Poetry Hut Blog

Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Program
Fall 2007

Monday, October 1, 2007, 8 p.m., Buttrick 102, poet Robin Becker, author of Domain of Perfect Affection.

Friday, October 12, 3 p.m., Buttrick 101, Faculty Reading, Alumni Reunion Weekend: poets Beth Bachmann, Kate Daniels, and Mark Jarman, and novelists Tony Earley, Lorraine Lopez, and Alice Randall.

Wednesday, October 31, 8 p.m., Wilson 126, novelist Robin Lippincott, author of In the Meantime.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007, poet Kate Light, author of Gravity‘ Dream. (A performance of Ms. Light‘ “Einstein‘ Mozart” by the Blair String Quarter will be performed at The Blair School of Music‘ Turner Recital Hall, Monday, November 12, at 8 p.m.)

more

I’ll totally be at both of those Kate Light events. Her poetry is great. Plus Einstein & Mozart and my favorite meter, dactyls. Whoo.

Saturday, September 15, 2007 11 a.m. ““ 5 p.m.

First Church Unity, 5125 Franklin Road.

Join us for a day of meditation, teachings, contemplative exercises, music, yoga and more.

Everyone is welcome: the curious, newcomers and experienced practitioners.

Free admission. Rain or shine.

Please join us for our opening ceremony at 11 a.m. There will be a special, interdenominational “Meditation for the Cultivation of Peace.” [more]

***

Schedule:

11:00 Opening: 108 invitations of the gong

11:10 Welcome: Master of Ceremonies

11:15 Cultivating Peace Meditation

11:40 Lisa Ernst (One Dharma Nashville)

12:10 Rev. Taiun Michael Elliston, Sensei (Nashville Zen Center)

12:40 Kali Yuga Yoga

1:00 First Coordinator Panel

1:35 Skip Ewing (Nashville Mindfulness Center)

2:05 Music Performance: Kindling Stone

2:30 Ven. Bhante Nyanasobhano (Nashville Insight Center)

3:00 Acharya David Schneider (Shambhala Nashville)

3:30 12 South Yoga

3:50 Second Coordinator Panel

4:25 Ven. Ashin U Pannasiha (Nashville Insight Center)

4:50 Gratitude and encouragement: Master of Ceremonies

4:55 Closing: 108 invitations of the gong

Buddhist fest lets Nashville in on the secret of inner peace

Change Your Mind Day 2007

Poetry News:

1. — The [Washington] state Arts Commission is taking applications for the job of poet laureate —
2. — An ex-soldier’s take on recent war poetry —
3. — in giving MacNolia a voice, the poet, A. Van Jordan, deals with the subject of balancing our love —
4. — The poems aren’t irreverent ““ they don’t mock the grave or its tenant ““ but some of them do seem, well, a touch indiscreet —
5. — we are less willing to be repulsive and repugnant in our poems, so caught up in our quest for linguistic and emotional beauty and earnestness —
6. — Student safety, creative rights clash [and Bob Hicok's poem about VA Tech] —
7. — Wilkes receives approval for MFA in creative writing —
8. — Almost single-handedly, as poet, editor and propagandist, he had engineered a “Scots Renaissance” in literature —

hahahahahahahaha — this is great. (and WTF?)

Poetry News:

1. — The mystery of how we read a sentence has been unlocked by scientists —
2. — In recent years literary research has come to focus more and more on visual forms, and digital poetry brings to a head this concern with the visual —
3. — To the Death…May the Best Writer Win —
4. — Poetcast: September 10th, 2007 New work by Kim Addonizio [links to MP3]—
5. — Alison Lurie on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [contains spoilers] —
6. — Paging David Lynch —
7. — True to its title, Sean O’Brien’s latest collection oozes water —
8. — Nashville: Poet Robin Becker to read at Vanderbilt on Oct. 1 —
9. — I like that phrase - “Lucky Camera” —

Ugh — I had to tell Darryl that Joe Zawinul died. (One of his musical heroes.) Wow, 2007 has been a rough year for musicians — Maynard Ferguson, Michael Brecker, Pavarotti, Max Roach, and Joe Zawinul have died. Here is a video of Joe Zawinul with Cannonball Adderly, way before Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate. He’s even playing an acoustic piano

(link)

Discussion board is open. This is kind of an experiment. If folks don’t use it, spammers abuse it greatly, or people are degenerate, I’ll delete it. I don’t have much time to fool with it so it is just there to sink or swim. That is a cranky way of saying welcome, LOL. Have at it.

Poetry News:

1. — Joe Zawinul, jazz musician behind Bitches Brew, dies at 75 —
2. — Number of these [books sold in the USA] that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000 [link good for a few days] —
3. — ‘Uncanny coincidences’ lead police to explore Taslima angle to Hyderabad [bombings] —
4. — A thinking parrot’s loving good-bye —
5. — Poets with local ties honored [ congrats Amanda ]—
6. — Scandalous poem, novelized —
7. — look down this list of 10 words, choose seven of them, and immediately write a poem incorporating those seven words and your warped catchphrase or proverb —
8. — Jarman to read from new book at APSU —
9. — Anne Sexton: Teacher of Weird Abundance [link good for a few days] —

Does anybody have any tips about teaching someone the idea of stressed /unstressed syllables? Ironically, I had a hard time getting this across to my adult literacy student last time. (Totally my fault.)

When I saw Hairspray: the Musical (a while ago), the theater also showed a trailer for the forthcoming Beatles-based musical/music-video-thing, Across the Universe. Alright already, Baby Boomers — I get it! The ’60s were revolutionary. Sheesh. Oh and there are Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin biopics forthcoming too and Oliver Stone is doing another Vietnam movie.

Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Tool

There are 69 Poets born between 1931 and 1940

There are 112 Poets born between 1941 and 1950

There are 61 Poets born between 1951 and 1960

There are 10 Poets born between 1961 and 1970 (My generation — I’ll be 40 next month)

There are 0 Poets born between 1971 and 2007 Sorry, 36-year-olds!

Of course, there isn’t enough information to be statistically significant, really, but it does make me laugh. Har. Hee.

Epilogue:

A blogger (?) 20 years from now:

“When I saw Movie X, the theater (?) also showed a trailer for the forthcoming U2-based musical/music-video-thing, With or Without You. Alright already, Generation X — I get it! The ’80s were [I can't think of anything except "crappy"]. Sheesh. Oh and there are Joe Strummer and Ronald Reagan biopics forthcoming too and Oliver Stone is doing another Vietnam movie.

Just some poems today:

1. — Lorine Niedecker “When Ecstasy is Inconvenient” —
2. — Mary Ruefle “From A Little White Shadow” —
3. — Muriel Rukeyser “Metaphor to Action” —
4. — Susan Howe “From Hinge Picture” —
5. — Wislawa Szymborska “Consolation” —

Poetry News:

1. — Podcast options aplenty for poetry [ congrats Thom ] —
2. — Poets Resort to Guerilla Marketing —
3. — On the same day, “Verses,” DiFranco’s first published collection of poems and lyrics, will be released —
4. — Would-be authors say they were let down; ‘vanity’ publisher says business went bad —
5. — Responses to the anthology question from last week —
6. — I Demand to Speak with God by Kay Ryan —
7. — A rookie poet might fear to write poems that included the names of other poets, as though the life of art were not quite part of life —
8. — Coalition Aims to Expose Shakespeare —
9. — hmmmm —

What kind of bizarro world have we stepped into?

Poetry News:

1. — Poetry as Right-Hemispheric Language —
2. — “There certainly isn”™t enough genuine talent for us to take notice” —
3. — Poet John Donne was a compulsive conceit practitioner —
4. — The correspondence started after Schillaci submitted poems for publication in a now-defunct University of New Hampshire literary magazine —
5. — This remarkable true story is recounted in a new book, The Zookeeper’s Wife, by naturalist, poet and essayist Diane Ackerman —
6. — The war against Hitler was barely a year old before newspapers began asking: Where are the war poets? —
7. — Call for submissions on the literary grotesque - the monstrous, the unusual, the abnormal —
8. — a lot was taken from the single Graham lines I listed —
9. — Artists often think of their creations as brain-children, plucked from the air. But perhaps a work of art is closer to actual offspring. —
10. — I am sad but he had a good life I guess. —
11. — Muslim cleric demands Taslima be driven out sighgh —

I may work in a grim cubicle but at least it is not orange. I wonder what the suicide rate was for folks who worked in those? By 10:02am everything would be vibrating and spots would be floating in front of the monochrome CRT displays.

In 1973, basically the population of the entire lower-peninsula of Michigan was poisoned with Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs). Sadly there isn’t much in Wikipedia about this. It was a chemical-based disaster in which cows were fed tainted feed — “Firemaster” flame-retardant accidentally got shipped with a cattle feed supplement called “Nutrimaster.” A dairy farmer, Frederic Halbert, (who fortunately had an MS in Chemical Engineering) tried to get the state to realize um, something is wrong with the feed, & they didn’t really listen to him at first. But he didn’t give up, thank gawd. But in the meantime everyone was drinking the milk, etc. Once the magnitude of everything became clear, Michigan asked the Federal Government to help out — $$$ — & it refused. Hard to believe, nowadays. I don’t know whatever happened with that.

I’m reading a book about it, Bitter Harvest, out of print 0-8028-7039-2. My Uncle’s dairy farm was quarantined I think? I’ll have to ask my dad; perhaps that is my imagination. But it was one of those haunting childhood things for me — thousands of bloated, frozen, hoove-up-dead-cows-in-the-snow on TV, alongside images of Vietnam …

… and so began my distrust of the government hahahaha. What’s that, Senator Clinton? The government intricately involved with my healthcare? No. No thank you. hahahaha.

There are thousands of PBB cows, chickens, etc buried in a big clay-lined pit in Kalkaska, Michigan and in Mio, Michigan. And PBBs all over the place. But people are working on it and maybe poetry is helping them a little bit?

Poetry News:

1. — Ravens Lead Rescuers To Missing Oregon Woman [ thanks Jessica ]—
2. — Warrior poet’s story is one of hope, dogged determination —
3. — “Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L”™Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer. [and her Newberry Award Acceptance Speech] —
4. — NPR Affiliate to Feature Poet and Prof. Eugene Gloria Sunday —
5. — In this interview, Barbara Jane Reyes tells us what it‘ like to be a Filipino poet writing about her homeland in San Francisco —
6. — Program Brings Poetry to Mass Transit Systems —
7. — Professor uncovers poet‘ darker side —
8. — How Do You Survive The Tough Times As A Writer? —
9. — “I knew what to expect because I truly trust Emily Dickinson. She‘ been right so many times before.” —

some links above were found here http://poetry.about.com/b/a/257441.htm

Someone that I know, who has (sometimes) prophetic dreams (that I can vouch for), would like you to know that you should be careful at the grocery store, Americans. Take a sec to see where all the exits are. Might be prescient might not be prescient but I am putting it out there for said person and that is all I’m going to say on the matter. Nothing is ever written in stone, anyway.

Now I have tinnitus & lost much of the hearing in my right ear. I hope it comes back when this infection clears up. As a child, I was partially deaf for a long while (~40% hearing loss) and was put in the “retard” class for a while — that’s what everyone called it back then — & then they realized oh she can’t hear anymore, and I had an operation.

Another photo from my family member in Baghdad. Another guy in my family member’s Company died yesterday. I don’t know how many people are in a Company. I’ll delete this file in a couple days:

[redacted]

Oh, Gen. Petraeus wrote a letter to the troops.

Hmmm. I may do a proposal for this. Email me if you would like to collaborate on something. Also if you like have a couch for me to sleep on in DC March 20-23, 2008 hahahaha.

Dear Friends,

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness is just six months away, March 20-23, 2008. We”™ve loved hearing from so many of you, learning about the important work you”™re doing in your communities around the country, and we”™re thrilled with the amount of excitement the festival is generating.

Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. The guidelines are pasted below and will be available for download from the website at
www.splitthisrock.org next week. The deadline is December 1, 2007. Please forward this notice widely and send us your ideas ““ we can”™t wait to read them.

HUGE THANKS!

All the best and onward to 2008,

Sarah Browning and the Coordinating Committee of Split This Rock

**

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

CALL FOR PANEL DISCUSSION PROPOSALS

Split This Rock calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national community of activist poets. Building the audience for poetry of provocation and witness from our home in the nation‘ capital, we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness

March 20-23, 2008, Washington, DC

Split This Rock Poetry Festival will bring poets and writers to Washington DC on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, in the midst of the presidential election. The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism, and walking tours - opportunities to build community, hone our activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change. To read more about the festival, see our website at: www.splitthisrock.org.

In addition to featured readings by guest poets, Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us. Let‘ talk about craft, let‘ talk about mentoring young poets, let‘ talk about working in prisons, connecting with the activist community, sustaining ourselves in dark times, the role of poetry in wartime. Let‘ remember great poet activists and discover new, let‘ think international, visual, collaborative, out of the box.

A panel may consist of 3-4 persons, with one person designated as facilitator. Please title your panel and include brief biographical information for each participant, along with a two paragraph description of your panel”what are the questions you wish to explore”why is this conversation timely and necessary at this time”how will this panel further the goals of Split This Rock? How are the members of your panel uniquely qualified to lead a conversation on your proposed topic?

We have a strong interest in interactive conversation and community building, so please indicate how you will involve participants in the discussion.

Please note that panel presenters must register for Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Some scholarships will be available. There is no limit to the number of proposals you may send, but please be sure that all proposed presenters have agreed to be part of your proposed panel. Also, we are a small, mostly volunteer group, so please send only your favorite ideas.

Send proposals in the body of an email to: info@splitthisrock.org by December 1, 2007. Please include full contact information for yourself and all proposed panel presenters. Please use the attached form. Just copy the questions into an email and paste your answers in. Please be sure to save a copy of your proposal, as emails do sometimes go astray. We will acknowledge receipt of your proposal, with a timeline for hearing back.

Questions? Email us at info@splitthisrock.org. We look forward to reading your proposal!

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

PANEL DISCUSSION PROPOSAL FORM

PANEL TITLE:

Convener/Facilitator Name:

Mailing Address:

Email Address:

Phone:

Participant Name:

Mailing Address:

Email Address:

Phone:

Participant Name:

Mailing Address:

Email Address:

Phone:

Participant Name:

Mailing Address:

Email Address:

Phone:

1. Please include a one paragraph bio for each participant.

2. Please describe in 250 words or less the purpose of your panel.

3. Describe your method for involving festival participants in the panel.

**

Support Split This Rock ““ click here to make a secure tax-deductible donation. Be sure to designate Split This Rock as the recipient of your gift. Many thanks!

**

Sarah Browning

Coordinator

Split This Rock Poetry Festival

c/o Institute for Policy Studies

1112 16th Street, NW, Suite 600

Washington, DC 20036

browning@splitthisrock.org

www.splitthisrock.org

http://sarahbrowning.blogspot.com/

202-787-5210

Poetry News:

1. — Pavarotti’s Death Gets Little Attention in Italy —
2. — The name “troubadour” likely comes from trobar, which means “to invent or compose verse” —
3. — Changing of the literary guard - UM appoints creative writing director —
4. — Benedetti worries about small-press publications … —
5. — Acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, a visiting professor at Fisk University this semester, will begin a community writers’ workshop Monday, school officials said today. —
6. — The camera lingers over a pitted surface, haunted by the ghosts of indecipherable letters —
7. — Blame It on Shakespeare —

Mickey is blogging! He’s posting vignettes & drawings.

See you next week. (Monster ear infection — got some Cipro ear drops. I haven’t had antibiotics in years.)

Poetry News:

1. — “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead” —
2. — G. C. Waldrep Blood Ruminant [link found here thank you] —
3. — Woman visits her own heart at exhibition —
4. — Don’t blame Bukowski for bad poetry —
5. — A Fiddle Pulled from the Throat of a Sparrow by Noah Eli Gordon —
6. — John Walsh reports on an extraordinary literary discovery that reveals the troubled adolescence of a poetic genius —
7. — Gibbon could not have chosen a more appropriate opening for this collection which is, at times, painfully visceral —

So I think: what kind of bizarro world have we stepped into? And the next day I think what kind of bizarro world have we stepped into? Tomorrow I will think: what kind of bizarro world have we stepped into?

My dad’s mother, Theresa Korte, her dad’s ancestors came to the USA from Schönholthausen, Prussia in the 1800s. So I looked in WikiPedia and got that translation. Very funny.

I was a Grand Prize winner in last year’s contest at Chronogram. They sent this email regarding this year’s contest:

Perhaps the true test of the enduring power of a great literary work is whether it can survive its incarnation”complete with pom-poms, falling chandeliers, and aggressively perky singers in spandex”as a Broadway musical. When last we looked, Big River had not dislodged The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its pedestal; on the other hand, most of our friends and neighbors can more readily mangle a tune from Man of La Mancha than provide a cogent exegesis of the Cervantes novel on which it was based. As for Cats, well.

For this year‘ HUMOR CONTEST, we invite you to create titles for the Broadway musical versions of classic works of literature that Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, et al have heretofore overlooked. Please provide a title and, for extra credit, a few representative songs,
e.g.:

Crack Your Cheeks!
King Lear, the musical
(”Oh Fool, Who‘ Fooling Who Now?” “Poor Tom‘ A”™Cool”)

The Ring and I
Lord of the Rings, the musical
(”These Are a Few of My Favorite Rings,” “They Call the Mines Moria”)

Bye-Bye Bertie
Jeeves and Wooster, the musical
(”Springtime for Butler,” “Gussie Fink-Nottle Keeps Newts in a Bottle”)

Contest judges are Mikhail Horowitz and Nina Shengold, and winning entries will appear in the Literary Supplement of the November issue. Winners receive a Chronogram tee-shirt, suitable for wearing or framing. Contest deadline is October 1. Please send entries (no more than three per person, please!) to fiction@chronogram.com or Humor Contest, Chronogram, 314 Wall Street, Kingston NY 12401.

Poetry News:

1. — Could the poets have been right all these millennia? —
2. — Marianne Moore makes an appearance in an article on the 50th anniversary of the Edsel. —
3. — Maxine Kumin’s Still to Mow should come with a warning label —
4. — The decline of the coverage of books isn”™t new, benign, or necessary —
5. — Are these random anthologies valid? —
6. — An X-ray of a girl‘ stomach inspires students in search of a career to dream of the stars —
7. — Coney Island’s ‘Eak the Geek’ goes to law school —

DIAGRAM is fresh.

The lack of rain here is getting to me, sorry. This weekend I talked to my sister, in Arizona, and she said yeah when she moved out there it got to her too. And still does. I now know, definitively, that I absolutely could not live in a desert. If it doesn’t rain this week I’m going to have to take a break, seriously.

Have you ever taken the Myer Briggs? What is your type? I took that in college (twice) and some other tests to see what careers would be a good match. I kept getting “military officer” or “clergy” hahaha. At times I do seem to have a sign on my forehead that makes even strangers in the grocery store want to confess to me & expect some sort of absolution. It is very strange.

My sister got “circus performer.” (LOL. From that Strong test, for careers.) And so did my friend Chris.

I’m trying to guess your Myer Briggs type, fellow bloggers but it is hard since I don’t really know you. Just your blog. Maybe blogs should have MBTIs ha & I am just trying to type your blog ha.

I think Anne is the same as me because we mentioned this before a long time ago if I remember right so I will guess INFJ. We have that library school thing in common, anyway.

Collin seems like he has some extroverted kick-ass organizational skills going on. I would guess some kind of E–J. ESFJ?

My friend Carol and I are like totally opposite so I think ESTP ha.

Reb, too. We seem like the opposite too.

My friend Jessica and I are a lot alike but I would guess ENFP.

Hmm. The doctors. That is hard because I know they are Drs. and that is influencing my guesses — Peter I would guess as ISFJ because he seems to like to be low-profile and C Dale ISFP because his external environment seems important to him.

Jeffrey I would guess ISTJ because of those magazine lists. And a separate recipe section.

You can tell me if I am full of shit - and I probably am. hahahahah

I’ll guess more if I do better than what random guesses would figure out to be.