Nashville | Poetry Hut Blog

Rare Spanish Coin Found in Nashville Cemetery. I once found an Imperial German Army uniform button. It was on top of a mole hill in our yard in Nashville on the Cheatham County line. Weird.

Collin kindly nominated Poetry Hut Blog for The Shameless Lions Writing Circle Award. Thanks, that is kind.

These are 5 blogs, poetry and not, that I also nominate:

WhimsyLand: Jeffrey Bahr deserves some kind of award for The Futility Review.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: just because it always cracks me up & I like Chaucer.

rotten peaches: makes me want to do memoir-comics. But mine would look a lot more like a John Callahan cartoon.

pitcherlady: for pretty pictures and not-so-pretty pictures that aren’t afraid to shine a light on community problems. If I ever publish a book I’ll ask Susan for a pic. (Yes I realize this award is for writing but…)

The Moderate Voice: for its news and political discussion made possible in the blog comments — without a bunch of crappy, angry, name-calling.

My criteria: creativity, honesty, community, and quirk is good, too.

Nashville poetry alert

Nashville has a new literary journal, keyhole.

Tags: keyhole, literary magazine, Nashville

Poetry News for October 11, 2007

Poetry News:

— “The name ‘Ceptuetics’ comes from combining the words conceptual and poetics” —

— The Gulf between Love and Hate is No Greater than 6: Experiments in Language, Literature, and Mathematics —

— Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence —

— A native of Puerto Rico, Judith Ortiz Cofer is a poet, essayist, memoirist and novelist —

— The National Book Awards finalists were announced yesterday —

— Scene reviewers pick their favorite out-of-towners appearing at the Southern Festival of Books —

— China: police harass human rights poet Tao Jun after interview for US newspaper —

— More TFR News —

— After about 6am CST (Noon GMT/UTC) click here to find out the winner of the literature Nobel —

Poetry News for October 5, 2007

Poetry News:

— Thank you very much for inviting me to speak about Poetry and Power —

— the latest wrangle in the US reflects a wider problem in deciding what’s good poetry and what’s not —

— VA Tech professor writes poems about shooting —

— Poets are good at discerning life within what otherwise might seem lifeless [congrats]—

— Business of Words with Collin Kelley, Month of October, Guest: Reb Livingston —

— Sean O’Brien has become the first person to win the prestigious Forward Prize for Poetry three times. —

— For years, Baltimore has laid claim to one of our greatest writers. Nevermore! —

— Old and, though no-one knew it then, close to death, Auden’s behaviour in Ilkley can best be described as eccentric —

— The court cited the lower court‘ findings of fact questioning the validity of the certificate‘ facts, such as … the publication of the poems without a copyright notice —

— ACLU “˜Howls”™ Against FCC Destroying the Best Poems of a Generation —

— Burma: Act Now! —

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Congrats to Eclectica on its 54th issue. That’s quite an achievement, as online lit mags seem to come and go. In the latest issue, Scott Malby did a review of this site. Thanks, that is kind.

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3 most popular links for last month (as far as Feedburner is concerned):

“This country’‘ best-selling contemporary poetry book, according to the most recent list on poetryfoundation.com”

All about the latest Best American Poetry

The announcement that Paul Muldoon will be the next poetry editor of The New Yorker provoked Ted Genoways, editor of VQR, to to call out American poets

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Attn Nashville word nerds: this program (New PBS Series Probes the Origin, Technology and Art of Writing) begins tonight at 7pm on Nashville Public TV.

Nashville Poetry Alert

Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Program
Fall 2007

Monday, October 1, 2007, 8 p.m., Buttrick 102, poet Robin Becker, author of Domain of Perfect Affection.

Friday, October 12, 3 p.m., Buttrick 101, Faculty Reading, Alumni Reunion Weekend: poets Beth Bachmann, Kate Daniels, and Mark Jarman, and novelists Tony Earley, Lorraine Lopez, and Alice Randall.

Wednesday, October 31, 8 p.m., Wilson 126, novelist Robin Lippincott, author of In the Meantime.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007, poet Kate Light, author of Gravity‘ Dream. (A performance of Ms. Light‘ “Einstein‘ Mozart” by the Blair String Quarter will be performed at The Blair School of Music‘ Turner Recital Hall, Monday, November 12, at 8 p.m.)

I’ll totally be at both of those Kate Light events. Her poetry is great. Plus Einstein & Mozart and my favorite meter, dactyls. Whoo.

Nashville Buddhist Festival: Saturday, September 15, 2007

Saturday, September 15, 2007 11 a.m. ““ 5 p.m.

First Church Unity, 5125 Franklin Road.

Join us for a day of meditation, teachings, contemplative exercises, music, yoga and more.

Everyone is welcome: the curious, newcomers and experienced practitioners.

Free admission. Rain or shine.

Please join us for our opening ceremony at 11 a.m. There will be a special, interdenominational “Meditation for the Cultivation of Peace.” [more]

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Schedule:

11:00 Opening: 108 invitations of the gong

11:10 Welcome: Master of Ceremonies

11:15 Cultivating Peace Meditation

11:40 Lisa Ernst (One Dharma Nashville)

12:10 Rev. Taiun Michael Elliston, Sensei (Nashville Zen Center)

12:40 Kali Yuga Yoga

1:00 First Coordinator Panel

1:35 Skip Ewing (Nashville Mindfulness Center)

2:05 Music Performance: Kindling Stone

2:30 Ven. Bhante Nyanasobhano (Nashville Insight Center)

3:00 Acharya David Schneider (Shambhala Nashville)

3:30 12 South Yoga

3:50 Second Coordinator Panel

4:25 Ven. Ashin U Pannasiha (Nashville Insight Center)

4:50 Gratitude and encouragement: Master of Ceremonies

4:55 Closing: 108 invitations of the gong

Buddhist fest lets Nashville in on the secret of inner peace

Change Your Mind Day 2007

Poetry News for September 13, 2007

Poetry News:

— The mystery of how we read a sentence has been unlocked by scientists —

— In recent years literary research has come to focus more and more on visual forms, and digital poetry brings to a head this concern with the visual —

— To the Death…May the Best Writer Win —

— Poetcast: September 10th, 2007 New work by Kim Addonizio [links to MP3]—

— Alison Lurie on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [contains spoilers] —

— Paging David Lynch —

— True to its title, Sean O’Brien’s latest collection oozes water —

— Nashville: Poet Robin Becker to read at Vanderbilt on Oct. 1 —

— I like that phrase - “Lucky Camera” —

Ugh — I had to tell Darryl that Joe Zawinul died. (One of his musical heroes.) Wow, 2007 has been a rough year for musicians — Maynard Ferguson, Michael Brecker, Pavarotti, Max Roach, and Joe Zawinul have died. Here is a video of Joe Zawinul with Cannonball Adderly, way before Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate. He’s even playing an acoustic piano

(link)

Poetry News for September 7, 2007

Poetry News:

— Pavarotti’s Death Gets Little Attention in Italy —

— The name “troubadour” likely comes from trobar, which means “to invent or compose verse” —

— Changing of the literary guard - UM appoints creative writing director —

— Benedetti worries about small-press publications … —

— Acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, a visiting professor at Fisk University this semester, will begin a community writers’ workshop Monday, school officials said today. —

— The camera lingers over a pitted surface, haunted by the ghosts of indecipherable letters —

— Blame It on Shakespeare —

Mickey is blogging! He’s posting vignettes & drawings.

See you next week. (Monster ear infection — got some Cipro ear drops. I haven’t had antibiotics in years.)

Poetry News for August 23, 2007

Poetry News:

— We old white geezers never heard of him until last month when his suit against the governor of New Jersey reached the U.S. Supreme Court. —

— Trial Run for LongPen in Bookstores —

— …villanelles aren’t standard fare on the wings of most category B prisons —

— 2007 National Book Festival —

— Poetry-only shop well-versed in success —

— The Problem Solvers investigate Vanity Press companies —

— Sharing memories of poet Anne Sexton —

Still over 100F. Ugh.

Yesterday I was walking to my car after work when I saw a giant black mushroom cloud. Bert the Turtle would have been very disappointed. I just stood there and did not duck and cover. (And I am old enough to have experienced nuke drills in school.)

Some adorability.

Does anyone have a really good (tomato) gazpacho recipe they would care to share?

Poetry News for August 22, 2007

Poetry News:

— Writing tops poll of ideal jobs —

— Prolific poet was a gracious critic —

— Mary Jo Salter and Brad Leithauser, a couple with individual success, will write the next chapter of Hopkins’ Writing Seminars —

— Conversation With a Poet Laureate —

— Rare Anne Spencer collection headed to UVa —

— Renowned poet and Tennessee native Nikki Giovanni will return to her alma mater this fall as a distinguished visiting professor at Fisk University —

March 20-23, 2008 “You are invited to our nation‘ capital for a festival that celebrates our great tradition of poetry of witness and resistance.”

“There were no differences by political party in the percentage of those who said they had not read at least one book” … and One in Four Read No Books Last Year

Evidently, lit mag distributor Bernhard DeBoer has gone out of business.

Here is an OPML file of my poetry-related blog subscriptions. I guess you can right-click to download it. You can import it into Bloglines or Google Reader or other blog readers. I recently switched from Bloglines to Google reader entirely because Bloglines kept giving me old feeds.

Poetry News for August 19, 2007

Poetry News:

— Economy in writing can put garrulous narration or evasive speechifying to shame (congrats c. dale)—

— The American College of Physicians, the nation’s largest medical specialty organization, has published a compilation of stories, essays, and poems by doctors and their patients —

— America’s newest, and foreign-born, poet laureate has traveled a long way —

— Married M’s: The Metropolitan Market’s Logo Questioned —

— Where Sheep Once Grazed, Now Poems Take Root —

— Taslima wants adequate security after death threat —

— Each week, Ed Shakespeare, the bard of Brooklyn baseball, will take a page from his ancient ancestor and add a bit of iambic pentameter to all our lives —

So for the last 11 days here in Nashville, it has been over 100 degrees F for 10 of them — including one day when it reached 106 degrees F. The hottest it has been here EVER (since they have been keeping records) is 107 degrees F. We are also in an “extreme drought.” I feel really bad for the farmers. We had a really hard freeze in April (?) and that messed things up and now this.

In more positive news, I got a new adult literacy student. That should help shake me out of my funk. My previous student graduated out of the program & got his CDL. Then I took a break because of the surgery. But I’m back & ready to share the wonderment of wordage. If you are in Nashville, the Nashville Adult Literacy Council needs YOU! They have a waiting list of folks who WANT to LEARN!!! It just takes a couple of hours every week and is fun! If you don’t live in Nashville, I’m sure your town has a similar organization with a long waiting list.

Elvis Presley - Long Tall Sally

[Warning -- here be name dropping]

I asked Chet Atkins one time about Elvis. (Chet produced a lot of his records in Nashville’s legendary RCA Studio B & also played guitar on some, like “Heartbreak Hotel.”) He told me that a.) Elvis was a polite,”nice boy” b.) Elvis loved cheeseburgers and ate Krystals a lot c.) Elvis was the first guy that he knew that wore “eye makeup” (mascara) because he was really a redhead