Poetry News:
- — 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 —
- — The lone witness in poetess Madhumita Shukla murder case was attacked in his village Gohadia in Kaiserganj, police said on Tuesday —
- — It is based on Anne Sexton’s “Transformations,” a poetic, adult reinterpretation of familiar fairy tales —
- — France Encrusts Wall-to-Wall Poetry in Sofia [I like the idea of something being "encrusted" with poetry] —
- — Hear Gwendolyn Brooks read “the mother” and Theodore Roethke read “My Papa’s Waltz,” with insights by ex-US Poet Laureate Donald Hall. [MP3] —
- — Salt has launched Horizon Review, its second online literary magazine and part of its planned expansion into free-to-view Web journals —
- — 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.)
Tags:
Anna Akhmatova,
Anne Sexton,
Donald Hall,
Gwendolyn Brooks,
Joel Deane,
Madhumita Shukla,
Paul Eluard,
Salt Publishing,
Theodore Roethke
Poetry News:
- — In ‘‘Elegy,’’ poet Mary Jo Bang has taken on one of the largest and most difficult subjects in all of literature —
- — National Book Critics Circle finalists —
- — John Milton: the poet who gave us ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The Matrix’ —
- — Former poet laureate opening another chapter in his life —
- — How lovely it is that there are words and sounds —
- — John Ashbery, Octavio Paz, Stanley Kunitz and Robert Pinsky all wrote poems for him —
- — he calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush, whom he calls “a booted, sombrero’d/cowboy Caligula/who couldn’t manage a straw/horse on a parade float…” —
- — Ex-carpenter warms up tp poet laureate honor —
- — Editorial: Frost home vandalism is deeply disturbing —
- — Poets and jazz artists find rhythm and rhyme —
- — Taslima Nasreen has been chosen for the prestigious Simon de Beauvoir feminist award in recognition of her writing on rights for women —
- — Vendetta fear after poet murdered —
- — Denise Clarke is entertaining as poet Anne Sexton in Sylvia Plath Must Not Die —
- — If Fence magazine were an actual fence, it would be a portable one —
- — A different kind of poetry concentrates more strikingly on expressiveness —
I’m going to Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness in March. I bought a plane ticket but I don’t know where I’m staying yet. I’ve only been to D.C. once, for some computer security training. But I took a train to the Mall area and wandered around for half a day. Saw about an hour’s worth of the Smithsonian. 
I wish I had more time to see stuff but I won’t. I’d like to meet with my members of Congress, too, but I won’t be there on those specified constituent days. After all the letters I’ve written them I’m not sure their staff would schedule me anyway hahaha.
Tags:
Anne Sexton,
books,
Charles Simic,
James Schuyler,
John Milton,
Joseph Cornell,
literature,
Mary Jo Bang,
Matthea Harvey,
Michael O'Brien,
nbcc,
Peppino Marotto,
Peter Dufault,
Poetry,
Poetry News,
poets,
Rebecca Wolff,
Robert Pinsky,
Split This Rock Poetry Festival,
Sylvia Plath,
Tadeusz Rozewicz,
Taslima Nasreen,
Ted Kooser,
Tom Pickard,
Walter Bargen
Poetry News:
- — In a sequence about T.S. Eliot in California with his love interest Emily Hale, the couple visits the In-N-Out hamburger chain —
- — At the point where one stage of our lives draws to a close and we are about to enter the next stage, there is always room for the hope of great things —
- — Larry Matsuda & Tess Gallagher —
- — John Hartley Williams is impressed by the responses to his tricky exercise on adapted adages —
- — Via extremely rare recordings, Radio Beats will also feature the voices of other seminal American poets including Anne Sexton, Beat-era godfather Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Beat icon Allen Ginsberg —
- — The poems that Auden came to dislike, including “Spain,” “Sir, no man‘ enemy,” and “September 1, 1939,” are not to be found here —
- — Jeffery Brown reports on how poetry publishers keep turning out new material in today’s fast-paced commercial media culture —
- — Allen Ginsberg, American poet and Buddhist, was also eloquent about dictators like Than Schwe: In a work he called “Wichita Vortex Sutra”¦” —
“…it‘ more like copping-a-feel reading. There‘ something yucky about it ….” Well I guess that argument does apply to poetry, nowadays, above all, if you agree with his reasoning.
There’s more here at this article too, which says “… longer-standing online ventures include Blackbird [which is fresh btw], failbetter.com, storySouth, Drunken Boat, and The Barcelona Review. Newer online journals ““ Memorious, GutCult, Small Spiral Notebook ” pop up on the NewPages site.”
(This was the last short story collection I read — if you don’t count Sentence — and it was great.)
****************
If you self-host your blog, this is kind of fun: “Hey there –I wanted to let you know about a service called Project Honey Pot. It allows you to track and help catch spammers who harvest email addresses from your web pages. I signed up myself, added honey pots to my site, donated an MX entry to help the cause and think it might be a service you’d find useful.
You can learn more and sign up for free by visiting:
http://www.projecthoneypot.org?rf=27520”
Tags:
Allen Ginsberg,
Anne Sexton,
Burma,
John Hartley Williams,
Larry Matsuda,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti,
Mary Kinzie,
Robin Robertson,
Tess Gallagher,
Than Schwe
Poetry News:
- — Joe Zawinul, jazz musician behind Bitches Brew, dies at 75 —
- — Number of these [books sold in the USA] that sold fewer than 99 copies: 1,123,000 [link good for a few days] —
- — ‘Uncanny coincidences’ lead police to explore Taslima angle to Hyderabad [bombings] —
- — A thinking parrot’s loving good-bye —
- — Poets with local ties honored [ congrats Amanda ]—
- — Scandalous poem, novelized —
- — 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 —
- — Jarman to read from new book at APSU —
- — 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.
Tags:
alex,
Alexander Pope,
Amanda Auchter,
Anne Sexton,
Joe Zawinul,
Mark Jarman,
Poems,
Poetry,
Poetry News,
poets,
Taslima Nasreen,
Taslima Nasrin,
Valerie Wetlaufer
