Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — Poetry should have punch. It should jab, it should undercut, clinch in the corners and consider in hard times the head butt —
2. — The mother of so much —
3. — MLB Poetry Preview: Minnesota Twins —
4. — English poetry masters: Percy Bysshe Shelley —
5. — Call for Entries to the Festival of Visual Poetry 2008 —
6. — It’s a great shame that the work of a great poet has spawned so many mawkish imitations —
7. — Revealed: how poet set up ‘charity’ fund —

Oklahoma! where the wind comes sweepin’ down [state legislator Sally Kern's] brain

Have a great weekend. No news this weekend.

Poetry News:

1. — The need for warmth is more important than people who have never been truly cold know —
2. — This great poets list has only one woman. About right, too —
3. — The poetry journal as mixtape —
4. — Two things often said about great poets are that they create the taste by which they are appreciated, and that they have the capacity to constantly reinvent themselves —
5. — Math lovers, teachers and families around the world are gearing up to celebrate Pi Day on March 14, or more precisely to the pi second, 3/14 (the American date format) at 1:59:26 p.m —
6. — The Resurrection Trade, Miller’s fifth book of poems, delves into the mysteries of early women’s anatomical studies and medical illustrations —
7. — New Vancouver opera focuses on poet Pauline Johnson - Margaret Atwood writes libretto, Christos Hatzis composes —

Poetry News:

1. — Why this bevy of bards, this plethora of poetry, this Vesuvian eruption of verse? —
2. — MLB Poetry Preview: Chicago Cubs —
3. — My first reaction was, “What are you smoking?” —
4. — This week, the Academy of American Poets announced the launch of … a mobile poetry archive providing free access to a collection of more than 2,500 poems —
5. — Today, Sam Leith profiles the highly-influential poet of the English revolution, John Milton —
6. — With 16 books between them, four authors will take part in the first “Gathering of Tennessee Writers” at MTSU, on Thursday, March 20, 4:30 p.m. —
7. — All contemporary poetry when it is contemporary is initially baffling to its readers —
8. — Introducing seven of the greatest poets of the 20th century —

Poetry News:

1. — The 5-minute Interview: Felix Dennis, publisher and author —
2. — Poetry workshop: David Morley finds variety and accomplishment in equal measure in the nature poetry prompted by his March poetry ‘field trip’ —
3. — First mantra of the Rig Veda is the first known poem in the world —
4. — 2008 is the 120th anniversary year of poet T. S. Eliot’s birth —
5. — For many career lawyers, poetry isn’t simply a weekend hobby; it’s a second calling —
6. — Are Smart People Drawn To The Arts Or Does Arts Training Make People Smarter? —
7. — Telegraph.co.uk’s week-long series celebrating the great poets of the English canon —

I’m going to Lulu.com my poetry manuscript. I don’t want to have my poems checked for dingleberries - I don’t like the contest system.

I need some help with the cover. If you are an artist & are interested, please email me. I can’t pay much, because of my medical bills.

Also, if you have any advice re: lulu.com layouts — fonts, etc — so the book doesn’t look stupid, that would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Poetry News:

1. — Usually when I think, “Here’s something a poem needs to be written about,” I get as far away from pen and paper as I possibly can —
2. — Here is a poem giving pi to 21 digits when you replace each word with the number of letters in that word —
3. — Small Press and Publishing Panel —
4. — I am Cathal’s publisher for 20 years and I don’t think his poems should be used in this film. I have asked for them to be removed…. —
5. — Forage a fierce achievement —
6. — Vanishing Point by Robert Thomas —
7. — Why you should be enraged by literary liars —
8. — the 100 best last lines from novels —

Someone arrived at this blog yesterday via a Google search for “poem, the shepherd to hip love” and that made me laugh. Hmm “S” and “P” are kinda far away on the keyboard.

Maybe that poem appears in an anthology alongside “Stopping By The Foods On A Snowy Evening.” Feel free to post, in the comments, what other titles appear in that anthology. That cracks me up. And I could use some levity.

Poetry News:

1. — The poet who may be prime minister —
2. — I still begin with the particular, and hope to arrive at the universal —
3. — Her husband, the poet Osip Mandelstam, wrote a famous epigram about the great leader, for which he met an early death —
4. — Vehicle of literary endeavour —
5. — With breakneck pacing he packed all of life and death into scintillating, transcendent incantations —
6. — Grace Paley’s poems read nicely as first thoughts, as impressions in a journal, a pause on an afternoon stroll —

[still getting splogged/scraped, sorry. Turned off the full RSS feed again.]

Poetry News:

1. — Pinned in a subway car with arms at your sides, you can call up a poem and enter a cathedral of words that anoints you again in your singular passions —
2. — Mary Jo Salter came of age as a poet in the 1970s when two tribes, the Language poets and the New Formalists, were sparring —
3. — Red Morning Press is now reading manuscripts for publication —
4. — Lost for words: The misery of a deleted manuscript —
5. — Writers like Flaubert have been accused of over-using metaphor, but is it possible to have too much of such a good thing? —
6. — PEN America is trying to get China to free nearly 40 writers —
7. — Why poetry still matters —
8. — With “In Praise of the Unfinished: Selected Poems,” Hartwig, author and editor of more than a dozen books, at last has a collection in English —
9. — Horton hears Dr. Seuss – rotating in the grave [download here I think] —
10. — Objectivist poet Louis Zukofsky once confided, “the poet’s form is never an imposition of history, but the desirability of making order out of history as it is felt and conceived —
11. — OOpen-faced wunderkind from the Southern States —

“It puts the owl in the basket ….”

The Pentagon’s Information Operations Roadmap is blunt about the fact that an internet, with the potential for free speech, is in direct opposition to their goals.

I got this from the informative CRWOPPS list. Good luck, youngsters:

Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships

http://poetryfoundation.org/programs/2008_Lilly_Fellowship_app.pdf

(go to this address to download entry form)

Five Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships in the amount of  $15,000 will be awarded to young poets through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry. Established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly, the fellowships are intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Applicants must be US citizens between the age of twenty-one and thirty-one as of  March 31, 2008.

Applicants should submit:

Completed application form

Ten pages of poems, double spaced

One paragraph explaining how the fellowship would aid the applicant’s work

A publication list (optional)

Do not include any additional material at this time (cv, cover letter, references, etc.). If you wish to be notified of receipt of your application, include a self-addressed, stamped postcard. Application materials will not be returned. Applications must be postmarked during the month of March 2008. Electronic submissions will not be considered. Finalists will be announced on August 1, 2008 at poetryfoundation.org. Winners will be announced by September 1, 2008.

(not a draft but I fear I will be adding to it)

Poem by an American

I.
Read the rest of this entry »

Poetry News:

1. — National Book Critics Circle winners unveiled in New York —
2. — Where are the women writers in translation? —
3. — Find of the Day —
4. — Poetry of Li-Young Lee Is ‘Descended from Dreamers’ [MP3] —
5. — Note to Jack London, poet: Don’t give up your day job —
6. — McSweeney’s (online) wants pantoums and senryu [this link found here thank you] —
7. — Is Free Speech and Commerce Endangered Internationally? —
8. — The first story, a mysterious, dreamlike piece by Eudora Welty, draws back a “Curtain of Green,” to reveal a widow at a moment of crisis [MP3] —
9. — Dominant on page and stage: but is the greatest writer in the English language primarily a poet or a dramatist? —
10. — A full life, shaped by water and words —

I hope you enjoy today’s links. It was the best that I could do with my feeble & disadvantageous womanly intellect.

Poetry News:

1. — Post-apocalypse, Poetry, and Robots —
2. — Changing Hands Bookstore hosts a handful of acclaimed poets (all female) who contributed to Letters to the World: The Wom-Po Anthology —
3. — People find what they lack in themselves in this object of adoration —
4. — Iranian poet Simin Behbahani is the first recipient of Stanford’s Bita Prize for Literature and Freedom —
5. — 2 editors’ online journal gives new life to literature —
6. — Auden was roundly criticized for leaving England when he did; after all, the1930s had been dubbed “The Age of Auden,” and even admirers of his poetry saw his departure as an unpardonable —

Go With Your Gut — Intuition Is More Than Just A Hunch, Says New Research —

Women writers from lower and working class backgrounds will gather for the 2008 Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series Spring Symposium to share their experiences and work with readers and each other.

Beyond Our Beginnings – Women Writers from Lower and Working Class Backgrounds will be held March 25-27 on the Vanderbilt campus. The discussions and readings are free and open to the public.

[more]

Poetry News:

1. — Official State Author and Poet Are Named —
2. — Owners To Open ‘Mystery Room’ Sealed For 50 Years —
3. — What are your feelings on MFA programs in regard to authors publishing in today’s market? —
4. — The rubric “poet among painters” does not adequately explain the radical shifts between formal and personal values in O’Hara’s poetry —
5. — What does zazen do for the poetry? Do you feel that there is a relation there that helps somehow in the writing? —
6. — Even though running a press is costly, it’s still important for folks to have the opportunity, even though it’s infrequent, to be published —
7. — Two books published by St. Paul-based Graywolf Press and one from Minneapolis-based Coffee House Press have been nominated for the 28th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes —

Anna Akhmatova died March 5, 1966.

Most popular outgoing links for February 2008 (as far as Feedburner is concerned):

• “One of Ireland’s best-known poets today denied he sexually exploited young men as police investigated allegations against him”
• “Barack Obama’s creditable poems are in an erratic tradition of political versifying” (tie)
• “Interview: Major Jackson” (tie)
• “The second part of this post is about my impression of the role that some phantasmatic nightmare image of AWP plays in the imaginations of many participants in the various online poetry worlds”

The Celebrity with the Worst Grammar in the U.S. is not a surprise.

Poetry News:

1. — Initially championed by TS Eliot, the poetry of Lynette Roberts has long since fallen out of fashion, but her voice remains fresh and challenging —
2. — MLB Poetry Previews —
3. — Inventory By Frances Richey —
4. — Frances Wilson’s The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth reveals a passionate, talented woman whose love for her brother defined her and finally destroyed her —
5. — Allen Grossman writes the poems that inspire poets —
6. — At home with Mary Jo Bang —
7. — How the complete works of four 20th-century poets with complicated publishing histories found their homes —
8. — 50 arts secrets revealed —
9. — Though it remains to be seen what will become of the new position, it augers well that the city has recognized a need to help foster the burgeoning literary scene. —