Poetry Hut Blog

• — Why danger can be good for children guess it is time to bring back these toys [youtube] —
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• — Jeff Bezos in Disagreement With A Major Publisher, Pulls All Their Works’ “Buy Buttons” Off Amazon —
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• — After years of mimicking her betters at poetry, she found her calling —
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• — Zora Neale Hurston remembered on 50th anniversary of her death —
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• — Fine writers, lousy spouses —
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• — Accompanying the photos is a sestina by Mr. Trinidad called “Playing With Dolls,” in which his mother defends his doll habit —
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• — A Reading List for the Grieving —
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• — A Kittery Point poet and teacher, Green spent four weeks at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., working on a manuscript of 100 poems that she wanted to revise. —
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• — Ruth Padel on Derek Walcott, ‘dirty tricks’, and the worst mistake of her life —
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• — A love poem is principally a way of wooing, a strategy for seduction – and the Poetry Archive has compiled a collection you can send to your beloved on their mobile phone —
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• — New Lit Mag Alert —
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• — Unusual Calls for Submissions —
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• — Pros and Cons of Interning at a Lit Mag —
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• — Homeless young adults express themselves through poetry, build community, better lives —
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• — 3 questions with former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky —
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• — Rarely do I come across a book of poems that reads as though it had to be written. When I do, I’m reminded why I read poems in the first place —
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• — For starters Bukowski’s assertion that he was born a bastard is inaccurate: he was born on August 16th, 1920; his parent had married, albeit only a month before, on July 15th. —
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• — Yet without medical classification, but real in its effects, let us call this pandemic by the name poet-oxemia. —
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• — Howling at the Moon: The Poetics of Amateur Product Reviews —
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• — “What is a cat but a reduced lion?” So muses the fictionalized Joseph Brodsky character in Andrey Khrzhanovsky’s whimsical and inventive film, A Room and a Half. —
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• — There are a few things that make Wendy Barker, poet-in-residence and professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, angry. One of them is how intimidated people can be of poetry. —
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• — Reviews of New Fiction, Poetry, Mystery, Science Fiction and Comics — Publishers Weekly, 1/25/2010 —
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• — Can creative writing ever be taught? —
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• — Spitball The Literary Baseball Magazine has moved —
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• — Timothy Steele’s Missing Measures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt against Meter: the case for a new Formalism —
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• — DOD Identifies Army Casualty —
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• — DOD Identifies Army Casualty —
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• — Poetry roundup | Book review —
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• — Uncovered: Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner —
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• — How does an outfielder know where to run for a fly ball? —
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• — Alan Lightman—scientist, essayist, novelist, and poet—takes on the big questions —
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• — Patricia and Edward Submitted by Ryan from My Parents Were Awesome —
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• — Abandon All Poetry, but Enter Hell With an Attitude —
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• — The Romantic poets: The Human Image and The Divine Image by William Blake —
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• — Invictus aside, poetry in cinema is embarrassing —
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• — Poetry, in its power to burn experience into the soul in a concentrated perfection of language often becomes an unlikely balm. —
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• — NaPoWriMo 2010 is coming! [from No Tell Motel thank you]—
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• — A few years after the dedication, he decided to revisit “his” high school. By then a different principal was in charge. The new man thought Sandburg was a panhandler and threw him out. —
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• — George Tsongas dies: poet, North Beach fixture —
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• — Women and Disability and Poetry (Not Necessarily in That Order) —
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• — More drawings from my notebook that is so small, I can only fit the faces of people I draw. Not to be confused with the online social network Facebook. —
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• — Cerebral Meditation Hosted Roy Johnston – Join Roy as he talks to Stanley Plumly about his Keats Bio Poets who die young often have surprisingly lively posthumous careers. John Keats (1795-1821) provides the most celebrated example: Almost immediately after his death in Rome, at the age of 25, he entered the realm of legend. Though his poetry wasn’t much read at the time, he himself was quickly transformed into a figure of myth. For Shelley — who drowned with a copy of Keats’s last book in his pocket — he was “like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished,” as he put it in “Adonais,” his elegy for the poet. At the opposite extreme, Shelley’s good friend Lord Byron detested Keats and snubbed him, referring to him in one letter as “a dirty little blackguard.” For the aristocratic Byron, Keats was a “Cockney” upstart — more a rank weed than a pale lily. But for Keats’s admirers, his humble origins only enhanced the pathos of his fate. For William Butler Yeats, Keats was both the “coarse-bred son of a livery-stable keeper” and a woebegone schoolboy “with face and nose pressed to a sweet-shop window,” the very epitome of sensuousness unsatisfied. [mp3] —
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• — The Reading Is Poetry Review – “Where Verse Becomes A Learning Lesson” Join Hip Hop Jazz Poet A K Toney as he reads and reviews selections from “Skovbo” by Viggo Mortenson. (Perceval Press 2009) A Collection of photographs, poems, and quotes. (in English, Spanish, and Danish [mp3] —
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• — The Blood-Jet Writing Hour hosted by Rachelle Cruz – Join Rachelle as she Talks to Alicia Ostriker – Alicia Ostriker, twice a finalist for the National Book Award, has published 11 volumes of poetry, most recently No Heaven. Her most recent prose book is Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics, and the Erotic. She has received awards and fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, the Poetry Society of America, and the San Francisco State Poetry Center, among others. Ostriker lives in Princeton, NJ, is Professor Emerita of English at Rutgers University, and teaches in the low-residency Poetry MFA program of New England College. ***** Rachelle Cruz, Poet and Host of “The Blood-Jet Writing Hour” Radio Show www.thebloodjet.wordpress.com www.rachellecruz.com [mp3] —
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• — Jo Mcdougall – from Joe Milford Show | Jo McDougall is the author of five books of poetry: The Woman in the Next Booth, BkMk Press/University of Missouri-Kansas City; Towns Facing Railroads and From Darkening Porches, University of Arkansas Press; and, most recently, Dirt and Satisfied with Havoc, Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh. Her memoir in progress, Daddy’s Money, focuses on growing up on a rice farm in the Arkansas delta. [mp3] —
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• — Annie Finch explores the metaphorical meaning of winter. [mp3] —
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If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?

Thank God 2009 is over! I think it even surpassed 1983 as the worst year ever, for me. So it is 2010 & 7th year of poetry news here on the blog. A couple questions:

1. At year’s end, again, my question: Where’s my flying car?

2. Have you downloaded my poetry book? It’s free to download, which over 800 folks have done, thus far. (Little sales and never did make it to any year end lists.) But I still like it and am proud of it and if you like it, too, you can buy it.

I hope you all have a good 2010 & have a solid foundation. xoxo

• — Rifts have surfaced at Chicago’s Poetry magazine since… —
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• — A poetic clash over millions in cash —
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• — 2010: Poetry Collections to Come… —
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• — poet Annie Finch’s blog link from here, thanks
• — Methuen preserving Frost artifact —
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• — Indianapolis philantropist Ruth Lilly dies at age 94 and In 1939, The New York Times published four poems by “R. Lyly.” Ruth Lilly’s lawyer, Thomas Ewbank, is “95 percent sure” the name was a pseudonym for Ruth Lilly. and Ruth Lilly, RIP Willy Lilly Nilly—venture capital for poets. —
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• — AbeBooks’ Most Expensive Sales of 2009 —
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• — Right-handers sit to the right of the movie screen to optimise neural processing of the film —
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• — photo —
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• — Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo’s 11-year prison sentence —
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• — SPD Poetry Bestsellers 2000-2009 (The ‘OO’s!) —
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• — Where Are the Nurse Writers? —
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• — A poet considers the lasting influence of Eleanor Ross Taylor —
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• — When a young writer from Massachusetts named Eileen Myles, above, was still new to the East Village, she went St. Mark’s Church for what would become her New Year’s Day ritual: a poetry marathon. —
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• — In Memoriam: Activist Poet Dennis Brutus —
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• — Learning Lab: Anne Bradstreet: “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Emily Warn —
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• — Learning Lab: Philip Larkin: “An Arundel Tomb” by Jeremy Axelrod —
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• — Orwell’s birthplace to be saved from decay —
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• — From the UNDERLIFE book launch party on December 16, 2009. congrats —
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• — Don Paterson awarded Queen’s Medal for Poetry —
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• — Reginald Gibbons finds poetry in Chicago —
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• — Missouri’s first poet laureate found the job engaging, consuming —
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• — The best medal a poet could wish for is a wider readership —
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• — Whoopee! Author Daniel Nester is most inappropriate —
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• — The Dream Poet Anthology 2009 The only poets I can remember dreaming about are Akhmatova and Tsvetsaeva. I have Sadge in the 12th house so yeah it’s be foreigners haha. —
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• — But apparently, since she wrote about housewives and domestic issues, there’s nothing to admire about what she did. And if you want to mock a woman writer these days, why, you just link her to Erma Bombeck and call it at day. —
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• — So, for the i-ROBOT adaptation (the play based on Jason Christie’s I-ROBOT) when I started to think about how to write dialogue for robots I looked up some chatbots on the Internet and had conversations with them about poetry. —
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• — Ten Ways to Send Your Work Into the World —
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• — Collections by Katha Pollitt, Philip Levine, Mary Jo Bang and Patty Seyburn. —
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I get a lot of unsolicited email from poetry publishers, lit mags, etc and I don’t have a problem with that but I am seeing a trend that is starting to bug me – there is no way to unsubscribe, or to know who the email is coming from, exactly, and so on.

Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act

• — Worley Edits Book of Contemporary KY Poets —
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• — A poem begins for me with a feeling of being let close to the edge of something —
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• — An excellent diatribe —
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• — During my happy days working in the arts department of the Village Voice, I discovered this previously unknown letter by Marianne Moore in one of the paper’s earliest issues —
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• — Wondering what to buy for the bookworm who’s read everything? How about poetry? Santa Barbara poet laureate David Starkey shares his top 10 picks of recently released poetry collections —
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• — Marilyn Monroe film ’shows actress smoking marijuana’ —
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• — Literary Baseball T-Shirts “Selling Very Well” —
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• — Michael Boughn is seeking articles on poet-scholar John Clarke. —
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• — The Delirious Hem Advent Calendar is back, this year featuring audio! —
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• — A letter by Keats’s old friend makes clear how much “sensative-bitterness” the poet felt after attacks on him by critics —
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• — Invisible Sisters: A Memoir is a “Best of Atlanta 2009 Must Read!” —
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• — More companies, including McDonald’s, are being moved to verse to advertise their products. Is this a welcome development? —
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• — Podcast: Andrew O’Hagan on Samuel Johnson [mp3] —
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• — I can’t believe Sonny Eliot is still doing the weather in Detroit yay [mp3] —
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• — His literary influences include such American modernists as Wallace Stevens, John Ashberry, Charles Bernstein, and poets of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry school. Words (P=A=L=A=B=R=A=S?) come first in his writing; he is always looking to break through the sound barriers of convention. —
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• — Annie Finch traces the evolution of the sonnet —
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• — Trivia Question of the Day : Category-Literature —
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• — Although he has had five books published–two novels, a book of stories and two books of poems, Tao Lin is not yet thirty. Yet, for all his industriousness, his work expresses the apathy and emptiness felt by many members of his generation… [mp3] —
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• — An 1827 first edition copy of poems by Edgar Allan Poe sold for $662,500 on Friday setting a record for a 19th century book of poetry, said a spokeswoman for Christie’s auction house. —
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• — In 1947, a gal named Barbara Ehrhart chose to create her wedding dress out of turkey feathers —
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• — Terese Svoboda Interviews Heartsrevolution —
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• — One could cite other essays that make Stevens’s case for poetry, but the real question is: How well does his own poetry measure up to his ideal? After all, the telling phrase in the opening line of the invocation to “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction” is “except for you.” Since the “you” refers to the creative faculty of the mind, it excludes everything else, including, of course, people. —
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• — Volume 3 number 3 HOW2 —
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• — Cate Marvin, the current writer-in-residence at the Stonington apartment of the late poet James Merrill, feeds her 10-month-old daughter Lucia, in the Eastern-domed dining room at the table where Merrill and his lover did their Ouija board experiments. —
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• — Hugh MacDonald, a poet, editor and novelist from Brudenell, P.E.I., was announced as the new poet laureate for the province on Friday. —
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• — Neither the arrest of his parents, nor his difficult childhood and adolescence, nor the equally difficult years he spent in exile abroad could destroy that passion for freedom and joie de vivre. To quote his friend and contemporary, the poetess Bella Akhmadulina, those emotions permeated every breath Aksyonov took. —
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• — album of ambient/poetry reading with some Tsvetaeva —
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• — A T.O. poet-essayist ponders Old and New World literature on a century of slaughter —
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• — Professors of creative writing Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover won the prestigious 2009 PEN USA translation award for “Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin.” —
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• — I think of him as an Irish aboriginal, the mind diamond sharp and of the now, in the flickering dreamlight of a forest clearing —
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• — The statement said that the museum “deeply regretted” that some of the poets who participated in the last reading, on Nov. 21, had received “hate mail.” —
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• — Are there nonfiction authors—or any type of author—who are so great to read, you would read anything they wrote? —
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• — ejunto is a 501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit Corporation dedicated to bringing quality audiobooks to the public domain. —
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• — Wordsworth’s Minster mystery —
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• — Two Minnesota-produced films — on Allen Ginsberg and the Runaways — will get prestigious Sundance Festival premieres. —
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• — What is the future of Lit Journals? —
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• — The aging master, all too aware of the shadow obscuring our sight of things and aware of the encroaching darkness as well, can still ponder what is on the other side of night and still be lucent, thank goodness, about the great benefit of living —
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If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?

• — A Talk with Sir Rabindranath Tagore; Bengali Poet, Nobel Prize Winner, Now in This Country, Gives His Poetic Creed and Explains Oriental Attitude Toward Literature By Joyce Kilmer. October 29, 1916, Sunday —
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• — Frieda Hughes: why I love motorcycle racing —
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• — The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, Mr. Carroll’s hometown, has agreed to install a marker that commemorates a moment on Nov. 27, 1925, when the poet Vachel Lindsay was timidly approached at dinner by a busboy who placed three poems he had written next to Lindsay’s plate. —
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• — This month’s Across the Page features four noteworthy poetry collections, including: Mary Oliver’s new release, Evidence; Audre Lorde’s The Black Unicorn; Marilyn Hacker’s Desesperanto, and British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s Rapture. —
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• — As you can see, at least two letters at the start of every word are the same as the ending letters of the previous word. Can you make such word-chain sentences that make sense? —
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• — 5 Awe-Inspiring Poetry Reads, by Katha Pollitt —
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• — Denton woman selected as 2010 Texas poet laureate —
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• — D’oh! on a Grecian Urn —
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• — Miss Conduct’s 2nd Annual Clerihew Contest! —
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• — Like the Levi’s(R) brand, Walt Whitman stands for the democratic power of real people – the self-reliant young men and women who make this country a better place. —
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• — “Over the coming weeks, we’ll also be posting a second set of poems by the contributors to the issue. These poems will be ‘made’ using the texts from other contributors’ poems.” —
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• — Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2009 Results —
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• — “…about the experience of putting together the Multiformalisms anthology I recently edited with Susan Schultz and how the formalism/language poetry are not at all the opposed forces people imagine they are but are practically in cahoots” —
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• — Marianne Moore’s five-decade struggle with “Poetry.” —
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• — An Era of Détente for Creative-Writing Programs <-- updated link to free access to full article thank you ---
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• — Santa Clara County unveiled its first-ever word collage – a collection of lines from county residents organized by county Poet Laureate Nils Peterson. —
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• — Poetry presses, getting published & the delightful ampersand
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• — In her collection, “Honeybee” (Greenwillow, 2008), writer Naomi Shihab Nye finds a metaphor for our constant busy–ness in the phenomenon of colony collapse disorder — the unexplained demise of thousands of honeybees. [mp3] —
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Hey, happy Canada Day!

If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?

• — chicago poetry calendar —
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• — Summertime Poetry Picks —
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• — Tony Hoagland on Dean Young —
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• — Iran’s National Poet Speaks Out —
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• — Four Virginia poets — two well-known, two not so, offer anthologies that make summer a time to savor the poetic as well as lighter reading. —
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• — Darth times indeed: The Give Dick Cheney’s Memoir A Title contest —
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• — bill moyers’ in-depth interview with w.s.merwin —
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• — Four Ears: the Curse of the Metrical Code —
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• — ron slate on stacie cassarino —
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• — The Waste Land, according to Ezra Pound, is “the longest poem in the English langwidge”. As his spelling suggests, he was not being entirely serious. —
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• — “Those good folks, The Joiners, are offering up their latest song as a free download this weekend. Hurry and listen to their wonderful “Tennessee.” It’s really, really good.” —
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• — How David Trinidad’s collection of vintage dolls plays into his poetry. [mp3] —
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• — PICTURES: Hand Stencils Through Time —
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• — “fire” – lou pinella as bukowski poem —
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• — Spanish Poet Victoriano Cremer Dies at 102 —
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• — New tartan commemorates Burns’s 250th anniversary —
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• — Arty Party Food —
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• — no wonder print media is “dying” —
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• — Psychjourney Podcast & “Invisible Sisters.” —
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• — “Never Land” Yusef Kumunyakaa —
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• — Kate Tufts Discovery Award-winner Matthew Dickman writes emotional and accessible poetry… [mp3] —
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• — A recent search through the vast holdings of the Vrzhu Research Bureau archives uncovered the draft of a previously unknown poem by John Keats. —
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• — Weird book of the week: Poems About Horses —
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• — Book Review: The Bloodless Stigmata by Dee Kite —
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• — An array of poems printed on heavy stock hang above elegantly carved wooden Japanese-style prayer sticks —
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• — Best documentary award was taken by Aliona Van der Horst of The Netherlands with a lament for cult Russian poet Boris Ryzhy, who committed suicide in 2001 —
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• — Gordon Brown turns to former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion for advice —
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• — It was not unitl later, when I was readling through Tupelo Press’s free downloadable Reader’s Companion [PDF] for Calendars that I realized the poem is written in dactylic tetrameter. The dactyl is one of the most scorned metric feet in English prosody. —
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• — “He probably wrote some poems for some of you bimbos out there…” —
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• — On this edition of The Poets Weave, Jenny Kander reads poems by Maxine Kumin from the book Say This of Horses: a collection of poems, edited by C.E. Greer and Jenny Kander. —
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• — Back to the Futurists: Italy’s First Avant-Garde Turns 100 —
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I felt bloggy for this post of Poetry Hut Blog. Lotsa good links out there.

I think I linked to this cartoon a long time ago, but I’m easily amused:



I like Shakespeare’s cartoon-panel-exasperation-sweat-drops in that last panel. Have a nice Monday.

If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?

• — The Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens caused a furor in the world of Shakespeare scholarship over the weekend —
• — Frederick Seidel reads poems from his collected works. [audio] —
• — Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of horror. —
• — How a local poet publishes, from zines to the Internet —
• — Power Of Imagination Is More Than Just A Metaphor —
• — Judith Krug, Who Fought Ban on Books, Dies at 69 —
• — PEN condemns publication of Karadzic poems —
• — Effortless Clotted Cream —
• — Slash Pine Press is pleased to announce our first call for chapbook-length manuscripts of poetry or mixed-genre. —
• — Photo from garfield minus garfield —
• — And the Winner Is… Anonymous —
• — Poetry slam is Friday at Tennessee State University —
• — Finishing Line Press is going to publish my chapbook, Love and Other Four-Letter Words —
• — Good Poems for Hard Times is a top seller nationally, and with good reason —
• — NPR: 04-21-2009 Fresh Air: 1) W. S. Merwin: The ‘Sirius’ Side Of Poetry 2) Neil Young Faces A ‘Fork In The Road’ 3) J.G. Ballard And ‘The Psychology Of The Future’ 4) Gordon Ramsay: Television’s Gourmet Guru [mp3] —
• — Poet Linda Gregg wins $50,000 prize —
• — Ballard proves you should live a bit before writing —
• — Arielle Greenberg —
• — Review: Trouble And Honey by Jilly Dybka [pdf] thanks Main Street Rag and Heather Collings. —
• — and Collin Kelley had a review in that issue as well —
• — So you think you might have Ehlers-Danlos synrome? [PDF] —
• — A new look at Thoreau: from nature preacher to wisecracking, entrepreneurial party boy. —
• — For poet Brenda Hillman, it’s all about the mystery —
• — Murfreesboro residents who might have lost valuable items in the recent tornadoes can go to the local library to see if they have been recovered. and also Over the past decade, Tennessee ranks 1st in the U.S. in tornado fatalities. —
• — On Language: Baseball Lingo —
• — Troubled R ‘n’ B star Amy Winehouse is writing a book of poems. —
• — Viking Legacy On English: What Language Tells Us About Immigration And Integration —
• — The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday. Author Annette Gordon-Reed won the history prize for “The Hemingses of Monticello” and poet W.S. Merwin was honored for “The Shadow of Sirius.” Watch NewsHour conversations with Gordon-Reed and Merwin here. —
• — print vs online —
• — Laughter Remains Good Medicine —
• — Book Returned to Washington and Lee Library Only 52,858 Days Late —
• — Bloodaxe Editor Neil Astley advises what to do once you’ve finished your poem(s) —
• — Here are the 10 most common titles of submissions they’ve received in the past two years —
• — Why do some poems play it cool and simple while others are all timpany and cacaphony? —
• — Don’t Like Poetry? Too Bad. You’re Reading It Anyway. —
• — Project Censored Top 25 Censored Stories For 2009 —
• — Futurist covers: full audio from Charles Bernstein Web Log with Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, Alicia Stallings, & Charles Bernstein —
• — Female Birds ‘Jam’ Their Mates’ Flirtatious Songs —
• — Tate recreates Blake’s ‘wretched’ solo show —
• — why couldn’t u just have kids? —
• — speaking of the above, my friend Jessica’s essay in Newsweek —
• — and review of her book —
• — Poets.org has partnered with TextTelevision to offer TextFlows, an alternative approach to reading and experiencing poetry. —
• — Get well wishes to Brent Goodman —
• — Plath as a Major Poet by Annie Finch —

We have a surprise house guest coming for a month. Tomorrow. Just found out about it haha. Let me tell you, only a good friend can get away with that haha. Have a safe flight across the pond Mr Vyv.

• — Nicholas Hughes’s death tells us nothing about Sylvia Plath’s poetry —
• — Annie Finch is swept off her feet by the love poems submitted in this month’s poetry workshop —
• — This week’s choice is Oscar Wilde’s indictment of the Victorian penal system, The Ballad of Reading Gaol —
• — Poet’s Choice By August Kleinzahler: Hollyhocks in the Fog —
• — Nine Disability Groups Write Publishers about Kindle 2 —
• — Cornelius Eady is the director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame and is the co-founder and vice president of Cave Canem a national organization for African American poetry. [mp3] —
• — The American Society of Magazine Editors has announced the finalists for its 44th annual awards —
• — ‘Poems: 1959-2009′ by Frederick Seidel —
• — Language Of Music Really Is Universal, Study Finds —