Poetry News:

1. — Higginson has been ridiculed as a second-rater who allowed too much editorial tampering when he first published Dickinson’s poems, —
2. — Sylvia Plath—original hip-hop poet —
3. — This stunning Northern Irish poet is easily on a par with famous Seamus —
4. — Sex and the semicolon —
5. — A book of poems featured prominently in AMC’s widely lauded “Mad Men” sent viewers scrambling to find copies —
6. — I have a plea for any internet animation specialists out there: more poetry, please —
7. — UGA grad Trethewey named Georgia Woman of the Year —
8. — The verse novel (like the rock opera or the sound sculpture) is the awkward child of successful parents, destined to disappoint both of them —
9. — LOL —

Poetry News:

1. — William Logan in the NYT on Frank O’Hara —
2. — Actually creating reading of substance trapped in constraints —
3. — To annotate his poems is to realise how much cultural and metaphysical freight they carry —
4. — Much of her work drew on the southern working-class milieu from which she sprang, and she produced powerfully evocative poems remarkable for their painful insights into people’s lives —
5. — I am free to confess that my own poetry would have not developed in the direction it did, for better or worse, were it not for the spell that was cast over me as a boy by Warner Bros. cartoons —
6. — Late Czech poet and immunologist Miroslav Holub mined greater treasure from the sciences than any other poet I know —
7. — Friends of the Harvard Public Library announce 2008 poetry award winner —
8. — Georgian budgie learns Stalin’s poetry —

I’m still waiting for the Wheel of Fortune episode where the puzzle turns out to be SCARLETT AND FRANK O’HARA (or JOEY AND ELIZABETH BISHOP).

Poetry News:

1. — These aren’t pastoral poems delighting in nature; they’re set in a muddy town of drunken fights —
2. — Try doing it, and what you’ll end up with is cheap imitation Frank O’Hara —
3. — Thieves steal homeless poet’s words —
4. — Agenda will celebrate its half centenary next year, having been founded by William Cookson and Ezra Pound in 1959 —
5. — Reading the work of other contemporary writers makes your own work derivative, say some. —
6. — Gardens and their flowers have inspired poets down the ages, but will they inspire you to your own florid contributions … —
7. — He discusses life as a poet in Pittsburgh, “where no one is a stranger,” and shares some of his work [links to MP3] —

I messed up my blog software this weekend, while I was upgrading. Let me know, please, if you encounter any weirdness.

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I think Verse Daily forgot to pay their domain renewal. Or Paul Guest broke it. He was the last poet I saw up there. Or maybe they threw in the towel.

Poetry News:

1. — So what did Peter Mark Roget, the creator of Roget’s Thesaurus, do to handle all the pain, grief, sorrow, affliction, woe, bitterness, unhappiness and misery in a life that lasted over 90 years? —
2. — Others believed poet Sylvia Plath was lead singer of pop group the Black Eyed Peas —
3. — Do not panic…yet. —
4. — Confusion in reading poetry, she says, is a “non-problem. I prefer to think of it as an alternative kind of knowing. It’s not one that gets a lot of credit in our culture.” —
5. — It’s hitting hardest the writers who write books that you dip in and out of: poetry, cookbooks, travel guides, short stories —
6. — Three Grand Prize winners will receive $100 each, plus their poems will be read to music, choreographed, costumed and danced by the Natica Angilly’s Poetic Dance Theater Company —
7. — O’Hara’s personality became famous long before his poetry did —
8. — From Punk Pioneer to Mother and Poet —
9. — Like many of the poet’s biographers, Greenblatt is convinced that Shakespeare despised his wife —

If you have any particular National Poetry Month resource you would like to share, email me or leave a blog comment and I will post it/them tomorrow.

Another request: if this blog has been in the least bit informative or entertaining, please donate to these folks (they take credit cards online, securely).

Poetry News:

1. — Official State Author and Poet Are Named —
2. — Owners To Open ‘Mystery Room’ Sealed For 50 Years —
3. — What are your feelings on MFA programs in regard to authors publishing in today’s market? —
4. — The rubric “poet among painters” does not adequately explain the radical shifts between formal and personal values in O’Hara’s poetry —
5. — What does zazen do for the poetry? Do you feel that there is a relation there that helps somehow in the writing? —
6. — Even though running a press is costly, it’s still important for folks to have the opportunity, even though it’s infrequent, to be published —
7. — Two books published by St. Paul-based Graywolf Press and one from Minneapolis-based Coffee House Press have been nominated for the 28th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes —

Anna Akhmatova died March 5, 1966.

Most popular outgoing links for February 2008 (as far as Feedburner is concerned):

• “One of Ireland’s best-known poets today denied he sexually exploited young men as police investigated allegations against him”
• “Barack Obama’s creditable poems are in an erratic tradition of political versifying” (tie)
• “Interview: Major Jackson” (tie)
• “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”