Poetry Hut Blog

• — It’s the birthday of the woman who wrote “My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — / It gives a lovely light!” —
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• — Charles Bukowski Stamp Running Out of Time —
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• — Poem provides evidence that Anne Boleyn had numerous affairs —
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• — Ancient Poet Joins WWE Smackdown —
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• — Köhler painted the American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski— uninhibited, antisocial spokesman for drinking, fighting, and fucking; defender of the inescapable squalor, oppressiveness, and futility of life—in an earthy, visceral red. —
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• — Honan channels the worst poet ever in Portland Stage’s ‘Real McGonagall’ —
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• — The last time an opponent of the communist government died in Cuba during a hunger strike was 1972 with poet and activist Pedro Luis Boitel. —
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• — As a young child, Edward Hirsch mistook Emily Bronte’s work for his grandfather’s. —
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• — It’s not possible to bring back the dead, but yesterday the final work of Australian poet Dorothy Porter was bought vividly to life by actress Cate Blanchett in a sold-out Things On Sunday event at the Malthouse Theatre —
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• — Rare Disease Day designed to raise public awareness of uncommon illnesses —
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• — At the age of 17 Sylvia Plath referred to herself in her diary as ‘the girl who wanted to be god’, this use of the past tense perhaps foreshadowing her early demise. —
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• — Bolano’s early novella reimagines the last days of Peruvian writer Vallejo during Spanish Civil War. —
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• — Poems by Olympic poet-in-residence soar with athletes —
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• — Book Review | ‘Leavings’ by Wendell Berry —
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• — If Emily Dickinson had wanted to make a spectacle of herself, she could have wandered solo into a disreputable “rum resort” to sit on the lap of a not-so-gentlemanly scholar, as Jerome Charyn has her do in his daring novel about the Emily who might have been —
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• — The Millay Society plans to open Steepletop, the home of the late poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, to the public for tours starting May 28. —
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• — Israel turns down bid to teach Palestinian poems in schools —
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• — When is a consonant a vowel? —
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• — Feds push for tracking cell phones —
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• — In poem after marvellous poem, Robertson creates a series of elusive identities. —
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• — Keep and Give Away is driven by, as one reviewer has said, the central paradox of loving and letting go. —
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• — 112-year-old Mother Ruby Muhammad plans to sing, read poetry on stage —
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• — 5 Questions with Gary Young, Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County —
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• — Michelangelo drawings of his muse go on display —
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• — Juliana Gray, assistant professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Alfred University, received the 2010 Bea Gonzalez Prize for Poetry —
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• — Reviews of new Fiction, Mysteries, Thrillers, Romance, Science-Fiction, and Graphic Novels [and poetry] —
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• — Nazi spoons, robots vie for oddest title —
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• — In this week’s poem, a beautiful nocturne, the New York poet Samuel Menashe finds transcendence in everyday images —
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• — To recognize and help celebrate the start of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, P&PC goes into its archive to reprint this posting on Olympians and Olympic poetry. —
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• — Five Questions with Collin Kelley, author of “Conquering Venus.” —
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• — Ask a Poet: Why do women seem so normal at the workplace or in a board meeting or in evening classes, but then when you get to know them, you find out that they’re just so damn unreasonable and complicated? I like your column, but I bet you’re obnoxious, too. Just like the rest of them. —
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• — Roger Robinson responds to your poems on fatherhood —
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• — The dark horse candidate who would be Oxford’s new professor of poetry —
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• — `Forty Rules of Love’ tells story of Rumi’s life —
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• — A piece of history is lost as bookstore closes —
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• — Poet-professor takes aim at women’s issues in ‘Hot Bullets’ —
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• — Poem of the week: A Letter to a Brother of the Pen in Tribulation by Aphra Behn —
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• — In my memory it goes like this: I wrote the poem in one sitting after watching a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in January or February. The poem just sprang out of me, needing no revision. Everything in the poem happened just as I describe it. But here’s the truth: I keep a little “events” journal, and I still have the drafts of the poem, so I decided to check. —
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• — … Louisville man charged with threatening to kill president in poem. —
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• — Terza Rima – a defence of rhyme —
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• — free verse done right —
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• — Vile Poetry Hardly Worst Unwanted Detritus Stuffed in SF Weekly Box —
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• — Fairy Tale Review: Call for The Brown Issue —
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• — A short story collection by a Vanderbilt University professor described as “an amazingly original Flannery O’Connor/Loretta Lynn collision” is one of five nominees for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. —
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• — This is the first Plath audio release in more than three decades with new, previously unreleased recordings!! —
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• — “Poetry of the Law: From Chaucer to the Present,” the first serious anthology of law-related poetry ever published in the United States, will become available March 1 from the University of Iowa Press. —
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• — Poetry magazine Free Lunch ends its run —
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• — The Saturday poem – On Lacking the Killer Instinct by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin From The Sun-fish —
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• — Tuesday and Wednesday this week I had the great fortune to interact with Kay Ryan, our current U.S. Poet Laureate. She came to the University of Tennessee to give a poetry reading and interact with students and various campus groups. —
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• — Fringe interview: Poet Bryan Roth on the Meaning of Poetry —
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• — Covers and texts from underground poetry journals in “Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, Issue #10” at White Columns, a show organized by Thurston Moore, Byron Coley and Eva Prinz. —
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• — Chickens ‘one-up’ humans in ability to see color —
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• — A dispute with Borges’s estate has left works he produced with the translator Norman Thomas di Giovanni in publishing limbo —
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• — “Learning to Write the MFA Poem” [by Nin Andrews] —
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• — Beware of Fake Awards —
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• — John Ashbery Visits, Presents His Poetry —
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• — Lucille Clifton, Poet Who Explored Intricacies of Black Lives, Dies at 73 New York Times —
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• — DOD Identifies Navy Casualty —
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• — DOD Identifies Army Casualties —
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• — The Blood-Jet Writing Hour hosted by Rachelle Cruz – join Rachelle as she talks to Ruth Forman A Poetry for the People alum, Ruth Forman is an award-winning young writer and filmmaker. Her first book of poetry, We Are The Young Magicians, won the Barnard New Women Poets Prize. In its starred and boxed review, Booklist said, “Ruth Forman[’s]… poems are alive and kicking; they pound and pulse with a hard-won sense of self, beauty, femininity, strength and righteous indignation.” Renaissance, Ruth Forman’s second book, is written with the same irrepressible voice. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the famed USC film school, Ms Forman works to inspire others with the power and magic of language, frequently collaborating on music and film projects, and providing readings and workshops to a wide variety of audiences. She most recently received the 2001 Durfee Artist Fellowship to continue work on Mama John, her first novel, as well as a third volume of poetry. [mp3] —
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• — Margo Jefferson Reminisces about Langston Hughes [mp3] —
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• — This program is devoted to two classic tales of terror. We begin with Bram Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest,” which almost makes you hear the sound of the wolves on the windswept moor, as delivered by the regular performer on television’s “Daily Show,” Aasif Mandvi. Second, a privileged aristocracy can’t cheat death in this chiller by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death.” The reader is Fionnula Flanagan. [mp3] —
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• — Joe Milford Hosts Patrick Lawler: Feeding the Fear of the Earth is out on Many Mountains Moving Press. Patrick Lawler’s two earlier collections of poetry are: A Drowning Man is Never Tall Enough (U of Georgia Press) and reading a burning book (Basfal Books). He has been awarded fellowships by the NY State Foundation for the Arts, the NEA, and the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts. In addition to being an Associate Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he teaches Environmental Writing and Nature Literature, he teaches creative writing at Onondoga Community College. He is also part of the Creative Writing Program at LeMoyne College, where he teaches creative writing, playwriting, and writing for performance. [mp3] —
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• — Joe Milford Hosts Ted Mathys: Ted Mathys is the author of The Spoils, forthcoming from Coffee House Press, and Forge, from the same publisher. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, his poems have appeared in such venues as American Poetry Review, BOMB, Conjunctions, and Jubilat. His work has been anthologized in A Best of Fence: the First Nine Years, and Verse, 1994 – 2004: The Second Decade, as well as translated into Italian for La nuova poesia Americana: New York. Originally from Ohio, he has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Berlin, and New York and currently studies international affairs at Tufts University in Boston. [mp3] —
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• — Joe Milford Hosts Jerry Williams: With breakup and divorce rates so high in the United States, who wouldn’t want to read an eclectic volume of poems on the subject? Therapeutic and transformative, edgy yet sincere, enlightening, wideranging, female and male, gay and straight, innocent and guilty, It’s Not You, It’s Me: The Poetry of Breakup incorporates work from as many different perspectives as possible in order to explore the exquisite pain of heartbreak. Such top-shelf contributors as National Book Award finalist Kim Addonizio, bestselling author Denis Johnson, former poet laureate Mark Strand, Edward Hirsch, Maxine Kumin, David Lehman, and many others proudly offer up their wisdom on the various pains (and humors) of heartbreak. In this stunning collection, readers will not find false hope, but the real hope of genuine sympathy in love, hate, fury, and recuperation. [mp3] —
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• — Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay personified the life of a liberated, bohemian poet in Greenwich Village in the 1920s. [mp3] —
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• — PBS: Former Maryland poet laureate and National Book Award winner Lucille Clifton died Saturday at age 73 after a long battle with cancer. [mp3] —
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• — Join Beth Chang As She reviews E.E. Cummings Erotic Poems & Honor Comes Hard Wrintings from The California Prison System Honor Yard Edited by Luis J Rodriguez & Lucinda Thomas Prison writing has a long and illustrious history in the United States – home of the modern correctional system. In the first decade of the 21st century, this country also garnered the distinction of having more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world. We need to hear from the incarcerated writings of incarcerated men and women. The largest state prison system is in California with some 175,000 people behind bars in close to 35 facilities. Yet the only approved Honor Yard in the Department of Corrections is at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster, California. These are the men that despite often-horrendous crimes – many are lifers, with a few going on three decades – have proven their capacity to dream, to create, to write, to change. From poems, to stories, to novel excerpts, to reportage, to personal essays – and a few drawings – “Honor Comes Hard” depicts what can happen to people who are given, as Clarence Darrow expressed many years ago, ‘a chance to live’. The work is drawn from writing classes that Lucinda Thomas helped organize in the Honor Yard over several years, and from workshops conducted by Luis J. Rodriguez on most Sundays, for eight hours a day, through eight months in 2007-2008. [mp3] —
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• — Join Rafael and Brett-Candace as she talks Erica Miriam Fabri – Erica Miriam Fabri is the author of “Dialect of a Skirt,” a collection of poetry published by Hanging Loose Press (November 2009). She is a writer and performer and a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and received her MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and magazines including: New York Quarterly, Texas Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Hanging Loose Magazine, Good Foot Magazine, Paper Street and more. She has performed and facilitated workshops and seminars at: Cooper Union School of the Arts, New York University, Columbia University, Penn State University, The Brooklyn Public Library, Poet’s House, The Fortune Society, The Robin Hood Foundation, and the PEN Prison Writing Program. She has worked on projects as a writer, editor and performance director for The New York Knicks, HBO and Nickelodeon Television. [mp3] —
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• — Joe Milford Show | Ted Mathys is the author of The Spoils, forthcoming from Coffee House Press, and Forge, from the same publisher. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, his poems have appeared in such venues as American Poetry Review, BOMB, Conjunctions, and Jubilat. His work has been anthologized in A Best of Fence: the First Nine Years, and Verse, 1994 – 2004: The Second Decade, as well as translated into Italian for La nuova poesia Americana: New York. Originally from Ohio, he has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Berlin, and New York and currently studies international affairs at Tufts University in Boston. [mp3] —
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• — Lucille Clifton, Reading, 21 May 1996 video —
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• — “Hole” is from Naomi Ayala’s “This Side of Early” (Curbstone Press, 2008). Her first collection, “Wild Animals on the Moon,” was published in 1997, and a third is forthcoming. She lives in Washington, D.C., and works as an education consultant, translator and teacher. [mp3] —
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• — Lucille Clifton with Quincy Troupe, Conversation, 21 May 1996 from Lannan Foundation video —
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• — Willie Perdomo riffs on discovering the work of Hughes for the first time, as part of PEN’s Tribute to Langston Hughes. [mp3] —
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• — The Expatriates By Anne Sexton from Poem of the Day [mp3] —
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• — The Poetry Show: Friends from Cabrillo College honor the departed poet Jeff Towle [mp3] —
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• — Poetry from In Celebration of the Muse, hosted by Susan Freeman [mp3] —
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• — rules grammar change onion radio news [mp3] —
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• — Archival recordings of poet Anne Sexton, with an introduction to her life and work. Recorded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1960. [mp3] —
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• — Distinguished Poet and Playwright Afaa Weaver to Read at APSU —
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• — bpNichol Lane and the place of poetry —
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• — Allen Tate’s wife, Helen, remembers her late husband and discusses his role in the Fugitive Movement —
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• — It must have tickled Plath, particularly, to be mentioned in the same breath as Marianne Moore who snubbed Plath on a number of occasions —
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• — I couldn’t ask for better news to kick off a year: I’ve learned that my poem “Unit of Measure” has been selected by guest editor Amy Gerstler for inclusion in the 2010 Best American Poetry anthology, which will be published in the fall.
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• — A fiercely independent and seriously spunky grand dame of quick wit, tremendous wisdom and enormous talent, poet Leila (Danny) Pepper passed away New Year’s Eve at the age of 96 —
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• — There’s a reason we don’t hear “T-Will” attached to Ted Williams; it just sounds silly. —
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• — Seeking Establishment recognition of Beat hangout’s importance —
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• — Writers’ groups lobby US Congress against Google books deal —
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• — Serkis uncovers Ian Dury’s poetic depths —
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• — The editors, Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz, are pleased to announce a call for submissions for A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. —
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• — Literature After Taboo —
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• — School Library Book Returned 73 Years Overdue —
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• — North Bay poets offer thoughts on end of ‘aughties’ — in Haiku form —
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• — One is a series of poems examining some Japanese myths as well as female identity in anime. There are some really wonderful archetypes in Japanese mythology you just don’t see in Western folk tales – avenging/rescuing sisters is a common trope, as are disappearing/transforming wives. —
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• — MARGARET RAAB: In Memoriam —
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• — His literary influences include many classic poets such as Walt Whitman, Eliot, Yeats, Stevens, Walcott, WS Graham, WS Merwin and Geoffrey Hill. —
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• — Anne Sexton reads “The Starry Night” you tube —
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• — premature babies who are exposed to music by 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gain weight faster — and therefore become stronger — than those who don’t —
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• — Schools are failing to stretch pupils after resorting to football chants and rap lyrics to get them interested in poetry, according to Sir Andrew Motion —
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• — A group of writers and artists are creating a unique calligraphy work with 1000 poems printed on a 1000-meter-long piece of silk —
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• — Poetry Picks — The Best Books of 2009 —
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• — James Tate at the Key West Literary Seminar. [mp3] —
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• — Talking Generosity-Based Publishing with Gregory Maguire —
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• — Formula to Detect an Author’s Literary ‘fingerprint’ —
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• — According to the researchers, structures such as these were quite common in the Roman era and were intended for poetry-reading performances and musical recitals for an elect audience —
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• — “Inspiration,” in my experience, is a reward for persistent work when one is not in the least inspired. The “paragraph,” despite a name that makes it sound like a prose poem, is a fairly complex form. As Hayden Carruth used and described it, it is a fifteen-line poem, which, like a sonnet, can either stand alone or work in sequence. —
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• — War is declared in the world of ebooks —
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• — This time, a distinctly ‘cubist’ attempt to reclaim one of Picasso’s muses as her own woman —
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• — Weekly Poem: ‘From Here to There’ from Poetry | NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS Brad Leithauser [mp3] —
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• — Emily Dickinson Birthday Radio Show now available —
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• — When you pick a fight with a poet, you expect to win. You are likely to be outmatched, however, if the poet you are up against is Alice Quinn —
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• — The end of that relationship prompted her discovery of St. Vincent Millay and was the turning point in her jewelry-making —
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• — A survey of 2009’s notable new nonfiction, fiction, and poetry —
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• — On Poetry: Gilbran’s ‘The Prophet’ resonates with readers today —
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• — Walcott finally wins his poetry professorship —
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• — Christmas roundup: poetry books —
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• — Women of the Avant-Garde —
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• — Podcast: Charles Wright Reads Selected Sestets and Other Poems from The New York Review of Books —
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• — With Rolling Stone going into the restaurant business, Slate imagines the possibilities for other magazine/restaurant hybrids. —
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• — He scanned it — Staggered — —
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• — This woman was one of my initial inspirations for the chapbook–originally I planned to tell the story from her perspective. [as a radio geek I've heard that story before and I am apt to believe it. and that is a good chapbook.] —
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• — At the Baryshnikov Arts Center, the works of T. S. Eliot and Beethoven come together in an arresting, profound and a theatrically stunning piece titled “Four Quartets.” —
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• — Poetry so bad it’s good, plus other verse tragedies. [mp3] —
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• — Canadian sci-fi author beaten, imprisoned at US border crossing —
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• — Sometimes, I work my poems hard, running them through several stress tests and changing lots of little things or some big things. —
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• — Best American Poetry 2009: Statistical Overview —
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• — Carl Sandburg from Poetry Lectures Archival recording of Carl Sandburg from 1956. [mp3] —
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• — torqued enjambment —
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• — Dharma Poetry: Hafiz —
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• — Teri Garr: Wake Up Call from The Moth Podcast by marianne —
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• — Music and the arts fight depression, promote health —
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• — KUSP The Poetry Show: Dennis Morton and Leslie Anne Taylor read several holiday poems and more [mp3] —
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• — Sapphire, Brian Turner, and Ai Among United States Artist Fellows —
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• — Rare Tsvetayeva Production Struggles to Succeed —
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• — To sum up: Sestina + apparently obscure references to Roseanne and Seinfeld = —
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• — For Rumi, the reality accessible to our senses often obscures the true meaning that lies beneath —
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• — Three-minute poetry? It’s all the rage —
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• — What effect has being the editor of a poetry journal had on your own poetry? Is that another kind of feast? Or do you risk losing your appetite? —
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• — The Bestselling Contemporary Poetry of 2009 —
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• — Mad Girls’ Love Songs: Two Women Poets-a Professor and Graduate Student-Discuss Sylvia Plath, Angst, and the Poetics of Female Adolescence-College Literature, Fall 2009 by Greenberg, Arielle, Klaver, Becca —
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• — Articles in Nov/Dec 2009 issue of American Poetry Review, The —
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• — Tom Waits to star in The Hobbit? —
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• — Sarah Palin and William Shatner do beat poetry on “Tonight Show” —
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• — Letters to a Young Poet: “The Delicacy and Strength of Lace” The collected correspondence between Leslie Marmon Silko and the poet James Wright —
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• — University Teams with Kundiman, Inc., to Support Poets —
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For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week, have a happy Thanksgiving.

• — scorching criticism —
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• — Psychological therapy 32 times more cost effective at increasing happiness than money —
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• — Can Nick Cave rival Bad Sex Award favorite Philip Roth? —
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• — A list of Thanksgiving poems for family and friends. —
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• — Just in time for Thanksgiving – a PennSound podcast excerpting poems of giving thanks from the PennSound archive [mp3] —
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• — Comestibles that are too tempting to terrorists include: gravy…. —
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• — A Dinner to Make Even Futurists Happy —
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• — Providence Poet Wins National Book Award —
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• — Framing W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten at the National Theatre —
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• — Urgent: Check Your Withholdings (Americans) —
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• — In an online poll conducted by the National Book Foundation, the O’Connor collection “The Complete Stories” was named the best work to have won the National Book Award for fiction in the contest’s 60-year history & the Flannery O’Connor episode of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly —
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• — Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Asshole, and the Haiku of Fight Club —
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• — Poetry reading honors late haiku professor —
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• — Co-vocabularists may be interested to know that the promised broadcast on Oulipo is now available online here —
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• — Serious plagiarists have been at it forever; it’s a way of life —
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• — Writing poems doesn’t mean he’s gay —
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• — Chapbooks Make Great Stocking Stuffers —
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• — Director Andy Goldberg links speech with movement in his Bard boot camp. —
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• — A lot of archived audio and video files from the Poem Present Reading and Lecture series at U of Chicago —
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• — Poetry Series Spurs Debate on the Use of an Old Slur Against Latinos —
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• — Fathers and fatherhood have spawned much great poetry, and this month poet and creative writing teacher Roger Robinson wants to read your take on this most intimate of subjects —
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• — PEN American Center is accepting submissions and nominations for the 2010 Literary Awards. —
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• — Weekly Poems: Keith Waldrop, 2009 National Book Award Winner from Poetry | NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS [mp3] —
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• — A “boxer” recites as her opponent looks on at the 7th annual national poetry boxing competition in 2007. (Photo courtesy of the Japan Reading Boxing Association) —
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• — True poetry fans ‘love’ Dante’s Inferno game —
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• — When is a Poetry Workshop not Really a Poetry Workshop? —
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• — The 11 Most Fashionable Pulitzer Prize Winners —
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• — Miserablist Larkin loved his mum and dad after all —
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• — Robo-Rocky vs. Edgar Allen Poe vs. JCVD. Fight! Fight! Fight! —
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• — City boss ’shocked woman with vile email’ quoting Latin poet —
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• — Books on Basho and his haiku at the library —
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• — Portland’s Gertrude Press and The Little Journal That Could —
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• — Reading John Ashbery’s Poetry —
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• — Little Richard is asking fans to pray for his speedy recovery after undergoing hip surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville —
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• — it seems to combine elements both from that safe-as-houses mediaeval form, the sestina, and from the intricate pantoum: its accumulative structure also suggests folk-tales such as The House That Jack Built. —
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• — New collection of T.S. Eliot’s letters sheds light on the poet’s day job and troubled home life —
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This poem draft of “The Reanimation of Ted Williams’ Frozen Head has gotten a lot of traffic from people searching for Ted Williams Frozen Head or Ted Williams Frozen Head jokes etc.

Then I noticed this in my RSS feed of the (newly reanimated itself) Weekly World News: According to a new book, Ted Williams’ frozen head was abused by facility staff!. So I guess the author has been stirring up publicity. It’s not a fake article: Chicago Sun Times

ps

Dear Weekly World News;

Which of these headlines is more Weekly World Newsish?

Yours: According to a new book, Ted Williams’ frozen head was abused by facility staff!

The Chicago Sun Times: Ted Williams’ frozen head used for batting practice, says new book

I’m glad you’re back but you can do better! The Chicago Sun Times kicked your butt! You can do it!

• — This poem by one Tom Clark descended on me from the heavens, like an omen presented by some ancient Greek god or goddess. Well actually, I saw it on the sidebar of Tampa outfielder Fernando Perez’s recent essay for the Poetry Foundation. [when I was on hiatus pitchers and poets chose one of the poems from my baseball poem chapbook -- pdf -- as poem of the week thank you] —
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• — The life of a poet in New York means recognizing the important appellations and knowing when to take the (grant) money and run. DANIEL NESTER recalls life before leaving—
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• — Real Bird will work to bring poetry to life. —
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• — A RECLUSIVE Poole poet who died alone has been mourned across the globe by an online community now fighting to preserve her legacy.. —
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• — The 2009 Ig Nobels. —
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• — When Your Writing Sucks. —
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• — Handicapping the Nobel Prizes. —
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• — obscure poets: suzette haden elgin. —
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• — Teenage Plath writing & artwork acquired by the Lilly Library. —
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• — Some know him for his poetry, or his translations of poetry, or his work against the Vietnam War, or the audacious literary magazine. —
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• — Committee to host 75th birthday celebration for literary giant …. —
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• — What we wiseacres need to heed, though, is probably this rule: Ask not what you can do for this book, only what it can do for you.. —
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• — Cerise Press is a new international online literary journal. —
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• — a significant portion of a feature article on Craigslist (Gary Wolf’s “Why Craigslist is Such a Mess”) was given over to the poetry that has become part of the warp and woof of what is now the world’s largest classified section.. —
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• — Learning to love poetry again. —
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• — The first image gives you the size differences in each decimal place and the second image groups the poem in detail so that it is readable.. —
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• — MISS TEASDALE’S PRIZE —
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• — Harwell resting after release from hospital —
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• — Plath Profiles: Volume 2 now online —
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• — How much money does a poet make? —
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• — Have you picked up on the rude tone of most literary-journal guidelines for submission? Submission, all right! —
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• — W&L Professor Lesley Wheeler’s Debut Book of Poetry Garners Praise —
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• — Perils of the Poetry Reading —
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• — Richard Poirier, a prolific and populist cultural critic who founded a literary journal, Raritan: A Quarterly Review, and who was a founder of Library of America, the nonprofit publisher of American classics, died in Manhattan on Saturday. —
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• — Poe’s bookcase stands in North Raleigh —
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• — Pandas and poetry: Salt Publishing spoofs WWF video to save itself —
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• — Having claimed the scalps of two distinguished poets in less than a fortnight, the job of professor of poetry at Oxford University is once again vacant. But what does the job involve and why is it so sought after? and also Revealed: The email sent by Oxford poetry professor Ruth Padel to smear rival —
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• — $2 Million Donation Supports Creative Writing Program —
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• — Poetry alone won’t keep the wolf from the door but prizes might —
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• — Weekly Poem: ‘White Song’
  from Poetry | NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS
  J. Michael Martinez’s collection “Heredities” was selected for the Academy of American Poets’ Walt Whitman Award and will be published by Louisiana State University Press [mp3] —
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• — “Still, it’s searingly extreme, a triumph by a hair, that one almost wishes had never come about.” —
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• — Literary journals: The writers’ sandbox —
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• — Thank goodness no backbiting like this takes place Stateside! —
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• — The ‘previously unpublished’ versus the ‘piece that is becoming popular’ question is a big issue for me. —
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• — Bookslut is in need of an intern —
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• — One of the last surviving members of the Beat generation, Jack Gilbert still writes with a freshness that astonishes. —
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• — Cub Haikus —
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• — Gaylord Brewer: “Apologia to Mars and Moon” —
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• — As Lewis Carroll used to say —
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• — Scientists Reaching Consensus On How Brain Processes Speech —
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• — Siren is jam-packed with springtime goodness —
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• — The Poetry Show: Theodore Roethke [mp3] —
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• — Rapper Roland Pemberton, otherwise known as Cadence Weapon, has been selected to be the new poet laureate for the city of Edmonton —
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• — These poems have right answers. Does that diminish them? —
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• — Updates: Lit Mag Reviews —
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• — The recent election of the Oxford professor of poetry is the stuff of poetic satire, if only it weren’t so sad and pathetic. —
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• — To elucidate the neurobiological basis of music in human evolution and communication the researchers demonstrated an association of arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) gene variants with musical aptitude. —
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May is Ehlers Danlos Awareness Month: Cape grad wants to educate public on painful condition

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• — The Sonnets at 400 and also Did Shakespeare Want To Suppress His Sonnets? —
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• — Poet’s Choice: ‘Turning’ By Janice Harrington —
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• — We Got a Yeats, You Got a Wallace Stevens —
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• — Dharma Poetry: Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche —
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• — Monkeys playing a game similar to “Let’s Make A Deal” have revealed that their brains register missed opportunities and learn from their mistakes. —
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• — Sadly, the mythology of poet Bob Kaufman almost rivals all we have left of his poetry. —
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• — a nervy and rich collection of poems in the voices of women both infamous (Moors murderer Myra Hindley and fascist moll Unity Mitford) and writerly (Carson McCullers, Zelda Fitzgerald, Jane Bowles) —
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• — Her latest collection of poetry proves Frieda Hughes to be a writer capable of standing on her own —
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• — And then there’s the triumph of free verse, which to many people turns poetry into largely banal or incoherent stream of consciousness prose —
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• — Naughty Classical Chinese Poetry, And What It Means Today —
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• — From Page to Pixels: The Evolution of Online Journals —
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• — Boyd argues that art, including fiction, is a unique human adaptation whose chief function is “for improving human cognition, cooperation and creativity” —
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• — Diane di Prima — a beat poet, prose writer, playwright, teacher and Excelsior resident — has been named San Francisco’s fifth poet laureate —
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• — Yoko Ono to judge Twitter haiku competition —
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• — Nashville Shakespeare Festival invites audience to jury duty —
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• — Pet Haiku Contest: my top 26 picks (so far) —
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• — Pa. poet wins undergraduate literary prize —
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• — Pinoy poet to receive Italy’s top prize —
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• — The Verse Revolutionaries: Ezra Pound, HD and the Imagists —
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• — ‘YouTube’ for books signs up Random House, Simon & Schuster —
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• — Dahlia Ravikovitch, one of Israel’s major poets, played a formative role in both the poetic culture of the state and the undoing of the male dominance in Israeli poetry and culture. —
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• — Daring poet mortified by blasphemy case —
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• — Are litmags facing more funding cuts? —
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Here is another Ebay scan. New Poetry 1964. [20mb PDF] If there are any copyright objections I’ll take it down.

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Sylvia Plath poem, November 1950 Seventeen Magazine.

Another old Ebay find. {PDF file.}

Actual magazine is on its way to the Plath collection at the Lilly Library in Bloomington. (Thanks to Anne Haines for suggesting it a long time ago.)

If there are any copyright objections I’ll remove the PDF file.

Here’s today’s news:

• — “Perhaps the most refreshingly honest set of guidelines I’ve ever read.” —
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• — George Harrison’s teenage angst… —
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• — Grand Rapids poetry therapist harnesses the power of words —
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• — Almost all his life Jack Kerouac played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, a hobby that even close friends and fellow Beats never knew about.
  —
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• — fallen idols: Walcott joins Shelley and Byron —
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• — Recommended Summer Reading – Evie Shockley —
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• — Scarred For Life. Physically, Not So Much Mentally —
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• — Christopher Ricks speaks with Giles Harvey about Posthumous Keats, Stanley Plumly’s recent biography of John Keats, and about the poet’s death and his idealized “immediate afterlife.” [mp3] —
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• — 20th Annual Independent Press Award Winners Announced —
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• — The Shakespeare Sonnets, from 1 to 154 – the full links —
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• — First a filly wins the Preakness, and now, a 301-year male only streak is broken with the appointment of Ruth Padel as the new Oxford professor of poetry, the first woman to hold the post since it was established in 1708. —
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• — Wordplay, May 17: Robin Blaser [mp3] —
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• — This is something new in the life of poetry, and I’m excited to be part of it and to see where it may take us. —
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If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?

• — The Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens caused a furor in the world of Shakespeare scholarship over the weekend —
• — Frederick Seidel reads poems from his collected works. [audio] —
• — Edgar Allan Poe and the economy of horror. —
• — How a local poet publishes, from zines to the Internet —
• — Power Of Imagination Is More Than Just A Metaphor —
• — Judith Krug, Who Fought Ban on Books, Dies at 69 —
• — PEN condemns publication of Karadzic poems —
• — Effortless Clotted Cream —
• — Slash Pine Press is pleased to announce our first call for chapbook-length manuscripts of poetry or mixed-genre. —
• — Photo from garfield minus garfield —
• — And the Winner Is… Anonymous —
• — Poetry slam is Friday at Tennessee State University —
• — Finishing Line Press is going to publish my chapbook, Love and Other Four-Letter Words —
• — Good Poems for Hard Times is a top seller nationally, and with good reason —
• — NPR: 04-21-2009 Fresh Air: 1) W. S. Merwin: The ‘Sirius’ Side Of Poetry 2) Neil Young Faces A ‘Fork In The Road’ 3) J.G. Ballard And ‘The Psychology Of The Future’ 4) Gordon Ramsay: Television’s Gourmet Guru [mp3] —
• — Poet Linda Gregg wins $50,000 prize —
• — Ballard proves you should live a bit before writing —
• — Arielle Greenberg —
• — Review: Trouble And Honey by Jilly Dybka [pdf] thanks Main Street Rag and Heather Collings. —
• — and Collin Kelley had a review in that issue as well —
• — So you think you might have Ehlers-Danlos synrome? [PDF] —
• — A new look at Thoreau: from nature preacher to wisecracking, entrepreneurial party boy. —
• — For poet Brenda Hillman, it’s all about the mystery —
• — Murfreesboro residents who might have lost valuable items in the recent tornadoes can go to the local library to see if they have been recovered. and also Over the past decade, Tennessee ranks 1st in the U.S. in tornado fatalities. —
• — On Language: Baseball Lingo —
• — Troubled R ‘n’ B star Amy Winehouse is writing a book of poems. —
• — Viking Legacy On English: What Language Tells Us About Immigration And Integration —
• — The 2009 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday. Author Annette Gordon-Reed won the history prize for “The Hemingses of Monticello” and poet W.S. Merwin was honored for “The Shadow of Sirius.” Watch NewsHour conversations with Gordon-Reed and Merwin here. —
• — print vs online —
• — Laughter Remains Good Medicine —
• — Book Returned to Washington and Lee Library Only 52,858 Days Late —
• — Bloodaxe Editor Neil Astley advises what to do once you’ve finished your poem(s) —
• — Here are the 10 most common titles of submissions they’ve received in the past two years —
• — Why do some poems play it cool and simple while others are all timpany and cacaphony? —
• — Don’t Like Poetry? Too Bad. You’re Reading It Anyway. —
• — Project Censored Top 25 Censored Stories For 2009 —
• — Futurist covers: full audio from Charles Bernstein Web Log with Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, Alicia Stallings, & Charles Bernstein —
• — Female Birds ‘Jam’ Their Mates’ Flirtatious Songs —
• — Tate recreates Blake’s ‘wretched’ solo show —
• — why couldn’t u just have kids? —
• — speaking of the above, my friend Jessica’s essay in Newsweek —
• — and review of her book —
• — Poets.org has partnered with TextTelevision to offer TextFlows, an alternative approach to reading and experiencing poetry. —
• — Get well wishes to Brent Goodman —
• — Plath as a Major Poet by Annie Finch —

We have a surprise house guest coming for a month. Tomorrow. Just found out about it haha. Let me tell you, only a good friend can get away with that haha. Have a safe flight across the pond Mr Vyv.

• — Ex-Tiger Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych found dead —
• — “Blondes, Box Scores, and Elizabeth Bishop” —
• — Batter up! This very special baseball program of SELECTED SHORTS includes stories, memoirs, and poems that celebrate the national game, and an interview with radio sports commentator Bill Littlefield, host of NPR’s “Only A Game.” [mp3] —
• — The neglected war poet Francis Ledwidge’s pastoral work reflects on Irish nationalism after the Easter Rising —
• — I didn’t really expect my book to be reviewed in The Times (‘The London Times’ to those of you outside the UK), but there you go. Who knows how these things happen? —
• — Slash Pine Press is pleased to announce the first annual Slash Pine Poetry Festival, to be held in five distinct locations in the greater Tuscaloosa, AL area on April 24th and 25th —
• — Arts Friday: Commemorating 50 years of The Elements of Style [mp3] —
• — Recent winner of The Fence Modern Poets Series, it is easy to understand why this one was chosen among its stealthy competition. —
• — Any poet of such longevity faces a choice between reinvention and repetition. Splitting the difference, Simpson’s work is repetitious, but in the mode of a narrowing spiral. —
• — As he did in his youthful work, the poet strictly limits the length of his poems, in this case to six lines each. Yet these 70 poems feel spacious rather than condensed. —
• — Poet’s Muse: A Footnote to Beethoven —
• — Interview With Poet Denise Duhamel —
• — Poetry dies in latest U.S. culture —
• — Photo from garfield minus garfield —
• — Poetry and Subsidies: Is Materialism Ruining Creativity? —
• — How Philip Larkin rewrote the first, indiscreet article about him to appear in the British press —
• — New site captures authors’ identities and won’t let go —
• — Too close for comfort: aphasia and mediocre poetry —
• — Every Friday, bloggers in the kidlitosphere enthusiastically offer up their favorite poems for kids. Susan Thomsen takes a tour through this billowing online community. —
• — We are writing about GREGOR SAMSA’s claim for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments. Based on a review of his/her medical condition, he/she does not qualify for SSI payments on this claim. This is because he/she is not disabled or blind under our rules. and related: Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport —
• — “The Nut Lady” Reconsidered —
• — I think an eBook is a book, but in a Supreme Court case argued today (Tuesday), a brief discussion about guarantees given to books included a reference to whether or not there is a difference between a physical and digital version of a book — and what is likely the first mention of the brand name “Kindle” in the Supreme Court. —
• — Norton anthologies are among the most respected in the country, but respectability can suggest stodgy, predictable. “American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry” is neither, proving that much contemporary American verse is daring and original. —
• — Mathematics and love coupled in professor’s book of poetry —
• — A major conference on the long career of Robert Bly will include poets, translators, academics, editors and Bly himself. —
• — Forty-three years later, the International Poetry Forum is shutting its doors. —
• — The new class will also include the poets Jorie Graham and Yusef Komunyakaa, the visual artist Judy Pfaff, the architect Tod Williams and the composers … —
• — SIRIUS XM Radio Beefs Up Book Radio Programming —
• — Deborah Digges, poet and Tufts English professor, dies at 59 —
• — All good poets find strains and paradoxes within the language they learn to wield, but Thom Gunn (1929-2004) found more than most —
• — In the context of this, the contemporary poet is often left with the choice of following the example of the hard-nosed L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, or seeming like a fluffy, nostalgic Longfellow. —
• — It features centuries of creative work by mathematicians, poets, and artists, including Fibonacci, Albrecht Dürer, M. C. Escher, David Hilbert, Benoit Mandelbrot, William Shakespeare, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, E.E. Cummings, and many contemporary experimental poets. Original illustrations include digital photographs, mathematical and poetic models, and fractal imagery. —
• — Seven steps to becoming a poet [LOL there seems to be an important step missing] —
• — Octopus Books will hold an open reading period for full-length poetry manuscripts in April of 2009. Manuscripts must be submitted between April Fools day and April 30, 2009. —
• — In addition to the “regular” Tattoosday features, every day in April will feature a different poet’s tattoo(s). —
• — Muriel Rukeyser Goes to War: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and the Politics of Ekphrasis —
• — Living POET LARGE: An Interview with Reb Livingston on the Future of Poetry Publishing —
• — To read this book is not to behold a completed work but to stand onstage with a writer who finds herself in the middle of a story in which she has been reluctantly cast. —
• — Frederick Seidel has been called crass, disturbing, a name-dropping, upmarket sinner. And that’s what may make him America’s greatest living poet —
• — THE BEATS A Graphic History Text by Harvey Pekar and others. —
• — Articles in the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of American Poetry Review, The —
• — A New Chapter of Grief in Plath-Hughes Legacy —
• — Shellie Braeuner, a Nashville nanny, is the winner of the first Cheerios Spoonful of Stories New Author Contest. Her book will be put inside 1.5 million boxes of Cheerios. —
• — I, Too, Am a Vegetable: The Whitman Parodies —
• — Amazonfail & The Cost of Freedom —

data dump – cleaning out my rss feed

There’s a review of my book in the spring issue of Main Street Rag. I haven’t gotten my copy in the mail though. I don’t know if my subscription expired.

Poetry News For April 13, 2009 < -- not really haha.

You can click the images to make them bigger.

This is the best scanning job I can do right now. I don’t have PDF editing software. Just one of my cheapo past Ebay finds I’d like to share.

1961 American Poetry Now edited by Sylvia Plath PDF

If there are any copyright objections

I’ll take the PDF file down.

I saw the specialist in Baltimore last week. Baltimore has a good vibe – I like it. I was only there for a day. Met up with my brother, who took the train down, and had dinner, which was nice. I’m going to be an Aunt again.

My visit with the Dr. was very thorough – almost 4 hours – & I found out a lot of things I didn’t know. The whites of my eyes are turning blue-grey. (!) My elbows bend back the “wrong way” 20 degrees – she said that I score 6 out of 9 on the Beighton scale. I’m going to try to get some braces for my fingers. Scanning that chapbook took an embarrassingly long time haha.

I don’t know what the status of this site is. I hope to be back after a while. I’m still recovering from the trip last week. That is from a person who, when I attended college in my mid-20’s, worked 3 part-time jobs and went to school full-time etc etc. I’m not used to this new mode. Frustrating, grrrr! I made Easter dinner for me and Darryl and then slept for 6 hours. Good thing we never had kids!

• — A circuit bard for Silicon Valley —
• — The bohemian life of Robert De Niro, senior —
• — Call for Sonnets —
• — The First Light Touches Me —
• — Joyce Carol Oates, Peter D. Kramer, Erica Jong, Andrew Solomon and Elaine Showalter on why Sylvia Plath’s tragedy still resonates. —
• — You may wish to write your own Jabberwocky (56) poem, write with your non-dominant hand, or handicap a body part, say, one eye (59), just to shake things up … —
• — A bit of what is unique about Battle Creek will be buried Thursday. —
• — Local Print Shop Censors Zines —
• — Soaking in the sounds: Multilingual poetry reading focuses on sound, language, not comprehension —

Here are random things I learned (or was reminded of) because of Ada Lovelace Day yesterday:

• — Susan Kare designed the icons for the original Mac GUI —
• — Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to orbit the Earth —
• — Lucille Ball produced the original Star Trek —
• — En Hedu-anna, c.2285 BCE: poet, Sumerian priestess, first female astronomer we know of and also first person to write in first person —
• — Rosalind Franklin sure got screwed over —
• — Only 1 thing can subdue poetry! —
• — Florence Nightingale & Information Visualisation —