Poetry News:

1. — With passion, precise imagery, astute description, the well-traveled poet covers a lot of ground —
2. — Some say that if we make a space for the person we wish for, then that spot may be suitably filled —
3. — As T. S. Eliot once remarked, we cannot say where technique begins or where it ends —
4. — He is a Pulitzer Prize nominee, a two-time Academy award nominee, the translator of Jacques Brel and the most successful living poet. And you’ve probably never heard of him. —
5. — A friend told me years ago that he read poetry because it cleaned up his act —
6. — Academic critics and high school students, feminists and curmudgeons, fellow poets as different as Frank O’Hara and James Merrill - all have embraced this sharp-edged, slyly elegant work, with its way of interlacing the domestic and the volcanic —
7. — Almodovar films story of poet jailed by Franco —

Outline of Monocle in Lady’s Veil Makes Latest Fashion

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Poetry News:

1. — Interview: Poet Major Jackson —
2. — Just when you think that nothing is sacred in a Koch poem … —
3. — Small press has big dreams for writers in N.C. —
4. — Need a new password? Here’s literary help. —
5. — VJTI lecturer beaten over Shivaji poem —
6. — Beating the odds, Alaska Quarterly Review reaches 25th year —
7. — For him, it’s a given that any poet carries around a near encyclopaedia of every line or poem that’s ever affected them —
8. — Security forces have arrested a man suspected to be an aide of the prime suspect in the theft in India of the Nobel Prize medallion of poet Rabindranath Tagore —
9. — Poet-mania: Mary Oliver’s sold-out appearance sparks a ticket frenzy on Craigslist —

Poetry News:

1. — The [Washington] state Arts Commission is taking applications for the job of poet laureate —
2. — An ex-soldier’s take on recent war poetry —
3. — in giving MacNolia a voice, the poet, A. Van Jordan, deals with the subject of balancing our love —
4. — The poems aren’t irreverent ““ they don’t mock the grave or its tenant ““ but some of them do seem, well, a touch indiscreet —
5. — we are less willing to be repulsive and repugnant in our poems, so caught up in our quest for linguistic and emotional beauty and earnestness —
6. — Student safety, creative rights clash [and Bob Hicok's poem about VA Tech] —
7. — Wilkes receives approval for MFA in creative writing —
8. — Almost single-handedly, as poet, editor and propagandist, he had engineered a “Scots Renaissance” in literature —

hahahahahahahaha — this is great. (and WTF?)

Poetry News:

1. — Morphine —
2. — The Author Will Take Q.’s Now —
3. — Major Jackson: Where He‘ From —
4. — Clueless CBI gives up Nobel theft probe after three years —
5. — Why Attempt Suicide? Evidence from the Poetry of Suicidal Poets —
6. — Mothers’ reading style affects children’s later understanding of other people’s minds —
7. — Philomene Long, 67, poet [may require bug me not] —
8. — Four of the most celebrated living poets — John Ashbery and former poet laureates Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Mark Strand — have new collections —
9. — Bob Dylan is a genius, but he’s no poet —
10. — The owner of a midtown bookstore set fire to hundreds of books on West 39th Street on Sunday —
11. — Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness Treatment and the Creative Process —
12. — ‘Myth’ A poem by Natasha Trethewey [thanks Jessica -- can't wait to hang out at Poet @ Tech on the 21st weee tell the cats I am on my way] —
13. — Interview with Appalachian beat poet Thomas Rain Crowe [links to MP3 & courtesy of WPVM] —
14. — Musical settings of poetry remain rare in jazz —

I don’t know how I missed this post but you should go read it. (I still mispronounce “big words” sometimes LOL.) I’m pretty much done with the “legitimate po-biz world” not that I have ever been in it really hahahahah. Taking a break from sending out stuff to lit mags for sure. Geez o pete, I have poems out from *last summer* that I never got a response back from. :/ That’s not 100% of the reason. I’m just finding the “legitimate po-biz world” increasingly icky-seeming & I’m happy enough just posting poems here, even if folks don’t seem too thrilled, ha. (No offense to anyone in the “legitimate po-biz world” who is reading this blog, I’m sure you are nice people < -- not being a smart ass.) Why, again, did I go into debt for an MFA? hahaha No, I don't regret that, I learned a lot and that is what I wanted to do, learn. I didn't particularly want to teach. I wanted to learn about poetry. Because writing it is fun & I wanted to find out how to write it better. :)

This is my favorite Beatles song.

Hell. It has rained 1 time since I last wrote here of rain. Usually at this time of year our porch/deck here in the woods is full of fallen acorn mast and dropped walnuts. I found one pea-sized acorn yesterday. The poor squirrels. I bought a bag of corn for them at evil Wal-Mart™. It is probably from China so I am probably poisoning them. But yesterday there were 7 squirrels stuffing their faces on the corn and not even hissing at each other. (And some stale Cheerios™ I put out there as well. I eat Cheerios every day. Or oatmeal. Oats and corn are 2 of my very favorite foods. Usually I live on corn during the summer, but not this year.) Poor squirrels so mangy and skinny. I’ll have to go to the farmer’s co-op and get some feed corn this week.

Poetry News:

1. We’ll have Major Jackson on for the hour reading his poems and waxing philosophic about where he, and where all of us, are from —
2. Prince’s visit will be marked with sheep poem —
3. Lines of Resistance —
4. 2007 southeastern literary magazine & small press festival [thanks to Tom for letting me know] —
5. I’ve found a kindred spirit in the found-art movement —
6. Winner of the ninth annual Boston Review poetry contest —

100% not-safe-for-work Molly Ivins video at you tube.

Poetry News:

1. Rhyme is often dismissed as conventional, old-fashioned and childish —
2. Poet and UVM prof Major Jackson finalist for NAACP Image Award —
3. Robert Anton Wilson, January 18, 1932 - January 11, 2007 —
4. VI by John Haynes —
5. Slonimsky Bridges Whitman and Wall Street as Poet/Fund Manager —
6. £900,000 to study medieval poet —