~

[Alan] Ross's most important war poem is probably the epic "JW51B" about the battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, in which his destroyer was hit and he was trapped below deck fighting fires in rising water awash with the bodies of two gun crews. "Soft Objects" clearly deals with the same experience. Although it reads like direct reportage, however, what emerges from these lines is a queasy numbness, at once sickeningly vivid and utterly unreal.

from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "Soft Objects"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:10 PM

had her first poem published in the New Yorker magazine. Her life in poetry blossomed, with poems published in many magazines and anthologies, and four books of poems published, two by the publisher David Godine. She was a well-loved reader and teacher, and after returning to Maine in the early 1980s she was named Maine's first official Poet Laureate.

from The Republican Journal: Kate Barnes

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:09 PM

accomplished poet. Anyone who has read his books of poetry such as Partha Tomar Tibra Teer, Teen Ramanir Qasida and Jibaner Saman Chumuk would agree with me. Since 1985, he also edited a little magazine called Ekabingsha or the Twenty-First.

from The Daily Star: Poet, Professor, Translator, Editor

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:07 PM

"Within This Center," "The Flower Growers," "The Van Gogh Poems and Other Plain Songs," "Like a Kind of Flower Growing," "Dances for the Voice," and "Tellemann in Missouri." His poetry has been published in The Sewanee Review, The Christian Science Monitor, the American Scholar, Sisters Today, The Horn Book, Cicada, and Pleiades, as well as area newspapers.

from The Daily Star-Journal: Robert C. Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:07 PM

for the arts and the written word, authoring novels and poetry as well as writing, directing and acting in plays locally and in fringe festivals across Canada. At his passing, he was playwright in residence for Theatre Brantford.

from The Globe and Mail: Lives Lived: Alfred James Rushton, 70

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:06 PM

Hempsted born and bred and although he worked mainly for Severn Trent nearby and at Tewkesbury, he saw his vocation in life as a poet.

"When he was at Netheridge and Tewkesbury he saw the beauty of nature next to where he was and it inspired him," said Tess, who met Bryan in 1988 and married him seven years later.

from The Citizen: Poet inspired by the Rivern Severn dies aged 78

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:05 PM

mid-1980s and soon started open poetry readings.

In 1990, her prose poem "Etta Stone: A Film for Radio" aired nationally on public radio stations. A couple of years later, Ensemble Theatre, then a fledgling professional theater in Over-the-Rhine, performed her play "The Chronicles of Plague."

"It helped set the tone for Ensemble as a place for brave and new work," said D. Lynn Meyers, the theater's producing artistic director.

from The Enquirer: Aralee Strange, 69, wrote prose and poetry

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:02 PM

drafting, served in the Navy during World War II and ran a business for many years. But he was known best as an author and poet who wrote and published two books, which are now in the Library of Congress.

from EastProvidencePatch: George Trambukis, 98, 'Supreme Poet'

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 5:02 PM

Lucretius, Horace and Virgil, found a most accomplished interpreter and translator. His translation of Virgil's Aeneid (Penguin Books, 1990) is remarkably true to the Latin, and has brought Virgil's epic to life for a generation of modern English readers.

Unlike his immediate predecessors Robert Fitzgerald and CH Sisson, West believed that prose suited his task better than verse, since "I know of nobody at the end of our century who reads long narrative poems in English, and I want the Aeneid to be read."

from The Telegraph: Professor David West

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 9:03 PM

News Article Tape:

ragline

The Independent: 'Real men don't do poetry': Israeli army refuses to let IDF soldier read verses on the radio

ragline

The Boston Globe: Nearing 85, Donald Hall's habits and life have changed

ragline

Entertainment Weekly: Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey talks about her first year, her reappointment, and her new partnership with 'NewsHour'

ragline

Digital Journal: David McFadden and Ghassan Zaqtan win 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize

ragline

The Toronto Star: David W. McFadden shocked to win $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize at gala

ragline

The Globe and Mail: The Griffin Prize: A Canadian category has no rhyme or reason

ragline

The Star-Ledger: Kenn Nesbitt named Children's Poet Laureate

ragline

Poetry Foundation: Kenn Nesbitt Announced as Next Children's Poet Laureate

ragline

Russia & India Report: Anna Akhmatova: A charismatic poet for the ages

ragline

The Daily Beast: The Mystery of the Allen Ginsberg-Diana Trilling Feud

ragline

ArtLyst: New Exhibition Of Allen Ginsberg And The Beat Generations Opens

ragline

The Atlantic: A Less-Noticed, More-Influential Reason Writers Write: To Talk

ragline

The Atlantic: The Modern Writing-School Paradox: More Students, Fewer Jobs, More Glory

ragline

The Wall Street Journal: Exiled Chinese Writer Liao Yiwu Makes Rare U.S. Visit

ragline

The Guardian: George Crabbe: The man behind Benjamin Britten

ragline

The Huffington Post: Rafael Medina Brochero Selling His Testicles For $20,000

ragline

Seth Abramson: The Huffington Post: June 2013 Contemporary Poetry Reviews

ragline

Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: Stoner: The Greatest Novel You Have Never Read

ragline

Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: A Boomer Bites Back

ragline

David Biespiel: The Oregonian: Poetry: Floyd Skloot discovers the necessity of music for insight

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Do grammar police arrest the imagination?

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Librarians in Exile group launches appeal to save Timbuktu manuscriptsLibrarians in Exile group launches appeal to save Timbuktu manuscripts

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: New press hits on 'third way' between traditional and self-publishing

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Philip Pullman: 'Authors must be paid fairly for ebook library loans'

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Ringo Starr song Octopus's Garden to be turned into children's book

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Self-published ebook sales reach 20% of genre market

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Zadie Smith criticises author who says more than one child limits career

ragline

Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Court Hears Terse Testimony in E-Book Trial

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Bees and Morning Glories by John Ciardi

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: From Woody's Restaurant, Middlebury by Greg Delanty

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Hydra by Edward Field

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: June 16 by David Lehman

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Swiss Family Robinson by Ron Padgett

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Talking in Bed by Philip Larkin

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: To Help the Monkey Cross the River by Thomas Lux

ragline

Adam Kirsch: Tablet: How the Talmud Maps Behavior by Exploring Definitions, Not Listing Rules

ragline

Adam Kirsch: Tablet: Robert Alter Wants Us To Think More Seriously About the Bible as Literature

ragline

Adam Kirsch: New Republic: Smoking and the Intellectual: 'Susan Sontag: Reborn' turns intellectual evolution into drama

ragline

Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 430

ragline

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

ragline

Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Masanjia Filmmaker Held in Beijing Over 'Illegal Publishing'

ragline

Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: Matthew Spence--Wash

ragline

Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Luminary by RS Thomas

ragline

Frank Wilson: The Philadelphia Inquirer: Thinking, feeling in poems and prose

ragline

Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: Poems from the 20th Annual High School Poetry Competition

ragline

Guernica: Poetry: The Forgetting Tree

ragline

Guernica: Poetry: Hydrangea Agenda

ragline

Indian Country: 'Headline News,' a Poem by Joan Kane

ragline

The Patriotic Vanguard: Poetry: After a Commonwealth Conference

ragline

The Patriotic Vanguard: Poetry: The Lion

ragline

PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'From the Grandiloquent Dictionary'

ragline

The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "In Strange Towns"

ragline

Hetq: Poet Abraham Alikian Dies in Beirut

ragline

The Telegraph: Oliver Bernard

ragline

The Leader-Herald: Rose M. Dwyer

ragline

Mount Pleasant Daily Voice: Burton R. Hoffman, 85, Longtime Hawthorne Resident, Poet & Writer

ragline

Cibola Beacon: 'Cowboy Poet' is Found Dead

ragline

Broadway World: Second City Co-Founder Bernie Sahlins Dies at 91

Blog Entry Tape:

ragline

The Independent: 'Real men don't do poetry': Israeli army refuses to let IDF soldier read verses on the radio

ragline

The Boston Globe: Nearing 85, Donald Hall's habits and life have changed

ragline

Entertainment Weekly: Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey talks about her first year, her reappointment, and her new partnership with 'NewsHour'

ragline

Digital Journal: David McFadden and Ghassan Zaqtan win 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize

ragline

The Toronto Star: David W. McFadden shocked to win $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize at gala

ragline

The Globe and Mail: The Griffin Prize: A Canadian category has no rhyme or reason

ragline

The Star-Ledger: Kenn Nesbitt named Children's Poet Laureate

ragline

Poetry Foundation: Kenn Nesbitt Announced as Next Children's Poet Laureate

ragline

Russia & India Report: Anna Akhmatova: A charismatic poet for the ages

ragline

The Daily Beast: The Mystery of the Allen Ginsberg-Diana Trilling Feud

ragline

ArtLyst: New Exhibition Of Allen Ginsberg And The Beat Generations Opens

ragline

The Atlantic: A Less-Noticed, More-Influential Reason Writers Write: To Talk

ragline

The Atlantic: The Modern Writing-School Paradox: More Students, Fewer Jobs, More Glory

ragline

The Wall Street Journal: Exiled Chinese Writer Liao Yiwu Makes Rare U.S. Visit

ragline

The Guardian: George Crabbe: The man behind Benjamin Britten

ragline

The Huffington Post: Rafael Medina Brochero Selling His Testicles For $20,000

ragline

Seth Abramson: The Huffington Post: June 2013 Contemporary Poetry Reviews

ragline

Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: Stoner: The Greatest Novel You Have Never Read

ragline

Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: A Boomer Bites Back

ragline

David Biespiel: The Oregonian: Poetry: Floyd Skloot discovers the necessity of music for insight

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Do grammar police arrest the imagination?

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Librarians in Exile group launches appeal to save Timbuktu manuscriptsLibrarians in Exile group launches appeal to save Timbuktu manuscripts

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: New press hits on 'third way' between traditional and self-publishing

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Philip Pullman: 'Authors must be paid fairly for ebook library loans'

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Ringo Starr song Octopus's Garden to be turned into children's book

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Self-published ebook sales reach 20% of genre market

ragline

Alison Flood: The Guardian: Zadie Smith criticises author who says more than one child limits career

ragline

Hillel Italie: Associated Press: Court Hears Terse Testimony in E-Book Trial

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Bees and Morning Glories by John Ciardi

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: From Woody's Restaurant, Middlebury by Greg Delanty

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Hydra by Edward Field

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: June 16 by David Lehman

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Swiss Family Robinson by Ron Padgett

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Talking in Bed by Philip Larkin

ragline

Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: To Help the Monkey Cross the River by Thomas Lux

ragline

Adam Kirsch: Tablet: How the Talmud Maps Behavior by Exploring Definitions, Not Listing Rules

ragline

Adam Kirsch: Tablet: Robert Alter Wants Us To Think More Seriously About the Bible as Literature

ragline

Adam Kirsch: New Republic: Smoking and the Intellectual: 'Susan Sontag: Reborn' turns intellectual evolution into drama

ragline

Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 430

ragline

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

ragline

Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Masanjia Filmmaker Held in Beijing Over 'Illegal Publishing'

ragline

Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: Matthew Spence--Wash

ragline

Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Luminary by RS Thomas

ragline

Frank Wilson: The Philadelphia Inquirer: Thinking, feeling in poems and prose

ragline

Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: Poems from the 20th Annual High School Poetry Competition

ragline

Guernica: Poetry: The Forgetting Tree

ragline

Guernica: Poetry: Hydrangea Agenda

ragline

Indian Country: 'Headline News,' a Poem by Joan Kane

ragline

The Patriotic Vanguard: Poetry: After a Commonwealth Conference

ragline

The Patriotic Vanguard: Poetry: The Lion

ragline

PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'From the Grandiloquent Dictionary'

ragline

The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "In Strange Towns"

ragline

Hetq: Poet Abraham Alikian Dies in Beirut

ragline

The Telegraph: Oliver Bernard

ragline

The Leader-Herald: Rose M. Dwyer

ragline

Mount Pleasant Daily Voice: Burton R. Hoffman, 85, Longtime Hawthorne Resident, Poet & Writer

ragline

Cibola Beacon: 'Cowboy Poet' is Found Dead

ragline

Broadway World: Second City Co-Founder Bernie Sahlins Dies at 91

Rus Bowden · at 4:18 PM

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

We lead out with the latest in intimidation strategy from the Israeli armed forces. They won't let soldiers read poetry in public. Now that this order is out, that some of their soldier do poe, do poetry, have they revealed vulnerability? Virginia poet Shann Palmer suggests Vogon poetry. Okay, everyone, put your poetry print-outs down, and look mean for the camera!

In more ways than that, it is an odd week for poetry and poets in the news, not altogether, but you should see the back page story. We get focussed when we hear from Donald Hall, Natasha Trethewey, and the Poetry Foundation's new Children's Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt. These are our second, third, and fifth articles in News at Eleven, the fourth being the Griffin prize poets.

In our Great Regulars section, you'll find a variety of interesting articles, and some terrific poetry to click into.

The IBPC results for June are in, thanks to our springtime judge Linda Sue Grimes. Congrats to the winning poets and boards!:

1st place: Yellowknife, by Helm Filipowitsch, of Babilu
2nd place: Folk Remedy, by Allen Weber, of FreeWrights Peer Review
3rd place: Describing Blue to My Colorblind Friend, by Teresa White, of Wild Poetry Forum

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:35 PM

the solider that his appearance would "ruin the image of the combat solider" and that he ran the risk of revealing "personal and sensitive" information.

Additionally, he was told that having poem-quoting soldiers was, "not how the Nahal Brigade wants to be portrayed in public."

from The Independent: 'Real men don't do poetry': Israeli army refuses to let IDF soldier read verses on the radio

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:34 PM

I make changes longhand, and I have an assistant who types it up. She lives 70 yards away. Every afternoon, I have a case I leave out on the porch, and she brings it back the next morning.

from The Boston Globe: Nearing 85, Donald Hall's habits and life have changed

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:33 PM

seemed to be what I might be good at. NewsHour is very interested in poetry, but they're also interested in not just that something's cute to add on at the end of their programming, but something that actually is integrated into the news. So for example, I'm from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the area that was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. And so I'm interested in visiting places that have suffered either natural or man-made disaster.

from Entertainment Weekly: Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey talks about her first year, her reappointment, and her new partnership with 'NewsHour'

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:30 PM

for "What's The Score?" and Palestinian Ghassan Zaqtan won the International Prize for his "Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me."

The winners of the Griffin Prize, founded in 2000 by businessman Scott Griffin, each were awarded $65,000. The prize is for first edition books of poetry and are submitted globally.

from Digital Journal: David McFadden and Ghassan Zaqtan win 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize
then The Toronto Star: David W. McFadden shocked to win $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize at gala
then The Globe and Mail: The Griffin Prize: A Canadian category has no rhyme or reason

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:29 PM

My Kitty Likes My Goldfish

My kitty likes my goldfish.

from The Star-Ledger: Kenn Nesbitt named Children's Poet Laureate
then Poetry Foundation: Kenn Nesbitt Announced as Next Children's Poet Laureate

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:27 PM

an anthem of the people's resistance before the power of Stalin; one of the poem's most powerful passages was written "Instead of a Preface."

"I passed seventeen months in the prison queues in Leningrad. Once, somebody 'identified' me there. Then a woman standing behind me, blue with cold, who of course had never heard my name, woke from that trance characteristic of us all and asked asked in my ear (there, everyone spoke in whispers): 'Ah, can you describe this?'/And I answered:/'I can.' Then something like a tormented smile passed over what had once been her face."

from Russia & India Report: Anna Akhmatova: A charismatic poet for the ages

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:26 PM

and Trilling appreciated at least some of Ginsberg's work and included one of Ginsberg's poems in his anthology The Experience of Literature. Diana Trilling, on the other hand, could not abide Ginsberg. But why? The reason has only recently come to light with the discovery of a forgotten letter in the archive of Peter Orlovsky, Ginsberg's lover, companion, and muse for more than 40 years.

from The Daily Beast: The Mystery of the Allen Ginsberg-Diana Trilling Feud
then ArtLyst: New Exhibition Of Allen Ginsberg And The Beat Generations Opens

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:24 PM

"There have long been three kinds of writers: writers who write for readers (novelists, poets, memoirists, essayists, journalists, etc.); writers who write for other writers (students); and writers who write for themselves (diarists, shipwreck survivors)." The one group of writers conspicuously missing there is letter writers--who are both writers and readers, and who are writing not so much for someone else, as in order to get writing back. Not coincidentally, letter writing is a much closer analogy to what is happening in My Secret Garden and Sorcery and Cecelia--and it's also a much closer analogy to what happens with a lot of writing on the Internet.

from The Atlantic: A Less-Noticed, More-Influential Reason Writers Write: To Talk
then The Modern Writing-School Paradox: More Students, Fewer Jobs, More Glory

~~~~~~~~~~

Rus Bowden · at 12:20 PM

of his book "For a Song and a Hundred Songs," a dizzying, and often gruesomely graphic, testimony of vicious brutality and indignities large and small. He was in New York for the book's U.S. release, with events including a recital of "Massacre" at the New York Public Library this past week.

"In a Communist prison they ask you to start a new chapter, turn yourself into a new person. In essence, this means turning a human being into a dog," Mr. Liao [Yiwu] said in an interview.

from The Wall Street Journal: Exiled Chinese Writer Liao Yiwu Makes Rare U.S. Visit

~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Tuesday, June 18, 2013