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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
August 23rd forum announcement
Dear Poetry Aficionados,
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
Let me start the sampling in Great Regulars, our second section, for a change. Forward's The Arty Semite brings us poems by Alicia Jo Rabins. Katherine Schulten is changing how she'll be doing the Poetry Pairing for the New York Times blog The Learning Network. Carol Rumens brings us a nifty poem by Leah Fritz via the Guardian. Meghan O'Rourke writes about losing her mother in a remarkable article for the Daily Mail. Alison Flood of the Guardian writes about the reinstatement of Judith Palmer as director of the Poetry Society. And Judith Fitzgerald brings us a nifty poem herself via the In Other Words blog of the Globe and Mail.
All women mentioned so far. We begin our first section, News at Eleven, with an Aung San Suu Kyi interview, followed by two articles on her meeting with President Thein Sein, a guy. And there are plenty more males, and plenty more female poets in all of Poetry & Poets in Rags this week.
Be sure to check out the Poetic Obituaries. There are deep losses to the poetry community these past several days.
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
Let me start the sampling in Great Regulars, our second section, for a change. Forward's The Arty Semite brings us poems by Alicia Jo Rabins. Katherine Schulten is changing how she'll be doing the Poetry Pairing for the New York Times blog The Learning Network. Carol Rumens brings us a nifty poem by Leah Fritz via the Guardian. Meghan O'Rourke writes about losing her mother in a remarkable article for the Daily Mail. Alison Flood of the Guardian writes about the reinstatement of Judith Palmer as director of the Poetry Society. And Judith Fitzgerald brings us a nifty poem herself via the In Other Words blog of the Globe and Mail.
All women mentioned so far. We begin our first section, News at Eleven, with an Aung San Suu Kyi interview, followed by two articles on her meeting with President Thein Sein, a guy. And there are plenty more males, and plenty more female poets in all of Poetry & Poets in Rags this week.
Be sure to check out the Poetic Obituaries. There are deep losses to the poetry community these past several days.
Thanks for clicking in.
Yours,
Rus
Our links:
IBPC: Poetry & Poets in Rags
Poetry & Poets in Rags blog
IBPC Home
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: The Chin people are not only very loving,
but are also very clever. Please do not be discouraged. Respond to those people who do not treat you as brothers by resolving to show them the value of your abilities, and face the challenges of your lives with a genuine Union spirit. I would also like to give this message to my listeners who are ethnic Burmese nationals: If we all want to live in a peaceful and tranquil Union with a sense of security, it is essential to treat each other with respect. I would like to ask everyone to love our ethnic nationality brothers with a genuine Union spirit, and to treat them as equals.
from Radio Free Asia: 'Treat Each Other With Respect'
then Radio Free Asia: Suu Kyi, President Reach 'Agreement'
then Radio Free Asia: Suu Kyi Meets With President
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: Issue 12 of n+1 [3] magazine features six
of [Yitzhak] Laor's poems, presented both in the original and my translation. Here are three--from radically disparate periods in Laor's career. What unites them are biblical allusion and a doubting of language's capacity to effect political change--a crisis marked by flares of rage and humor.
To read more of Laor's work, you can purchase [4] the current issue of n+1.
Take Care, Soldier
Don't die, soldier, hold the radiophone,
from Tablet: War Poet
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: What I'm trying to do with my work
in the UK, in all my work, is to write in a way that's political, but isn't aiming for absolutely legibility. Poetry can't be a slogan or a pamphlet, but it also can't be divorced from politics. I'm trying to write in search of that link between poetry and politics, but without losing the legacy of experimental writers of the avant-gardes.
Being in the UK, and being here at a university, raises questions about the visibility of poetry.
from The Guardian: Cristian Aliaga: searching for stories from society's submerged
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: There is something unutterably moving
about this tiny private ritual. Perhaps it is the way [Michael] Longley invokes the more formal rituals we rely on to console us in the face of time and death. If "the toy lifeboat" represents the fragile individual, setting sail on the ocean of the world, it seems also to stand for poetry, the vessel by which our memories and our loves are carried from each generation to the next.
from The Washington Post: Poetry review: "A Hundred Doors," by Michael Longley
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: This, indeed, is one of the chief values
of his [Justin Quinn's] poetry, because his poetic engagements with Irish culture, unlike the interventions of his critical writing, often lack the kind of insight one finds in poems such as Musílkova or The Months, with its haunting images of "the rusting factories of Karlin and Zizkov" and "the delta as a mess of leaves/and feathers, scattered papers, thrums of nets". In the sixth section of The Months we are told that "Dave mentioned on the phone how June had hit him/with memories of the Leaving Cert", and this return to the realm of formal education, and the inability to escape it, is a recurring source of tension in Quinn's work.
from The Irish Times: Laying down the burden of the schoolbag, and other endeavours
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: Kona Macphee added: "Leper Window epitomises
everything I love about poetry. It revels in the musicality of language and is magnificently concise, evoking a whole lost world in a dozen elegantly understated lines."
This is not the first time [Jane] McKie has been honoured. Her debut collection, Morocco Rococo, won the Scottish Arts Council award for best first book of 2007.
The prize, donated wholly by the University of Strathclyde, is among the biggest for poetry in the UK.
Leper Window, St Mary the Virgin by Jane McKie
from The Guardian: Jane McKie wins Edwin Morgan poetry prize
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: "Poetry is really an act of taking things
that come to you," she [Margaret Gibson] adds, "--a scarlet tanager or an act of war--whatever takes your attention, you study it for yourself, but you also take it into that part of yourself where you test things. You look out and you look in."
The subjects of Gibson's poems vary from the natural to the material world, from the woods in her Connecticut backyard to an ancient road in Greece, from deeply personal explorations of death and dying to the universal politics of armed conflict.
from Grace: Poetry is second nature to Preston resident Margaret Gibson
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: One can always argue with the choices
an editor makes--I'm sorry there's no room here for two of my own favourites, "Sowing" and "Women he liked"--and it's not clear why [Matthew] Hollis follows a different order from that of the two volumes, Poems and Last Poems, that [Edward] Thomas didn't live to see printed. But these are quibbles. For those who don't know Thomas, this is an excellent introduction to the work of arguably the most influential English poet of the 20th century; and for those who already love him, the perspectives cast by the prose pieces are invaluable.
from The Guardian: Edward Thomas: Selected Poems--review
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: But [Associate Professor Nuala M.] Archer,
in court documents, maintains that the attempted firing—which she is contesting through the union’s grievance process and before Ohio’s State Board of Personnel Review—is yet another wrinkle in a long and concerted effort to destroy and eliminate a vocal critic of alleged discrimination in CSU’s Department of English.
In her appeal to the board, filed on August 1, Archer alleges retaliatory discipline and asserts whistleblower protection.
from Diverse: Poet Alleges Discrimination at Cleveland State University
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven: The Poetry Society has reinstated Judith Palmer
as its director after leading poets and members including poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy called for her to be returned to the post.
In a statement on the society's website, the board of trustees states that Palmer will return to the post on Monday [22nd August]. The statement says: "We are pleased that we have been able to agree Judith Palmer's return to the post of director with immediate effect and we now look forward to working with her again to start to bring stability back to the organisation."
from The Bookseller: Poetry Society reinstates Palmer
then Civil Society: Poetry Society reinstates director after disputes lead to full board resignation
~~~~~~~~~~~
News at Eleven (Back Page): But the Poetry Society still plays
a vital role in the "poetry ecosystem". They play "a very different role" from the indie organisations and the poets that support and constitute them--in terms of education programs, the National Poetry Competition, local work with Stanzas, the network of local poetry groups, and so on; the Society's performance shouldn't be understood in terms of how much newer poets are interacting with it. The press coverage of recent events at the Poetry Society, not to mention the mishandling of how it was dealt with publicly, he says, has made what was "a purely organisational problem" seem like a real crisis.
from New Statesman: When poets go to war
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: The idea of the amoral company is,
of course, utterly intolerable in any functioning society. Apart from anything else, it makes respectable the idea that anybody or anything can be amoral in the pursuit of certain ends. This end is usually defined as growth and, indeed, in the midst of the euro-crisis Ayn Rand's devoted disciple Alan Greenspan emerged again to defend growth at all costs, including the acceptance of risks--all, as we now know, quite incalculable --that would impoverish people too ordinary to understand Rand or just smart enough to see her for what she was, a dangerous cultist. But the end is also defined as growth for me.
from Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: One Hot Breath
~~~~~~~~~~~
The utopians are half right when they celebrate the freedom and universality of the internet.
But, equally plainly, the claims of utopians like sc-fi novelist Cory Doctorow who gave a speech entitled How Copyright Threatens Democracy are missing a big point--copyright built and guarantees democracy. Furthermore, the utopians should be aware that, though they see themselves as freedom fighters, they are, in fact, serving the interests of some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world.
from Bryan Appleyard: from The Sunday Times: Free Ride: The Price of Google
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: [by Judith Fitzgerald]
8 January Tupeli, Mississippi--16 August 1977
Grace Landing
To Dale, Honey, Nancy, Shelley, Cindy, Doug, Hokey & The Bandit
from Judith Fitzgerald: The Globe and Mail: In Other Words: A poem for The Pelvis
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: Judith Palmer has been reinstated as director
of the Poetry Society after some of the country's best known poets, including Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy and George Szirtes, came together to call for her to be returned to the post she resigned from earlier this summer. But question marks still remain over the society's £360,000 grant, with Arts Council England confirming they are not yet releasing July's delayed payment.
from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Poetry Society reinstates Judith Palmer as director
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: The speaker, Nicholas Bindle, chides
his "fellow citizens" for begging him to give to charity. He asks them if they were "not ashamed" when they became aware that his estate was so meager. After his death, his estate was "probated" in the courts, and the size of his holdings would have been exposed.
from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Edgar Lee Masters' Nicholas Bindle
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: IX.
by Wendell Berry
I go by a field where once
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: IX. by Wendell Berry
~~~~~~~~~~~
At Summer's End
by John Engels
Early August, and the young butternut
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: At Summer's End by John Engels
~~~~~~~~~~~
Dew
by Robert Morgan
It's something of a mystery,
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Dew by Robert Morgan
~~~~~~~~~~~
In Answer to Amy's Question What's a Pickerel
by Stanley Plumly
Pickerel have infinite, small bones, and skins
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: In Answer to Amy's Question What's a Pickerel by Stanley Plumly
~~~~~~~~~~~
Running on the Shore
by May Swenson
The sun is hot, the ocean cool. The waves
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: Running on the Shore by May Swenson
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Trail Is Not a Trail
by Gary Snyder
I drove down the Freeway
from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: The Trail Is Not a Trail by Gary Snyder
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: I've always been fascinated by miniatures
of all kinds, the little glass animals I played with as a boy, electric trains, dollhouses, and I think it's because I can feel that I'm in complete control. Everything is right in its place, and I'm the one who put it there. Here's a poem by Kay Mullen, who lives in Washington, about the art of bonsai.
Bonsai at the Potter's Stall
from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 335
~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Basement of the Goodwill Store
by Ted Kooser
In the musty light, in the thin brown air
from Ted Kooser via Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: In the Basement of the Goodwill Store by Ted Kooser
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: The late Elizabeth McFarland was for many
years a summer resident of Cape Rosier, Harborside. In her lovely lyric, she invites the reader to feed her birds--except for the one with the plaintive song.
Feed My Birds
from Wesley McNair: The Portland Press Herald: Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: Is death really the end of our lives?
Or is there another dimension to our existence? In this poem, the speaker learns that his friend Heraclitus is dead and wonders if anything can withstand the power of the grave.
In the first stanza, a shadowy "they" brings the speaker the tragic news. They bring him no cheer, no comfort--nothing but "bitter news" and "bitter tears." The repetition that runs throughout these lines evokes a sense of shock and disbelief.
from Christopher Nield: The Epoch Times: The Antidote--Classic Poetry for Modern Life: A Reading of 'Heraclitus' by William Johnson Cory
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: When I did sleep I had violent dreams
about people I loved. I dreamt that a friend told me I was doing a bad job at work; furious, I tore out a clump of her long blonde hair. This friend had been nothing but kind to me. And in a different dream, I got angry with a friend who told me off over something I had forgotten to do. You have no idea what this is like. I wept in my dream. My mother died. My mother died. My mother died.
Throughout this time, I experienced an acute nostalgia, a longing for a lost time that was so intense I thought it might split me in two, like a tree hit by lightning.
from Meghan O' Rourke: Daily Mail: I lost myself when I lost my mum: One woman lays bare the agony of her mother's death
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: There has been no indulgence in blame,
bitterness or self-pity. The speaker has delivered no lectures. She has simply offered an insider's un-illusioned view of age, and made it clear that the going is tough--interestingly and even amusingly tough, but tough all the same. She readily concedes that "it's not the way I'd choose". And then she delivers a bracing, almost throwaway punchline: "Odds on, I bet my life that I will get there, though." It's an understatement, with a hard truth embedded in the idiomatic word-play, a punchline more than worthy of the name.
[by Leah Fritz]
Going, Going . . .
from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Going, Going . . . by Leah Fritz
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: We're beginning, today, with perhaps
the most-taught American poem there is: Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."
And yes, we're putting it together with a Times piece about a journey in which literal and figurative roads are taken and not taken.
from Katherine Schulten: The New York Times: Poetry Pairing: Roads Not Taken
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: Spring Prayer
by David Moser
Where do you get your life seed
from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Three by David Moser
~~~~~~~~~~~
Where do you get your life seed
from CounterPunch: Poets' Basement: Three by David Moser
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: The first three works are part of
her [Alicia Jo Rabins'] "Ancient Studies" cycle, and walk the line between mythic and contemporary, culminating perhaps most intensely in the third piece where a customer service phone call turns into a deeply personal hallucination. The final work featured here returns the poetic context inherent to much kabbalistic thought back into poetry, lightly swinging images and abstractions into a meditation on things most timeless.
Ancient Studies (Coliseum Ghosts)
from Forward: The Arty Semite: Four Poems By Alicia Jo Rabins
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: By Travis Nichols
There was a time when songs were magic.
from PBS: Newshour: Weekly Poem: 'Something Touched My Heart'
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: This poem by the American-born,
Edinburgh-resident poet Ryan Van Winkle from Tomorrow, We Will Live Here (Salt, £9.99) intrigues us from the title in, and as readers we also experience the "talk talk talk", and the waves' conversations. Deceptively straightforward delivery masks a complexity of longing and regret.
Van Winkle recently finished his three-year tenure as reader-in-residence at the Scottish Poetry Library, and will be appearing at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival (29 August) .
Last Night, I Should Have Driven Straight Home
from The Scotsman: Poem of the week, by Ryan Van Winkle
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: It would be unjust to accuse
the Nobel laureate of taking liberties with the dead, and specifically his father's death. Rather, his decision to align his poetry with an avowedly political cause is a testament to the contentious moral acerbity he maintained in his last years.
Death
(Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953)
Where was the dead body found?
from The Times Literary Supplement: Poem of the Week: Death
~~~~~~~~~~~
Great Regulars: [by Tony Gardner]
Her other-worldliness enchants me
from West Sussex Gazette: Poem of the Week: Other-Wordly
~~~~~~~~~~~
from West Sussex Gazette: Poem of the Week: Other-Wordly
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Gaylord Beal Hatch] was previously
employed by the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper in page layout for 15 years.
His hobbies and interests were growing exotic plants, music, nature, writing poetry, and traveling the western United States.
from Mesquite Local News: Gaylord Beal Hatch
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: Gale [Marshall]'s reading tastes were
broad--books on math, science, philosophy (including those authored by Zen, Indian and southwestern writers), psychology, poetry, and novels, both classics and mysteries. He liked art movies in particular, but adventure and detective stories intrigued him as well, and music of different descriptions. For important occasions, he told stories and wrote poems.
from The Independent: Gale Marshall Dies, Pioneering Programmer And Founding Member of Independent
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Samuel] Menashe was the first poet to
receive the Neglected Masters Award from the Poetry Foundation, which he recieved in 2004. To accompany the award, "Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems," edited by Christopher Ricks, was published by the Library of America. Reviewing the book in the New York Times, David Orr wrote:
Menashe is a curious and meticulous writer--the poems here are no longer than a page, most have very short lines, they're either unpunctuated or very carefully and lightly punctuated, and they rely on tricky rhyme and assonance schemes to carry observations that Ricks describes as "apophthegms" and a nonprofessor might call "proverbs."
from Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy: Poet Samuel Menashe has died
~~~~~~~~~~~
Menashe is a curious and meticulous writer--the poems here are no longer than a page, most have very short lines, they're either unpunctuated or very carefully and lightly punctuated, and they rely on tricky rhyme and assonance schemes to carry observations that Ricks describes as "apophthegms" and a nonprofessor might call "proverbs."
from Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy: Poet Samuel Menashe has died
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Raymond J. Nelson] specialized and taught
courses in 19th- and 20th-century American literature and the history of American English and American dictionaries.
Among his scholarly work, he edited and annotated a book of Melvin Tolson's poetry, "Harlem Gallery and Other Poems." Nelson also published "Van Wyck Brooks: A Writer's Life" and "Kenneth Patchen and American Mysticism," which won the Poetry Society of America's prestigious Melville Cane Award as the best critical book of 1984 on American poetry. He also wrote numerous articles on other American writers, including Herman Melville, Chester Himes and Weldon Kees.
from University of Virginia Today: Ray Nelson, Former Arts & Sciences Dean, Dies
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Richard] Rutt was a gifted linguist,
and during his years in Korea came to be regarded as an authority on Korean poetry; in addition to writing several books on the subject, he composed some poetry of his own in Korean.
from The Telegraph: Monsignor Richard Rutt
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: But poetry was also a compelling
interest [for Jerome J. Shestack].
A 1987 Inquirer story reported that the fourth annual symposium of the American Poetry Center attracted to Philadelphia such figures as Maya Angelou, John Ashbery, Robert Bly, and Donald Hall.
Mr. Shestack, who was chairman of the center at the time, said: "There are more poetry readings here than in any city in the country outside New York."
And, he said, "I don't know any other city that has so many major corporations involved in supporting poetry."
from The Philadelphia Inquirer: Jerome J. Shestack, 88, lawyer and human-rights leader
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Margaret P. Smith] was very active
in her children's activities and served as a dedicated volunteer at school during their elementary and middle school years. Before her illness, she loved working in the yard, writing poetry, working with ceramics and was always ready to travel.
from The Augusta Chronicle: Margaret P. Smith (Beech Island, S.C.)
~~~~~~~~~~~
from The Augusta Chronicle: Margaret P. Smith (Beech Island, S.C.)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: Ariann [Nicole Stewart] was a woman of
many talents and had a passion for drawing, writing poetry, photography, and music; she taught herself to play guitar.
from The Spectrum: Ariann Nicole Stewart
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: Edith [Ottoson Swank] enjoyed writing poetry
including: "Tomorrow is now today, so it will be eternally. When guided in what to say . . . Gently, upliftingly--Then comes the shinning ray--which lifts the heart."
from The Observer: Edith Ottoson Swank
~~~~~~~~~~~
from The Observer: Edith Ottoson Swank
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Edith] Tiempo's published works include
the novel A Blade of Fern (1978), His Native Coast (1979), The Alien Corn (1992), One, Tilting Leaves (1995) and The Builder (2003); the poetry collections, The Tracks of Babylon and Other Poems (1966), and The Charmer's Box and Other Poems (1993); and the short story collection Abide, Joshua, and Other Stories (1964).
Her works have won numerous prizes from the Don Carlos Palanca Awards in Literature, the CCP literary contest, and the Philippine Free Press literary contest. She was conferred the National Artist for Literature honors in 1999.
from Visayan Daily Star: Edith Tiempo dies
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: Scott Wannberg, who was one of the
anchors of the poetry scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s and '90s, died at his home Friday in Oregon. He was 58 and had been in poor health.
In addition to writing and reading poetry, Wannberg knew a wide range of Los Angeles book lovers from his two decades as a bookseller at Dutton's Brentwood. In 1987, Jack Miles, then-books editor of The Times, called Wannberg the "poet laureate of Dutton's"; in 2008, T.C. Boyle lauded the bookstore and dubbed Wannberg "one of the true literary zealots of our time."
As a poet, Wannberg was prolific, freeform and Beat-influenced. He was a founding member of the self-named Carma Bums, which included S.A. Griffin, Mike Mollett, Doug Knott and Mike Bruner.
from Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy: Scott Wannberg, a key figure in Los Angeles poetry, has died
~~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to writing and reading poetry, Wannberg knew a wide range of Los Angeles book lovers from his two decades as a bookseller at Dutton's Brentwood. In 1987, Jack Miles, then-books editor of The Times, called Wannberg the "poet laureate of Dutton's"; in 2008, T.C. Boyle lauded the bookstore and dubbed Wannberg "one of the true literary zealots of our time."
As a poet, Wannberg was prolific, freeform and Beat-influenced. He was a founding member of the self-named Carma Bums, which included S.A. Griffin, Mike Mollett, Doug Knott and Mike Bruner.
from Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy: Scott Wannberg, a key figure in Los Angeles poetry, has died
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: Therold [A. Woolsey] worked as a switchman for
the railroad at Geneva Steel for 31 years. He enjoyed music, singing and writing poetry but his passion was the railroad and trains. He loved being in the outdoors and exploring in the desert.
from Daily Herald: Therold A. Woolsey
~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetic Obituaries: [Jeff M. Zediker] loved writing poetry
and had a poem selected for publishing in Poems of the Western World.
from Lexington Clipper-Herald: Jeff M. Zediker
~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
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