The scale had finally tipped. The crownfrom B.T. Shaw: The Oregonian: Poetry: 'Pear Tree' by Karen Holmberg
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Great Regulars: Pear Tree
The scale had finally tipped. The crownfrom B.T. Shaw: The Oregonian: Poetry: 'Pear Tree' by Karen Holmberg
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Great Regulars: This realization, this strange dislocation,
struck me again when I picked up "The John Lennon Letters" (Little, Brown: 392 pp., $29.99), a collection of 285 letters, postcards and inscriptions, edited and with an accompanying text by Beatle historian Hunter Davies. I can do without Davies' commentary; if you know the Lennon story, there is little here that's new. But the letters offer an opportunity to see Lennon less as icon than as human being.from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Remembering John Lennon through his letters (and postcards)
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Great Regulars: The Answers to the Questions
by Robert HershonFor that rainy day reading at
from The Brooklyn Rail: The Answers to the Questions
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Fourby Jim Behrle
Denver Omelette
for Marcella Durand
from The Brooklyn Rail: Four
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Threeby Sandra Simonds
Corduroy Shingles
Of course the surface is crumbling into marriage swans
from The Brooklyn Rail: Three
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Two
by Allan Jalon
Erlkoenig
At dinner, my father reads German
from The Brooklyn Rail: Two
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Great Regulars: Aftermath
by Paul LojeskiThe day after the storm
from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Three by Paul Lojeski
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Great Regulars: Editor's note: Kim Dower's first poetry collection,
"Air Kissing on Mars," described by the Los Angeles Times as "sensual and evocative, seamlessly combining humor and heartache," and by Thomas Lux as "a rare and astonishing first book," was published by Red Hen Press in 2010. Dower's poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Rattle, and Barrow Street, and Eclipse. Her second collection, "Slice of Moon," will be published by Red Hen Press in the fall of 2013. She lives in Los Angeles.They took the mailbox away
from Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: The Poems of Kim Dower
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Great Regulars: The Scroll is adding to our poetry output
with Scroll Verse, a recurring feature that presents the works of Jewish poets--or in some cases, poets who write on Tablet themes or have Jewish souls. Our last poem was White Noise in Jerusalem by Robert Hirschfield.Our latest installment is a work by Susan Comninos.
Creed: A Still Life
from Tablet: The Scroll: Scroll Verse: Creed: A Still Life by Susan Comninos
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Great Regulars: Although the speaker attempts to conceal
her excitement at this brush with literary glamour beneath a show of worldliness, her real feelings keep breaking through. No-one seriously challenges The Review. "Even I feel giddy from speaking so long of it", she admits in a final line that suggests part of the excitement of writing is the prospect of publication in its pages.[by Carrie Etter]
The Review
from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: Poem of the Week: "The Review"
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Poetic Obituaries: [Alkis Alkaios] made his first appearance
in 1967, publishing a small essay on poet Kostas Karyotakis' work. In the late 70's Alkaios first met famous composer Thanos Mikroutsikos, which led to a long-running cooperation with two milestone-albums, Embargo and the antiwar album, At the Shack of the Century.from Greek Reporter: Lyricist-Poet Alkis Alkaios Passes Away
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Poetic Obituaries: [Byron Johnson's] memoir, Poetic Justice,
covers history, both his own and some of Idaho's as well. And the book, which he wrote for his children and grandchildren, is full of his poetry.We talked about his very first poem, a limerick that he wrote at age 10 about his pet cat.
I once had a cat named Candy
Whose hair was exceedingly sandy
When a bird flew too near, she slapped him on the ear
Oh what a feast, was a dandy
Johnson said he wrote an enormous volume of poetry. For every poem that was published, he said there were a hundred others that no one else saw.
from Boise State Public Radio: Former Idaho Supreme Court Justice And Poet, Byron Johnson Dies At 75
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Poetic Obituaries: In 1995, he [Khalil Omrani] relocated to Tehran
and began teaching at a high school and shortly afterwards, his first collection, "The Forgotten Pearls", was published.His credits also include "The song of the Presence", "The Weeping Heart of Bam" and several other collection.
from Tehran Times: Poet Khalil Omrani dies at 48
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012
December 4th forum announcement
Dear Poetry Aficionados,
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami, a.k.a. Ibn al-Dhib, has been sentenced to life in prison for writing a poem in favor of Arab freedom. Before being sentenced, he was subjected to a year in jail, mostly in solitary, followed by a sham trial.
Here again. in this day and age, we have the case of a poet, who most certainly should be free, being jailed by people who the world would do better to have in prison, including Hamad bin Khalifa al-Than, the dictator of Qatar. Apparently now a wolf in sheep's clothing, he's had a year to free al-Ajami, and has allowed this shameful mistreatment of a fellow human being to go on and on.
We link to many more stories than this is a full week of poetry in the news, including Christmas gift suggestions on the Back Page, reviews of current poetry books, looks at recently awarded poets, and some fine poetry, especially in our Great Regulars section.
Thanks for clicking in.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
Qatari poet Mohammed al-Ajami, a.k.a. Ibn al-Dhib, has been sentenced to life in prison for writing a poem in favor of Arab freedom. Before being sentenced, he was subjected to a year in jail, mostly in solitary, followed by a sham trial.
Here again. in this day and age, we have the case of a poet, who most certainly should be free, being jailed by people who the world would do better to have in prison, including Hamad bin Khalifa al-Than, the dictator of Qatar. Apparently now a wolf in sheep's clothing, he's had a year to free al-Ajami, and has allowed this shameful mistreatment of a fellow human being to go on and on.We link to many more stories than this is a full week of poetry in the news, including Christmas gift suggestions on the Back Page, reviews of current poetry books, looks at recently awarded poets, and some fine poetry, especially in our Great Regulars section.
Thanks for clicking in.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: A Qatari poet has been sentenced to life
in prison for inciting the overthrow of the government of Qatar and insulting the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and his son, the crown prince, reports say.The verdict is likely to prove an embarrassment for Qatar which has worked hard to cultivate a progressive, modern image, and is currently playing host to a major international climate change conference.
The charges relate to a poem that 37-year-old Mohammed al-Ajami, a father of four, recited in 2010 before a small, private audience in his flat in Egypt. One audience member subsequently posted the poem online.
from BBC News: Qatari poet appeals over life prison sentence
then Human Rights Watch: Qatar: Poet's Conviction Violates Free Expression
then The Wall Street Journal: Qatari Poet Sentenced To Life In Prison
then The Globe and Mail: Qatar sentences poet to life in prison for criticizing emir
then Amnesty International News: Qatar: Outrageous life sentence for 'Jasmine poet'
then Bikya Masr: Qatar poet hopes appeal to save him from life in jail
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News at Eleven: The letter says increased censorship in Iran
has led to a decrease in the number of books that are being published.It goes on to say, "In reality, this method amounts to hostage taking of freedom of expression, creativity, and the livelihood of writers by the government in order to impose its ideas on the authors."
Writer and poet Farkhondeh Hajizadeh, a signatory, told RFE/RL Radio Farda broadcaster Mohammad Zarghami that the situation had led to self-censorship among writers and publishers.
from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Iranian Writers, Poets Call For End To Book Censorship
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News at Eleven: One academic complained that the publishers
were "messing with the canon".
A decade on, the man made infamous by his poem "Inglan is a bitch", [Linton Kwesi Johnson,] is about to be honoured again. Tomorrow, English PEN will award him its prestigious Golden PEN Award for lifetime literary achievement. The Jamaican-born poet and musician, who described police brutality in Britain in the 1980s in poems such as "Sonny's Lettah", will join a list of recipients that includes Iris Murdoch, Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing, John Berger, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Drabble.
from The Independent: Linton Kwesi Johnson: 'Class-ridden? Yes, but this is still home'
then New Statesman: Linton Kwesi Johnson honoured
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News at Eleven: In Thrall, [Natasha] Trethewey further investigates
her biracial identity while challenging preconceived societal classifications, both in the South and beyond. In "Help, 1968," she recalls her mother being mistaken for her maid. In that poem--inspired by a Robert Frank photograph from his 1958 book, The Americans--she writes:when my mother took me for walks,
she was mistaken again and again
for my maid. Year later she told me
she'd say I was her daughter, and each time
strangers would stare in disbelief, then
empty the change from their pockets.
from Creative Loafing: U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey explains her undying obsession with the South
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News at Eleven: A Southern Connecticut native, Lisa [Starr]
came to Block Island in 1963 to waitress at Dead Eye Dick's. That's when she became hooked to the island--and to the Hygeia house, then a forlorn, abandoned building that was supposedly haunted.
"I used to hide up here," says Lisa, motioning to the very porch area we're sitting on talking, "with a notebook and write poems on the deck."
It was the perfect escape for a poet. The hilltop location provided her a breathtaking view of the island, yet the neglected, overgrown grass had shot up so high, no one could see her.
from The Block Island Times: Lisa Starr wraps up five years as poet laureate
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"I used to hide up here," says Lisa, motioning to the very porch area we're sitting on talking, "with a notebook and write poems on the deck."
It was the perfect escape for a poet. The hilltop location provided her a breathtaking view of the island, yet the neglected, overgrown grass had shot up so high, no one could see her.
from The Block Island Times: Lisa Starr wraps up five years as poet laureate
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News at Eleven: "To be honored with one National Endowment
for the Arts fellowship in a career is a remarkable honor, but to be honored twice in a single decade is one of the highest accomplishments a writer could hope to achieve," said Tod Goldberg, administrative director of the Low Residency program."Jill Alexander Essbaum has been one of the nation's most revered poets since her debut collection was released in 2000 and she has continued to inspire and delight readers ever since," Goldberg added.
from University of California Riverside Today: Poet Wins Second NEA Fellowship
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News at Eleven: [Sylvie] Simmons points out that texts such
as "Suzanne," "Master Song," and "Fingerprints" were poems before they were songs. In adapting these pieces to music or creating new lyrics, [Leonard] Cohen never carved out sufficient space for the rhythm and melody to do part of the work; they always seemed extraneous appendages. Of course, it didn't help that he couldn't sing.[Patti] Smith had similar difficulties making the transition. She had published three books of poetry before her first album, 1975's Horses, came out, but the words of her songs never felt comfortable with the music. Though she did adopt the vernacular diction of the Beats, she was no less immune to a certain portentousness than Cohen, and she too had a hit-or-miss relationship with pitch.
from Baltimore City Paper: Rocker and Verse
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News at Eleven: Read literally, these words make a bad impression;
the attitudes that got the guy in trouble when drunk are just as much in evidence when sober.[Alan] Feuer, however, offers us a poem. The linguistic structures identified in rendering the text into verse catch the language subverting itself, letting us see directly deeper forces at play. The lineation (line breaks and placement) breaks up the text using a mix of parsing and end-stopped lines.
from The New York Times: Philosophy and the Poetic Imagination
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News at Eleven: W.W. Norton recently published the posthumous
volume "Later Poems, Selected and New, 1971-2012," including a handful of poems written in the last months of her [Adrienne Rich's] life such as "Endpapers" (included here). It is the culminating chapter in a career that began more than 50 years ago when she first emerged in the 1960s as one of the few women writers willing to address the systematic subjugation of women in American culture. Particularly influential was the 1976 treatise "Of Woman Born."from Santa Cruz Sentinel: Poet Adrienne Rich balanced world-wide fame with a regular Santa Cruz life
then Granta: Endpapers
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News at Eleven: Working-class, politically conscious households
of that period were, often, small temples to autodidacticism. Was this the case with [Carol Ann] Duffy's home? She shakes her head. "My father didn't read at all." He was very keen on education, but seems to have been suspicious of his daughter's literary inclinations. "My father would try to stop me writing poetry. He thought that was time wasting and I should be doing maths. He'd often take my writing off me and say, 'Get out and get some fresh air.'from The Scotsman: Interview: Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy talks Christmas, poetry, politics and perks of the job
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News at Eleven (Back Page): And then there's Josephine Hart's Life Saving:
Why We Need Poetry (Virago), which collects the introductions she gave to a score of great 19th and 20th-century poets at her Poetry Hour events. Each of the sharp and insightful mini-essays is accompanied by a brief selection from the poet's work.Two other volumes deserve mention. If you don't want to make the investment of time and money in the work of a single poet, the Forward Book of Poetry 2013 provides a one-volume snapshot of the current state of the art (it also contains pieces from several of the above collections). And Rachel Rooney's The Language of Cat (Frances Lincoln Children's Books), winner of the CLPE poetry award, is something rare--a poetry book for children that doesn't patronise its intended audience with bum jokes or lower its linguistic ambitions.
from The Guardian: Christmas gifts 2012: the best poetry books
then The Star Tribune: Powerful poems unflinching and beautiful
then Telegraph: Christmas 2012: Poetry of the year
then The ChronicleHerald: New poets bring Layton to mind
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Great Regulars: Easily this month's most pleasant and invigorating
surprise is Cara Benson's (made), a brief and spare collection (housed in an 8.5" x 5.5" production, rather than the more common 6" x 9") that condenses language into diamondic fragments that consistently bear rereading and, indeed, cast an even finer and more penetrating light with each subsequent encounter.Benson does more with the two-word sentence than many poets do in two stanzas or even two poems, largely because it would be difficult to find even a single wasted word in (made).
from Seth Abramson: The Huffington Post: November 2012 Contemporary Poetry Reviews
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Great Regulars: Portland poet B.T. Shaw, about to move to Vietnam
with her husband, received a surprise parting gift from the National Endowment for the Arts--a $25,000 creative writing fellowship.from Jeff Baker: The Oregonian: Portland poet B.T. Shaw wins $25,000 NEA creative writing fellowship
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Great Regulars: The whole 19th-century Clement Moore romance--
Santa with his sleigh and the "moon on the crest of the new-fallen snow!"I have a sister who lives in Houston. How can you have Christmas there? But of course you can. This poem by Timothy Steele takes place in L.A. He's stringing his Christmas lights. His neighbors of various religious persuasions stroll by to offer suggestions and praise.
from Fleda Brown: Traverse City Record-Eagle: There's always light ahead
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Great Regulars: This week's Poetry Pairing matches "Swerve"
by Kelle Groom with "Complex Emotions Over First American Indian Saint" an article by Sharon Otterman about Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman born in 1656 who was canonized this past summer.from Shannon Doyne: The New York Times: Poetry Pairing: 'Swerve'
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Great Regulars: Father of dub poetry Linton Kwesi Johnson
will join names including Harold Pinter, JG Ballard and Doris Lessing as winner of the Golden PEN award, for a lifetime's distinguished service to literature.from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Linton Kwesi Johnson wins Golden PEN award
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Great Regulars: The speaker continues to muse on the curious nature
of all the dream things in this world--"minds, mountains, souls, sky, stars," and he avers that God has "transformed" His dreaming mind into all these things.But he reminds the Lord that while all this is merely a dream to the Dream-Creator, to His children, it is "an awesome dream-struggle and death."
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Paramahansa Yogananda's "Make Us Thyself"
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In Shakespeare's sonnets, the spelling is always "rime"; the sonnets were written two centuries before the error. The famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Rime or Rhyme: Which is Correct?
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Great Regulars: Great Things Have Happened
by Alden NowlanWe were talking about the great things
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Great Things Have Happened by Alden Nowlan
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Holy Thursday
by William Blake
'Twas on a holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Holy Thursday by William Blake
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Poem of the One world
by Mary Oliver
This morning
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Poem of the One world by Mary Oliver
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Teenagers
by Pat Mora
One day they disappear
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Teenagers by Pat Mora
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Tree
by Liane Ellison Norman
Today they are cutting down
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Tree by Liane Ellison Norman
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Vertical
by Linda Pastan
Perhaps the purpose
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Vertical by Linda Pastan
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Wild Before Winter
by Romulus Linney
In my meadow luxuriates the green world
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Wild Before Winter by Romulus Linney
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Great Regulars: This way of reading the Bible can't help
but appear highly unnatural. Effectively, the rabbis nullify what the Bible actually says--that Reuben slept with Bilhah--and replace it with a story entirely of their own invention. The questions I find myself struggling with are, first, why they wanted to read the Bible this way, and second, how they justified the unnaturalness to themselves. What is at stake in arguing that Reuben--and the other, greater figures who are the subjects of similar arguments, like David and Solomon--never committed a sin?from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: The Badness of Good Stories
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Great Regulars: Shadow play is among the few free
entertainments left, and it must go on delighting children all around the globe. Derek N. Otsuji lives in Hawaii, and here's his reminiscence.Theater of Shadows
from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 402
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Great Regulars: [Leonard Cohen's] early guitar albums do nothing
for me; as for his poetry, his first book is wonderful, but after that it's a game of diminishing returns. But I think what makes those two albums great is that Cohen was willing to undermine the most spectacular poetry he'd ever written with deliberately tacky orchestration. He'd finally found a musical form that embodied a lyric he'd been working on for years (and an ethos he'd been perfecting for a half-century): "Forget your perfect offering./There is a crack in everything,/That's how the light gets in."from Michael Lista: National Post: On Poetry: I'm Your Man, by Sylvie Simmons
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Great Regulars: Robert Siegel of South Berwick is one
of Maine's most accomplished poets. In today's poem he describes the encounter with a nude in a museum painting.from Wesley McNair: The Portland Press Herald: Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry
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Great Regulars: More than 100 Nobel prize-winners have called
on Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping to release jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, and to free his wife Liu Xia from house arrest.Winners of Nobel prizes for peace, but also for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and economics, signed an open letter to Xi, who will be sworn in as China's new president in March, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the couple.
from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Nobel Letter Seeks Liu Release
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Great Regulars: Greg Freeman
They twist the words from out of your mouthfrom Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: Greg Freeman--Tongue Twisters
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Great Regulars: I'm amazed. It covers such a wide range
of what are very complex processes: cognition, memory, perception, emotional literacy, nurture and so on. Why do you or anyone else in government think that your job description is to rule on such matters?Did you reach the post of education secretary because you have this specialist knowledge? Occasionally, I imagine you moving on to running health and wondering if you would spend your time in that post telling oncologists how to cure cancer. I've come to think that you probably would.
from Michael Rosen: The Guardian: Dear Mr Gove: Michael Rosen's letter from a curious parent
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: One day, I feel certain, science will confirm
that most animals possess enough signifier-processing ability to provide them with a rudimentary ability to think, and that they can feel a rich range of emotions. Until then, we have the poets--and, of course, ordinary pet-owners everywhere--to remind us of our kinship with those to whom we once supposed ourselves to be the divinely-ordained superiors.[by Jane Yeh]
Musk-Ox
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Musk-Ox by Jane Yeh
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: The earth is "dying slowly/in eternity/its trap".
As befits ecological writing, Place is shot through with intensely lyric celebrations of the natural world: "It is October once again/as it must be. The new brightness/and again gold lays down on them/the tight roles of hay/the long rows the cut fields." This is from "Treadmill", a poem of "harvest" in which death the harvester is "your dance partner".from Fiona Sampson: The Independent: Place, By Jorie Graham. Carcanet, £9.95
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Great Regulars: And yet, Sarah Stern's recent collection
of poems, "Another Word for Love," is profoundly grounded in Riverdale--in its subway stations and parks, buildings and streets. The first of the two poems featured today, "Morning Prayer," takes place on the streets of the neighborhood, and features a curious juxtaposition of spiritual experiences, genders and visions. The second piece, "Reentry," is an homage to exceptional character, evoked so vividly that he practically walks (or rather, waddles) off the lines of the poem.from Forward: The Arty Semite: Poetics of Riverdale
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Great Regulars: The Afrikander
By Megan FernandesDecember 3, 2012
At first,
from Guernica: Poetry: The Afrikander by Megan Fernandes
~~~~~~~~~~~
Paper Flowers & Cyber Peacocks
By Maung Day, translated from the Burmese by the poet
December 3, 2012
I have come here to suck on the rims of oil rigs
from Guernica: Poetry: Paper Flowers & Cyber Peacocks by Maung Day, translated from the Burmese by the poet
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Great Regulars: Hugh [Hennedy] is in good company
with Emily Dickinson, whose understanding as well of how much is done for us by nature in the recollection as well as the fact of it, is expressed so eloquently, and elegantly, in his captivating, concluding stanza, at once lamentation and commendation.from Portsmouth Herald News: Poems from the Hoot
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Great Regulars: By Kate Halverson
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MNWhether yours is fresh or faux,
from Post-Bulletin: Poem: "One of a Kind"
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Great Regulars: Weekly Apocalyptic, Or
Poem Written On The Wall In An Ascending Space Capsuleby Chris Dombrowski
We had to stop what we were doing
from The Sun Magazine: Poetry: Weekly Apocalyptic, Or Poem Written On The Wall In An Ascending Space Capsule
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Jonn] Dollar and William Eric Williams,
who died in 1995, collaborated on scholarly conferences on William Carlos Williams. Mr. Dollar lectured extensively about the senior Williams and served on the committee that converted Rutherford's old Rivoli Theatre to the Williams Center for the Arts.He was a featured panelist when the center celebrated the 100th anniversary of William Carlos Williams' birth.
from The Record: Professor John Dollar, scholar of poet Williams
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