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.

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. — The MacDowell Colony has provided a creative workspace for artists for 100 years —
2. — The poet is the longtime editor of the Pitt Poetry Series of the University of Pittsburgh Press —
3. — For believers in marriage, this poem is for you and should be recited by the best man (or woman) at a wedding —
4. — Poetry project reveals the power of words —
5. — Who wrote “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”? What does it mean? —
6. — Forward Bloc, part of the leftist block supporting the Indian ruling alliance, announced that it would press for Ms. Nasrin’s expulsion from the country —
7. — Poet Grotz Wins $25,000 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers”™ Award —

I can’t remember the last time Darryl and I went on vacation. That’s not good. Surely it wasn’t over 10 years ago but I’m afraid it is. We’ll have to remedy that next year. (He met up with me in Hawaii a couple years ago but that didn’t count because I was working.)

A legitimate telecommuting job.

This blog seems to have fallen off the face of Google search, LOL. I was wondering why human being visits have dropped off. Oh well, que sera sera.

…I still haven’t found a PHP developer, so the Word Vine project is on hold.

Poetry News:

1. — Poet and short story writer Grace Paley, a literary eminence and old-fashioned rebel who described herself as a “combative pacifist,” has died (and NYT) —
2. — Fatwa offers unlimited money to kill Taslima —
3. — Remembering Liam Rector —
4. — Out of this has come a small industry in creative writing courses —
5. — We Need Models of Revision —
6. — four impressive new collections —
7. — Langston Hughes was one of the most respected poets in 20th century American literature, though you”™d never know it from Isaac Julien‘ pretentious and monotonous 40-minute hodgepodge —
8. — the similarities and differences between the “New Gen” poets [of the U.K.] and their U.S. contemporaries —
9. — Until yesterday, Deboer was one of just two independent distributors operating on the East Coast —

“The next Powerball drawing will be on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 with an estimated Grand Prize of $300,000,000 ($140,300,000 cash).”

Michael G. generously posted some gazpacho recipes in the comments of yesterday’s post. Sounds great — I will be eating that all weekend I think. Over 100F yesterday again.

Sweet baby carrots recalled in six states

FDA officials said the carrots might be contaminated with bacteria (Shigella) that poses a serious health risk from some people, especially the very young or elderly.

The product was sold under two labels — “Los Angeles Salad Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots” and “Trader Joe’s Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots.”

The “Los Angeles Salad Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots” label was distributed by Kroger Co. and King Sooper stores in Tennessee, Kroger Co. and Ralph’s supermarkets in California, Publix supermarkets in Georgia and Florida, and Get Fresh stores in Nevada.

All of the packages were sold in flexible plastic bags in 7- and 8-ounce sizes with a “sell by date” up to and including Aug. 16.

The second label — “Trader Joe’s Genuine Sweet Baby Carrots” — was distributed by Trader Joe’s stores in Arizona and California in 7-ounce flexible plastic bags with a “sell by date” up to and including Aug. 8.

The recall was initiated after it was discovered the same product sold in Canada was contaminated with Shigella.

Consumers with questions can contact Los Angeles Salads at 626-322-9017.

Poetry News:

1. — Economy in writing can put garrulous narration or evasive speechifying to shame (congrats c. dale)—
2. — The American College of Physicians, the nation’s largest medical specialty organization, has published a compilation of stories, essays, and poems by doctors and their patients —
3. — America’s newest, and foreign-born, poet laureate has traveled a long way —
4. — Married M’s: The Metropolitan Market’s Logo Questioned —
5. — Where Sheep Once Grazed, Now Poems Take Root —
6. — Taslima wants adequate security after death threat —
7. — Each week, Ed Shakespeare, the bard of Brooklyn baseball, will take a page from his ancient ancestor and add a bit of iambic pentameter to all our lives —

So for the last 11 days here in Nashville, it has been over 100 degrees F for 10 of them — including one day when it reached 106 degrees F. The hottest it has been here EVER (since they have been keeping records) is 107 degrees F. We are also in an “extreme drought.” I feel really bad for the farmers. We had a really hard freeze in April (?) and that messed things up and now this.

In more positive news, I got a new adult literacy student. That should help shake me out of my funk. My previous student graduated out of the program & got his CDL. Then I took a break because of the surgery. But I’m back & ready to share the wonderment of wordage. If you are in Nashville, the Nashville Adult Literacy Council needs YOU! They have a waiting list of folks who WANT to LEARN!!! It just takes a couple of hours every week and is fun! If you don’t live in Nashville, I’m sure your town has a similar organization with a long waiting list.

Poetry News:

1. — For three decades, he was poetry’s epicenter —
2. — Atwood is at a disadvantage having neither died at a tragically young age nor lived dissolutely —
3. — The Poetry of Phil Rizzuto —
4. — E.E. Cummings‘ book chronicling a 36-day trip in 1931 has been reissued after almost 50 years out of print —
5. — India to charge writer Nasreen with ‘hurting Muslim feelings’ —
6. — Salt Magazine Is Relaunched As A Free Online Journal —

Collin has a 1st book interview up.

Poetry News:

1. — “That letters, words and sentences are all involved in reading is nothing new, but finding that their contributions to reading rate is additive is startling” —
2. — Borges and Lowell —
3. — Shhh, the ‘poetry librarian’ is in town —
4. — Eight Poems by Pierre Reverdy —
5. — English literature, as we know it, begins with the works of two great poets who wrote in London during the second half of the 14th century: Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland —
6. — Complete Minimal Poems by Aram Saroyan —
7. — For example, here is a fairly recent Simic self-portrait —
8. — Saginaw celebrates poet —
9. — why are Nick Laird’s poems so sombre? —

My web host moved this site to a newer server. I think everything is working OK?

“In a stunning follow-up to the attack on Taslima Nasreen by Muslim activists, the Hyderabad police on Saturday booked the exiled Bangladeshi author for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language ” a charge that can get her two years in prison, if proven. The attackers are roaming freely, charged with minor misdemeanours.” [more]

Got my hair CUT OFF Saturday. Maybe it isn’t such a good idea to go to the salon when you have slid into surgical menopause hahaha? Speaking of which, I am taking a break from the internet for a bit because the world is really starting to piss me off (more) & I need to hibernate & straighten my brain. See you in a bit. Have a poem xoxo:

Remedy
(for Sylvia Plath)

This cure is a quake of the brain. In a cracked
room sits a cracked bell, convalescent. Shaken
until erased, I seek a grand plan, yet

fail without ceremony. I’m simply an immigrant
in a monochrome country. The doctors are delinquent
to tender this gift (spark-volts,

spark-lids): even the shadows sleepwalk
inside the ruinous afternoon. Suddenly I am
at the kitchen table. Suddenly I am

an oracle, inconsequent. In an electric
mist, I smell hot wire and I smell possession.
The ink of my pen is shaping a rook,

arranging and rearranging his feathers
in the rain. I feel the flare of an angel
at my elbow. I feel her random descent.

Poetry News:

1. — Taslima Nasreen, Poet, Attacked in India: Men Attack Her; Other Men Try to Sheild Her —