December 23rd forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags



Last week, I mentioned in our announcement that Poetry & Poets in Rags would be a good place to shop, with all the fine book reviews we had. This week, there are so many lively articles and poems about the holidays, that it is a good place to relax and enjoy yourself. Throughout our News at Eleven and Great Regulars sections, are holiday articles and poems for you to find and click open


Another big story is the death of Adrian Mitchell. You'll find articles about him in Poetic Obituaries as you would expect, but also in Great Regulars, in the Michael Rosen links.

But, we lead off with three links to the news that the good poet Elizabeth Alexander has been selected by Barack Obama as his inaugural poet. There are stories about this news, and poems by her, in Great Regulars as well. Alexander will become the fourth inaugural poet, John F. Kennedy selecting Robert Frost for the 1961 inauguration, and Bill Clinton selecting Maya Angelou and Miller Williams for his in 1993 and 1997. James Dickey read for Jimmy Carter in 1977, but this was at the gala the day before. And here's why I bring up these dates . . .

Why isn't the poet laureate of the United States, Kay Ryan, reading at the inauguration? Indeed, since 1986, when the title changed from "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" to "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry," why hasn't the US laureate read at each inauguration?

Before the name change, Kennedy and Carter had each selected a former Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, so we cannot say that Richard Eberhart was necessarily slighted in 1961, nor Robert Hayden in 1977. The title was not one of a laureate. Furthermore, the selection of Dickey by Carter was for the celebration the day before, and it is here that a president elect's choice is appropriate, versus the next day when, for all intents and purposes, the laureate is socially beheaded if he or she is not invited to read. Obama, by protocol, should ask Alexander to read before the inauguration, and Ryan the following day.

We should have seen from Bill Clinton, that maybe Angelou and then Williams would have read at his two galas, but properly Mona Van Duyn then Robert Hass at his inaugurations. And yet Clinton isn't the only one to slight a laureate or two. George W. Bush, who had no poet read at either his gala nor inauguration, owes two letters of apology: one to the family and friends of now-deceased Stanley Kunitz and another to Ted Kooser, a Great Regular of ours. Likewise, George H. W. Bush, owes a letter to the estate and friends of Howard Nemerov.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

IBPC Home

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Amazing Christmas Canon -Trans Siberian Orchestra - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

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News at Eleven: "Writing an occasional poem has to attend

to the moment itself," she [Elizabeth Alexander] said in an interview, "but what you hope for, as an artist, is to create something that has integrity and life that goes beyond the moment."

To prepare, she has delved into W. H. Auden, particularly his "Musée des Beaux Arts" ("About suffering they were never wrong/The Old Masters"), and the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize, for poetry. Auden, she said, "asked very large questions about how we stand in history."

from The New York Times: Poet Chosen for Inauguration Is Aiming for a Work That Transcends the Moment
also The Washington Post: Selection Provides Civil Rights Symmetry
also Investor's Business Daily: An X-Rated Inaugural?

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News at Eleven: "He really existed and he was really elfin,"

says [Dinghy] Sharp.

Jan-Peter, she adds, would sit at a potbelly stove in the general store, telling stories to the children.

After he returned home, great-great grandfather [Clement] Moore, says Sharp, finished the poem that had probably been percolating in his head for some time--a poem to lift the spirits of his six children, especially 6-year-old daughter Charity, who was ill with tuberculosis.

That Christmas, Moore recited his poem to his family. "Everyone loved it," says Sharp, including cousin Harriet Butler. "She wrote it down in what they called a woman's notebook," says Sharp.

from The Arizona Daily Star: Her kin's beloved poem

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News at Eleven: [Leonard] Cohen's signature tune is a paean to

a doomed love affair with a woman who cares little for music and is more concerned with a game of sexual humiliation. Rufus Wainwright declared Cohen "the greatest living poet on earth" and 'Hallelujah' is a poignant, earthy take on the two issues that dominate his life: faith and sex. His conclusion that sex is the great driver of humanity is no surprise given that Cohen was a notorious womaniser.

from Scotland on Sunday: Profile: Leonard Cohen
also YouTube: Alexandra Burke--Official Single--'Hallelujah'

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News at Eleven: Which I didn't even know anyone there had a guitar,

but our medic, Doc Cole, had a guitar. He and I [Brian Turner] actually didn't get along very well until this time. And I found out he had this guitar, we started talking about it. And then it sort of, I don't know, it was sort of like a bridge, so we became friends after this. And so I wrote this poem after that, and it's a rare poem of mine, where I'm thinking back about home, and about being nostalgic and missing home.

Cole's Guitar

from Weekend America: The Brutal Poetry of the Iraq War

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News at Eleven: "BBC has a listenership of six million.

On the strength of that very short interview, I was quite surprised, they sold out of the print run in 48 hours. It's holding steady as the No. 1 book of poetry (on Amazon). It's sold out two if not three print runs in the last two or three weeks. It's up there with cook books and autobiographies of Obama and that sort of thing. It's a surprise hit for the Christmas season." [--Christian Bok]

from Calgary Herald: Poetic Justice

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News at Eleven: A poem by Wendy Cole

The mice attacked the Holy Family--

from The Guardian: Christmas ornaments

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News at Eleven: An extract from Simon Armitage's

translation of the Medieval tale.

It was Christmas at Camelot--King Arthur's court,

from Telegraph: The Great Christmas Compendium: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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News at Eleven: Our congratulations go to each of these;

and our thanks to those readers who took the trouble either to enter the competition or to take part in the voting process.

Different Places To Pray

by Susan Rich

Everywhere, everywhere she wrote; something is falling--

from The Times Literary Supplement: TLS Poetry Competition: The winning poems

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News at Eleven: Here, he has achieved greatness.

While our attention has been on the big fish--the novels, memoirs, television--the essays and poems have accumulated, year by year, like polyps making coral; until you realise that the most important thing isn't the fish, it's the reef, which makes all else possible.

When we talk on the phone, [Clive] James says firmly: "I think that for anyone who writes poetry, it [the poetry] is the most important thing." So--how good is the poetry?

from Prospect: As good as Heaney

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News at Eleven: The gun mentioned in one of his very first poems,

"Digging", has been interrogated: [Seamus] Heaney now says that the source of the reference was phonetic rather than prophetic, but even if it were absent from the text this would still be a poem about his native place and the condition of Ireland. But it is only very barely a political poem in the sense Helen Vendler intended.

from The Times Literary Supplement: Seamus Heaney country

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News at Eleven (Back Page): Poet Breyten Breytenbach was imprisoned for

opposing apartheid but, now that his homeland is free, he is encouraging youngsters to flee the country.

Breytenbach, who for years was prevented from returning to South Africa after leaving it in the 1960s, has written a scathing article on the democratic republic in US magazine Harper's. His open letter to former president Nelson Mandela is signed "Mongrel Son".

Breytenbach writes of a country that has failed its most vulnerable: its women and children.

"If a young South African were to ask me whether he or she should stay or leave, my bitter advice would be to go. For the foreseeable future now, if you want to live your life to the full, and with some satisfaction and usefulness, and you can stand the loss, if you can amputate yourself--then go . . . " he writes.

from The Times, South Africa: Breytenbach: My bitter advice is go
also The Times, South Africa: Breytenbach's letter to Mandela
also The Times, South Africa: Madiba's spokesman responds
also The Times, South Africa: Mandela Foundation slams Breytenbach

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Great Regulars: In these poems, drawn from the experiences

of soldiers who fought in the Gulf, Bosnian and Malayan wars, and originally aired as part of a 2007 documentary, [Simon] Armitage shows us that modern war poetry, like modern combat, is provisional, chancy, unresolved. These are poems of survivors--the damaged, exhausted men who return from war in body but never, wholly, in mind.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: The Not Dead

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Peter Bennet's handling of folklore, his watchful, thicketed landscapes, the stateliness of his language--all fit themselves perfectly to winter. While the sun's glare might diminish poems in which "goblins chuckle" and "hills ... shed darkness from their stature/beyond the graveyard", their impact swells as nights draw in and days turn colder.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: The Glass Swarm

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Great Regulars: [by John Mark Eberhart]

'Faith'

Trimming the tree alone this year.

from John Mark Eberhart: The Kansas City Star: KC poets, and a Texan, encounter slacker Santa Claus, wintry owl, ghostly figure

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Great Regulars: The speaker begins with a confession

that she is so lazy that she could qualify is as "laziest/girl in the world." Lest the reader think she exaggerates, she confides that she sleeps all day if she feels so inclined, "'til/my face is creased and swollen,/'til my lips are dry and hot." Furthermore, she eats whatever strikes her fancy, healthy or not: "cookies and milk/after lunch, butter and sour cream,//foods that/slothful people eat."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Alexander's "Blues"

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The speaker is unyielding about keeping her "own Society," and even though she is aware of visitors arriving in "Chariots" and "pausing--/At her low Gate," she insists on remaining alone with her soul society and will not accept a visit from them. Even if "an Emperor" comes calling and "kneeling/Upon her Mat," she will remain aloof for the sake of her soul, and the grace that solitude brings her.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's "The Soul selects her own Society"

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[Bret] Harte's two final couplets hold up a weak contrast to [John Greenleaf] Whittier's: "If, of all words of tongue and pen,/The saddest are, 'It might have been,'//More sad are these we daily see: 'It is, but hadn't ought to be'." Trying to out-clever Whittier, Harte says that if the human heart regrets the absence of what might have been, then it should regret even more what should not have been.

Unfortunately, there is no difference between these two statements.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Harte's "Mrs. Judge Jenkins"

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One of his favorite subjects has been the aging process. Here he calls that theme "a satire to decay." By reminding himself and his readers that the aging and decomposing process of the physical body are serious matters, he performs a service while sustaining the beauty and truth inherent in his right thinking and his ability to create beauty in his sonnets.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 100

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The speaker then asserts that beauty needs "no pencil" to tell its truth, but by telling it well, the speaker assumes his artistic talent will assure that truth will never be intermingled with anything less than beauty and truth. He intuits his correctness, elevating it to righteousness.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 101

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And the importance of this poem is well-summarized in the two final couplets: "Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies/Deeply buried from human eyes//And, in the hereafter, angels may/Roll the stone from the grave away!"

Whittier understood that the unreality of this earthly existence causes human beings to fail to realize their true nature: the soul's goal is to find unity with its Creator, not to languish in useless dreams and regrets about whether it lives in city or country or as judge or farmer.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Whittier's "Maud Muller"

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It is the poet/speaker who suffered loneliness in his life before the found his Divine Friend, but because he steadfastly sought unity with the Beloved, he found Him, but the success he now also lays at the feet of the Divine, who have him the ability to feel, work, and create. The hands that the Great One gave to the devotee are the hands that were used to create.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's "Consecration"

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Great Regulars: "Messiah" by Mark Doty is also one

of my favorites, and you needn't have ever seen a performance of Handel's Messiah to appreciate it. It's long, linearly speaking, so I've only written out the latter part, but it's a wonderful poem in its entirety:

Aren't we enlarged
by the scale of what we're able
to desire? Everything,
the choir insists,

might flame;
inside these wrappings
burns another, brighter life,
quickened, now,

by song: hear how
it cascades, in overlapping,
lapidary waves of praise? Still time.
Still time to change.

from Kristen Hoggart: The Smart Set: Ask a Poet: Stocking Stuffers

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Great Regulars: Cardinals

by John L. Stanizzi

for Carol

I had seen them in the tree,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Cardinals by John L. Stanizzi

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A Christmas Poem
by Miller Williams

In a little bar on the Gulf Coast

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: A Christmas Poem by Miller Williams

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Coming Out of Wal-Mart
by Mark DeFoe

The child, puny, paling toward albino,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Coming Out of Wal-Mart by Mark DeFoe

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The Shop
by Joyce Sutphen

There was a window

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Shop by Joyce Sutphen

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Very Pretty
by John L. Stanizzi

Point O' Woods, South Lyme, August, 1999

So early in the morning,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Very Pretty by John L. Stanizzi

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Waking from Sleep
by Robert Bly

Inside the veins there are navies setting forth,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Waking from Sleep by Robert Bly

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When You Are Old
by William Butler Yeats

Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
by William Butler Yeats

When You are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

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Great Regulars: A typical [Jeffrey] Yang poem begins

with the title "Oarfish"; traces it to the abode of humans called Midgard in Norse myth; invokes the ourobouros, the serpent devouring its own tail in a symbol of infinity; quotes the 19th-century American artist Elihu Vedder, the Baroque religious scholar Sor Juana and Lawrence's poem "Fish"; glances at the Homeric word "oarismos" (roughly, "pillow talk"); and ends with guanine, a chemical that codes genetic information and also a substance found in fish scales.

from Karl Kirchwey: The New York Times: 'Poetry's Shadow'

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Great Regulars: The story opens in 1997,

when [Nili Scharf] Gold, a professor of modern Hebrew literature at the University of Pennsylvania, accompanies [Yehuda] Amichai to a lecture in New York. "We sat in a back row at the end of a crowded hall and waited for the speaker to begin," she writes in her introduction, "when suddenly he touched my arm and said, almost in a whisper, 'Do you see, three rows in front of us, near the aisle, a woman sits? Her name is Ruth Z. Do you remember the poem about the one who 'ran away to America'? I wrote it about her."

That poem is "'History's Wings Beating, They Used to Say'" (as translated by Benjamin and Barbara Harshav in Yehuda Amichai: A Life of Poetry, 1948–1994):

Those were days of great love and great destiny,

from Adam Kirsch: Nextbook: The Reader: The Book of Ruth

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Great Regulars: Here is a poem, much like a prayer,

in which the Michigan poet Conrad Hilberry asks for no more than a little flare of light, an affirmation, at the end of a long, cold Christmas day.

Christmas Night

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 195

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Great Regulars: [by Anthony Maulucci]

Sonnet No. 33

from Anthony Maulucci: YouTube: Love Sonnet 33 by Anthony Maulucci

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Great Regulars: How do we raise black boys in a post-racial society?

Trick question? OK--let's try a few others.

How do we raise black boys in a racist society? Is their a stimulus package for black fathers?

Here is one of my "Race Koans" that might shed some insight into the matter.

Race Koan

from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-Notes: Black Boys
also E. Ethelbert Miller: E-Notes: It's Morning in America, Please Don't Pass Me the Silly Stuff

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Saturday

and I count

from E. Ethelbert Miller: E-Notes: Days Without You

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Great Regulars: By going back and reading closely these

thirteen books, and looking at them as a sequence, I started to find certain themes running through them. And in effect I think I kind of located something of the American character here, the DNA that's really at the basis of what it means to be an American.

from Jay Parini: On Point with Tom Ashbrook: Books that Changed America

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In a sense, the Obama team remains pitch-perfect here. The choice of [Elizabeth] Alexander to read is brilliant. She represents black American culture, but she says to the audience: "We're here, and we're very smart and well-educated, fully aware of western European culture in all its complexity; yet we retain an allegiance to our own past, our roots, our needs, our vision."

from Jay Parini: The Guardian: Books Blog: Why Obama chose Elizabeth Alexander for his inauguration

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Great Regulars: Sweet-minded, mirthful, and sensuous

17th-century poet Robert Herrick (1591-1674) composed a Christmas carol (originally for soloists and chorus) that invokes spring instead of winter. In Herrick's charming reversal of seasonal imagery, his Jesus is a darling prince of flowers and natural warmth—a divine figure in keeping with Herrick's merry disposition in his poems. Only in closing does this carol nod to the traditional Christmas evergreens.

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,

from Robert Pinsky: Slate: "A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-Hall"

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Great Regulars: Many years later, as Adrian [Mitchell] adapted

the last lines of the poem: "Tell me lies about Vietnam..." to include Iraq and Afghanistan, he explained to his audience at Marxism 2006 that the poem had started out as an expression of what he called "compassion fatigue". He couldn't bear to hear of yet more wars.

Alongside such explicitly political work – and his collection "For Beauty Douglas" is one of the truly great volumes of political poetry written in English – he revelled in language itself.

from Michael Rosen: Socialist Worker: Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008)
also Michael Rosen: The Times: Passionate poet unafraid of the big stuff

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Great Regulars: Maybe it's the sign of a truly modern Jewish family

when one of the rituals--as consistent and necessary as breaking the matzoh during Passover--is explaining our traditions to the non-Jewish people that have become a part of our family. I dunno.

I wasn't exactly reminded of the following poem, but happened to read the poem later and was reminded of yesterday's brunch. Translated from Kabir by Minnesota's own Robert Bly, I found it in The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, The Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World since 1953.

The Breath

from Max Ross: The Rake: Cracking Spines: Poem Worth Reading: Bubbie: The Four-Foot-Ten Professor

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Great Regulars: Angela Leighton has published various books

of criticism on 19th and 20th-century literature, and two volumes of poetry: A Cold Spell (Shoestring, 2000) and Sea Level (Shoestring, 2007). A second edition of Sea Level is due in early spring 2009.

Warm Christmas wishes and thanks to all Poem of the Week readers and contributors, old and new. May all your windfalls be merry ones. (NB: You can always cut out the bruised parts and make an apple-pie.)

Windfall

An ill wind, misprint or flaw,

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

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Great Regulars: The main conclusion of [Daniel Jonah] Goldhagen is that

anti-Semitism inspired and moved many thousands of 'ordinary' Germans--and would have moved millions more, had they been appropriately positioned--to slaughter Jews. It is not economic hardships, it is not the coercive apparatus of a dictatorial state, it is not psychological pressure, nor invariable psychological propensities, but unfounded horrendous ideas about the Jews that had been pervading Germany for many decades, that induced 'ordinary' Germans to kill unarmed, defenceless Jewish men, women and children by the thousands, in a streamlined manner systematically and without any pity whatsoever. Let me conclude the first part of this review with a poem by Francis Duggan titled 'The Victim':

from V Sundaram: News Today: Lest we forget-I
from V Sundaram: News Today: Lest we forget-II

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Great Regulars: [Elizabeth] Alexander agrees that there is

a powerful political message in Obama's selection of her. "By bringing poetry into such a prominent place on that extraordinary day, he's demonstrating his own belief that words matter, that using language with care and precision--we poets try to be exemplars of that--really matters. We must take care with the words we live in."

[by Elizabeth Alexander]

Emancipation

from John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: Obama chooses 'the perfect inaugural poet'

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Great Regulars: [by Frank Wilson]

Advent

The leaves are fallen, but the sky is clear

from Frank Wilson: Books, Inq.--The Epilogue: As Christmas nears . . .

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Great Regulars: by Pancho Mendoza

Harmonica man blows a sweet sound

from Express-News: Poetry: Harmonica Man

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Great Regulars: A new poem written for Review

by Carol Ann Duffy. Illustrated by Posy Simmonds

Scrooge doornail-dead, his widow, Mrs Scrooge, lived by herself

from The Guardian: The Saturday poem: Mrs Scrooge

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Great Regulars: Poem of the week: "What is Wall Street, daddy?"

by Peter Phillips

is a question your daughter may ask one day,

from Morning Star: Well Versed: Poem of the week

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Great Regulars: [by John P. Karliak]

October

Leaves ever changing, then fall

from Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: October

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Poetic Obituaries: Patricia [Baker] was a homemaker and a regional

director for Girl Scouts. She loved writing poetry, loved drawing and was a true "Survivor" fan.

from Chillicothe Gazette: Patricia Ann Baker

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Poetic Obituaries: [Barbara Beddoe] travelled widely and

visited Mara, Africa, in 2000 and persuaded the Coley church to adopt a village. Reflecting on her life, she wrote: "I've walked and climbed and bird-watched.

"I worked in the woods and learned about trees and the animals and birds. I've enjoyed poetry, my friends, and all those people who have passed through my life." Her daughter-in-law, Janet Beddoe, said: "She was a hard-working lady who never gave up on anything."

from Halifax Courier: Death of the worker who loved her life

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Poetic Obituaries: [Maureen Bradley] was an avid reader,

and she frequently wrote beautiful poetry for special events or indeed just for her own pleasure. Good films gave her endless hours of enjoyment, and she was also a big fan of snooker, watching many world tournaments from start to finish. The challenge of completing cryptic crosswords was another interest of hers.

from The Mayo News: Maureen Bradley

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Poetic Obituaries: Vivian [Buchan] was a gifted educator,

author and editor. From 1956 through 1968 she taught in the Rhetoric Programs at the University of Illinois and the University of Iowa. Throughout her career Vivian published over 900 columns, poems, articles and essays in more than 160 national and international publications. Vivian wrote the definitive bibliography of; Sara Teasdale, American Poet. Her books include, Cat Sun Signs, Make Presentations With Confidence and Cat Astrology.

from Iowa City Press Citizen: Vivian Buchan, 97

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Poetic Obituaries: A former adviser to Sir Roger Douglas

and Sir William Birch, he [Bevan Burgess] was described by family as "a renaissance man for modern times", a poet, artist, sculptor, musician , astronomer and communicator.

from The Dominion Post: Political adviser dies

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Poetic Obituaries: Hugh [Chang] worked as a nuclear engineer

for several Bay Area corporations before retiring from General Electric in 1983. Elsie taught at the Chinese School in Oakland while working as a broadcaster for Free China Radio in San Francisco and retired from the University of California's East Asiatic Library as a research librarian in 1979.

Since then, Hugh perfected his poetry, mastered Chinese martial arts, taught calligraphy and traveled the world with his lifelong companion Elsie, who shared her artistic expertise with anyone who a passion for learning.

from Contra Costa Times: Rossmoor couple dies en route to South Pole campout

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Poetic Obituaries: An only child, Rae [Ellen Michael Chang] grew up

in Ohio and Mexico, enjoying horseback riding, archery, ceramics and seashell collecting. In her later years, Rae wrote short stories and poetry and created paintings and drawings for which she received numerous prizes and awards. Rae attended Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio for one year prior to attending Ohio State University receiving a BA from the latter in journalism. She also studied in France and Japan, pursuing a love for languages. Following graduation, Rae moved to Honolulu, Hawaii to continue her language studies at the University of Hawaii.

from San Francisco Chronicle: Chang, Rae Ellen Michael

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Poetic Obituaries: Throughout her life, Brenda [Gulliford] wrote

poetry. She has had numerous poems published over the years, and won several prestigious awards for her work. An anthology of her poems was published in 2001, titled Words Within. The book sold over 10,000 copies and now is in use in numerous university level poetry courses around the nation.

from The Marion Star: Brenda Boyd Gulliford

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Poetic Obituaries: Atari [Kindred] was a Jones High School

graduate working at the Orange County Jail. She made others laugh; wrote poems and was planning her wedding for Valentines Day. Little Ayana [Womack] turned three last Monday.

from Fox 35 News: Mother forced to bury daughter, granddaughter after fatal hit and run

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Poetic Obituaries: [Mufti Muhammad Idress] would long be remembered

for his meritorious services he rendered as lawyer, poet, author and social worker.

Destined for bigger things, he went on to join the Aligarh Muslim University after his farsi and pushto fazil. There he did his Law and Masters in Arabic, emerging as gold medalist.

from Associated Press of Pakistan: Mufti Muhammad Idress passes away

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Poetic Obituaries: [Lars] Logan also performed with Butte College's

"Shakespeare in the Schools" and, most recently, appeared in "Times Square Angel," a Rogue Theatre production. Three weeks ago, he was cast in "Tender Yellow Sky," an upcoming musical at the Blue Room Theatre.

Logan donated his talents in graphic design to promote local events. He reviewed theater and music for the Synthesis, wrote plays and competed in poetry contests.

from Enterprise Record: Local actor Lars Logan dies; friends mourn at Cabaret

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Poetic Obituaries: [Gangadhar] Mahambare authored 55 books

and his works also included prose comprising literary criticism, biographies and travelogues.

He became popular with songs he penned for many Marathi films. The poet had a brief stint with the city-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) as a librarian.

from The Hindu: Marathi poet Mahambare passes away

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Poetic Obituaries: The musical nature of Adrian [Mitchell]'s imagination

led him to work with a cavalcade of composers and performers: Andy Roberts, Richard Peaslee, Steve McNeff, Dominic Muldowney, Andrew Dixon and Stephen Warbeck. His influence radiated widely, not least to generations of teachers, who used his poems with children in schools.

Last week he rang me. He sounded better than during his last three months of illness. "Can I read you this poem?" he asked. He did. It was a celebration. Next night he died. But this poem (below), and the poems and the plays and the politics--he went to Faslane on the anti-Trident demonstration and got arrested--will last.

from The Guardian: Poet Adrian Mitchell dies, aged 76
also The Guardian: Adrian Mitchell--a poet who made things happen
also The Guardian: Tell Me Lies About Vietnam by Adrian Mitchell

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Poetic Obituaries: Before his death Mr [David] Murdoch, a keen writer

and poet with a degree in theology from Aberdeen University, was working on an extensive piece on comparative religion which he had saved to his computer.

from The Press and Journal: Family in plea for late son's computer

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Poetic Obituaries: [Lauren E. Richmond] enjoyed writing poetry

and had a book published in 2007, titled 'Black & Brown Markers' and was currently awaiting publication of her new children's book titled 'A Venture to Find Adventure'. Last December, she and her parents celebrated her poetry with Jenna Bush at the White House. She also enjoyed painting and drawing.

from Somerset Reporter: Lauren E. Richmond

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Poetic Obituaries: The Rumbolds bought the Old Rectory at Stinsford,

where Thomas Hardy's heart lies in the grave of his first wife, and Pauline enjoyed showing friends the larder, where the great poet's heart had waited, overnight, to be buried. Congenial dinners at Stinsford often ran into the small hours, as guests talked animatedly around the fire in the dark green drawing room, its walls lined with poetry books and paintings.

Always a lover of language, Pauline Rumbold became a founder member of the Prayer Book Society, devoted to saving the rites of 1662. In 1989 the Folio Society published an edition of her translations into plain English of the Dorset dialect poet William Barnes; and her own poems, Loaves and Fishes, were published in 1992.

from Telegraph: Lady Rumbold

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Poetic Obituaries: An avid musician, he [William J. Saffell] wrote

music and poetry and had four novels published. He taught English as a second language for several years both locally and in Northern Virginia.

from The Free Lance-Star: William J. Saffell

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Poetic Obituaries: [Harriet E. Schwarzer] served on the

Board of Trustees of Cazenovia College, as well as on the Board of Trustees of the Cazenovia Public Library. She was a docent at "Lorenzo," a New York State Historic Site, and a published poet.

from The News Leader: Harriet E. Schwarzer

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Poetic Obituaries: Keng Vannsak had an unparalleled depth

and breadth of knowledge, and was a truly original thinker, said Ros Chantraboth, vice president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

He had written many books on Cambodian culture, theatre, poetry and was also a creative author--penning a series of short stories and establishing the first centre for higher education focused entirely on Khmer literature. He also created a writing system to guide the creation of Khmer words.

from The Phnom Penh Post: Keng Vannsak dies, leaving profound intellectual legacy

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Poetic Obituaries: [Pat Westerhoff] loved nature and would

thrill to reminisce about seeing deer in the wild for the first time, the smells of lilacs and roses, and hearing songbirds sing. She liked to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl. She worked crossword puzzles with a pen and she worked crossword puzzles in her head when her daughter read them to her. Even though she had no formal training, she wrote lovely poetry and songs with melodies.

from Superior Telegram: Patricia (Pat, Patty) A. Westerhoff

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December 16th Poetic Ticker Clicking

News Article Tape: (ragline)___The Guardian: A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti___(ragline)___Philippine Daily Inquirer: Poetry saved me--'Tagaytay 5' member___(ragline)___bulatlat: Ex-'Tagaytay 5' Detainee Launches Book of Poems___(ragline)___The New York Times: 'My Poetry Is Filthy--but Not I'___(ragline)___The National Post: Censorship's fiercest foe___(ragline)___The New York Times: A Modern Victorian___(ragline)___The Times Literary Supplement: Translated merfolk: What happens when an Irish poet, with Paul Muldoon's help, adapts to dry land___(ragline)___San Franciso Chronicle: The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder___(ragline)___The Guardian: 'I seem to spend my life missing you'___(ragline)___The Sunday Times: Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney___(ragline)___The Guardian: 'To set the darkness echoing'___(ragline)___The Scotsman: Lost and found--Burns' hidden poems make it into collection___(ragline)___The Guardian: Two new Burns poems discovered alongside 'rude' letters___(ragline)___The New York Times: Rhyming Name Dropper Returns___(ragline)___Bryan Appleyard: The Sunday Times: The living dead___(ragline)___Walter Bargen: The Post-Dispatch: Missouri poets: Wayne Zade___(ragline)___Tom Chandler: The Providence Journal: Streetwise Dave Church will be missed___(ragline)___John Mark Eberhart: The Kansas City Star: New Letters is a diamond in our midst___(ragline)___John Freeman: The Times: Interview with Garrison Keillor, writer, radio presenter and champion of smalltown America___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's "I cannot dance upon my Toes"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Morgan's "Six Tree Sparrows"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Seamus Heaney's "Digging"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 97___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 98___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 99___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's Dream Hermitage___(ragline)___Tenzin Gyatso: The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: World Must Bring China Into Democratic Fold___(ragline)___Bob Hoover: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 2008's best books: Yours and ours___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: At Sea by Wendy Mnookin___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Christmas 1963 by Joseph Enzweiler___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Farewell by Emily Dickinson___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Free by Virgil Suarez___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Poor North by Mark Strand___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison___(ragline)___Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 194___(ragline)___Anthony Maulucci: Norwich Bulletin: Poets would do well to study the Greek, Roman classics___(ragline)___Andrew Motion: The Guardian: Pat Kavanagh___(ragline)___Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: China Detentions 'Challenge Constitution'___(ragline)___Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Writer Held After 'Charter 08'___(ragline)___Michael Rosen: Poetry: Snip, Snip!: A talk with the children's laureate of Britain___(ragline)___Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Darling, Would You Please Pick Up Those Books?___(ragline)___Belinda Subraman Presents: India: Finding Reality in Myth___(ragline)___V Sundaram: News Today: Word is weighty--I___(ragline)___V Sundaram: News Today: Word is weighty--II___(ragline)___John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: Reader-friendly, gift-ready volumes___(ragline)___John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: What the staff has been reading___(ragline)___The Brooklyn Rail: Poetry: from Clock, Deck, and Movement___(ragline)___The Brooklyn Rail: Poetry: from De la Bronx___(ragline)___Express-News: Poetry: 'In Dâ Allâh, Looking for the Lion's Roar'___(ragline)___Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: The Poetry of T.C. Marshall___(ragline)___The Guardian: The Saturday poem: Magpie, pomegranate by Liz Lochhead___(ragline)___Guernica: Poetry: Flocks of Never___(ragline)___Morning Star: Well Versed___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: The Fifth Season___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Greetings, Friends!___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Poet Cornered___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Thread___(ragline)___Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: Monarch Butterfly___(ragline)___Slate: "Sewage Has Its Say" By Steven Cramer___(ragline)___The News International: Tajal Bewas passes away___(ragline)___The DeLand-Deltona Beacon: Blow that killed DeLand man felt round the world___(ragline)___The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ray Carlton, 72, had heart for TV, electronics___(ragline)___HTMLGIANT: Dave Church Died___(ragline)___The Warren Reporter: Stuart Confield, 63, of Greenwich Township___(ragline)___Oshkosh Northwestern: George G. Daniels___(ragline)___Emily Ann DeBrine Foundation___(ragline)___Reno Gazette-Journal: Susan DeChambeau___(ragline)___Express Buzz: Revolutionary poet Jwalamukhi___(ragline)___Zanesville Times Recorder: Iva L. 'Chick' Gildow Knight___(ragline)___The Advocate: Former state poet laureate Pinkie Gordon Lane dead___(ragline)___The News-Gazette: Man facing prison term for ex-Loda resident's car death___(ragline)___Marshall Independent: Duane Marcotte___(ragline)___The News International: Noted Pashto poet, writer passes away___(ragline)___Valencia County News-Bulletin: Heart transplant patient, 11, dies of complications from virus___(ragline)___WA Today: Poet pushed boundaries and encouraged others___(ragline)___The Australian: Poet with a tongue of fire___(ragline)___The Guardian: Dorothy Porter___(ragline)___The Post-Journal: Roberta A. Renskers___(ragline)___The Indian Express: As NSG chief led Taj ops, terrorists inside killed his relative___(ragline)___The Washington Post: Carol Houck Smith; Book Editor Worked With Award Winners___(ragline)___Sheboygan Press: Patrick Michael Soucheck___(ragline)___The News-Leader: Nancy C. Wade___(ragline)___The Jamestown Sun: Lois Watts___(ragline)___Associated Press: Soviet film historian Rashit Yangirov dies at 54___

Blog Entry Tape: (ragline)___The Guardian: A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti___(ragline)___Philippine Daily Inquirer: Poetry saved me--'Tagaytay 5' member___(ragline)___bulatlat: Ex-'Tagaytay 5' Detainee Launches Book of Poems___(ragline)___The New York Times: 'My Poetry Is Filthy--but Not I'___(ragline)___The National Post: Censorship's fiercest foe___(ragline)___The New York Times: A Modern Victorian___(ragline)___The Times Literary Supplement: Translated merfolk: What happens when an Irish poet, with Paul Muldoon's help, adapts to dry land___(ragline)___San Franciso Chronicle: The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder___(ragline)___The Guardian: 'I seem to spend my life missing you'___(ragline)___The Sunday Times: Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney___(ragline)___The Guardian: 'To set the darkness echoing'___(ragline)___The Scotsman: Lost and found--Burns' hidden poems make it into collection___(ragline)___The Guardian: Two new Burns poems discovered alongside 'rude' letters___(ragline)___The New York Times: Rhyming Name Dropper Returns___(ragline)___Bryan Appleyard: The Sunday Times: The living dead___(ragline)___Walter Bargen: The Post-Dispatch: Missouri poets: Wayne Zade___(ragline)___Tom Chandler: The Providence Journal: Streetwise Dave Church will be missed___(ragline)___John Mark Eberhart: The Kansas City Star: New Letters is a diamond in our midst___(ragline)___John Freeman: The Times: Interview with Garrison Keillor, writer, radio presenter and champion of smalltown America___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's "I cannot dance upon my Toes"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Morgan's "Six Tree Sparrows"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Seamus Heaney's "Digging"___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 97___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 98___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 99___(ragline)___Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Yogananda's Dream Hermitage___(ragline)___Tenzin Gyatso: The Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: World Must Bring China Into Democratic Fold___(ragline)___Bob Hoover: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 2008's best books: Yours and ours___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: At Sea by Wendy Mnookin___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Christmas 1963 by Joseph Enzweiler___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Conjugation of the Paramecium by Muriel Rukeyser___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Farewell by Emily Dickinson___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Free by Virgil Suarez___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Poor North by Mark Strand___(ragline)___Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison___(ragline)___Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 194___(ragline)___Anthony Maulucci: Norwich Bulletin: Poets would do well to study the Greek, Roman classics___(ragline)___Andrew Motion: The Guardian: Pat Kavanagh___(ragline)___Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: China Detentions 'Challenge Constitution'___(ragline)___Luisetta Mudie: Radio Free Asia: Writer Held After 'Charter 08'___(ragline)___Michael Rosen: Poetry: Snip, Snip!: A talk with the children's laureate of Britain___(ragline)___Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Books blog: Poem of the week: Darling, Would You Please Pick Up Those Books?___(ragline)___Belinda Subraman Presents: India: Finding Reality in Myth___(ragline)___V Sundaram: News Today: Word is weighty--I___(ragline)___V Sundaram: News Today: Word is weighty--II___(ragline)___John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: Reader-friendly, gift-ready volumes___(ragline)___John Timpane: Philadelpia Inquirer: What the staff has been reading___(ragline)___The Brooklyn Rail: Poetry: from Clock, Deck, and Movement___(ragline)___The Brooklyn Rail: Poetry: from De la Bronx___(ragline)___Express-News: Poetry: 'In Dâ Allâh, Looking for the Lion's Roar'___(ragline)___Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner: The Poetry of T.C. Marshall___(ragline)___The Guardian: The Saturday poem: Magpie, pomegranate by Liz Lochhead___(ragline)___Guernica: Poetry: Flocks of Never___(ragline)___Morning Star: Well Versed___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: The Fifth Season___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Greetings, Friends!___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Poet Cornered___(ragline)___The New Yorker: Poetry: Thread___(ragline)___Portsmouth Herald News: Poem: Monarch Butterfly___(ragline)___Slate: "Sewage Has Its Say" By Steven Cramer___(ragline)___The News International: Tajal Bewas passes away___(ragline)___The DeLand-Deltona Beacon: Blow that killed DeLand man felt round the world___(ragline)___The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ray Carlton, 72, had heart for TV, electronics___(ragline)___HTMLGIANT: Dave Church Died___(ragline)___The Warren Reporter: Stuart Confield, 63, of Greenwich Township___(ragline)___Oshkosh Northwestern: George G. Daniels___(ragline)___Emily Ann DeBrine Foundation___(ragline)___Reno Gazette-Journal: Susan DeChambeau___(ragline)___Express Buzz: Revolutionary poet Jwalamukhi___(ragline)___Zanesville Times Recorder: Iva L. 'Chick' Gildow Knight___(ragline)___The Advocate: Former state poet laureate Pinkie Gordon Lane dead___(ragline)___The News-Gazette: Man facing prison term for ex-Loda resident's car death___(ragline)___Marshall Independent: Duane Marcotte___(ragline)___The News International: Noted Pashto poet, writer passes away___(ragline)___Valencia County News-Bulletin: Heart transplant patient, 11, dies of complications from virus___(ragline)___WA Today: Poet pushed boundaries and encouraged others___(ragline)___The Australian: Poet with a tongue of fire___(ragline)___The Guardian: Dorothy Porter___(ragline)___The Post-Journal: Roberta A. Renskers___(ragline)___The Indian Express: As NSG chief led Taj ops, terrorists inside killed his relative___(ragline)___The Washington Post: Carol Houck Smith; Book Editor Worked With Award Winners___(ragline)___Sheboygan Press: Patrick Michael Soucheck___(ragline)___The News-Leader: Nancy C. Wade___(ragline)___The Jamestown Sun: Lois Watts___(ragline)___Associated Press: Soviet film historian Rashit Yangirov dies at 54___

December 16th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags


Christmas is entering the poetry news this week. See our Back Page link, always the eleventh article of News at Eleven. But also see Garrison Keillor's poetry offering this past week, and the New Yorker's, for Christmas poems. Of course, throughout are links to excellent reviews of the top poetry books out right now, great for gift giving. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, or this is not a special time to give someone a gift of poetry, then what a perfect surprise. Do it anyway!



The results for November are in for the InterBoard Poetry Community's monthly poetry competition, Hélène Cardona and John Fitzgerald the esteemed judge's this fall. Congratulations to Emily Violet Swithins, representing The Writers Block, on her winning poem, "Russian Crucifixes". Coming in second, is "My Father's Family Tree" by Anna Yin of Pen Shells. Third goes to Justin Hyde from Salty Dreams for "only waitress at the truck stop who never uses the cash register". And the HM poem is "An Endangered Species" by Melissa Resch, workshopped at About Poetry Forum. Good poetry. Out of IBPC comes some of the best on the web today.

Yours,
Rus

Our links:

IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags

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