Poetry Hut Blog
Robert Hass

Poetry News:

1. — The accompanying CD is particularly valuable because actors can read: its 30 poems are presented beautifully and naturally. —
2. — VIDEO - Kay Ryan: Chickens and the Funnies —
3. — This week we’re looking at a sauce-free poem by the Earl of Rochester, reminding us his range stretched beyond the scurrilous —
4. — N.C. native’s song enshrined —
5. — A poet’s vision for the environment, young artists —
6. — Wordplay: Nan Watkins presents Yvan Goll —
7. — Please remember this very, very important rule, “find out what the publisher wants.” —
8. — King Arthur is propaganda, say French —
9. — But it does represent the edgy relationship of women and their mothers —

Happy Canada Day Canadians!
**
Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train on You Tube with Pete Seeger (She was the maid for the Seeger family — interesting story [if you didn't read the article above]. Her guitar style is pretty influential — “Cotten picking” hmm like Maybelle Carter’s “Carter style” or Merle Travis’ picking, which Chet Atkins glommed onto. [His daughter is named Merle.] Chet used to play “Freight Train” sometimes.

and here is a video of her playing the banjo no embedding available

My back hasn’t gone out, but I’m having some muscle issues I guess. Taking a blog break. Have a good Independence Day.

Poetry News:

1. — The lit mags that could —
2. — GK intros Maxine Kumin, she and GK read her poetry [real audio] —
3. — There are stereotypes about Sylvia Plath fangirls — that we’re mired in middle-class existential woe —
4. — In his new collection, Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems, poet Cornelius Eady writes of his transition from urban renter to rural homeowner and the encroachment of middle age —
5. — Blues And Haikus: Jack Kerouac with Al Cohn and Zoot Sims —
6. — Melissa Denes talks to Aeronwy Thomas about her father Dylan Thomas —
7. — Pulitzer Prize Winner Hass Answered Your Questions on Modern Poetry —

Meet my neighbors. I heard about that on XM Radio during the top of the hour news blurb & the news announcer just said it was in Tennessee. So I was thinking it was some crazy East Tennessee person (disclaimer: mom & them are from E TN LOL). Sadly, no.

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.

Two prizes were awarded for poetry: Hass for “Time and Materials” and Philip Schultz for “Failure.”

read more

Poetry News:

1. — April is National Poetry Month. We will be celebrating it with a cover story on March 30, so we are inviting kids 13 and younger to submit their poems to be considered for inclusion —
2. — Arab ‘Poet Idol’ lures 70 million viewers —
3. — A good volume of selected poems should be more than a gathering of popular favourites —
4. — And now, in this 13th year of the column, I am delighted to announce our new steward — a writer variously described as “a spitfire” and “an inspiring teacher” — the incomparable Mary Karr —
5. — Poetic Ancestry: Mentors and Tormentors —
6. — She is also the editor of the literary journal ‘The Fairy Tale Review,’ but said she never set out to write a children’s book —

Poetry News:

1. — NZ’s ‘best-loved’ poet dies [and more at your tributes] —
2. — It’s a great time to be a poetry reader —
3. — Police make arrests in Robert Frost house damage —
4. — Poets Forum Reading: Free Audio Download —
5. — Rough and tumble aren’t the only words that drive Metro Detroit’s literati. —
6. — Under the influence of the Romantic poets, he turned away from a life based on calculation —

Poetry News:

1. — Vandals ransacked the interior of Homer Noble Farm, the summer home of the late poet Robert Frost —
2. — Every New Year’s Eve, the normally dry Coast Guard log takes on a lyrical charm —
3. — John Ashbery’s verse can be hard to understand, but the simple act of reading his latest collection, Notes From the Air, is a pleasure in itself —
4. — The theatrics of Russia’s Silver Age poets come alive in Paul Schmidt’s theatrical translations —
5. — Revisiting Cole Porter’s ‘Top’ —
6. — Landis Everson was one of the Berkeley Renaissance, an avant-garde poets’ group from the 1950s —
7. — The Blush of the New —
8. — Ken Tolson is the real-life grandson of Melvin B. Tolson, whose work as an educator, mentor and poet is highlighted in the new film The Great Debaters —

Most clicked links of last month:

1. Poet’s Choice” columnist Robert Pinsky fields questions and comments on this year in poetry
2. Since 1945, only three poems have been published by the charming grey-haired spinster who has won every US poetry prize worth winning.
3. Prize-Winning Poet Robert Hass On American Poetry, Bob Dylan, Impact of ‘The Big Lebowski’

Most popular posts of 2007:

1. Once upon a time
2. Poetry News for October 16, 2007
3. Poetry News for October 10, 2007

Poetry News:

1. — Though still a student at Lincoln University, he has already published two books of poems, The Weary Blues and Fine Clothes to the Jew —
2. — Prize-Winning Poet Robert Hass On American Poetry, Bob Dylan, Impact of ‘The Big Lebowski’ —
3. — Singing the songs of love —
4. — Anne Stevenson: the secret life of a poet —
5. — Sometimes, as in Jill Rosser’s new collection of poetry, it’s a comic, irritable gesture that recalls the abyss a footstep away —
6. — While many young people countrywide are venturing into the music industry to earn a living, Mochedisi in Kasane is curving a niche for himself as a praise poet. [more about praise poetry in southern Africa here and over here and some here. —
7. — For the second year in a row, an Indianapolis writer will have had a work selected for the annual Best American Poetry series —
8. — From hospital room, Diane Middlebrook recalls meeting Ted Hughes —
9. — Poet, biographer, feminist Diane Middlebrook dies of cancer at 68 —
10. — Poetry lovers, put this on your list —
11. — What a lineup of gallery artists: five Nobel laureates, five poet laureates, and more Pulitzer Prize-winning and National Book Award-winning writers than a curator can count —
12. — Writer discovers poem on A Prairie Home Companion —
13. — It is one of the weirder ironies of literary history that the experiment of modernist poetry in English was launched by a pair of Americans living in London who had little but contempt for the complacent, hide-bound literary scene in which they moved —
14. — I had stumbled upon the underground alliterative tradition of English poetry —

Poetry News:

1. — SERIAL SYSTEM HURTS OUR NOVELS; And Too Many American Writers Want to Own Automobiles, Says George Barr McCutcheon By Joyce Kilmer —
2. — Song of Herself —
3. — Robert Hass — Winner 2007 National Book Awards — Poetry —
4. — How to Win a National Book Award in Five Easy Steps —
5. — Leading Neuroscientist Seeks Neural And Biological Basis For Creativity, Beauty And Love —
6. — creativity has become a feelgood term intended to make us all feel a bit better about what we do —
7. — Kate Light gave a reading on Nov. 13, 2007, in Buttrick Hall as part of the Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Program. This podcast includes selections from her three books - Gravity’s Dream, Open Slowly and Falling Bodies. [links to MP3] —
8. — when the sisters were 17 and 20 years old, they were sent to Nazi forced labor camps … where they wrote these poems —
9. — since somebody published a poem I wrote when I was 19, which has been mocked, thoroughly, I don’t think those are going to be appearing anytime soon —
10. — Scoop: Viggo Mortensen Is Edgar Allan Poe —
11. — Lee Ranaldo Pens Poetry Book Based on E-mail Spam —
12. — Mark Jarman’s newest collection continues to confound a secular critical world —

Have a good weekend — see you next week.

Poetry News:

1. — ‘Poet cannibal’ arrested —
2. — Editor meets Henry Rollins —
3. — Writers Debate the Net’s Effect on Their Craft —
4. — A Lawyer, a Poet, and a Love Rekindled —
5. — Poet Hass’ ‘Time’ does not live up to ‘Praise’ —
6. — Robert Lowell’s 1960 statement regarding the state of poetry not only pitted the Beats against “cat-nip” academics, but publicly declared them to be a force —
7. — Writing Aplenty on the Web, but Where’s the Cash? —
8. — …but back to the apparently quite lucrative Beat industry —
9. — The first story on this program is a Eudora Welty classic about the rebellious daughter of a somewhat bizarre Southern family, “Why I Live at the P.O.”, read by Stockard Channing [mp3] —
10. — Writers, publishers gather to celebrate Twin Cities literary scene —
11. — Oct 24: Sonia Sanchez to Present next Joseph N. Patterson Lecture (Winston-Salem) —
12. — Poet Laureate Simic: ‘I grew up bent over a chessboard’ —
13. — Series A: Evan Willner and Joshua Corey —

“Our idea was to go beyond merely displaying how badly a baseball can be thrown.”

Poetry News:

1. — “The name ‘Ceptuetics’ comes from combining the words conceptual and poetics” —
2. — The Gulf between Love and Hate is No Greater than 6: Experiments in Language, Literature, and Mathematics —
3. — Make Us Wave Back: Essays on Poetry and Influence —
4. — A native of Puerto Rico, Judith Ortiz Cofer is a poet, essayist, memoirist and novelist —
5. — The National Book Awards finalists were announced yesterday —
6. — Scene reviewers pick their favorite out-of-towners appearing at the Southern Festival of Books —
7. — China: police harass human rights poet Tao Jun after interview for US newspaper —
8. — More TFR News —
9. — After about 6am CST (Noon GMT/UTC) click here to find out the winner of the literature Nobel —

Poetry News:

1. — Ugly Duckling Presse began as a college 'zine in 1993 and evolved into its present form as a nonprofit art and publishing collective in 2000 —
2. — Established in 2004, the Pegasus Awards are a series of annual prizes with an emphasis on new awards to under-recognized poets and types of poetry —
3. — the literary magazine has decided to shutter so that its book imprint may live —
4. — Bibliophiles see margins shrinking, but aren't ready to close the book on literature —
5. — a special poetry day to be held at the Queen's London home —
6. — Literary review founders honored —
7. — During Memorial Ceremony, Friends, Colleagues Pay Tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet —
8. — Deft variations of approach and imagination keep these poems moving —
9. — A person in a photograph can be reinvented in our minds to be whatever we want them to be —
10. — Some writers seem destined to serve as poets laureate; others would probably hate the job —
11. — He is lyric brown sauce, an unctuous, fruity slop … LOL —

Now Hawking and his 36-year-old daughter Lucy, one of his three children with Jane, have collaborated on a scientific adventure story for children …

This is still the funniest TV blooper I've seen. Cracks me up every time.

Poetry News:

1. — Legendary songstress Joni Mitchell returns with new music, art, ballet —
2. — For Yankees, Squirrel‘ Visit May Be Omen (a Bad One) —
3. — An innovative programme at a pioneering prison helps long-stayers to write - and perform - their own poems —
4. — Members of the artists’ collective “Voina” set the table for a funeral feast for Russian poet Dmitri Aleksandrovich Prigov in a … —
5. — Philomene Long has left this world, and with her goes the heart of a community —