Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — NZ’s ‘best-loved’ poet dies [and more at your tributes] —
2. — It’s a great time to be a poetry reader —
3. — Police make arrests in Robert Frost house damage —
4. — Poets Forum Reading: Free Audio Download —
5. — Rough and tumble aren’t the only words that drive Metro Detroit’s literati. —
6. — Under the influence of the Romantic poets, he turned away from a life based on calculation —

Tennessee State University
Distinguished Lecture Series Presentations

Nikki Giovanni
American Poet, Essayist & Lecturer

Thursday, April 3, 2008
1:00 pm
Kean Hall

Email me if you think you’ll be attending. I’ll help you get a temp parking permit/place to park.

Hey we have a half inch of snow so far.

Poetry News:

1. — The Uses of the Humanities, Part Two —
2. — Angel Gonzalez, one of Spain’s most prominent poets and member of a literary generation known for its opposition to the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, has died at the age of 82 —
3. — Lincoln University, a historically Black college in Pennsylvania, is on a crusade to claim Melvin B. Tolson as one of its own —
4. — Hamline’s joint JD/MFA in creative writing degree is the first of its kind in the nation —
5. — The US Library of Congress caused outrage last month after it abolished Scottish literature headings. —
6. — To judge from outward appearances, one might imagine that poetry occupies a place of unprecedented importance, at least in America —
7. — Columbus poet Phil Boiarski jokes that only one letter separates the words poetry and poverty —

Poetry News:

1. — Why John Milton sides with the angels —
2. — Sometimes the prose is pure poetry —
3. — Poetry workshop: Peter Bennet admires the responses to his exercise on the moonlit world of Walter de la Mare —
4. — David Trinidad talks with Richard Siken about his fascination with the world of Barbie and the process of creating a collection of his very own —
5. — Not only is finding the right market vital to being successful in your writing but keeping up to date on new markets is also important —
6. — She made me feel as if my poems were fine wine to be decanted and savored —
7. — Fierce, funny poems take prize double —
8. — I decided to try deliberate inattentiveness as a way of starting poems —
9. — Philip Whalen’s word bombs —

Poetry News:

1. — In ‘‘Elegy,’’ poet Mary Jo Bang has taken on one of the largest and most difficult subjects in all of literature —
2. — National Book Critics Circle finalists —
3. — John Milton: the poet who gave us ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The Matrix’ —
4. — Former poet laureate opening another chapter in his life —
5. — How lovely it is that there are words and sounds —
6. — John Ashbery, Octavio Paz, Stanley Kunitz and Robert Pinsky all wrote poems for him —
7. — he calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush, whom he calls “a booted, sombrero’d/cowboy Caligula/who couldn’t manage a straw/horse on a parade float…” —
8. — Ex-carpenter warms up tp poet laureate honor —
9. — Editorial: Frost home vandalism is deeply disturbing —
10. — Poets and jazz artists find rhythm and rhyme —
11. — Taslima Nasreen has been chosen for the prestigious Simon de Beauvoir feminist award in recognition of her writing on rights for women —
12. — Vendetta fear after poet murdered —
13. — Denise Clarke is entertaining as poet Anne Sexton in Sylvia Plath Must Not Die —
14. — If Fence magazine were an actual fence, it would be a portable one —
15. — A different kind of poetry concentrates more strikingly on expressiveness —

I’m going to Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness in March. I bought a plane ticket but I don’t know where I’m staying yet. I’ve only been to D.C. once, for some computer security training. But I took a train to the Mall area and wandered around for half a day. Saw about an hour’s worth of the Smithsonian. I wish I had more time to see stuff but I won’t. I’d like to meet with my members of Congress, too, but I won’t be there on those specified constituent days. After all the letters I’ve written them I’m not sure their staff would schedule me anyway hahaha.

Flu. Will be back

Poetry News:

1. — Police close in on Frost suspects and Vandalized Frost house drew a crowd —
2. — Susan Briante, more recently, continues with this approach to poetry as a symbolically active art. —
3. — Snow Falling on Voters By DONALD HALL —
4. — Prozac is all grown up — and all over the arts —
5. — Got a Manuscript? Publishing Now a Snap —
6. — Ted Hughes tops critics’ league table —

Ron Paul’s Remarks on HB 1955 - Violent Radicalization & Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

Poetry News:

1. — (She has) sealed the deal to have CavenKerry Press, a nonprofit literary publisher, publish about 60 of her poems in a book titled “Underlife.” —
2. — Frost Vandalism Update —
3. — A Japanese version of blank verse —
4. — 9 destination bookstores worth putting on a tourist’s itinerary —
5. — An untutored poet refuses all instruction from his literary ‘superiors’ —
6. — Leonard B. Meyer, Scholar of Music’s Meaning, Is Dead at 89 —

Poetry News:

1. — Liam O’Gallagher, 90, a Beat Avant-Gardist and Teacher, Dies —
2. — The question of whether literary writing can be taught seems to have been decided, at least in North America, by the sheer number of creative writing grads
3. — Borges and the Foreseeable Future —
4. — A founding co-editor of the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, he is the author of over 30 books of poetry and a collection of innovative critical essays, … —
5. — The “Iliad” and “Odyssey” of medieval Persia is presented in a hefty new English translation —
6. — Must we admire the poet to honor his work? —
7. — Here then is a justification of the humanities that is neither strained (reading poetry contributes to the state’s bottom line) nor crassly careerist —
8. — ‘Our World’ by Mary Oliver —
9. — Charles Simic sets scenes, probes inner realm in new collection ‘Sixty Poems’ —
10. — Shel Silverstein, 1930-1999: Poet, Writer, Composer, Singer, Musician and Artist —

Poetry News:

1. — ‘Birmingham, 1963′ captures the heartbreak of Alabama church bombing [also see this] —
2. — The Index Kings —
3. — In the cycle of new and old, fresh and familiar, there’s something exciting, but also a little grotesque —
4. — Homeless, blind and dressed like a Viking, Moondog was one of New York’s most famous eccentrics - and renowned musicians —
5. — A trove of the best poems from a prolific poet —
6. — Oxford Poets 2007 showcases some excellent up-and-coming talent —

I’m starting tai chi today. I’m  kind of  a dork when it comes to following “body” commands. Do what with my arm? Left? Right? Huh? We’ll see how it works out hahaha. But one good thing is that my orthopedic Dr. figured out my shoulder problem (which has returned). My joints are hyperflexible. I just figured everyone could touch their thumb to their wrist, etc. LOL. So I need more physical therapy and also I have to get in shape and become muscular. Which I am totally not. My Dr. was pretty shocked that this hasn’t been an issue before. But I haven’t had any orthopedic problems until now.

BRING IT ON, 2008!!!! hahahahaha

Poetry News:

1. — The most important American love poet in living memory, and certainly one of the most important American poets —
2. — Vet Post Honors PTSD Victim, a Suicide [his poems are here] —
3. — Sylvia Plath’s art of the visual —
4. — New York poet and Toledo’s Zin String Quartet to perform multimedia tribute to geniuses —
5. — “Poesía diaria” rinde honor a desaparecidos en Argentina [English translation at this link]—
6. — Jean Sprackland, of Southport, took the title in the poetry category of the Costa Book awards, formerly known as the Whitbread Prize —

So what online archive can I pillage for poetry news now? I already did the free NYT and Time Magazine archives. What I learned from those articles:

a. the public has never supported poetry
b. poets have never made any $ from poetry
c. women poets have always been marginalized but at least some aren’t called “spinsters” anymore
d. poetry has never sold
hahaha

Poetry News:

1. — Federico García Lorca called it “el duende” — in Spanish, the elf — a dark, irrational muse that leads artists to tragic depths —
2. — It was beyond my imagination that in a secular democracy this can happen to a writer —
3. — Police Get Tips in Frost Vandalism Case [and sad pictures]—
4. — Poetry, community and the small press —
5. — I’m sorry, this made me laugh —
6. — Absent of stanzas and line breaks, and sounding very poetic, the prose poem is taking over American poetry —
7. — Sylvester Pollet Remembered as Great Teacher and Good Human Being —

Poetry News:

1. — Vandals ransacked the interior of Homer Noble Farm, the summer home of the late poet Robert Frost —
2. — Every New Year’s Eve, the normally dry Coast Guard log takes on a lyrical charm —
3. — John Ashbery’s verse can be hard to understand, but the simple act of reading his latest collection, Notes From the Air, is a pleasure in itself —
4. — The theatrics of Russia’s Silver Age poets come alive in Paul Schmidt’s theatrical translations —
5. — Revisiting Cole Porter’s ‘Top’ —
6. — Landis Everson was one of the Berkeley Renaissance, an avant-garde poets’ group from the 1950s —
7. — The Blush of the New —
8. — Ken Tolson is the real-life grandson of Melvin B. Tolson, whose work as an educator, mentor and poet is highlighted in the new film The Great Debaters —

Most clicked links of last month:

1. Poet’s Choice” columnist Robert Pinsky fields questions and comments on this year in poetry
2. Since 1945, only three poems have been published by the charming grey-haired spinster who has won every US poetry prize worth winning.
3. Prize-Winning Poet Robert Hass On American Poetry, Bob Dylan, Impact of ‘The Big Lebowski’

Most popular posts of 2007:

1. Once upon a time
2. Poetry News for October 16, 2007
3. Poetry News for October 10, 2007

Poetry News:

1. — Poetry Chronicle —
2. — Poems on the frontiers; a lobster lesson on the sea
3. — Jenny Holzer Makes Light of Poems and Beats Swords Into Paintings —
4. — Pakistani’s Poem Offers Hope in Despairing Time —
5. — In ‘Telephone Ringing,’ Adrienne Rich makes music of words —
6. — Here is Arizona poet Steve Orlen’s lovely tribute to the great opera singer, Maria Callas —
7. — Ferlinghetti argues that poetry can save the world —
8. — Creative Work Has Health Advantages, Population Research Center Study Shows —
9. — Dylan Thomas’s passport can now be viewed online thanks to the National Library of Wales [more] —
10. — An “honest guildsman” of a poet melds the political and the personal —
11. — Possibly the most moving use of a poet’s own name in English poetry is Ben Jonson’s “On My First Son —