Poetry News:

1. — Poem of the week: To a Louse —
2. — British Library acquires Ted Hughes archive for nation —
3. — Podcast: Children’s Author and Poet Carole Boston Weatherford —
4. — Giovanni Finds Funky Beats To Teach Poetry To Kids - NPR —
5. — When Boston-based playwright, poet and Simmons College English professor Afaa Michael Weaver returns home to Baltimore, he often can be found doing tai chi under the trees at Lake Montebello. —
6. — Published last month by Coffee House Press, Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith is a searing portrait of the horrors wrought by Hurricane Katrina —
7. — The distant enchantress who stole a poet’s heart —

Poetry News:

1. — Her early writing is set in a structured style with familiar rhyming schemes, yet its tone foreshadows her charged works to come —
2. — Consistencies Found In Synaesthesia: Letter ‘A’ Is Red For Many; ‘V’ Is Purple —
3. — Poet Giovanni honored with historic marker —
4. — Poems not only rhymed but the syllables of each line were exactly calculated; to make matters trickier, there were tonal patterns as well, dictated by the pitch accents of the language. —
5. — Though he is best known for his medicine–related poems, Peter Pereira successfully exploits his devotion to anagrams and other word games in poems that celebrate the malleabality and surprises possible in language —
6. — Twas the year 2008, when the world’s worst poet got his day - a little late —
7. — The true legacy of the inventor of LSD, who died yesterday aged 102, is in the music, literature and visual arts that were produced as a result of acid —
8. — The problem of describing trees —

This country sure is going to hell in a handbasket. Maybe someone else will do an Idiocracy-type movie that won’t be as terrible.

Tennessee State University
Distinguished Lecture Series Presentations

Nikki Giovanni
American Poet, Essayist & Lecturer

Thursday, April 3, 2008
1:00 pm
Kean Hall

Email me if you think you’ll be attending. I’ll help you get a temp parking permit/place to park.

Hey we have a half inch of snow so far.

Poetry News:

1. — For many years now, the most popular poet in America has been a 13th-century mystical Muslim scholar —
2. — Poetry of all kinds, but war poetry in particular, has a different significance for a cadet at West Point than it does for undergraduates at most other colleges and universities —
3. — DePauw Professor’s Gift Creates Writing Professorship in His Late Wife’s Name —
4. — Computer turns prosaic dunces into lyrical poets —
5. — Celebrating Sylvia Plath’s 75th b’day —
6. — University of Redlands professor wins 2007 PEN poetry award —
7. — Cities of Refuge is an organization that takes in banned writers, hoping to bring them from hostile homelands to live and work in a U.S. city [and more] —
8. — there is no denying that there has been racist undertow among some of America’s most distinguished poets —
9. — Los Angeles poetry wanted —
10. — Professor Laments Wall Of Privacy’s Rigidity —
11. — a small band of skilled writers is learning to compose poems under an instructor whose first book of poetry was published this summer and is beginning to attract national attention [congrats] —

‘Maggot Art’ Offers Children Colorful Lesson In Entomology

Poetry News:

1. — Pavarotti’s Death Gets Little Attention in Italy —
2. — The name “troubadour” likely comes from trobar, which means “to invent or compose verse” —
3. — Changing of the literary guard - UM appoints creative writing director —
4. — Benedetti worries about small-press publications … —
5. — Acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, a visiting professor at Fisk University this semester, will begin a community writers’ workshop Monday, school officials said today. —
6. — The camera lingers over a pitted surface, haunted by the ghosts of indecipherable letters —
7. — 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:

1. — Writing tops poll of ideal jobs —
2. — Prolific poet was a gracious critic —
3. — Mary Jo Salter and Brad Leithauser, a couple with individual success, will write the next chapter of Hopkins’ Writing Seminars —
4. — Conversation With a Poet Laureate —
5. — Rare Anne Spencer collection headed to UVa —
6. — 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:

1. — How Jim Morrison Died —
2. — The Pirahã, Everett wrote, have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for “all,” “each,” “every,” “most,” or “few” —
3. — We’re poets, so this was an amazingly stressful situation for us —
4. — Actress Katrice Monee Headd has more than the usual nervousness about her upcoming portrayal of poet Nikki Giovanni. —
5. — At 26, the youngest poet to be shortlisted for Forward Prize —
6. — The 3rd Annual Printers’ Ball is scheduled for Friday, July 20, at the Zhou B. Art Center in the heart of Chicago‘ Bridgeport neighborhood —
7. — Should peotry [sic] be outlawed? —
8. — Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish returned to Haifa Sunday night and read his poems in front of hundreds of cheering fans —
9. — Shapiro’s poems are levitations, magical and incantatory, or they are physics experiments that are also dreams —
10. — Linda Fiorentino Will Produce, May Star in Russian Poet Biopic —

“I’ve seen the miracles of God with my own eyes,” Yang said. “I did a lot of bluffing, also.”

In just a generation or so it has spread throughout much of the English-speaking world [link found here thank you]

What’s the difference between a blues musician and a jazz musician?

A blues musician knows 3 chords and plays in front of a thousand people and a jazz musician knows a thousand chords and plays in front of 3 people.

[Rimshot.]

Poetry News:

1. Does poetry still matter? —
2. But in the early 20th century, a critical revolution led by T.S. Eliot helped to put Donne at the center of the English canon —
3. Virginia Tech’s Professor of Hate —
4. At the tender age of 15, Franz Wright sent one of his poems to his father —
5. In fine form —
6. Duck-billed platitudes —

My brother Jason has a sculpture “A Few Iron Posts of Observation” at the Usdan Gallery at Bennington College until May 4th as part of the show Multiples.

Poetry News:

1. “I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him,” Ms. Giovanni told CNN —
2. After John Berryman, American poetry turned toward having the weight and feeling of its words overshadow the story —
3. Contemporary poet Blas Falconer to read works at APSU Thursday [Nashville] —
4. Drunk vandals target poet’s garden —
5. Helvetica is his film marking the typeface’s 50th anniversary —
6. Remarkably for the 18th century, Finch’s husband often acted as her secretary, transcribing many of her poems —