Poetry of Olympia

With the Olympics now over, the NY Times points out that poetry used to be an Olympic event.
Seriously!
"The French visionary who revived the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, always insisted Greek-style arts contests should be allowed alongside athletics. His dream was realized in 1912 at Stockholm, where literature, together with music, painting, sculpture and even architecture, became Olympic events in the so-called Pentathlon of the Muses, in which all submissions had to be “directly inspired by the idea of sport.”"

It was an Olympic event from 1912 until 1948.... although, of course, only amateur poets were allowed to compete.

Most of these poems have been lost to history.   No one now knows what the German equestrian Rudolf Binding wrote in his 1928 silver-medal winning “A Rider’s Instructions to His Lover,” nor the French rugby champion Charles Gonnet’s ode “Before the Gods of Olympia,” which won the bronze in Poetry in Paris in 1924

But one of the great lost Olympic poems, British poet Dorothy Margaret Stuart's 37-page “Sword Songs” (silver medal, 1924 Paris Olympics) is no longer lost.   New York Times writer Tony Perrottet tracked down a copy... in the New York Public Library.  He doesn't quote the whole poem, alas... but, still, he gives enough to get feel for what amateur poetry was like in 1924.  Guess we'll have to take a trip to the New York Public Library to read the whole thing!

Thoughts after an open mike

In the beginning of his book, Buffalo Head Solos, Tim Seibles writes the following:

AN OPEN LETTER

I want to talk about some of the things I’m after when I write, my sense of the American predicament, and what I hope for poetry and for people in relation to words. I know I’m also talking to myself here, and I can’t speak to the success or failure of what transpires in the poems that follow. I simply hope that this short rant can provide a clarifying context, a brief look at what confounds and compels my efforts. I realize, of course, that this could be bone-headedly presumptuous, but there are things far worse than speaking out of turn.

In fact, part of what energizes me is all the nay-saying I hear about what poets and poetry can do. Poetry will never reach the general public. Poetry shouldn’t be political or argumentative. Poetry will not succeed if it’s excessively imaginative. Poetry can’t change anything. Because the first people I heard saying such things were poets, I used to believe these notions were born of thoughtful consideration and humility, but now I see them as a kind of preemptive apology, a small-hearted justification for the writing of a hobbled poetry– a poetry that doesn’t want to be too conspicuous, a poetry that knows its place, that doesn’t mean to trouble the water, that is always decorous and never stomps in with bad breath and muddy boots.

But why not? Why not a rambunctious and reckless poetry, when the ascendent social order permits nearly every type of corruption and related hypocrisy? Why not risk everything, at least more often if not always? So much is at stake. This culture, deranged by both spoken and unspoken imperatives, mocks the complexity of our loneliness, our spiritual hunger for dynamic meanings, our thirst for genuine human community, for good magic and good sense. And, given the growing heap of human wreckage, why not approach language and its transforming potential with the most tenacious eye, with a ferocity bordering on the psychotic? What the hell happened to the notion of poet as town crier, rabble rouser, shaman, court jester, priestess, visionary, madman?

Given the way things have gone, it’s almost impossible not to be overtaken by despair. Writing poems in SUV-America can feel like fiddling amidst catastrophe, but if one must fiddle shouldn’t one play that thing till it smokes? And in stirring the words with our tongues, our paws, our long nights, and the simmering tangle of our brains, maybe we could move our general kin to listen.

The mainstream discourse is dominated by pop muzak, murderously repetitive police dramas, spineless newscasts, insipid movies, and simple-minded talk-shows. Even if we, as poets, do find ourselves regularly locked in the attic, we assist in our own erasure if we accept this gag without a fight, without trying to make poems whose clarity and relevance can’t be denied. I have grown sick to death of meeting people who say they don’t like poetry, can’t understand poetry, when they probably haven’t read any since high school when they were offered a few leaden standards whose anemic music was further muted by a number of teachers who taught the poems lovelessly in a “unit,” then gave a test. And it goes on and on. Why act as if this were just the way it is, as if there were little we– as poets– could do to renovate the house of living words. Maybe we could measure more critically the distance that separates us from, say, a non-academic audience. Maybe we can speak more irresistibly, more often, and to more people, unless the prevailing lack of essential speech has so defeated us that we’ve simply decided to die quietly at our desks. I can’t believe this is the case, and I can’t stop thinking that good poems– in a kind of chorus on the loose– could comprise a general invitation to a much needed wakefulness.

A lot of people are starving for better light to see by, searching as they are in the well-worn shadows. At the very least, poetry could be one tasty dish in a much needed feast: we should serenade those who don’t know poems, who fear poems, who don’t trust words that ask them to step into new sensations and unsanctioned territories. We should pursue them as though we are love-struck and cannot help it. I’m only half-kidding. How else can people enlarge their grasp of what being alive means? And why else are we here? The alternative– stoically scratching our heads while the world burns down– is simply too degrading to the helpful purpose of language and to our lives as people who work to illuminate the possibilities of consciousness.

I think about being in America, being a citizen and poet living in the American Empire, home of truly virulent strains of racism, sexism, moneyism– and now, a wildly aggressive nationalism which may force us to live with war and its omnivorous machinery for far longer than the Bush Regime holds sway. Why write as if the socio-political atmosphere doesn’t have direct bearing on how everyone makes it through each day? Isn’t bad news a kind of weather, a surging storm we lean into every time we open our eyes? The intricacies of our various travels between optimism and cynicism are utterly shaped by the society we inhabit– and the delight or rage each of us lives with hour by hour defines our style of travel, the tenor of our lives. The growing presence of the zombie must be a sign that for many it’s simply better to be blind than to see and respond to the world that surrounds us.

Doesn’t a working Democracy require a full-hearted willingness to voice everything, to insist upon a chance for the most hopeful outcomes? Isn’t the current prevalence of smiling apathy and timid speech an emblem of a whelming fascism? Whether this is driven by The State, The Church, The General Opinion, or all of these in concert doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be a member of a society famous for its massive yet poorly distributed wealth, its high-tech fire-power, its environmental stupidity, and its somnambulant, sports-loving population. And, if I must be a citizen in such a place, I certainly don’t want my poems to be in cahoots with the nightmare. Why should poems merely add quirky spice to a cultural medley that affirms a plague of perpetual consumption and really loud cheering?

I believe poetry can be proof that dynamic awareness is alive and kicking, a constant reminder to ourselves and to our fellow citizens that being alert, both inwardly and outwardly, rewards each person with more life? Doesn’t a good poem return each reader to that deeper sense of things, to that commonly muzzled vitality that can’t be bought off or shushed? I think being fully human demands this, demands poetry.

I say let the poems move in all ways; at least, then, we’ll have a chance to reach the bridge– and if we go mad let it be because we believed too much in the heart’s voice. Where else will we find the most cataclysmic wing of the imagination revealed in words? The dim-witted drowsiness that remains so pervasive is a sign of the gradual asphyxiation of the sweetest human yearnings, a kind of spiritual anorexia. Consider how much of our story we’ve already conceded to science and its robotic objectivism. Consider how the big religions seal our lips and drive the herd with that locked-down, self-congratulatory, God-says-what-we-say-He-says language. Perhaps even the realm of The Sacred might be rescued from dogma and returned to all of us in its broadest expanse– through poetry– if the poets dare to sing wilder hymns.

How else can we begin to free ourselves from the entrenched muck that is currently up to our necks? How can we learn how to live if the words don’t live with us? (A country that chatters with outrage over Janet Jackson’s breast, but remains all but silent about repeated displays of Saddam Hussein’s killed sons is a country to fear, indeed.) What strange, anesthetic winds have scoured the streets of this nation?

In a free society there is a central place for acute attentiveness, for uncompromising honesty and feeling– and for whatever inspires and sustains them. Enough tittering. Enough clever ballooning. Enough. There has to be a way to stop this dying, a way to make a literature that does more, a poetry with the kiss of a shark and the feet of a sparrow, a poetry at intervals beautiful then ruthless, friendly but full of useful delusions. If I lack the vision or if my own fear proves insurmountable I pray that those with the necessary instruments will soon bring the right noise.

– Tim Seibles
February 28, 2004


In 2011, the following things happened:

• A Tunisian street vendor immolates himself in protest of harassment and government corruption, starting "Arab Spring"
• Osama Bin Laden is murdered in a firefight with elite American forces at his Pakistan compound, then is quickly buried at sea in a stunning finale to a furtive decade on the run. 
• Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns that the future of the NATO military alliance is at risk because of European penny-pinching and a distaste for front-line combat. 
• Chinese President Hu Jintao uses his White House visit to acknowledge "a lot still needs to be done" to improve human rights in his nation accused of repressing its people. 
• AOL Inc. announces $315 million purchase of news website The Huffington Post.  
• Protesters swarm Wisconsin's capitol after Gov. Scott Walker proposes cutbacks in benefits and bargaining rights for public employees. 
• Obama approves the resumption of military trials at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ending a two-year ban.  
• Magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami strike Japan's northeastern coast, a combined disaster that will kill nearly 20,000 people and cause grave damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. 
• Portugal becomes the third debt-stressed European country to need a bailout, following Ireland and Greece; prime minister announces request.
•  Obama makes four-hour visit to Puerto Rico, the first president since John F. Kennedy to make an official visit to the U.S. territory. 
• Rupert Murdoch's media empire unexpectedly jettisons News of the World, Britain's best-selling Sunday newspaper, after a public backlash over claims it used phone hacking and other illegal tactics to expose the rich and famous, royals and ordinary citizens.  The scandal escalates with the arrest of Murdoch's former British newspaper chief and the resignation of London's police commissioner. Prime Minister David Cameron calls a special session of Parliament to address the scandal; Murdoch will testify that he's humbled but accepts no responsibility.
• Citing a "gulf between the political parties," credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgrades U.S. debt for the first time since assigning the nation's AAA rating in 1917. 
• Federal jury convicts three New Orleans police officers, a former officer and a retired sergeant of civil rights violations in the 2005 shooting deaths of a teenager and a mentally disabled man crossing a bridge following Hurricane Katrina.  
• Afghan insurgents down a U.S. military helicopter, killing 30 Americans and eight Afghan commandos, the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-old war. 
•  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will ask the U.N. Security Council next week to endorse his people's decades-long quest for statehood but emphasizes that he does not seek to isolate or delegitimize Israel. 
• A demonstration calling itself Occupy Wall Street begins in New York, within weeks prompting similar protests around the U.S. and the world. Perceived economic unfairness is behind the frequent chant, "We are the 99 percent."
• Vladimir Putin's decision to reclaim the Russian presidency next year foreshadows a continuation of the strongman rule that many in the West call a retreat from democracy. 
• After 46 seasons as Penn State's head football coach and a record 409 victories, Joe Paterno is fired, along with the university president, over their handling of child sex abuse allegations against former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky; two top university officials step down following grand jury indictments. 
• The flag used by U.S. forces in Iraq was lowered in a Baghdad airport ceremony marking the end of a war that left 4,500 Americans and 110,000 Iraqis dead and cost more than $800 billion.

In 2012, the following things have happened, are happening or will happen:

• A fire in a Honduran prison kills more than 250 inmates, starting a call for reforms in that country
• French Election
• Mexican General Election
• Egyptian Presidential Election
• The United States General Election

So, my question is, if one accepts Seibles' arguments, that "Writing poems in SUV-America can feel like fiddling amidst catastrophe, but if one must fiddle shouldn’t one play that thing till it smokes?", then what poems have you written about these events or others that have happened? How are you, as a poet, writing poems that are not " in cahoots with the nightmare" and how are you getting them into the hands of the public?

How 2 Be a POET

Learn how to be a poet!

...but then, if that doesn't work for you, maybe you should take Matt Groening's advice-- complete with test!-- How To Be a Sensitive Poet.


(sigh. I miss Life in Hell )

Former Clevelander Maureen McHugh For The Win

Former Clevelander Maureen McHugh For the Win

2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners

Boston, MA (July 2012) -- The 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards winners were announced on Sunday, July 15th 2012, at Readercon 23, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts. Congratulations to all winners!

A video of the awards ceremony can be viewed here (Credit: Phil Merkel).

Previous years' winners can be found here: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.

NOVEL

WINNER:

Witches on the Road Tonight, Sheri Holman (Grove Press)

Finalists:

• The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday)
• The Dracula Papers, Reggie Oliver (Chômu Press)
• The Great Lover, Michael Cisco (Chômu Press)
• Knock Knock, S. P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media)
• The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (Canongate Books, Ltd.-UK / Alfred A. Knopf-US)

NOVELLA

WINNER:

“Near Zennor,” Elizabeth Hand (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)

Finalists:

• “And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living,” Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
• “A Child’s Problem,” Reggie Oliver (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
• “Displacement,” Michael Marano (Stories from the Plague Years, Cemetery Dance Publications)
• The Men Upstairs, Tim Waggoner (Delirium Books)
• “Rose Street Attractors,” Lucius Shepard (Ghosts by Gaslight, Harper Voyager)

NOVELETTE

WINNER:

“The Summer People,” Kelly Link (Tin House 49/Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Candlewick Press)

Finalists:

• “The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine,” Peter Straub (Conjunctions 56)
• “Ditch Witch,” Lucius Shepard (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “The Last Triangle,” Jeffrey Ford (Supernatural Noir, Dark Horse)
• “Omphalos,” Livia Llewellyn (Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Lethe Press)

SHORT FICTION

WINNER:

“The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece,” M. Rickert (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct, 2011)

Finalists:

• “Absolute Zero,” Nadia Bulkin (Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters, Prime Books)
• “Hair,” Joan Aiken (The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories, Small Beer Press/ The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug, 2011)
• “Max,” Jason Ockert (The Iowa Review 41/1)
• “Sunbleached,” Nathan Ballingrud (Teeth, HarperCollins)
• “Things to Know About Being Dead,” Genevieve Valentine (Teeth, HarperCollins)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION

WINNER:

After the Apocalypse: Stories, Maureen F. McHugh (Small Beer Press) 

Finalists:

• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)
• Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Livia Llewellyn (Lethe Press)
• The Janus Tree, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean Press)
• Red Gloves, Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing)
• What Wolves Know, Kit Reed (PS Publishing)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY

WINNER:

Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (Harper Voyager)

Finalists:

• Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)
• A Book of Horrors, edited by Stephen Jones (Jo Fletcher Books)
• Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)
• Teeth, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (HarperCollins)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (Harper Voyager)

 

Metaphors, Part 1

For some, the metaphor (a large title with includes not only traditional metaphor, but also simile and juxtaposition), is one of the defining qualities of poetry. Indeed, if one accuses or champions a prose writer or being "poetic," one of the first things they look at is the use of metaphor.

Ideally, a metaphor has two parts, a tenor and a vehicle. The tenor is the thing being discussed, and the vehicle is the object of comparison. Now, a metaphor usually is considered a direct comparison, i.e., "All men are pigs," while a simile is considered an indirect comparison, "All men are like pigs," and a juxtaposition is a forced comparison, where men and pigs would be placed so close to each other as to draw a comparison. Also, one must consider descriptive metaphors, i.e., "Men root around in the slop of their troughs, waddling on four cloven hooves, their tusks piercing the mud of their styes..." where the description implies a pig without actually saying "pig". But this is the stuff of Intro to Poetry courses, readily available in any textbook.

That being said, how exactly does a metaphor work? Most would argue that the vehicle should expose or open one's perception about the tenor. However, there are those who would argue that the vehicle also serves to limit or focus the tenor, exploring only particular aspects of the tenor which the poet wants to expose.

The questions I pose to readers:

1) What is your favorite metaphor, from poetry, prose, film, speech, music, etc.
2) How do you think that metaphor works?


I'll give an example that makes me seethe in jealousy every time I hear it:

"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar."

This simile, from Paul Simon's "Graceland" is beautiful on many levels. First off, the tenor is rich with musical implication--blues, rock and roll, jazz, gospel, etc. The fact that the title of this song is "Graceland," with all of it's Elvis connotations, as well as religious connotations, compiles more layers of implication and depth onto the tenor. Then, Simon uses a strong verb--shining (connotations of light, sunrise or sunset, brilliance, etc.)--and a musical vehicle to strengthen and open up those musical and religious connotations. The guitar is an instrument, which is played. What does it mean, therefore, for a guitar to not sing or make music, but to shine? What sort of music carries that connotation of light, and how does it stem from or relate to the Mississippi Delta? Again, both the secular and religious music of the American South is brought into play, as well as the influence of all that music on Elvis Presley. Listening to the full song, one realizes that "Graceland" itself becomes a vehicle, and leaves Memphis and becomes literally a land of grace, and possibly redemption, for the speaker.


So, what is your favorite metaphor and how does it work?

Closing in on closing submissions...

Burning River will be closing it's open month submission contest July 31st at midnight.  Judges, contest guidelines and terms listed at the site.

Burning River

Carry on...

Is Your Last Name Hill?

So, apparently, if your last name is "Hill," you get an automatic pass for the Forward poetry prize.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18855442

My question to readers of this blog is, has anyone read ANY of the books or authors listed? If so, what did you think? If not, have you even heard of them? I'm wondering if assignments aren't necessary. Pick five bloggers, have them each explore one of the nominees and go from there. Any takers?

A reading not to be missed.

A rare Ohio appearance by a truly extraordinary poet and performer.

“Leslie’s poems ring with lyric intensity and her readings are nothing shy of compelling.”
--Barbara Sabol

Emily Dickinson faces a Writers' Workshop

I'm a proponent of workshops.  But I'm not sure that they're doing Emily Dickinson good in this critique.
Still, I guess Miss Emily wasn't completely hopeless:
"I'd like to see you bring this through the workshop again."

Always end with encouragement, that's it.

But still, in another critique, she should pay attention about correct fonts-- handwritten just doesn't do it.  And,
"Almost all of your writing is about death. Could you lighten up?  ...your self-esteem needs a boost. Have you thought about therapy, Em?"

Podcast Poetry goes to the Moon

StarShipSofa is a science fiction podcast, but they also sometimes feature "Poetry Planet," edited by Diane Severson, a segment on speculative and science fiction poetry.  Today's StarshipSofa features Poetry Planet number six, featuring poetry about the moon (and with a couple of my poems, including one of my haiku as the starting poem).

(If you want to go directly to the poetry, it starts at 43 minutes in).

It's the End of the World! What a Buzz Kill!

Dianne Borsenik just edited an anthology of end-of-the-world poetry, Buzzkill: Apocalypse, which just came out as a chapbook from Night Ballet press.

Night Ballet is the new kid on the block in the way of Cleveland-area poetry presses, establishing a presence with a series of broadsides, and now branching out into collections.  This is their first, but likely not last!, theme collection.

My theory is that the Mayans are simply going to turn over to the next page of their calendar... but, ever since Frost (heck, probably Milton), the end of the world has been subject to poetry.  So check out Buzzkill-- ten bucks will get you a copy.  It's the end of the world!

Budimir This Friday

Milenko (Miles) Budimir will be reading this Friday, June 29th at Gypsy Beans & Baking Co. (6425 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44102) as part of the Shoreway Poets Open Mic roughly after 6:30 p.m.

A lot of work went into his recently released chapbook Departures (as well as the open mic.) He will be reading from the collection with copies currently available at the event, the above link and Mac's Backs in Coventry.

The topic of poetry contests, their fees and what a poet receives for a specific fee, is one that it often discussed in the poetry community (here and here on our own blog as examples). However, these contests are not the only ones available to the poetry community.

For example, the Science Fiction Poetry Association is currently offering a free contest with a $50 prize plus publication in three different categories. Check out the details here.

Locally, and more immediately, the Writing Knights Grand Tournament is a FREE contest with both a book prize and chapbook prize for winners. Local poets who have a book or chapbook manuscript ready to go and looking for a publisher should check out the contest here. Rumor has it there are very few entries--many less than expected--this year, so odds are good for publication.

What other contests are folks submitting to? How do folks feel about contests with fees or negligible fees? How about contests that guarantee a prize of sorts?

Tension in Poetry

 Grace Curtis talks about tension in poetry.

Poet and critic James Orley Allen Tate defined the term in 1938, saying


"I proposed as descriptive of that achievement, the term tension. I am using the term not as a general metaphor, but as a special one, derived from lopping the prefixes off the logical terms extension and intension. What I am saying, of course, is that the meaning of poetry is its 'tension,' the full organized body of all the extension and intension that we can find in it."


Does poetry need tension?  Is tension merely extension and intension, without the ex-in?  Discuss!

• Article by James Orley Allen Tate (in .doc format) Tension in Poetry

New US poet laureate Natasha Trethewey

So, we now have a new US poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey.  Comments, anybody?

According to the Mercury News, she is "the nation's first poet laureate to hail from the South since the initial one—Robert Penn Warren—was named by the Library of Congress in 1986."

Some selected poems.

Reviews in Unlikely Places

Most writers hope for reviews. (Particularly good ones!) All the online sellers post them, but the public has become skeptical, especially when the reviewer is clearly the author in disguise or a close associate. This month, I found out that my latest novel is being reviewed by a regional sailing magazine. It was quite a surprise, since I don't know these people! On the other hand, reviews have never seemed to have much impact on sales. This may be a test case because it is not aimed at the writer's market, but at sailors who may be looking for a summer read. Time will tell if reviews in unlikely places will prove more significant than those in the familiar ones! Here's the link to the online version:

Breaking news from the Onion

News reports at The Onion, "America's finest news source," state that "Shadows meet the clouds, Gray on gray, Like dusty charcoal on an ashen brow", according to eye-witness poets.


Shadows Meet The Clouds, Gray On Gray, Like Dusty Charcoal On An Ashen Brow, Nation's Poets Report

Grandfather's dirty pictures

 

She looked at me like someone who has just solved the crossword puzzle with a shrewd ``Emu'' in the top right hand corner.

-- the Wodehouse random quote generator

Grandfather's dirty pictures  typewriter erotica in the 1920s. (NSFW-ish.) 

A camera that takes word pictures, by the designer Matt Richardson

MoMA's 'Dial-A-Poem' Brings You Ecstatic Language On The Go

A new installation at the Museum of Art in New York, titled, "Dial-a-Poem" brings ecstatic poetry to you online or over the phone at any time of the day or nigh

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2012/ecstaticalphabets/dial-a-poem/

We are pleased to announce the BIG BRIDGE 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! including Cuyahoga Burning, edited by Jonathan Penton:

http://www.bigbridge.org/BB16/bios/editors.htm

...the sheer number of poets now plying their craft inevitably ensures moderation and safety. The national (or even transnational) demand for a certain kind of prize-winning, “well-crafted” poem—a poem that the New Yorker would see fit to print and that would help its author get one of the “good jobs” advertised by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs—has produced an extraordinary uniformity.---

From Marjorie Perloff’s essay, “Poetry on the Brink,”recently published in the Boston Review,

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/marjorie_perloff_poetry_lyric_reinvention.php

When my mother was very old and in a nursing home, she surprised me one day toward the end of her life by asking me if I still wrote poetry. When I blurted out that I still do, she stared at me with incomprehension. I had to repeat what I said, till she sighed and shook her head, probably thinking to herself this son of mine has always been a little nuts. Now that I’m in my seventies, I’m asked that question now and then by people who don’t know me well. Many of them, I suspect, hope to hear me say that I’ve come my senses and given up that foolish passion of my youth and are visibly surprised to hear me confess that I haven’t yet. They seem to think there is something downright unwholesome and even shocking about it, as if I were dating a high school girl, at my age, and going with her roller-skating that night...

Charles Simic wrote this post on the New York Review of Books blog explaining why he still writes poems.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/may/15/why-i-still-write-poetry/

Charles Bukowski on depression, withdrawal, and creativity

Poetry in Britain

http://www.granta.com/New-Writing/Poetry-in-Britain

Iain Sinclair visits Gary Snyder at his retreat in the woods.

“I shot the serif. (But I did not shoot the sans-serif.)” A first-person-shooter typography game.

The right words never find themselves cut into stone.” Montana poet Richard Hugo’s “grave poems.” 

 

 

 

Dictionary Game Round 5

Dictionary Game Round 5

Now that Jim Stanley has demonstrated how to be whimsical and capricious in the extreme, by failing to comment humorously on all the definitions to entertain us, and by failing to provide the correct definition, as well as stabbing me in the back by selecting my entry as the 'winner', the new word is:

bottomry

Famous In the Neighborhood

Poetry Back in the Woods
7pm Tuesday June 12

Famous In the Neighborhood: The Final Cut
Daniel Thompson-a Life on Film
Enjoy the new, colorful 45 minute documentary about the life of Daniel Thompson, the late great poet laureate of Cuyahoga county.

Produced by Gail and Eric Buchbinder, Jim Wolpaw, Barry Zucker and Michael Bradley
Reservations are suggested by calling 216-991-2421

Bertram Woods Branch
20600 Fayette Road
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
www.shakerlibrary.org

Here's a pic of this year's Hessler Street Fair Poetry Contest winners.

Honorable Mention Kevin Frederick Smith - 4th place S Renay Sanders - 3rd place Nancy Nixon - 2nd place Carla Thompson - 1st place B M Stroud.

The cat is out of the bag.

From Greg Pincus - Outting all us poets

Hessler Reading Wednesday!

Heads up, everybody!  The readings for the Hessler Street Fair poetry contest are coming up this Wednesday, 7pm, at Mac's Backs in Coventry!

This will be an impressive evening of Cleveland's top poets-- Neopoets has the line up:

• Vicki Acquah
• Lynne Albert
• JP Armstrong
• Mickey Bey
• Dianne Borsenik
• Jeffrey Bowen
• Steve Brightman
• C.M. Brooks
• Skylark Bruce
• John B. Burroughs
• Shelley Chernin
• Joanne Cornelius
• Catherine D. Criswell
• Katie Cutshaw
• Lisa Dabrowski
• Christine Donofrio
• Kaolin Fire
• Elise Geither
• Michael Goldstein
• T.M. Göttl
• Anita Herczog
• Dwain Higgins
• Christine Howey
• Steven Isenberg
• Clarissa Jakobsons
• Azriel Johnson
• Jacob King
• Mark Kuhar
• Geoffrey A. Landis
• Melissa Rose Leach
• Cate Mullen
• Nancy Nixon
• Marilyn Oliveras de Ortiz
• Jen Pezzo
• Tina Puckett
• Michael Salinger
• S. Renay Sanders
• Kevin Frederick Smith
• Wanda Sobieska
• J.E. Stanley
• Dave Stringer
• BM Stroud
• Carla Thompson
• Sarah Tolfo
• Mary A. Turzillo
• Paige Ward
• Batya Weinbaum
• Eva Xanthopoulos

That's one heck of a poetic line-up!

Readings will be held on the evening of Wednesday, May 9th @ 7pm at Mac’s Backs Books on Coventry. About 20 minutes after all poets have read, the winners will be announced and prizes will be handed out.

Can't make the reading Wednesday?  The winning poets will read at the Hessler Street Fair main stage on Sunday May 20th.  And, all the poets listed will have their poems in the 2012 Hessler Street Fair anthology-- get your copy at Mac's Backs, or at the Mac's Backs booth at the fair, for only $8.00-- a bargain!

The Hessler Street Fair adds: "Special thanks to Joshua Gage and Vertigo X. Xavier for putting the 2012 Hessler Street Fair Anthology together and conducting the reading. Our sincere appreciation is extended to Suzanne DeGaetano at Mac’s Backs for hosting the reading and her ongoing support of the Hessler Street Fair."

Round Four: Dictionary Game

The word for this round is "actazerity."

Consulting the New Oxford KretZikan Dictionary is strictly forbidden.

Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry

Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry

Like many of the rural members of Mirman Baheer, a women’s literary society based in Kabul, the girl calls whenever she can, typically in secret. She reads her poems aloud to Amail, who transcribes them line by line. To conceal her poetry writing from her family, the girl relies on a pen name, Meena Muska. (Meena means “love” in the Pashto language; muska means “smile.”) 

Meena lost her fiancé last year, when a land mine exploded. According to Pashtun tradition, she must marry one of his brothers, which she doesn’t want to do. She doesn’t dare protest directly, but reciting poetry to Amail allows her to speak out against her lot. When I asked how old she was, Meena responded in a proverb: “I am like a tulip in the desert. I die before I open, and the waves of desert breeze blow my petals away.” She wasn’t sure of her age but thought she was 17. “Because I am a girl, no one knows my birthday,” she said.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/why-afghan-women-risk-death-to-write-poetry.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all