A tired face on the meeting room plasma screen announces:from Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: Simon Duff--The Bridge at UBS
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Tuesday, January 08, 2013
Great Regulars: Simon Duff
A tired face on the meeting room plasma screen announces:from Jody Porter: Morning Star: Well Versed: Simon Duff--The Bridge at UBS
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Great Regulars: 1 Universities
It's imperative to keep down the number of students. "Graduate" is really another name for people who think they're entitled to be paid well. We are in an era when we must all pull together to ensure that workers work more and earn less (or as employers call it, "keeping labour costs down") and large numbers of graduates swimming around the economy are an impediment to this. What's more, three years of independent living and discussion have the potential to turn many of these young people into dissenters and trouble-makers.from Michael Rosen: The Guardian: Dear Mr Gove new year special: Michael Rosen's letter from a curious parent
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Great Regulars: While it signals the importance
of other values to the religious believer, looking forward to eternal rewards "over there", it seems more immediately to express an ordinarily glum fit of the "winter blues". For modern readers, averse to preaching, that tone lends an attractive human quality to the poem--and to the poet.[by Francis Quarles]
The Shortness of Life
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: The Shortness of Life by Francis Quarles
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Great Regulars: [by Matt Schumacher]
Tomorrow MorningI'm going to jump over my shadow and change my life,
from B.T. Shaw: The Oregonian: Poetry: 'Tomorrow Morning' by Matt Schumacher
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Great Regulars: "Diaries of Exile" is a sequence of three
poetic journals [Yannis] Ritsos composed between late 1948 and mid-1950 while he was a prisoner at two detention camps. Its power comes from the way it blends the diaristic with the poetic--steeped in the small movements of the everyday, but ramped up by the situation in which Ritsos finds himself.There is no pity in the book, nor resignation, despite the circumstance. Rather, the poems here are marked by what we might call a weary passion: tired of fighting, struggling for survival, yet engaged nonetheless.
from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Yannis Ritsos and the poetry of witness
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For the New Guineans, this may involve not camping under a dead tree in case it falls on you, and in fact, the best writing in the book involves Diamond's account of nearly drowning when a canoe he hired to take him to an outlying island ended up swamped and capsized because of the carelessness of the crew. When Diamond tells the story to a New Guinean, the other man responds that he too looked at the canoe but had been scared by "its big engines" and the "young crewmen and their cocky and laughing behavior." Constructive paranoia, to be sure, although to me it sounds more like simple engagement, like paying attention to where you are.
from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: Jared Diamond's 'The World Until Yesterday' is as ambitious as it sounds
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Great Regulars: "Specimens at Shackamaxon" puts almost all
of it together: the "vacant lots that gaped through blocks/of Kensington like stab wounds," the houses "with their punch-drunk faces-toothless, raw/with shattered window panes," "the fumes from factories,/the yeast and hops of Ortlieb's brewery," "electric power plants and sugarhouses/belching their smoke across the Delaware."But in the park, "the very earth where Quakers, led by Penn,/devised a treaty with the Lenapes, . . . each treetop blazed a headdress through the air,/old trunks as worn as leather moccasins . . . as if our own parade/of spirit chiefs were summoned from the depths."
[David] Livewell, who grew up in Kensington, has an appreciative eye for the characters a city neighborhood can spawn, and he can limn them in a clutch of lines.
from Frank Wilson: The Philadelphia Inquirer: Where quiet praise and deep grief meet
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Great Regulars: The workings of the poet's own sly wit
(the joke about the seventh line of a poem in the seventh line of a poem, the image of a shipwrecked man returned to his simian origins as he lies on an island "like a gorilla in a zoo") are deployed in shrewd counterpoint to the speakers' voices. These are poems that every smoker and office-goer will want to cut out and paste above their desks.[by Tom Warner]
Goodbye, Tobacco
from The Caravan: Poetry: Two Poems
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These long poems by Annie Zaidi declare their subjects in their titles: greens and coffee. But in both poems these substances (and the poetic forms employed to describe them) work a long trail through particular human stories and structures. At first it seems as if the speaker of "Leafy Green Vegetables" is composing an innocent health-homily, the kind that might be used to educate children in the rigours of healthy eating and in the pleasures of language and rhyme.from The Caravan: Poetry: Two Poems: Leafy Green Vegetables and Coffee Sestina
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Great Regulars: [by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh]
A Description of the Architectural Impact of My Home, Age 7my apartment is neither over
from Granta: Poem
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Great Regulars: By James Arthur
On a rainy morning in the worst yearfrom PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'Distracted by an Ergonomic Bicycle'
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Great Regulars: By David L. Olson
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
Come back to us Mr. Rogers
from Post-Bulletin: Poem: "Mister Rogers"
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Come back to us Mr. Rogers
from Post-Bulletin: Poem: "Mister Rogers"
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Great Regulars: [by Fernando Esteban Flores]
Dreaming in NoirChapter Eight
"Your poetry's visceral
from San Antonio Express-News: Poem: Poetry: 'Year's end'
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Great Regulars: In retrospect, this letter can look like
a parlour-game prelude to a poem published in the TLS two decades later: "Milosz's Return". Here, [Dennis] O'Driscoll shadows the Polish poet--and another source of inspiration for Heaney--through the meadow of his memory. O'Driscoll's tribute to another writer echoes that of Milosz himself for those who went before him along a "well-worn path", and the world's return to its "unhappened" state.from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: "Milosz's Return"
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Poetic Obituaries: "I wrote more political kinds of works,
works that could be read at rallies. I became more active, not just in writing but as an organiser," she told the journalist Val Wilmer in 1985.
[Jayne] Cortez was a founder and artistic director of the community-based Watts repertory theatre company. She subsequently settled in New York and set up Bola Press, the independent imprint which published most of her works. Her first book, Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares, was published in 1969; her subsequent publications included Festivals and Funerals (1971), Scarifications (1973), Mouth on Paper (1977), Firespitter (1977), Coagulations (1984), Poetic Magnetic (1991) and Fragments (1994).
from The Guardian: Jayne Cortez obituary
then The New York Times: Jayne Cortez, Jazz Poet, Dies at 78
then Ebony: Jayne Cortez: Woman. Warrior. Wonderful
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[Jayne] Cortez was a founder and artistic director of the community-based Watts repertory theatre company. She subsequently settled in New York and set up Bola Press, the independent imprint which published most of her works. Her first book, Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares, was published in 1969; her subsequent publications included Festivals and Funerals (1971), Scarifications (1973), Mouth on Paper (1977), Firespitter (1977), Coagulations (1984), Poetic Magnetic (1991) and Fragments (1994).
from The Guardian: Jayne Cortez obituary
then The New York Times: Jayne Cortez, Jazz Poet, Dies at 78
then Ebony: Jayne Cortez: Woman. Warrior. Wonderful
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Lillian B. Frankel] later taught children's writing
at the Writer's Center in Bethesda and wrote poems that appeared in such publications as the Maryland Poetry Review, Poet Lore and The Washington Post. In the early 1990s, she won a Maryland State Arts Council grant to write poems about the Great Depression.
from The Washington Post: Lillian B. Frankel, social worker and poet
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from The Washington Post: Lillian B. Frankel, social worker and poet
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Poetic Obituaries: However, I would like to share one
of my favorite poems of his. It is about the death of his wife. She was a Japanese woman named Michiko. See how he creates a wonderful and moving metaphor for the grieving process to which we can all relate:[by Jack Gilbert]
Michiko Dead
from Portsmouth Daily Times: Let's Talk Poetry: Passing of a Poet
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Poetic Obituaries: [Pir] Gohar had written eight books
covering literature, poetry, fiction and comic stories. Besides, he would write articles and essays on different topics with the pen name of Shilmani and Silani.
His family members and friends said that the poet also took part in the freedom movement of Pakistan.
from Dawn: Pashto poet Pir Gohar passes away
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His family members and friends said that the poet also took part in the freedom movement of Pakistan.
from Dawn: Pashto poet Pir Gohar passes away
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Poetic Obituaries: Salik Lakhnawi [or Lucknawi], nom de plume
of Shaukat Riaz Kapoor, was more than a poet. He straddled poetry, politics and journalism with ease. He drew his inspiration from Karl Marx and Iqbal. His list of friends had poets and authors like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Kaifi Azmi, Ismat Chughtai and Qurratulain Haider and politicians like Hiren Mukherjee and Jyoti Basu. His sharp wit reflected in his poetry.
Even when he was battling ill health and was bedridden in the last years of his life, he retained his wry sense of humour.
from Times of India: Urdu Poet Salik Lakhnawi dies at 100
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Even when he was battling ill health and was bedridden in the last years of his life, he retained his wry sense of humour.
from Times of India: Urdu Poet Salik Lakhnawi dies at 100
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Poetic Obituaries: At the same time as his poetry was
beginning to receive prizes and reach significant magazines and anthologies, [Dennis] O'Driscoll was also emerging as a pithy reviewer for journals such as the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books. The Gallery Press collected his essays on contemporary Irish, American and European poets, together with various interviews and autobiographical writings, in Troubled Thoughts, Majestic Dreams (2001).From 1987 he had an entertaining column, Pickings and Choosings, in Poetry Ireland Review, which metamorphosed into The Bloodaxe Book of Poetry Quotations (2006).
from The Guardian: Dennis O'Driscoll obituary
then The Irish Times: Poet and critic gave poetry 'a good name'
then The Guardian: My hero: Dennis O'Driscoll by Seamus Heaney
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Poetic Obituaries: [Leung Ping-kwan] told Hong Kong's own story
through homely images of food, buildings, traffic, fish and much else, in poems with names like "Papaya" or "In an Old Colonial Building." He spoke of how a city functions, of what is lost as it develops so rapidly. Of the human spirit that wanders, looking for its home, while finding welcome overseas. P.K. was both profoundly local and international; he was as likely to be reading something by a Czech writer as a Chinese poet. He studied in San Diego and traveled widely, liking Berlin especially. There, in the strange tale of East-West division and unification, he found echoes of Hong Kong's own fractured identity and tumultuous political changes.from International Herald-Tribune: The Death of a Poet Who Defined Hong Kong
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Poetic Obituaries: [Harvey] Shapiro the poet was the author
of a dozen books, published between 1953 and 2006. In spare, often epigrammatic style, his work explored the world around him, from street scenes to intimate portraits of family life, with its attendant pleasures and pain. It also examined what it meant for him to exist in that world--as a man, a husband, a father and a Jew.from The New York Times: Harvey Shapiro, Poet and Editor, Dies at 88
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Poetic Obituaries: [Marion Fields Wyllie's] first book
was published in 1974 and she would go on to have another nine books published, including an autobiography, My Nine Lives, by The Ginger Press for her 100th birthday. Multiple poems by Mrs. Wyllie have also been published.Maryann Thomas, owner of The Ginger Press, said Mrs. Wyllie's writings are very much historical pieces on the area; a look back at 100 years of community.
Mrs. Wyllie had a precise use of words, Thomas said, "and her recall was fabulous, right down to every detail."
from Owen Sound Sun Times: Writer, poet Marion Fields Wyllie dies at 106
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Tuesday, January 01, 2013
New Year's Day forum announcement
Dear Poetry Aficionados,
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
It's New Year's Day. All of humankind has progressed to 2013. And we begin Poetry & Poets in Rags today with yet another case on this orbiting planet of ours, in which free speech is being seriously impinged by government officials. The country this time is the United States of America. The perpetrators are school officials in the San Francisco Unified School District. Poet Courtni Webb has been suspended from school and is under review for expulsion from her senior year in high school for writing a poem.
This is a disgraceful violation of her Constitutional rights. She is due a public apology from all those concerned. One explanation for their actions against her is that she is black. The perpetrators of this constitutional crime ignorantly committed against Courtni Webb have earned a thorough investigation into whether their actions should be construed as racist. Or, as one Facebook responder says, "that'll teach 'em to think for themselves.'
This story is followed by what should have been our headliner, the Hellman/Hammett grants to 41 writers across the world "for their commitment to free expression and their courage in the face of persecution." This story in turn is followed by an update on the case of poet Muhammad al-Ajami, a Qatari poet jailed for writing a poem, this happening in a country where freedom of expression is supposedly okay, an ally of the USA. Can't we, in the supposed free world, through the case of Courtni Webb, understand some of how these other countries have slipped into being tyrannical?
Freshly knowing that the persecution of poets happens in the USA too, scroll down into our Great Regulars section, where you'll find Luisetta Mudie's article in which she notes the plight of jailed Chinese poet Zhu Yufu, whom prison officials refuse to even feed properly. It's a legal battle to stay alive in those prisons, even though they have laws against what the government administrators are inflicting on their (and our) poets.
Dozens more article on poetry this week---I should mention back in News at Eleven, you can click into reviews of books by long-time and legendary poets, Louise Glück, Penelope Shuttle, Lucille Clifton, John Ashbery---followed by articles on Victor Hugo and Benjamin Zephaniah--excellent articles, just for starters.
I also take a deep breath rounding the last corner of Poetry & Poets in Rags, which I started 10 years ago on July 25, 2003. This summer I'll be giving up both this column, and being managing editor for the InterBoard Poetry Community.
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
It's New Year's Day. All of humankind has progressed to 2013. And we begin Poetry & Poets in Rags today with yet another case on this orbiting planet of ours, in which free speech is being seriously impinged by government officials. The country this time is the United States of America. The perpetrators are school officials in the San Francisco Unified School District. Poet Courtni Webb has been suspended from school and is under review for expulsion from her senior year in high school for writing a poem.
This is a disgraceful violation of her Constitutional rights. She is due a public apology from all those concerned. One explanation for their actions against her is that she is black. The perpetrators of this constitutional crime ignorantly committed against Courtni Webb have earned a thorough investigation into whether their actions should be construed as racist. Or, as one Facebook responder says, "that'll teach 'em to think for themselves.'
This story is followed by what should have been our headliner, the Hellman/Hammett grants to 41 writers across the world "for their commitment to free expression and their courage in the face of persecution." This story in turn is followed by an update on the case of poet Muhammad al-Ajami, a Qatari poet jailed for writing a poem, this happening in a country where freedom of expression is supposedly okay, an ally of the USA. Can't we, in the supposed free world, through the case of Courtni Webb, understand some of how these other countries have slipped into being tyrannical?Freshly knowing that the persecution of poets happens in the USA too, scroll down into our Great Regulars section, where you'll find Luisetta Mudie's article in which she notes the plight of jailed Chinese poet Zhu Yufu, whom prison officials refuse to even feed properly. It's a legal battle to stay alive in those prisons, even though they have laws against what the government administrators are inflicting on their (and our) poets.
Dozens more article on poetry this week---I should mention back in News at Eleven, you can click into reviews of books by long-time and legendary poets, Louise Glück, Penelope Shuttle, Lucille Clifton, John Ashbery---followed by articles on Victor Hugo and Benjamin Zephaniah--excellent articles, just for starters.
I also take a deep breath rounding the last corner of Poetry & Poets in Rags, which I started 10 years ago on July 25, 2003. This summer I'll be giving up both this column, and being managing editor for the InterBoard Poetry Community.
Thanks for clicking in.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: "I feel like they're over reacting.
Why? Because my daughter doesn't have a history of violence. She didn't threaten anybody. She didn't threaten herself. She simply said she understood why," said her mother, Valerie Statham.
[Courtni] Webb says her poems are a therapeutic way of expressing herself, but now it's up to the San Francisco Unified School District to decide if the poem is a form of art or a genuine threat to the safety of Webb's fellow students.
from KDSK: Courtni Webb suspended after writing poem about Adam Lanza
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[Courtni] Webb says her poems are a therapeutic way of expressing herself, but now it's up to the San Francisco Unified School District to decide if the poem is a form of art or a genuine threat to the safety of Webb's fellow students.
from KDSK: Courtni Webb suspended after writing poem about Adam Lanza
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News at Eleven: Gulmire Imin is a Uyghur writer in China
who worked for the Uyghur-language website Salkin, and contributed poetry and articles critical of Chinese government policies. After Salkin posted a call for a demonstration in Urumqi following the deaths of Uyghur factory workers, a protest that became violent after it was suppressed by Chinese security forces (see description in the biography of Memetjan Abdulla), she was arrested as a web moderator of the website and sentenced to life in prison for being an "illegal organizer.” Her sentence is notably harsh compared to sentences of others who participated in the unrest and is reflective of the government's crackdown on dissent by ethnic minorities. She was reportedly tortured while in detention, and she is currently held in the Xinjiang Women's Prison in Urumqi.
from Human Rights Watch: Writers Honored for Commitment to Free Expression
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from Human Rights Watch: Writers Honored for Commitment to Free Expression
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News at Eleven: Muhammad al-Ajami, 36, was jailed
in November 2011 after an investigative judge found him guilty of calling for the overthrow of the government of the Gulf sate.Al-Ajami's lawyer, Dr Najeeb al-Nuaimi, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that his client's case will be brought before of the Court of Appeal on January 27 and that both the prosecution and the defence will present oral arguments.
However, al-Nuaimi said that his special request that al-Ajami be released on bail was rejected by the court without motivation.
from Al Jazeera: Jailed Qatari poet to appeal life sentence
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News at Eleven: If every poet secretly hopes to lay claim
to one aspect of experience beyond the reach of other practitioners, by default [Louise] Gluck's metier became estrangement.She has created, in the 11 volumes collected here, the most scrupulously observed, painfully frank accounts of estrangement in all its diverse forms: from family, community, history; from the beloved and the idea of love itself.
from The Washington Post: Louise Gluck's 'Poems 1962-2012'
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News at Eleven: This austerity is a way to challenge a loss
that might otherwise be unanswerable: "the standing stone of time/says to me--/get a life, girlfriend" now that the "empty world tells me/we've heard enough about your sorrow, missy". The artfulness is in the exposure itself, the bare stage, the bereavement not over but the imagination still drawn to the impersonal fact of beauty, "as the full-leaf trees/buck their great green manes/in the strong westerly//and the field shines/in a sudden bright elegy/of sunlight".from The Guardian: Unsent: New and Selected Poems 1980-2012 by Penelope Shuttle--review
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News at Eleven: [Lucille Clifton's] words and perspective
are direct and unadorned, because Clifton writes with the authority of one who has not just witnessed but survived those losses. Her insight and honesty give the work its backbone, and as "good times” progress, she begins to sound like a matriarch watching over the whole community.With each successive book, Clifton's voice becomes stronger, and her "community” becomes larger and broader.
from The Christian Science Monitor: The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010
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News at Eleven: [John Ashbery] writes most of his poems
in one sitting, but even the longer work is associative. He tries to write at least once a week, but it doesn’t always work out. He’ll begin by writing down words he’s been thinking about, or words that seem to have taken on a different meaning than usual.“I basically start writing without any preconceived notion of what I’m going to do and then do it,” he told me.
This is how he ends up with lines that can be read again and again and still not give off any clear meaning.
from The New York Observer: The Meaning of All This: Talking to John Ashbery About His Past, Present and Future
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News at Eleven: The first stop for any Hugophile in Paris
is undoubtedly the writer's home-turned-museum on the second floor of the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, where he lived from 1832 to 1848 with his wife Adèle and their four children. It was in this apartment, in the crimson-draped drawing room, that Hugo solidified his position as the father of French Romanticism. It is also the place where he wrote two collections of poetry, plays such as "Ruy Blas” and "Les Burgraves,” and a portion of Les Misérables. He started Les Mis in 1845 and worked for 17 years, spending the entire last year at Guernsey making corrections--eight hours a day--to the manuscript.from Smithsonian: Take a Tour of Victor Hugo's Paris
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News at Eleven: [Benjamin Zephaniah] remembers, during the riots
last year, arguing with kids who had been involved. "Because I wanted to make them more political, more aware. One of the things they will say to people like me is: 'You're so political, man, I don't deal with politics.' And I was saying, 'If you want to make a change, be political. I like that anger you have. In fact, in politics, there isn't enough of that! I tell my story--I remember being in prison, thinking, 'I want to change the world, and now I'm sitting in a cell. What am I doing?' When I got out, the guard said, 'Oh, you'll be back in a few weeks.' And I looked at him and said, 'I'm not saying I won't come back--it's possible--but the next time it'll be political.' And he looked at me and said, 'Mmmm.'"from The Guardian: Benjamin Zephaniah: 'There isn't enough anger in politics'
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News at Eleven: A musician entranced by the chorus
of poetic voices around him (Dorothea Lasky, Joshua Beckman, Hoa Nguyen, Mary Ruefle, D.A. Powell, David Berman and a gang of others), [Michael] Zapruder set out to put some favorite recent poems to music. The hazards of freighting poetry with "emotional ground” are not lost on Zapruder--it's as though he sets the poems free into unfamiliar pop habitats to find their own way.from The Boston Globe: Best poetry books of 2012
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News at Eleven (Back Page): Capping the so-called Third Committee's
last session in verse is all in good fun, and part of one of the UN's merriest end-of-the-year customs.The tradition has been played out for at least 25 years, according to U.K. Mission spokesman Daniel Shepherd.
"No one is sure how and why it all began, and why, despite a short break when New Zealand took over for a year or two, it's always the U.K. who do it," Shepherd told RFE/RL by e-mail.
from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Rhyme And Reason Behind Little-Known UN Tradition
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Great Regulars: Alicia Stallings: Maybe there's a--
that there's nothing left to lose is a kind of freedom as well. People are going out to plays. They're still going out and doing things, but, you know, with less money. And--but there's an urgency. There are--poetry readings are very well attended. Literary events are packed. So I think . . .Jeffrey Brown: Well, what do you think that--why do you think that is?
Alicia Stallings: Well, A., I think it's inexpensive.
from Jeffrey Brown: PBS: Newshour: Greek Poets Muse Austerity Measures: 'We'll Hawk the Parthenon to Buy Our Bread'
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Ersi Sotiropoulos: During these last two years, there have been many demonstrations, organized by a circle of poets in the main streets of Athens. Many people participate, not just poets. Personally, I think my role is to continue to write. Some writers now serve in the government. That's not something for me. The role for me is to put questions, to reverse what is considered as established truth, to turn reality upside down. I know I can do that better with my writing.
from Jeffrey Brown: PBS: Newshour: Greek Novelist Ersi Sotiropoulos: 'The Crisis Empties the Wallets as Well as the Souls'
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Great Regulars: In fact, his narrow-minded view can easily
be refuted by pointing to the meaning of great historical movements: the birth of each of the world's five major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam demolishes his putative claims utterly. Each religion has had its martyrs and their names live in the hearts of the reformed. Thus, the "no” that Sersmith expects is not forthcoming.from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Edgar Lee Masters' "Sersmith the Dentist”
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Great Regulars: The Country Wife
by Dana GioiaShe makes her way through the dark trees
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Country Wife by Dana Gioia
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December, Outdoors
by John Updike
Clouds like fish shedding scales are stretched
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: December, Outdoors by John Updike
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Frankly
by Naomi Shihab Nye
No one has time for the dying.
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Frankly by Naomi Shihab Nye
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Good-Night
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Good-Night by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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New Year Resolve
by May Sarton
The time has come
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: New Year Resolve by May Sarton
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Outside Fargo, North Dakota
by James Wright
Along the sprawled body of the derailed
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Outside Fargo, North Dakota by James Wright
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Great Regulars: Another winter is upon us,
and Barton Sutter, a poet who lives in Duluth, knows all about cold and snow. Here's a preview to get us thinking about what's in store for us.A Little Shiver
from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 406
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Year's End
by Ted Kooser
Now the seasons are closing their files
from Ted Kooser, via Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Year's End by Ted Kooser
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Great Regulars: Sixty
By Philip BoothSpring hills, dark contraries:
from Wesley McNair: The Portland Press Herald: Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry
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Great Regulars: [by E. Ethelbert Miller]
Just Like The MoviesWhen she quickly runs across
from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-notes: Just Like The Movies
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[by E. Ethelbert Miller]
The Night As Dark As A Woman's Hair
Everywhere things reduced to rubble -
from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-notes: The Night As Dark As A Woman's Hair
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Great Regulars: Meanwhile, the wife of jailed pro-democracy
activist Zhu Yufu said her husband is unable to get enough nutrition to maintain his failing health in jail in eastern Zhejiang province."We have applied a number of times, according to the rules, for him to have additional food every week, but the police have refused every time," said Zhu's wife, surnamed Jiang.
She said that Zhu's health is worsening in jail, and that the authorities have repeatedly refused formal requests for medical parole.
from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Forced Confessions Banned, Again
~~~~~~~~~~~
And in the southwestern province of Sichuan, more than 1,000 Protestants had been warned by police not to gather over Christmas, according to local pastor Li Ming.
"The police are harassing us and threatening us," Li said. "But they haven't detained us."
"They are putting pressure on us not to gather for worship, not to do anything, but we do it anyway; they haven't taken any action," he said.
Officially an atheist country, China nonetheless has an army of officials whose job is to watch over faith-based activities, which have spread rapidly.
from Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Shanghai Cracks Down on Churches
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: From the West he acquired an understanding
of Greek metaphysics, with its remarkable formulation of body and soul. From the East came the winds of mysticism, a sense of self-transformation based on the loss of selfhood, with enlightenment the ultimate goal. Jesus brings East and West together, focusing on his key idea--that of a gradually realizing kingdom, a mystical space beyond time, though it requires time in order to root and grow. As he told someone who asked where this lofty kingdom lay: "The kingdom of God is within you."from Jay Parini: CNN Belief Blog: Opinion: Seeking the truth about Jesus
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: "Breathless" is a love-poem--
tender, direct and almost shy in tone. Like the short lyrics and fragments by Sappho it gains intensity from brevity. Sappho often pairs frank emotional statement with imagery from the natural world: "Love shook my heart,/Like the wind on the mountain/Troubling the oak-trees." (Sappho, tr. A S Kline). "Breathless", too, begins with the human response: "Your heart thumps -".from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Breathless by Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: We did what the guy wanted.
Beck, I mean. Beck Hansen. Singer, producer, experimentalist, pop devil.Beck has a new album, titled Song Reader. It's unlike any other.
There is no CD. No download. No audio. As of this writing, you cannot hear Beck doing an authoritative, this-is-the-song performance.
What is there? All the songs are offered--in sheet music. Want to hear them? (They're pretty fun.) Go get your guitar, piano, or ukulele, and play them.
from John Timpane: The Philadelphia Inquirer: Play It Yourself
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Great Regulars: Even when I first read "On the Road,"
as a teenager in the 1970s, the core of its action--driving, talking, smoking dope, listening to music--was what my friends and I did every day. It took me years to understand what the book was getting at, which is the bittersweet ephemerality of everything, the idea that to "know time" is to know ourselves as at time's mercy, which makes its frantic movement less exuberant than desperate.That is Kerouac's message, the message at the heart of all his fiction, made explicit by the ancient hitchhiker who, late in the novel tells Sal to "Go moan for man." Tellingly, this idea is absent from the movie, which is about not desolation but a kind of studied cool instead.
from David L. Ulin: Los Angeles Times: 'On the Road' toward mortality: A critic ponders Jack Kerouac
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Great Regulars: [by Bill Burtis]
Splinter
I want to write a poem
from Portsmouth Herald News: Poems from the Hoot--Splinter by Bill Burtis
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>
I want to write a poem
from Portsmouth Herald News: Poems from the Hoot--Splinter by Bill Burtis
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>
Great Regulars: By Kate Halverson
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
Peace on earth, good will
from Post-Bulletin: Poem: "Resolution"
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Great Regulars: [by Soraya Boyd]
Towering above them all, an immutable rule of law prevails for the striving for freedom, truth and justice will never tire(LONDON)--With breathtaking magnitude, resolute in forefending responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity
from Salem-News.com: The Belligerent Occupier
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Poetic Obituaries: [Rhoda Colville] was a gifted artist
and her witty poetry was popular at birthdays with family and friends, the obituary said.from Herald News: Rhoda Colville, a gifted artist and witty poet, dies at age 91
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Poetic Obituaries: The 76 year old Arizona native [Jayne Cortez]
published twelve books, including Funerals and Festivals, Mouth on Paper and Firespitter; she also recorded nine records of her poetry set to music.Cortez was active in the Civil Rights Movement and was the founder of the Watts Repertory Theatre, Bola Press and a co-founder of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa.
from Ebony: Jayne Cortez: Woman. Warrior. Wonderful
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Poetic Obituaries: [Carolyn] Dunn was distinguished by her intense
commitment to poetry. "She was committed to both the writing of poetry and living an observant, reverent life that made writing possible,” Adams said. "She based poems on news photographs: ugliness, beauty, struggle. One can imagine how the tragedy in Connecticut would have sent her to the writing desk. Poetry allowed her to express hope.”from Chinook Observer: Carolyn Dunn
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Poetic Obituaries: The eight collections, which include
Quality Time (1997), Weather Permitting (1999), Exemplary Damages (2002), Reality Check (2007) and Dear Life published earlier this year, all testify to [Dennnis] O'Driscoll's status as the Irish Philip Larkin, yet O'Driscoll's art was that bit wider, his self- awareness more ironic, his humanity more forgiving.Many of his poems are master classes in domestic realism. He responded to the rare moment, alert to "A winter dawn, struggling to shake off/the blacker aspects of the night . . .” (From the long sequence, Skywriting, in Reality Check).
from Irish Times: Departure of O'Driscoll leaves us all the poorer
then Irish Times: Much-loved poet and critic dies aged 58
from Irish Times: Tributes paid at poet's funeral
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Poetic Obituaries: Harrison "Smitty” Smith was the ultimate
fisher poet.Smitty garnered acclaim as a regular presenter at the annual Fisher Poet's Gathering in Astoria each February. His poems thoughtfully blended humor and environmental stewardship.
"He killed a lot of fish, but took time to look through their eyes. He had empathy for creation,” said event organizer Jon Broderick.
from Chinook Observer: Harrison 'Smitty' Smith
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