Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — William Carlos Williams is one of the most celebrated American poets of the 20th century, yet he toiled in obscurity for much of his life. —
2. — 40 years of fostering creativity —
3. — A group of terrified children were left in tears when their teacher decided to liven up a creative writing class by telling them they might have typhoid —
4. — Poster poems: a big disappointment —
5. — National Endowment For The Arts Funds Construction Of $1.3 Billion Poem —
6. — National Endowment for the Arts chief to resign —

wow: “…it took 232 years to accumulate $9 trillion of debt and in July, we increased it by another $5 trillion by accepting responsibility for Fannie’s and Freddie’s debts“

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. — Moving Pictures Have Commercialized Writers; Says Charles Hanson Towne, Poet and Editor, Who No Longer Finds Magazine Editing an Adventure, as It Was Years Ago —
2. — Reason lives in a haunted house —
3. — Although her beloved team is not in this year’s World Series, she shares a poem about being at the event years ago with her daughter [mp3] —
4. — The most ambitious contemporary poets tend to be haunted by the ridiculousness of poetry, its irrelevance, its pretentiousness … —
5. — A Poet in the Supermarket By Dana Gioia —
6. — Peter McDonald is delighted by Ciaran Carson’s translation of the blood-and-guts Irish saga The Tain —

Wow that baseball game took forever. That’s OK though.

Poetry News:

1. — One of America’s most respected literary magazines”Virginia Quarterly Review … is teaming up with the University of Georgia Press … to bring out a new series of poetry books [thanks Claudia C. for the info] —
2. — Make Bush Name 10 American Poets: Memo to Endowment Head Gioia —
3. — On poetry and sorrows: a short conversation with Robert Bly [may require bug me not] —
4. — Eisteddfod winner scales his peak —
5. — Asahi Haikuist Network —
6. — I need a PHP developer, email me if you are one —
7. — Poet and the Poem series at the US LoC. Amy King is up there now. Congrats, Amy. —

I thought this was a headline from the Onion at first. Same Agencies to Run, Oversee Surveillance Program

This song has been going through my head today for some reason. “That echo chorus lied to me with its ‘hold on hold on hold on hold on.’” Mr. Dybka bought me a post-surgery present & I can play a dorky version of House of the Rising Sun. That instrument actually plays very well. I know what guitar chords look like from when I was a bass player [warning: contains the 1980s], but getting my fingers to do that. Well. And the strings are so thin! …maybe I’ll try to learn that Neko Case song. I think there’s a 7th chord in there though. Maybe not. LOL.

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.

Poetry News:

1. — How much should a poet be paid per line? —
2. — Fifty years ago, I suspect that along with Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Sandy Koufax, most Americans could have named, at the very least, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg … —
3. — Rutgers-Newark Offers New MFA Program In Creative Writing —
4. — “Physicists talk in metaphor all the time,” says Mr. Jordan, 41, who weaves theories and theorems into his latest poetic examinations [link good for a few days] —
5. — Naomi Shihab Nye: Streets (from Poets.org) —
6. — My sex in the convent - by Nobel poet —
7. — Renaissance for Harlem literary giant’s home —

More here about the commencement speech: NEA chairman blasts American culture in commencement talk Speaker tells grads to reject passive consumerism … wasn’t Dana Gioia the Vice President for MARKETING at General Foods Corporation????

I think I may have to modify my “if you don’t vote you can’t b*tch” rule to “if you don’t vote, then you can’t b+tch AND ALSO if you have an MBA, you were the Vice President of Marketing for General Foods Corporation for 15 years, where you helped create Jell-O Jigglers,^™ then you may not make any pronouncements about how consumerism is pooping with confidence onto US culture.”