Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — their estimates of one or two poets, notably John Gould Fletcher, are horrifyingly kind, and of one or two others, notably Laura Riding, apparently insensible —
2. — Members of the public will choose the verses from a list before picking up the cab at an agreed location and time —
3. — Queens faculty readings in January —
4. — Main Street Rag Publishing Company will publish the second collection of poetry by Hickory poet, Scott Owens —
5. — The Library of Michigan has chosen its 2008 Michigan Notable Books —
6. — Spotlight Audio: Langston Hughes reads “A Negro Speaks of Rivers” —
7. — What We Owe the New Critics [link good for a few days] —

I’ll be back after the new (and hopefully, improved) year. The blog is on autopilot with some non-poetry stuff until then.

I’m leaving tonight to see my folks and my new niece and my sister and brothers. Not looking forward to the flights — I’m on the TSA automatic “selectee” list, so I’m in for a groping and my suitcase will be pawed through & I’ll find a brochure in there. I put my copy of “the rights of man” on top of everything in my suitcase this time haha. [I don't get all the British humor in that video link haha but it was interesting.]

I have to go through the anti-explosives puffer machine if the airport has one, too. WTF? Yeah I’m such a big fat threat. Dumbasses. With a name like “Jill T. Dybka” I doubt they are mistaking me for another “Jill T. Dybka.” Harry  Tuttle  Buttle. hahaha. It is so idiotic. And totally unconstitutional because there is no due process. Maybe I’ll be surprised and I won’t have S or SS or SSSS on my boarding pass anymore.

Anyway, sorry for the semi-rant. I sincerely do hope you have a Happy Solstice tomorrow and happy holidays. Be careful on New Year’s Eve with all the Craze-Os on the roads. & thanks for reading my blog.

p.s. I almost didn’t schedule auto-posts, which are scheduled from this point until New Year’s. What if my plane crashes and I die and yet my blog keeps posting for a while? That would just be really, really, creepy haha. I’ll take my chances.

p.p.s. What if I schedule auto-posts, then in the last post before I depart, I make a joke about my plane crashing/my blog continuing to post after I’m dead and then my plane REALLY DOES CRASH? That would just be really, really, REALLY creepy haha. I’ll take my chances.

Poetry News:

1. — Such esoteric experiments as Have They Attacked Mary He Giggled—A Political Satire, Lucy Church Amiably, Tender Buttons and her monumental The Making of Americans may have to wait for a doubtful posterity to be properly appreciated —
2. — Autobiography of a Mythic Life —
3. — Two Poems by Gerald Stern —
4. — Michael Wilding recounts how the University of Sydney was persuaded to establish a creative writing course —
5. — She produced several books on poetics and a book of poetry before publishing her first major biography, of Anne Sexton, in 1991 —
6. — Walton has turned weakness into insight by making letters into visceral objects [might not be safe for work] —
7. — It has been variously labelled ‘Language Poetry’, ‘Language
   Writing’, ‘L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing’ —

Poetry News:

1. — The most accomplished poetess in the English-speaking world today is Marianne Moore, a greying, mobile-faced, almost reckless spinster, born in St. Louis, Mo. in 1887 —
2. — She started by looking at the $50000 question: According to its author, what famous poem was conceived during an opium-induced dream? —
3. — Looking Back: The poet of the American Revolution —
4. — ever since, heterosexual critics have turned themselves into pretzels trying to explain why Shakespeare reserved his most passionate love lyrics (”You are my all the world”) for a member of his own sex —
5. — Haiku in English —
6. — Gloria Steinem slams govt for shunting out Taslima —

Poetry News:

1. — Many a man has gone muzzy-minded over the writings of Gertrude Stein —
2. — Commonly misperceived as, alternately, the pantheist precursor of the California sandal-and-beads set and the misanthropic “inhumanist,” Jeffers was none of these things —
3. — the notion that the free sharing of copyrighted poetry online is bad for poets doesn’t hold water —
4. — The cutting of Raymond Carver —
5. — Diane Wood Middlebrook, Biographer, Dies at 68 —
6. — Gregoire names first state poet laureate —
7. — The Art Institute of Chicago is pleased to announce the acquisition of two monumental works by Cy Twombly —

This year just keeps getting crappier and crappier. 2007 I hate you! LOL Please say some prayers for my family. Found out who the actual crazy ones are.

Poetry News:

1. — Though still a student at Lincoln University, he has already published two books of poems, The Weary Blues and Fine Clothes to the Jew —
2. — Prize-Winning Poet Robert Hass On American Poetry, Bob Dylan, Impact of ‘The Big Lebowski’ —
3. — Singing the songs of love —
4. — Anne Stevenson: the secret life of a poet —
5. — Sometimes, as in Jill Rosser’s new collection of poetry, it’s a comic, irritable gesture that recalls the abyss a footstep away —
6. — While many young people countrywide are venturing into the music industry to earn a living, Mochedisi in Kasane is curving a niche for himself as a praise poet. [more about praise poetry in southern Africa here and over here and some here. —
7. — For the second year in a row, an Indianapolis writer will have had a work selected for the annual Best American Poetry series —
8. — From hospital room, Diane Middlebrook recalls meeting Ted Hughes —
9. — Poet, biographer, feminist Diane Middlebrook dies of cancer at 68 —
10. — Poetry lovers, put this on your list —
11. — What a lineup of gallery artists: five Nobel laureates, five poet laureates, and more Pulitzer Prize-winning and National Book Award-winning writers than a curator can count —
12. — Writer discovers poem on A Prairie Home Companion —
13. — It is one of the weirder ironies of literary history that the experiment of modernist poetry in English was launched by a pair of Americans living in London who had little but contempt for the complacent, hide-bound literary scene in which they moved —
14. — I had stumbled upon the underground alliterative tradition of English poetry —

Poetry News:

1. — Two hundred and fifty favored subscribers received a bewildering book last week —
2. — The Library is on Fire —
3. — Joel Lipman confirmed as Lucas County poet laureate —
4. — Poetry Roundup —
5. — Spam, spam, spam, spam, and poetry —
6. — Amazon.com Buys J.K. Rowling Fairy Tale for 1.95 Million Pounds —

On Tuesday, The Plain English Campaign awarded its annual Golden Bull Awards

Poetry News:

1. — A grief-stricken old man, slumped in a bedside chair in a San Juan hospital room, received word last week that he had won the 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature —
2. — Poet caveman shares views with millionaires —
3. — Submissions sought for BSU men’s writing anthology —
4. — Is there any critic more thorough than Helen Vendler? —
5. — Necyiae are an important occasion for the poet to impart some knowledge or ‘deeper truth’ —
6. — Controversy in Spain over poet Lorca’s lost bones —

better late than never

Poetry News:

1. — How to Dislike Poetry —
2. — New chapter for literary magazine —
3. — Free poetry class —
4. — Poet Laux celebrates reprint of first book —
5. — The man routinely referred to as “The Cannibal” by Mexican news media had been working on a book about himself in prison, tentatively titled “The Cannibal Poet.” —
6. — One-time factory worker Afaa Michael Weaver broke through a dam from his past - and the words flowed forth —
7. — Portrait of an obscure poet —
8. — The department received more than 40 applications for the annual Sandburg-Auden-Stein Residency, which is named after poets who visited Olivet in the ’30s and ’40s —

get out of my head

Poetry News:

1. — Their elders will not be quick to applaud either their language or their sentiments: both grate harshly on a pre-War ear —
2. — Poetry workshop: This month Peter Bennet invites you to enter the moonlit world of Walter de la Mare —
3. — The poisoned wedding dress —
4. — Military junta bans 19 writers and performers; poet questioned by authorities —
5. — The Russian poet Marina Tsvetayeva endured and indulged in a life of high drama —
6. — Forty years after her death, Iran’s most rebellious poet is back in English-language translation —

Poetry News:

1. — Last week two U. S. lady poets, whom repute places high above the ruck of feminine poetasters, smote their lyres in unison —
2. — A doctor and poet in Boston, Campo writes eloquently about his divided loyalties in “How I Learned English: 55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life” —
3. — The attraction of opposites —
4. — Drinking games don’t often involve meter and verse, unless you were composing poetry back in ancient China —
5. — Social Network for Authors Red Room Gets $1.25 Million —
6. — Chapbooks and zines get the personal touch —
7. — Taslima had expected to win her return ticket to Calcutta after expressing regret and deleting the offending portions from her book —
8. — What are You Recommending, Daisy Fried? —
9. — To take a random-sample handful of its subjects, there’s Freud, Duke Ellington, Beatrix Potter, Tony Curtis, Anna Akhmatova, and GK Chesteron —

Poetry News:

1. — Which, if any, will still be remembered by the 21st Century? —
2. — You like my poems? So pay for them —
3. — ‘Twas a Christmas Poem Whodunit —
4. — Salute to John Lennon —
5. — Eminent poets sometimes write poems to please children. Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) succeeded, with poems that are short, funny, well-rhymed and respectful of the reader’s intelligence —
6. — Webster U. to launch publishing unit —

I wasn’t aware that the US is having a “Toy Transformer Robots” crisis.

Well the President has officially established a dictatorship. Good one. At least someone in Congress is speaking out. The speech is about the Protect America Act but also shows how Bush has further consolidated his Executive powers. You can watch the videos part 1 and part 2 on youtube. Here is the ACLU on the Protect America Act and a WSJ article about Senator Whitehouse’s speech.

My Senator, Bob Corker, voted yes on the Protect America Act and my other Senator Lamar Alexander, did not vote at all.

My Representative, Marsha Blackburn, also voted yes on the Protect America Act.

Poetry News:

1. — “The fact that your taste in poetry is exectable shouldn’t prevent us from having a vermouth together” —
2. — No contemporary poet is famous, but some are less unfamous than others —
3. — US poet and novelist Bukowski’s poems to be translated in Iran —
4. — Bigger Cars, Flip-Up Seats, Poetry: How Riders Would Run a Subway —
5. — Delta State to give honorary doctorate to poet Trethewey —
6. — Poetry’s PR chick —
7. — Last night Doris Lessing, aged 88, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In her acceptance speech she recalls her childhood in Africa and laments that children in Zimbabwe are starving for knowledge, while those in more privileged countries shun reading for the ‘inanities’ of the internet —
8. — Poet David Poston will receive the 2007 Randall Jarrell/Harperprints Poetry Chapbook Competition Award —
9. — Inspired by a TV documentary on mining perils, Philip Larkin wrote a great poem only 25 lines long —

Poetry News:

1. — When she died a spinster of 55 in 1886 only five of her poems had been published, all anonymously —
2. — Woman nicknamed ‘lyrical terrorist’ escapes jail sentence —
3. — Made in Chicago: Wickedpen [ congrats ] —
4. — He is often poised discomfortingly and achingly between emotional immediacy and wiseass —
5. — Poet Maya Angelou’s “Celebrations” is also in the running —
6. — Philip Larkin, rock god? —
7. — a mystical zone that for 500 or so years has been the sweet spot of civilized consciousness —

crap. I guess I’ll keep an eye out for my letter.

Poetry News:

1. — Since 1945, only three poems have been published by the charming grey-haired spinster who has won every US poetry prize worth winning. —
2. — Don’t expect her to ever do this again —
3. — Auckland professor named NZ Poet Laureate —
4. — Chant poems are poems which draw upon poetry’s ancient roots —
5. — Writer, critic, co-founder of The New York Review of Books and University of Kentucky alumna Elizabeth Hardwick died Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007 in Manhattan —
6. — Writers Find Haven on an Ivy Campus —
7. — Hidden poem by Wordsworth’s niece published —
8. — Contemplative education has defined this Boulder, Colo., college since it began life as the Naropa Institute in 1974 —
9. — A son returns to his parents’ home full of photos of himself – frozen moments that make him shiver —
10. — The verbal landscapes of Durham poet Tony Tost —