Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — In a country where poets are revered like rock stars, Akhmatova was a celebrity, but that also made her a dark, dangerous figure in the Socialist paradise —
2. — The lone witness in poetess Madhumita Shukla murder case was attacked in his village Gohadia in Kaiserganj, police said on Tuesday —
3. — It is based on Anne Sexton’s “Transformations,” a poetic, adult reinterpretation of familiar fairy tales —
4. — France Encrusts Wall-to-Wall Poetry in Sofia [I like the idea of something being "encrusted" with poetry] —
5. — Hear Gwendolyn Brooks read “the mother” and Theodore Roethke read “My Papa’s Waltz,” with insights by ex-US Poet Laureate Donald Hall. [MP3] —
6. — Salt has launched Horizon Review, its second online literary magazine and part of its planned expansion into free-to-view Web journals —
7. — Perhaps it’s the duality between the intuitive, interiority and the strong authoritative, apocalyptic voices that guide these poems —

I changed our dental insurance to a more local dentist - Dr. Anissa Burgess. Darryl went in for a teeth cleaning & sat down in the chair & asked if the TV (People’s Court) could be turned off. She said no. He asked if it could be turned down. She said no & told him that he seemed like the problematic type who wouldn’t be satisfied with the teeth-cleaning job & he said all I want is a teeth cleaning, then he left. LOL way to make a good first impression, new dentist of ours! (And Darryl is a polite sensitive new age guy so I doubt he was a jerk about it.) He said there was no TP or paper towels in the bathroom, either. Meh. We are both stuck in bizarro world these days. He didn’t get into the dental chair until 55 minutes after the time of appointment; maybe she wanted him to leave because they were overbooked? Or perhaps she simply (obviously) really, really, enjoys daytime TV & would have preferred to watch the People’s Court in peace?

Unfortunately, I’ve been seeing a lot of the medical profession these days - 3 appointments so far this week. Most of it has been a good experience but I have to wonder what in the heck some people are thinking. My [very few] “WTF encounters” have been with Interns or with office staff. With the Interns - most of my care is at a University Medical Center - it’s like they didn’t know yet that it’s not cool to exclaim “is that permanent??!!” or whatever. And with the staff: yes I want to stand in front of the little window in the packed waiting room, giving you my medical history in front of everyone so you can decide if you want to pronounce my “referral fax form” worthy enough to give to the Dr. or not. (Was not at the University Medical Center.)

Poetry News:

1. — Court advisor says poem list infringed database right —
2. — Portugal Holds On to a Poet’s Words That Few Can Grasp —
3. — Moscow at the end of the first decade of the 21st century is not a place many would equate with poetry —
4. — For generations, both the young and the old in the hamlet of Hoang Duong in Ung Hoa town in the northern province of Ha Tay have communicated by poetry —
5. — Stemming flow of literary heritage across the pond —
6. — Haiku in English —
7. — Dylan Thomas Prize Finalists Announced —
8. — “For every rule in formal poetry, a creative window opens.” —
9. — Turning the Page on The Disposable Book —

Why Musicians Make Us Weep And Computers Don’t

So I was outside and I reached for the handle of the screen door and did I mention that is was nighttime? I almost grabbed this thing with the big pinchers … I actually went ahhhhhhhhh! & kind of screamed hahahaha

Poetry News:

1. — We are each a bundle of nervous impulses: to fidget, to gossip, to be distracted, to inquire, and especially to satisfy our scalding curiosity by looking at anything we’re told not to look at —
2. — Big is still best but not everything Americans do is supersized - a rich tradition of shorter verse percolates through to us today —
3. — Palestinian-American doctor turns suffering into song, wins top U.S. prize and a book review —
4. — Listen again: BBC censors Auden quip —
5. — The Economics Of Self-Publishing —
6. — National Poetry Award to go to VT and UVA professors —
7. — The author of three collections, Brock-Broido has been praised for poems that are “gorgeous and mournful, ornate and deeply felt” —

And the hits keep coming … hubby laid off from his 5 night a week gig at the swanky place. I guess people aren’t being swanky as much these days.

Poetry News:

1. — It may be argued, then, that Plath’s “lasting achievement” was her ability to combine the personal and the mythical in her poetry, thereby endowing this with a timeless and “relevant” literary effect —
2. — A Russian Poet Unpeels Her Many Lives —
3. — Rare Emily Dickinson photo(?) purchased on Ebay —
4. — Intelligence And Rhythmic Accuracy Go Hand In Hand —
5. — Poetry workshop: Forward prize winner Matthew Francis invites readers to conjure sense impressions with metaphor and simile —
6. — In Paris in the 1930s he helped found the journal Black Student, which gave birth to the idea of “negritude,” a call to blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage —
7. — World-famous filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is convinced that one of the problems Iranians encounter in understanding poetry is that they pay too much attention to rhythm —
8. — The Pulitzer jurists for this year’s poetry prize evidently felt the pain of Philip Schultz —
9. — Frequently asked questions about the business of verse By Robert Pinsky —

I have torn labrum in my hip & a cane now. I can do this. I just had to be freaked out for a while. I finally got an appt to the pain clinic & that is making me feel better — OK there are some tools and stuff out there.

I feel full of gristle.

edit: p.s. laughing is good.

Poetry News:

1. — He died from a love of poetry [thanks Lee!] —
2. — Theater For The New City will present On Naked Soil - Imagining Anna Akhmatova, a new play written and co-starring stage and screen veteran Rebecca Schull —
3. — Punishing the publisher —
4. — Stuck for a rhyming scheme? Try the ghazal. It’s wickedly difficult to use in English, but Mimi Khalvati has it to perfection —
5. — They do not constitute an exploration of a distant land so much as an incitement to appreciate that which lies outside the self: to feel the strangeness of the world, and one’s own strangeness in it. —
6. — Brevard College students protest banning of publication —
7. — More than 100 of his friends and fans gathered on Tuesday night at East Harlem’s Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, not just to celebrate his work, but to help him in a time of need —

Do you have your March Madness brackets filled out? I have Memphis, Tennessee, Marquette, and UCLA in the final 4, with Memphis and UT going forward, and UT winning the whole thing.

Happy Solstice. Hope you have a good Easter too. I’m not at Split This Rock after all. I hope someone blogs about it.

Poetry News:

1. — Spent 22 Years Collecting 15,000 Similes; Frank J. Wilstach’s Ardent and Relentless Hunt for This Elusive Figure of Speech Results in a Remarkable Collection - By Joyce Kilmer [book is at Google books] —
2. — The Totality of Causes: Li-Young Lee and Tina Chang in Conversation —
3. — “Jennifer L. Knox is pure magic.” —
4. — West Point Professor Seeks Paths to a ‘Soldier’s Heart’ [links to MP3] and more here at Ron Slate’s blog —
5. — Poet Confidential: I WAS A GREETING CARD WRITER —
6. — A new collection from America’s most playful poet —
7. — It is one of the more delicious workings of karma that Singapore, which criminalizes homosexuality, should have as its leading young poet an openly gay man —
8. — Interview with wordsmith Gary Snyder —
9. — But The Stray Dog Cabaret is as compelling for the poems included as for its back story, which tells us a great deal about Russian society and literature in the period preceding the revolution —
10. — A.Van Jordan writes books of poetry that approach a subject the way a filmmaker or nonfiction writer might —

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Poetry News:

1. — More than 60 years after it was written, George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” remains the classic essay on the relationship between words, truth, propaganda and politics —
2. — ‘Lyrical Terrorist’ found guilty in British court and ‘Lyrical Terrorist led double life’ and ‘Lyrical terrorist’ convicted for jihad poems —
3. — Here is another photo from St. Petersburg: taken from the bench where KGB agents would sit everyday in the 40’s and 50’s to watch one the land’s great poets, Anna Akhmatova —
4. — Penguin Wins U.S. Decision in Dorothy Parker Copyright Trial —
5. — Creativity, innovation and ‘coolness’ often emerge from the grungier areas of a city —
6. — “poets cannot be coddled and nurtured in universities - that depletes their minds from having relationships with poetry” —
7. — The artwork of two local artists, sculptor Lisa Scheer and poet E. Ethelbert Miller, was recently installed at the east entrance —
8. — Nobel laureate to explain connection between arts, sciences —
9. — The rhythm of the poem is the rhythm of the train; it scans beautifully and is irresistible as a result —
10. — Gertrude Stein, fearless and flushed —
11. — Hardy’s poem was printed in the TLS of September 10, 1914 —
12. — WHY NOT ABOLISH POETS? ANYBODY WRITES POETRY NOW; Bards Are No Longer Picturesque But Look Prosaic and Wear Everyday Clothes and Cut Their Hair and Drink Milk Shakes and ;- Oh, It’s Simply Awful! —

Have you heard of The Soulforce Institute for Nonviolent Change? I haven’t and I’m right here in the city with the Southern Baptist HQ.

Poetry News:

1. — “Bestov, schmestov,” but these poems are pretty darned good —
2. — Is there any purpose to translating poetry? —
3. — This country‘ best-selling contemporary poetry book, according to the most recent list on poetryfoundation.com… —
4. — Great Poets Akhmatova and Gumilyov to Appear on Screen —
5. — The announcement that Paul Muldoon will be the next poetry editor of The New Yorker provoked Ted Genoways, editor of VQR, to to call out American poets —

Poetry News:

1. — Revealed: Sylvia Plath’s unseen art, discovered in the attic —
2. — Stevensville man named state’s poet laureate —
3. — A culmination of sorts came in 1983 when we collaborated with Dudley Randall‘ Broadside Press —
4. — Sterling family mourns loss of “˜Mary Had a Little Lamb”™ home —
5. — First, I offer you “Lot’s Wife,” a poem written by Anna Akhmatova in the early 1920s and translated from the Russian by Stanley Kunitz with Max Hayward —
6. — Ex-guide says he’s mystery observer of poet’s birthday —

Poethood and motherhood and bloggerhood.

You guys are quiet.

Poetry News:

1. — How Jim Morrison Died —
2. — The Pirahã, Everett wrote, have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for “all,” “each,” “every,” “most,” or “few” —
3. — We’re poets, so this was an amazingly stressful situation for us —
4. — Actress Katrice Monee Headd has more than the usual nervousness about her upcoming portrayal of poet Nikki Giovanni. —
5. — At 26, the youngest poet to be shortlisted for Forward Prize —
6. — The 3rd Annual Printers’ Ball is scheduled for Friday, July 20, at the Zhou B. Art Center in the heart of Chicago‘ Bridgeport neighborhood —
7. — Should peotry [sic] be outlawed? —
8. — Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish returned to Haifa Sunday night and read his poems in front of hundreds of cheering fans —
9. — Shapiro’s poems are levitations, magical and incantatory, or they are physics experiments that are also dreams —
10. — Linda Fiorentino Will Produce, May Star in Russian Poet Biopic —

“I’ve seen the miracles of God with my own eyes,” Yang said. “I did a lot of bluffing, also.”

In just a generation or so it has spread throughout much of the English-speaking world [link found here thank you]

What’s the difference between a blues musician and a jazz musician?

A blues musician knows 3 chords and plays in front of a thousand people and a jazz musician knows a thousand chords and plays in front of 3 people.

[Rimshot.]

Poetry News:

1. — Ode To The Best Poem Set In A Southern Junkyard [ and here is the poem ] link found here thank you —
2. — The Fall and Fall of the P-Zine —
3. — Poem race row splits council —
4. — … Joseph Brodsky once said of her that she “is the kind of poet that simply ‘happens’” [link found here thank you] —
5. — Clash Over Kerouac —
6. — Politicians should leave poetry to the poets —
7. — Born Magazine marries poetry to images in such a way as to enhance the rhythm and mood of the art —
8. — Sam Sifton, The [NY] Times’s culture editor, is answering reader questions from July 9 through 13, 2007. E-mail your question to … —

Poetish interviews here [thanks to Kevin for the suggestion]

Proms 07

If you have a Blogger-type blog you can now use Feedburner to handle your RSS feed and stats.

Poetry News:

1. — a bookshelf called the Cave, which allows readers to curl up in a form-fitting seat, surrounded by their beloved books —
2. — He removed WB Yeats’ tonsils, and was made infamous by Ulysses —
3. — Best summer reads: poetry —
4. — Zemeckis’ ‘Beowulf’ to bow in IMAX —
5. — Summer Reading: The poetry of Anna Akhmatova —
6. — Three titles published by the University of Arizona Press were honored May 31 at the ninth annual International Latino Book Awards —
7. — CD Wright’s bold and sensual poems are rooted in the blue-collar South, says Vesna Goldsworthy —
8. — If only Bush would have read a little poetry first … [link via Peter Pereira's The Virtual World thank you] —

Happy Canada Day, Canada! I miss living next to your 2nd-largest-country-in-the-worldness. Hope you get Monday off from work.

Poetry News:

1. — Blogs versus Print: is there a prejudice? [and more, kinda, about the legitimacy of blogging.] —
2. — Elizabeth Bishop, in her early 20s, doing cart-wheels across the field at the farm —
3. — English Professor Sets Poetry Wheels in Motion for Luzerne County Residents —
4. — Poet Cathal O’Searcaigh wins €20,000 literary prize —
5. — Anna Akhmatova’s Portrait by Modigliani Presented to Russia —
6. — Fascinating —
7. — Len Sousa’s Poetry/Music Mashup [wandered there via a link here thank you] —
8. — These words gave me hope for humanity —

So why haven’t you read this book yet? Mmm.

Poetry News:

1. — What are the questions that you live with, as a poet? —
2. — The Iranian literary monthly Bokhara paid tribute to the renowned Russian poet Anna Akhmatova —
3. — Interview with Iranian Poet Farideh Hassanzadeh —
4. — How many books can you read without wanting to write one? —
5. — Antioch College to close in 2008 —
6. — Poet and critic whose masterful translations helped to bring the works of Hölderlin and Celan to a wider audience —
7. — Tree said to inspire Frost has to be cut down —
8. — Have Poetry Hut Blog delivered by email every day —