Poetry News:

1. — What The “Subprime Poetry Crisis” Means For The Overheated Metap[h]or Market —
2. — Poster poems: The rhythm of the falling rain —
3. — Wordplay with Pat Reviere-Seel and Jessica Newton [MP3] —
4. — A report on the new poet laureate of the U.S. A question from Yemen about Emily Dickinson. And poetry set to music, on a new album from France’s first lady, Carla Bruni. —
5. — This story of a wife’s betrayal and her husband’s fidelity unto death stings me with the awareness that small, unnoticed nobility endures in our midst —
6. — Poets, we think, can’t help but be poets and do poet-ish things. —

McCain’s Economic Plan For Nation: ‘Everyone Marry A Beer Heiress’ (ONN)

Poetry News:

1. — A poet’s Yorkshire retreat —
2. — I’m sorry to sound a philistine note, but I find it hard to cheer the current bizarre revival in verse drama —
3. — Wick Poetry Center looks to the past during 25th anniversary celebration —
4. — Dr Andy’s Poetry & Technology Hour w. Joe Biden and Laura Cherry [MP3] —
5. — Wordplay w. Glenis Redmon [MP3] —
6. — A wandering mind can do important work, scientists are learning - and may even be essential —

oh for pete’s sake.

Poetry News:

1. — Nancy Galbraith; Led Center For Poetry —
2. — Reversing the Tide: Professor Gives Due
 to Self-Taught Poets —
3. — Journals that take summer submissions (3 recent blog posts) —
4. — Reb Livingston is guest blogging at The Best American Poetry (where I found the link below) —
5. — 68 new reviews of poetry books. Edited by Eileen Tabios —
6. — Bosnia’s butcher poet —
7. — poetry & rss I know that dead mule has an rss feed —
8. — Soldier-Poet Brian Turner, Framing War In Verse —
9. — WordPlay 7/20 Jeffrey Beam on Jonathan Williams [mp3] —

Poetry News:

1. — The accompanying CD is particularly valuable because actors can read: its 30 poems are presented beautifully and naturally. —
2. — VIDEO - Kay Ryan: Chickens and the Funnies —
3. — This week we’re looking at a sauce-free poem by the Earl of Rochester, reminding us his range stretched beyond the scurrilous —
4. — N.C. native’s song enshrined —
5. — A poet’s vision for the environment, young artists —
6. — Wordplay: Nan Watkins presents Yvan Goll —
7. — Please remember this very, very important rule, “find out what the publisher wants.” —
8. — King Arthur is propaganda, say French —
9. — But it does represent the edgy relationship of women and their mothers —

Happy Canada Day Canadians!
**
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train on You Tube with Pete Seeger (She was the maid for the Seeger family — interesting story [if you didn't read the article above]. Her guitar style is pretty influential — “Cotten picking” hmm like Maybelle Carter’s “Carter style” or Merle Travis’ picking, which Chet Atkins glommed onto. [His daughter is named Merle.] Chet used to play “Freight Train” sometimes.

and here is a video of her playing the banjo no embedding available

My back hasn’t gone out, but I’m having some muscle issues I guess. Taking a blog break. Have a good Independence Day.

Poetry News:

1. — Taking stock of the wood —
2. — Wordplay features Philadelphia-based poet Ross Gay [links to MP3] —
3. — This week’s poem is the delicate and flirtatious 16th-century French “Villanelle”, along with a brand new translation —
4. — Jonathan Thirkield has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Walt Whitman Award for his first book-length collection of poems, The Waker’s Corridor, chosen by poet Linda Bierds from over 1,000 entries —
5. — Have blogs been good for books? —
6. — Folk singer/activist Utah Phillips ’has caught the westbound’ —
7. — Interestingly, though, the omnipresence of words in artworks is a relatively recent phenomenon. —
8. — When she discovered that the feminist poet Adrienne Rich lived up the road, she asked her for a job and helped to work on Sinister Wisdom, a lesbian literary journal —
9. — Amy Winehouse lyrics analysed as poetry by Cambridge University students —

I have to take a break again - my body is  kind of  rebelling right now. This is gross - my joints are really cracking/popping. I’m like a sheet of bubble wrap! It’ll get sorted out.

I think this is my first review. Thanks Justin. And I think this is my second review - thanks Mary.

Poetry News:

1. — An award-winning poet and physician describes how words help him understand and express human suffering —
2. — lovely —
3. — WordPlay 5/18/08 Coleman Barks [links to MP3] —
4. — In the second of a series of exchanges in which we are bringing poets together to discuss new books, Cate Marvin and Joshua Mehigan spar over books by Alice Oswald and Daniel Anderson —
5. — Roethke’s Poetry Rooted in Humble Beginnings and Mayor reads “The Saginaw Song” as his hometown celebrates poet Theodore Roethke’s 100th birthday —
6. — Yale also conferred honorary degrees on former US Trade Representative Carla Hills, astronomer Martin Rees, architect Cesar Pelli, poet John Lawrence Ashbery and others —
7. — Among the year’s outstanding works for children are poetry books that combine melody and meaning —

Meritage Press (St. Helena & San Francisco) and xPress(ed) (Puhos, Finland) are delighted to announce the release of THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, edited by Mark Young and Jean Vengua.

Poetry News:

1. — If birds come from something as bizarre as a smooth ovoid container with no exit or entry, then it’s not too far of a stretch to imagine that the backbone of a corpse becomes a snake —
2. — WordPlay - WPVM: Celebrating Jonathan Williams [links to MP3] —
3. — 2008 National Magazine Award Finalists —
4. — Interview with poet Mark Doty:A poet who goes from “Fire to Fire” & Mark Doty Video at Split This Rock —
5. — Editors Kathryn Stripling Byer and Marilyn Kallet gathered contributions from 52 female writers —
6. — Posthumously published, these poems by one of the great masters of the short story deal largely with aging and death —
7. — The sense of unknowing you feel at the end of a poem is not something you get and then get over. —
8. — Bishop’s poetry takes up about the first third of this Library of America volume; the rest is prose of varying kinds and interest — fiction and memoir, travel and literary pieces, translations and correspondence, some published for the first time —

Lest you think I’m not an idiot, I am. Before I even got my MFA I sent a poetry manuscript out to poetry contests. Even now that I’m wised up about poetry contests, there are some presses that I really like so I enter to support them (NMP’s chapbook contest deadline is coming up FYI). So yeah, I’m a hypocrite.

Thursday I’m meeting with the folks at the Vanderbilt Division of Medical Genetics. Wish me luck. I don’t know what to expect, though I know where they will be heading. Unfortunately, I’m in a lot of pain these days & didn’t help things when I slipped Saturday & fcked up my r. hip. Note to self: do not taunt Pluto.