Poetry News:

1. — Well, William Logan is back —
2. — Amazon seems each year to go from one publisher to another, making increasing demands in order to achieve richer terms at our expense and sometimes at yours [link found here thank you] also see Borders Urged to Consider Sale to Amazon. I didn’t know Borders went up for sale in March. —
3. — Meet Raymond McDaniel, poet and University of Michigan instructor. —
4. — But there have lately been a number of feminist readings of Milton, and though they can’t explain away that primal inequality, certainly they have a lot to point to, such as Eve’s argument for independence in Eden —
5. — So where do poems come from? —
6. — Poet’s first collection a remarkable beginning —
7. — ‘Papers’ doesn’t quite capture new U.Va. collection —
8. — Bob Dylan is a real genius – just not when he has a paint brush in his hand —
9. — The poems in The Mechanical Bird explore the natural and man-made worlds with an imaginative mix of fact and invention —

I got this email Read the rest of this entry »

Poetry News:

1. — This Ecstatic Nation: Learning from Emily Dickinson after 9/11 —
2. — Q&A: Rebecca Wolff’s Fence Turns Ten —
3. — Holy Road: Paula Gunn Allen (1939 - 2008) —
4. — He wanted to create, as he put it, “echoes realer / than originals.” Unfortunately, echoes have a nasty way of fading. —
5. — Elizabeth Kirschner’s book of poems, ‘My Life as a Doll,’ chronicles her memories of child abuse —
6. — Lit 50: Who Really Books in Chicago —
7. — It’s easy to forget that American poetry was not always as friendly to the middle class as it is today —

The book reviews at New Pages are fresh and so are the lit mag reviews

dancing girl press has opened the chapbook manuscript reading period — they make good chapbooks.

I like persona poems - a whole online lit mag issue of them

Poetry Midwest has an e-chapbook available as a downloadable PDF file.

My family member is back from Iraq - thank you for your prayers.

Poetry News:

1. — You’re saying to the world, this is how I want to be read, this is how I want to be seen, and those are hard decisions to make —
2. — Poetry in Motion, Thanks to YouTube —
3. — The 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded Friday evening, April 25, 2008, at UCLA’s Royce Hall —
4. — Manitoba Authors Honoured at Manitoba Book Awards —
5. — Gioia’s Poetry Set to Music as Hudson Review Turns 60 —
6. — It’s time for difficult writing to step up —
7. — Elegy for a Scarred Shoulder will debut May 1, 2008 at free reading and booksigning at 7:00 pm in Kalman Auditorium at Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center, 18101 Oakwood Blvd in Dearborn, Michigan —
8. — A Spring Bouquet of Poetry —
9. — Nuyorican Poets Cafe celebrates 35 years of odes —
10. — He currently writes for the New York Review of Books and is Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. He answered your questions on the state of poetry today. [links to MP3] —
11. — Fifteen months in India in the early 1960s had a lasting influence on Allen Ginsberg. —
12. — The metrical pattern, with its short, tumbling line, is sometimes known as “skeltonics” —
13. — Groundbreaking Book: Ariel, by Sylvia Plath —
14. — Cinderella Schools for Writers —
15. — Former beat movement member Gary Snyder wins $100,000 poetry prize —

Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibetan Situation, by Some Chinese Intellectuals

Ach, my appt at the pain clinic got moved back a week, due to a conference. You’d think a pain clinic consultation would be zippy.

How to be a jerk
1. Read a lukewarm review of your book on Amazon.
2. Explain to reader how she is mistaken.
3. Encourage deletion of reader’s review.
4. Have friends / fellow authors harass reviewer?
5. Have Private Investigator dig up personal information on reviewer. (?!)
6. There is no #6.
7. Amazon bans the reviewer.
8. Profit?
(there’s a boycott amazon group at Facebook BTW.)
And Writers call for 1 May Amazon, eBay boycott
…RSS feed backlog.

Poetry News:

1. — What is the state of poetry in our culture today? —
2. — Her literary journey has taken her through books and journals across the country —
3. — Poetry soothes a vulnerable soul —
4. — Dr Johnson found him too lofty, TS Eliot said he wasn’t serious enough —
5. — From the author of “The Savage Detectives,” a satire of fascist writers —
6. — Ezra Pound’s birthplace draws poetry pilgrims —
7. — Poetry to make you slap your knee, the host —
8. — Langston Hughes’ grandfather was also part of the group that left Fayetteville on the wagon train —

Poetry News:

1. — Sina Queryas has a life that’s been much cooler than yours —
2. — Pity the poetry collection. That thin volume of poems, so easily lost on a crowded shelf —
3. — Sarah Churchwell is frustrated by the limp portrayal of a hotheaded, randy Latin poet in Helen Dunmore’s Counting the Stars
   —
4. — Anyway, he said: “Blurbs are nonsense — they’re all hyperbole and hype.” —
5. — Poet-Soldiers Lend Voices on Iraq War —
6. — He’s adept with form, from sonnets, heroic couplets, ballad stanzas and terza rima, to those basic nursery-rhyme ditties he likes —
7. — Brigit Pegeen Kelly seems to typify the distinguished American poet —
8. — Robert Creeley (1926-2005) was one of the darker poets of his generation, and also one of the best —

ha Jessie brought this quiz to my attention. Thanks.

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren’t concerned much with theories or dreams… only what’s true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren’t subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

Poetry News:

1. — The second part of this post is about my impression of the role that some phantasmatic nightmare image of AWP plays in the imaginations of many participants in the various online poetry worlds —
2. — The poet laureate talks about how he’s not enamored of nature, his vote in the New Hampshire primary and the American preoccupation with happiness —
3. — Robert Pinsky’s work speaks to us in our common language and relates that language to our hopes as citizens —
4. — LOC Guide to Poetry & Literature Webcasts: Individual Poets, Novelists, and Writers —
5. — McGrath’s audacity has a genial, sociable quality, often with a flippancy that he directs back at himself, in the American tradition of kidding —
6. — Bukowski’s typewriter and night lair in daylight. Does this seem at all familiar to you? —
7. — Drunk poet climbs over cliff, seeking inspiration —

This song is being beamed to the “North Star” tomorrow. Hint: John Lennon wrote it. link. Happy 40th birthday, cool song.

Solving The Mystery Of The Metallic Sheen Of Fish

Poetry News:

1. — People believing that’s Angelou’s best poem ever, I figured, is justice enough —
2. — Sekou Sundiata: Defying Labels —
3. — Bookslut is looking for a columnist and also for a book designer —
4. — The Impoverishment of American Culture by Dana Gioia —
5. — Poetry doesn’t make a lot of money, and the quiet time doesn’t mean it’s easy —
6. — the e-mail congratulation ratio for the two achievements ran about 50 to 1 —
7. — A (Slightly Qualified) Defense of MFA Programs: Six Benefits of Graduate School by Arielle Greenberg —
8. — After the 1-0 loss, the Twins express themselves in Haiku and other verse —

I’ve been tagged:

Here are the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

2. Players start with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their 8 things and post these rules.

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don”™t forget to leave them a comment telling them they”™re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I am an extraordinarily patient person but waiting in/on line/queue gives me the creeps/anxiety. Waiting rooms are OK though. It’s just standing in line.

2. If a poem doesn’t tickle my ear somehow it doesn’t resonate with me.

3. In 1983 I won a Spin Magazine trivia contest about the Flintstones. I received a t-shirt.

4. I have only workshopped poems in grad school. Not before nor since, I think. Can’t stand it. Never had a bad experience though. Not a fan.

5. I rarely write poems about myself (explicitly).

6. I hate talking about myself.

7. Thanks for reading.

8. The End.

I tag these 8 random people: tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag.

A new low. Dear 5th Amendment — I’m so sorry. !$@%# !&#*&#^ King George @)$ *#(#( @**!&!

Yay to Carol! Her chapbook is being published by Finishing Line Press because it was a top-ten finalist in their 2007 New Women’s Voices Prize in Poetry.