Poetry Hut Blog
Jean Valentine

Poetry News:

1. — A Poem for the NCAA Basketball Tournament —
2. — Death, destruction and fear on the streets of cafes, poets and booksellers —
3. — What he would have us hearken to most closely is not the song the verse-maker spins inside his own head, but the common world’s melody, “the music of what happens” —
4. — It seems that the challenges of living elicit the most eloquent and powerful verse, and sometimes that power is delivered in a quiet voice —
5. — Wordclay Recognized as Site of the Week by PC Magazine —
6. — He told his readers difficult truths about their lives … but he did so in a way which was oddly consoling in its honesty —
7. — Hughes is a vigorous poet and the muscle of his language lifts the ordinary or overlooked experience, turns it about, holds it up to the light —
8. — Jean Valentine, Poetry Faculty Member Since 1974, Named New York State Poet for 2008-2010 —

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”

Poetry News:

1. — If you like your poets tortured and doomed, then Alun Lewis (1915-44) is your man —
2. — A ‘mystical’ experience with two poets —
3. — The drunken fall of the house of Poe —
4. — Li-Young Lee has ushered us into 2008 with “Behind My Eyes,” his first collection of poems in seven years [may require bug me not]—
5. — DIY Poetry Publishing Cooperative Update —

Poetry News:

1. — New lit mag alert —
2. — Afghan woman poet Nadia Anjuman remembered two years on —
3. — TO make one anthology is not necessarily a proof of courage; it may be merely a sign of ignorance. But to dare the wrath of neglected poets and of their friends the critics a second time, is bravery. —
4. — Jane Cooper: 1924-2007 Read poems, listen to recordings, and learn about her life. —
5. — The best informative writing about war needs to be in prose. In poetry, it’s more a matter of embedding expressions of daily life, inner and outer, in the times —
6. — Literary Podcasts —
7. — Jean Valentine - The Japanese garden —
8. — The first attack I found against a newspaper came in 1800, when a Federalist poet decided that his party’s defeat at the hands of the Republicans could be blamed entirely on the media —
9. — The “border of poetry” is “dreamfaces blurring horrorlands” —
10. — Take a look at Eleanor Rees’s exercise on reimagining familiar environments, which she has called Stepping Out —

LOL I ask questions on this blog once in a while but people email me rather than post comments. Bok Bok Bok. {chickens} Thanks for the emails though.

This is sort of pathetically funny. Maybe it is because of the neighborhood I grew up in, but even *I* know that falafel is not a Persian, Iranian, Chaldean, etc food. [Must. Not. Make. Bill. O'Reilly. Joke.] But seriously, when my sister flew back to AZ from Detroit last time, she brought a jar of good Dearborn tahini with her & the TSA had a fit. It really caused a problem. Part of it was because they couldn’t decide if it was a liquid or gel or whatever. And the label was all in Arabic. Actually, that’s pretty funny too, now that I think of it.

We always have a container of Costco hummos in the ‘fridge. So I guess we are screwed hahaha. I was emailing with someone about that article & we reckon that maybe if you buy bacon it does an if / else and throws your purchase out of the system.

if item !=pork then go on
else if item = pork then quit

or there could be a special “lone wolf/extremist” category

else if item =ViennaSausages
or item =RonPaulDonation

then write “lone wolf.”

A found poem from our conversation:

Purina One
BILLOFRIGHTS
BILLOFRIGHTS
Scott Tissue
BILLOFRIGHTS
Produce
SPAM
BILLOFRIGHTS
Bananas
Milk
BILLOFRIGHTS
Hershey Kisses
BILLOFRIGHTS
Tide
BILLOFRIGHTS
Brawny
BILLOFRIGHTS
Land-O-Lakes Butter
BILLOFRIGHTS
BILLOFRIGHTS
Twinkies