Gurlesque | Poetry Hut Blog

So do you think this poem is racist, as has been interpreted here? I can think of a few poems with the P word — Plath, Bukowski … Macbeth. Philip Levine I bet.

I am sooo getting sick of political-correctness groupthink. Die Gedanken sind frei.

Poetry News For July 11, 2008

Poetry News:

— Poems written by Emily Brontë have returned to the Haworth parsonage where they were penned nearly 150 years ago. —

— North Beach old-timer lands in hospital —

— I didn’t force a thematic relationship on any poem, but I could encourage a poem in a particular direction if it seemed to be tending that way on its own. —

— Film chronicles Blackfeet poet’s collaboration with composer —

— After years of friendship, Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov clashed over what a poet’s role should be in a time of war. Ange Mlinko dishes on what broke them apart. —

— Kenya: Is the Pen Mightier Than a Machete? —

— (more) On the Gurlesque —

FISA: Why It Matters & How They Voted

I started new types of physical therapy this week. I am so sore I can barely move. But that means it is doing something, right? I’ll be doing PT in the pool at the therapist’s when this blog post goes live. WIsh me luck.

Poetry News For July 10, 2008

Poetry News:

— Memorial for Idaho poet, kayaker Studebaker to be Saturday in Twin Falls —

— Poets, Fiddlers and Leaving Seattle —

— Exene Cervenka: Fom X To Missouri —

— Tuesday’s Poem: “Old Timers’ Day” by Donald Hall from White Apples and the Taste of Stone [mp3] —

— What Am I Doing Wrong With This Poem? —

— Milarepa picked for 22nd Napa Sonoma Film Festival 2008 —

— August Kleinzahler’s ugly gifts —

— What makes Shapiro so important to American poetry right now is the success with which he’s taken over the territory of fiction writers —

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Barack Obama was among the 69 senators voting to broaden government spy powers and give immunity to phone companies that aided in secret wiretapping. way to go.

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I must have been living in an alternate reality or am utterly clueless or oblivious because this confused the heck out of me:

“If born female into the majority of US American households, one will live 20, perhaps 30 years under the moniker ‘girl.’” [comments]

20 or 30 years?? What??

Has that really been your experience? Daaang! Personally, the only time I ever have had the adult moniker “girl” is with some of my mostly-African-American-coworkers at the HCBU I work at — and I have the feeling that the Gurlesque “girl” and the HCBU “girl” are not equivalent.

What do you think?

Why do most American women have the moniker “girl” ’til maybe age 30 nowadays? (?) Is that something they are self-identifying with? Or is it a generational thing that I am oblivious to? The comment that I linked to says that society is doing it to women. Powerfully.

Do you think you are a “girl?” Do others call you “girl”? How old are you? Where do you live? Help I’m confused.

– signed, 40-year-old woman

Poetry News For June 25, 2008

Poetry News:

— I love reworking, I love editing, love love love revision, revision, revision, revision. [not safe for work] —

— A poet reconciling verse and living —

— Mike Watt, Lee Ranaldo, more set James Joyce to music —

— Karen S. Williams June 30 Poetry Workshop, Reading and Booksigning - Open to the Public [Detroit: WCCC campus on the East Side] —

— Report: 2 million artists in US, many struggling —

— So far, Ostriker sounds the same yearning note that Cobain does elsewhere in the journals —

— A new survey says men are more likely than women to share their creative works online, even though both sexes participate in creative activities at roughly equal rates —

LOL I think if Persephone was a guy who was kidnapped by a big powerful God, then male-Persephone’s difficulties would be looked upon as a “heroic journey” rather than victimhood. Joseph Campbell stuff was 20 years ago for me (ask me about the Harmonic Convergence! haha) so let me know if I have this correct. Separation, initiation/ordeal, coming back — that’s the 3 parts of the journey right?

I was thinking about all this when I revisited How to trivialise women’s poetry by Eva Salzman:

“Male poets grappling with life and death issues in their writing are dragon-slayers. Women embarked on such odysseys are rarely granted similarly heroic status. Instead, they’re victims, a less noble assignation which handily renders them more vulnerable to any criticism embedded with ulterior motives, and more susceptible to being undervalued and misunderstood, except in the context of a tragedy and/or their role as mother. Is this an avoidance of any serious examination of Plath’s work? Sadly this lack of critical engagement is how most women poets are viewed, or are not viewed, as is more the case. It’s no doubt naïve to want ability and talent to be the king-makers’ main criteria.”

(Yes I’m still thinking about Pluto and Plath and that Gurlesque article from yesterday and my comments about it and Plath’s “Tulips” — that poem where it is wintertime and the country of health is far far away and springtime Tulips are oppressive.)

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If you can spare some prayers for my father-in-law that would be great thank you.

If you've clicked on a tag, you will see posts from my blog that have featured that tag. At the bottom of the page is a list of all the tags I've ever used on this blog. -- Jilly