IBPC: Poetry and Poets in Rags

10/31/2006

News at Eleven

The poets and verse associated with Queen's University in Belfast are celebrated in a new anthology, edited by Franks Ormsby.

Among the writers featured are Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin and John Hewitt. Below are a selection of the [five] poems included in the book, The Blackbird's Nest.

Church Going, by Philip Larkin

from BBC News: Poetry from The Blackbird's Nest

They were astonished. This is on a par with the section in The Dynasts where he [Thomas Hardy] considers the effect of troop movements at Waterloo on the local hedgehogs, moles and snails, or with his refusal to have the trees round his house lopped because it would hurt them, or with the tea parties he gave for the neighbourhood cats.

from The Sunday Times: Down among the women

[Tomas] Tranströmer has said "My poems are meeting places." The metaphor is persuasive, and singularly apt. He is interested, as all poets are, in epiphanies: the moments of sudden, spiritual manifestation where we are aware of an intimate connection being made with our landscape, our history, or with each other.

from The Guardian: Meeting of minds

What [Don] Paterson has done, simple as it might sound, is make quite clear the ways in which [Rainer Maria] Rilke's sonnets are actually extraordinary poems rather than the cluttered and vapid musings of an aspiring mystic.

from The Guardian: Finally found in translation

Numbers, by Katharine Coles

from Salt Lake Tribune: U. prof named state's laureate

[Anna] Journey said the sonnet, written in 1955 when [Sylvia] Plath was a senior at Smith College, demonstrates the disciplined hard work that Plath undertook in her early years to prepare herself for a life as a poet.

from Richmond Times-Dispatch: Unpublished Plath poem to appear online

"Those were the poets," she [Sharon Olds] says, "whose lives I loved and whose work I loved. Although I felt, once I read her, that Plath was a great genius, with an IQ of at least double mine, and though I had great fellow feeling for Anne Sexton being the woman in that world, their steps were not steps I wanted to put my feet in."

from The Independent: Sharon Olds: Blood, sweat and fears

Despite [Hart] Crane's "genuine and deep admiration for Mr. Eliot's work," as he explains in a letter to Louis Untermeyer, the goal of his own poem "For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen" is to "erect an almost antithetical spiritual attitude to the pessimism of The Waste Land . . . It has been my conviction . . . that ecstasy and beauty are as possible to the active imagination now as ever. (What did Blake have from the 'outside' to excite him?)"

from The Washington Times: Poet whose life was short but whose poems endure

"Cité Sportif" is a documentary of a society where violence and leisure run together: "the flat soles cushioned,/the Uzi clips were shucked". Nightmarish montage concludes in a lucid dream of a members-only afterlife: "A dining club door squelches back to let him pass".

from The Guardian: Plotting some reality

White Swan Road

By Thomas Summers

from Straus Newspapers: Vernonite's book published after winning poetry prize

"Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" is 15 pages of beautiful poetry made even more beautiful by the fact that it inspires in readers a rare artistic synesthesia that less ambitious works couldn't bring about. Therefore, I'm sharing this with you for nothing but sheer, crosshatching pleasure.

from The Stranger: Sheer, Crosshatching Pleasure

Great Regulars

The wretched details of prison life--"early morning yells/exchanged like ritual blows", the "click of the guard's shoe" that "cannot quite catch up with/its metal tip"--are vividly realised, but it is at the points where [Tim] Liardet's language begins to tug against the reality he portrays that his poems come alive on the page.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: He's got form, sarge

Young Mothers
[by Wendy Matarese ]

from Bill Diskin: York Daily Record: Poetryork: Poet's book comforts domestic violence victims

Farnsworth teaches writing and literature at Bates College and lives with his wife and two sons in Lewiston.

Toward Hallowe'en

from Elizabeth W. Garber: The Free Press Online!: A Year of Poetry from a Wealth of Maine Poets: As the Last Leaves Drop Us Into Awe (scroll down)

Emily Dickinson took the study of pain very seriously, as she analyzed and dramatized it effects in her poetry.

Dickinson's poem, ?After great pain? dramatizes for the human reaction to pain. No doubt, her own suffering prompted her to examine that phenomenon. She examined so she could understand, and her poem help us understand our own human predicament:

After great pain, a formal feeling comes --

from Linda Sue Grimes: BellaOnline: Emily Dickinson--Transcending Pain

Poem: "Anger" by C.K. Williams, from Love About Love.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: For the week of October 30, 2006

[Allen] Ginsberg's poetry has the earmarks of what Columbia professor Edward Mendelson has called "encyclopedic" writing (full range of cultural knowledge, commentary on statecraft, starting point of exile or illegality, giants and gigantism, etc.), which also means it's going to be good and bad in about equal measure, since everything goes into an encyclopedia.

from David Kirby: Newsday: His Beat Goes on

Poems of simple pleasure, poems of quiet celebration, well, they aren't anything like those poems we were asked to wrestle with in high school, our teachers insisting that we get a headlock on THE MEANING. This one by Dale Ritterbusch of Wisconsin is more my cup of tea.

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 083

My favorite poem for Halloween was written in the 16th century: the hundredth poem in "Caelica," a book-length sequence composed over a lifetime by Fulke Greville (1554-1628). He was Lord Brooke, an eminent statesman under Elizabeth I and James I, and a close friend of his fellow poet Philip Sidney.

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

In "Discoverers of Chile," Neruda?s contrasting interests are very much evident; we see his lovingly depicted nature scenes, his vision of an unblemished America, and his anger at the destruction of the land by colonisers.

Descubridores de Chile
By Pablo Neruda

from Cate Setterfield: The Santiago Times: Chile's Poets in Translation: Pablo Neruda

The word 'Upanishad' is derived from Sanskrit word 'Upa' (Near), 'Ni' (Down), and 'Shad' (to sit). Groups of people sat neat the teacher in ancient India to learn from him the truth by which ignorance is destroyed. There are over 200 Upanishads, although the traditional number is 108.

from V Sundaram: News Today: Timeless universality--II

Atheists are unlikely to be persuaded by [Francis S.] Collins or [Owen] Gingerich, and [Richard] Dawkins is deluding himself if he thinks The God Delusion would impress any reasonably informed theist. He seems completely unaware, for example, of the works of the great mystics, or of seminal works such as Rudolf Otto's The Idea of the Holy. His characterization of God and religion amounts to caricature.

from Frank Wilson: Philadelphia Inquirer: Three scientists take on religion

"In my own poetry, I remain fascinated by form and language, and desire always to get a rhythm going that works," [Douglas] Barbour says. "I wanted to play out the possibilities inherent in the term/idea 'gap.' The commercialization of life also played a part; what gaps are and how some become abysses in our lives. . . ."

from Edmonton Journal: The Poetry Project

I Don't Want to Go to Heaven

by Nancy Gauquier

from Good Times Weekly: Poetry Corner

Ictus by Robin Robertson

from The Guardian: Original poetry: Ictus by Robin Robertson

'The Ghost Takes a Walk'

By Philip Miller

from The Kansas City Star: Poet's Corner

Yesternight
By Joy Clumsky

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase: Yesternight

by Noemi Martinez

The soul from purgatory springs

from Newpaper Tree: Poetry

The Old Ones at Coastal Creek
[by Scott T. Starbuck]

from The Oregonian: Poetry

In this poem, [Meghan] Harford uses a mix of allusions, contrasting a potentially dangerous direction portrayed through Greek myth, with a hope for a safer course, or salvation, through the Christian mythos. Using very well-known stories (the Sirens and the Crucifixion) ensures that most readers will understand the references.

from Portsmouth Herald News: Spotlight Poems from the Hoot

The Scarecrow Wears a Wire Paul Farley

from The Scotsman: Poem of the Week

"A Moment Ago"
By Philip White

from Slate: "A Moment Ago" By Philip White

Poetic Obituaries

Laura [L. Andraschko] loved being with her family, especially her precious son Bobby. She enjoyed cooking and was always creating a new dish for family gatherings.

She was an avid reader and enjoyed writing poetry. One of her favorite poems follows:

For Bear Bear

from Appleton Post-Crescent: Andraschko, Laura L.

Described by family members as a poet, painter, sketch artist, lecturer, voracious nonfiction reader and a "big ham" who could "tell stories about anything," Mr. [Lionel] Ashcroft authored books on filmmaking in Marin County and the history of San Quentin. He was past president of the Marin County Historical Society.

from Marin Independent Journal: Lionel Ashcroft, 1931-2006: Historian was steadfast in his support of San Rafael

The poet Francis Berry, who has died aged 91, found an audience, as John Milton put it, "fit... though few", and outlived his most fervent admirers. A professor of English at Sheffield University (1967-70) and the professor of English at the University of London's Royal Holloway College (1970-80) he was best known for his narrative and dramatic poems.

from The Guardian: Francis Berry

Sandi [Blakemore-Baig] was a friend of mine. Today, this world became too much for her and she shot herself. This board will miss the wonderful poetry of our giggster, the searching analyses she gave us, and the oh-so-human being we have lost.

from The Critical Poet: Sandi Blakemore-Baig--RIP, October 29th, 2006

[Raymond Barrow] had an uncanny knack for words and put them to good use when he wrote several poems as part of his anthology. Several Belizean children have recited his poems and sadly, hundreds more along with poets of today didn't have the slightest idea who Raymond Barrow was.

from The Reporter: Raymond Barrow--attorney & Prolific poet dies at 86

[Carl Clark's] family says that he was a good kid who lost his life by the hand of a gun. Now the once poet will never write again.

Detectives say they are still investigating and need help from the public.

from WWAY NewsChannel 3: Man gunned down on street, police investigating

[Leon Cooper] "used to love literature as well and his love of poetry has inspired me to start doing some recently.

"Three weeks before he died he seemed to be doing much better, but then a week later he got worse again."

from Trinity Mirror Southern: Actor killed himself after health battle

Shayna Ornellas, a senior at Eagle Valley High School, said [Josesh] Creek had a tough-guy facade, but was a completely different person once you got to know him. He was a talented poet and artist, she said.

"He was a good person," she said. "He had a funny personality. He was a lot of fun to hang around."

from Vail Daily: Eagle teen struck, killed by ambulance

"Through [supporting] music, politics, and social issues, Daddy was able to improve the lives of thousands of people," says [Askia Moshe] Hale.

[Ebon] Dooley was also a writer who published a collection of poetry, Revolution: A Poem in 1968 on Third World Press.

from Creative Loafing: Radio silence: WRFG's broadcast director Ebon Dooley dies

On Tuesday, [Zackery] Bowen jumped to his death from the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, leaving a note in his pocket in which he confessed to killing [Adriane "Addie"] Hall on Oct. 5. When police went to the North Rampart Street apartment Bowen listed in his suicide note, they found a dismembered and cooked corpse, body parts in the oven, on the stovetop and in the refrigerator.

A poet and dancer

from The Times-Picayune: In Quarter, victim's artistic side shined

The demise of prominent artist, art critic, poet, and art teacher Syed Liaquat Husain (SL Hussain) has been condoled by his colleagues, friends and artists, writers and intellectuals.

The people are justified in raising a really pertinent question: why did a former Art Director of the Arts Council, an art teacher, and a man whose works? solo exhibitions and groups exhibition had been held not only in Pakistan, but abroad, including Dubai and India, have to die amid such pitiable conditions.

from The News: An illustrious artist who died amid privations

[Laura D. "Her Highness" Janz] was born July 9, 1985, in Painesville.

She enjoyed electronics and working on her car. She also loved writing poems and fishing, but most of all she loved spending time with her son, Devin.

from The News-Herald: Laura D. "Her Highness" Janz

Renowned poet and columnist Zia-ul-Qasmi who passed away in Karachi on Wednesday night due to cardiac arrest has been laid to rest in Guilistan-e-Jauhar graveyard here today.

from Pakistan Times: Noted Pakistani poet Zia-ul-Haq Qasmi passes away

Robert Rosenberg, author, poet, Internet pioneer and journalist, died of cancer Wednesday in Tel Aviv. He was 54.

from Haaretz: Journalist and Internet pioneer Robert Rosenberg dies at 54

Mrs. [Dorreen] Ward, who was widely known in the community as "Nana Dot", was a nurse for more than 30 years and a keen writer of poetry. Mrs Jenkins said she had penned a verse of thanks to the hospital staff on her ward just days before her death which they had pinned to the wall.

from York Press: Death of a crime victim

[Brad] Will, 36, of South Williamsburg, was killed while reporting for the independent media organization Indymedia.org. Friends described him Saturday as a talented poet, singer, filmmaker and writer dedicated to exposing injustice.

from Newsday: Slain journalist remembered as courageous activist

10/24/2006

News at Eleven

Bookshops have drastically reduced their ranges of poetry. Publishers have scrapped or shortened their poetry lists and are taking on very few new authors. Small presses have folded. Yet, paradoxically, public interest in poetry has never been higher.

from New Statesman: Give poetry back to people

"Ruth Lilly gave this wonderful gift to the poetry world, and our job is to protect that gift," said John Barr, president of the Poetry Foundation, who estimated that the charities lost $100 million because of investments not made by National City.

The appellate judges upheld a ruling by Marion Superior Court, Probate Division, that endorsed the bank's plans for Lilly's estate, which oversees two charitable trusts in Ruth Lilly's name.

from The Indianapolis Star: 2 charities lose in Lilly estate ruling

A minor government officer in Southwest China has been arrested for mocking officials in mobile and internet messages, reported Friday's The Beijing News.

Qin Zhongfei, an official with the Pengshui county education commission in Chongqing, sent a satirical poem to several friends by phone and internet in August.

from China Daily: Man arrested for satirical poem about officials

One wishes [Henry Howard, Earl of] Surrey had had the sense to see his true vocation was poetry--for which, as Childs shows, he had very considerable talent. The poems show us, pathetically, a man who for all his vainglory was haunted by a sense of loneliness, separation and unworthiness.

from The Guardian: Tudor attitudes

I'm a little bit ashamed about my revisions. I'm ashamed that I didn't see what had to be done soon enough. Or, to put it another way, I published my poems before they were completely done. Once a thing is in print, all its faults seem to leer out at you. And then I have no alternative but to try to fix them. So it happened with this "Ode and Elegy." [--Galway Kinnell to Alice Quinn]

from The New Yorker: Working Poets

I'm not setting up a crude opposition between the two writers here; [Arun] Kolatkar admired [Salman] Rushdie's novel, as Rushdie does Kolatkar's work. But I am suggesting that there is another lineage and avenue in Indian writing in English than the one Midnight's Children opened up, along with an obsession with the monumental; and its source lies in Jejuri.

from The Guardian: Pilgrims' progress

We have Allen Ginsberg to thank for all of it, although I?m sure he would have blanched at the sight of Kerouac as a Gap model. Were it not for this openhearted son of an amateur poet, Morgan tells us, Kerouac and Burroughs would not have published these two aforementioned ur-Beat novels, and other poets, like Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Gregory Corso, would have been forever stuck in the coffeehouse ghetto.

from LA Weekly: Search for Satori

In the meantime, she's living in a sort of precarious tenement tree house.

In 1962, when [Hettie] Jones moved into the top floor of the former rooming house with her then-husband, LeRoi Jones (now Amiri Baraka), "it had been vacant for more than ten years," she says. They had no gas, no heat, and no sink, and the rent was $100 a month.

from New York Magazine: High-Rise Eats Tenement

The crime columns of the London newspapers that week in March 1969 ran items about the strangling of a wife in her home and the death of a girl who set fire to herself in Paris, but there was no word of the deaths of Assia and Shura Wevill in Clapham Common. Only one local paper, the South London Press, violated what amounted to a hush-up. Even there, the story was at the bottom of page 13, and omitted any hint of an intimate connection between the poet and the deceased.

from The Guardian: Written out of history

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!

That candle supplied a metaphorical flame. The flames on Sanibel on May 2, 1936, were all too real and not lovely. Although she lost the manuscript, [Edna St. Vincent] Millay was able to rewrite "Conversation at Midnight" from memory.

from The News-Press: Poet lost years of work in Sanibel fire

Life's Just Not Fair
By Ariel Lewis-Hashimoto

from The Honolulu Advertiser: 'Washing dishes by the seashore with sand and sea water . . .'

Great Regulars

"This fills me with inconsolable sorrow," sighs Blogographos at Horror Vacui. "For already it has begun, the praising and lauding of Pamuk the political figure: Pamuk, the Good Turk; Pamuk, the writer we need: a warm, conscientious, liberal, multi-cultural, nominally-Islamic voice of reason (even Reason?) in these troublous times ... What shall be lost, Readers, is that plain and frankly irrelevant fact in the Age of Spectral Mechanics, namely: Pamuk is a brilliant author. . . ."

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian's Culture Vulture: Best of the literary blogosphere

Part of the small wave of Maine poets who slip into magical realism, [William] Carpenter, who lives in Stockton Springs, is the author of three volumes of poetry and two novels and is one of the founders of College of the Atlantic, where he teaches.

The Husbands

from Elizabeth W. Garber: The Free Press Online!: A Year of Poetry from a Wealth of Maine Poets: Leaf Peepers

[William Cullen] Bryant's dedication to his literary career as well as to his homeland could not be emphasized any better than by the poet himself when he said, "We are not without the hope that those who read what we have written, will see in the past, with all its vicissitudes, the promise of a prosperous and honorable future, of concord at home, and peace and respect abroad; and that the same cheerful piety which leads the good man to put his personal trust in a kind Providence, will prompt the good citizen to cherish an equal confidence in regard to the destiny reserved for our beloved country."

from Linda Sue Grimes: BellaOnline: William Cullen Bryant--October

Poem: "Sometimes We Don't Talk Much, Debbie And I" by Greg Kosmicki, from Some Hero of the Past. © Word Press. Reprinted with permission.

Sometimes We Don't Talk Much, Debbie And I

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: For the week of October 23, 2006

Many poems celebrate the joys of having children. Michigan poet Jeff Vande Zande reminds us that adults make mistakes, even with children they love, and that parenting is about fear as well as joy.

Clean

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 082

There's a forgiving element, a sad shrug and smile, in the idea that the vulnerabilities, failings and dreams of our early 20s persist, somewhere in us, for the rest of life. And though worldly, that notion attributed to Freud suggests the opposite of "disillusion": the beautiful albeit deluded youth inside us endures, and keeps wanting the world.

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

A lot of thinking and remembering happen overtly in "Public Gestures," [Matt] Yurdana's first book, particularly in its first and third sections. Pervasive as it is among contemporary poets, that particular poetic gesture can seem, when isolated, more tic than tactic.

from B.T. Shaw: The Oregonian: Poetry

Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance Speech in December 2005 will rank among the greatest orations in World History. He spoke like Socrates; he spoke like Plato; he spoke like Aristotle; he spoke like William Tell; he spoke like Thomas More; he spoke like Winston Churchill. Even as Churchill exposed the horrors of Nazi Germany, Harold Pinter has exposed the brutalities of Bush and the bestialities of Blair.

from V Sundaram: News Today: A beam of light amidst the encircling gloom

While we in India today consider Sanskrit a dead language, the Westerners consider it as a fascinating language, a language in which the genius of human civilization was perfected to its highest level through the glory of Sanskrit, one of the most perfect and wonderfully sufficient literary instruments--majestic, sweet, flexible, vibrant and subtle--developed by the human mind.

The only question that I would like to ask is whether the Cambridge University would have dared to abolish the Chairs in Arabic or Persian?

from V Sundaram: News Today: Is England becoming 'Little England'?

Arthur Schopenhauer was completely overwhelmed by the majesty of thought and beauty and loftiness of expression in the Upanishads. He was so impressed by their philosophy that he declared with passion, 'The Upanishads are the production of the highest human wisdom and I consider them almost superhuman in conception. The study of the Upanishads has been a source of great inspiration and means of comfort to my soul. From every sentence of the Upanishads deep, original and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. The Upanishads have been the solace of my life and will be the solace of my death.' Schopenhauer always kept a copy of the book Oupnekhat (Upanishad) open on his table and he invariably studied it before retiring to rest every day.

from V Sundaram: News Today: Timeless universality--I

The Pattern and Chaitanya by Arun Kolatkar

from The Guardian: Original poetry: The Pattern and Chaitanya by Arun Kolatkar

The work takes us beyond the frame of the painting, back to a story of how these boats arrived at that point on the sand from having delivered "the crying woman, hands wrapped with rags/ that smell of myrrh". In such a journey, the painting is now mythic, and the words explore immense ideas, enlivened by the narrative's touching on the absences echoing within each pitch of the brush.

from The Guardian: Poetry Workshop: Words on pictures
also The Guardian: Poetry Workshop: Words on pictures (part two)

wheel
by Jennifer Burch

from Guernica: Poetry: wheel

'Papa'
By David Ray

from The Kansas City Star: Poet's Corner: 'Papa'

Plugged

By Larry Rochelle

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase

" 'There's just one little thing: a ring. I don't mean on the phone.' "--Eartha Kitt
By Kathy Fagan

from Slate: "'"'There's just one little thing: a ring. I don't mean on the phone."'--Eartha Kitt" By Kathy Fagan

Poetic Obituaries

Eugene E. Cantrell, 79, of Gatlinburg, died Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, at Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center. He was a talented artist, wood craftsman and poet.

from The Mountain Press: Obituaries for 10/18/06: Eugene E. Cantrell

With limited funds but boundless determination, she [Mayme Clayton] eventually amassed what experts today regard as a valuable and eclectic collection of black Americana. Its most glorious holding is a signed copy of the first book published by an African American: ex-slave Phillis Wheatley's "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" of 1773.

from Los Angeles Times: A Champion of Black History

Mr. [Joseph] Cribben was known in the labor movement for his writing, said his son Patrick Cribben of Charlottesville.

After retiring in 1990, Mr. Cribben continued to write. He took classes in memoir and poetry writing at senior centers. He started compiling a memoir about his military service.

from The Washington Post: Joseph Cribben, 79; Political Director

Mr. [Daryl] Duke got his start at the National Film Board after some of his poetry--he studied philosophy and English at the University of British Columbia--caught the attention of a senior NFB producer.

"He read one of [the poems] and described it as very visual," Mr. Duke said in 2003 in an interview with The Globe.

from The Globe and Mail: Thorn Birds director Daryl Duke dies

Though Mr. [Edward R. "Ned"] Davis was a top lobbyist, often discussing legislation with the powerful Sen. [Nancy W.] Cook, she does not identify him through his profession.

"He was so much more than a lobbyist," she said.

"He was a fisherman, a hunter, a Democratic national committeeman, he liked poetry and would recite poetry to us, and he was quite a writer.

"He was an intellectual. There are so many things that Ned was."

from Delaware State News: Dean of lobbyists Davis dies

As Ernest [Ford] himself said of his humble beginnings: "I set myself thinking of my dog at home and lo and behold found myself tap, tap, tapping my way through my first completed poem.

"As I had been speaking dialect words since birth I now discovered that I had a natural flair to write them down." From little acorns...

Ow Do by Ernest Ford

from The Bolton News: Life and times of the king of Lanky dialect

"Where are you in this paper? I want to hear your voice," he told her.

[Gwen] Griffin said [Bud] Hirsch became a mentor, friend and colleague.

Before he died, Griffin called Hirsch every night and read poems, sang songs and read him the box scores for the Cubs and White Sox.

from The University Daily Kansan: Memorial honors English professor

Thich Man Giac [a.k.a. poet Huyen Khong], the Supreme Patriarch of the Vietnamese United Buddhist Churches of America, died Oct. 13 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 77.

from Los Angeles Times: Thich Man Giac, 77; U.S. Buddhist Leader

On July 8, [Lance Cpl. Nicholas J.] Manoukian married his longtime girlfriend, Danielle, at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Royal Oak.

The couple met eight years earlier at a friend's Halloween party.

During their courtship, Manoukian often penned poems for Danielle, and surprised her with love notes on her car windshield.

from The Detroit News: Two Michigan GIs killed in Iraq war

She played three kinds of saxophones, guitar and piano. "Oh, and she sang wonderfully."

Irené McAlevy published about 40 poems, according to a relative's count. Here is one of her poems.

"The Holder of the Pen" by Irené McAlevy, March 20, 1993.

from Greeley Tribune: Mother of five was poet, artist

Patrick "Tim" Moore passed away peacefully in his home of an HIV/AIDS-related illness on Sept. 27. He was 51.

Moore was a creative soul; he was a poet, playwright, musician, artist, and costumer.

from Windy City Times: Patrick 'Tim' Moore

[Sharon Maxine Noland] was an amateur poet and songwriter. Her devotion to her family and friends extended to her pets and all other creatures, great and small.

from The Mountain Press: Obituaries for 10/18/06: Sharon Maxine Noland

In 1988 Brownie's [Hugh Henry Perry's] book of poems Reflections of a Rambler was published.

Over the years in his spare time Brownie learned to braid using horsehair, rawhide and leather.

He created many beautiful head stalls, reins, quirts, and his miniature saddles were exquisite.

Many articles can be seen in the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin.

from The Williams Lake Tribune: In loving memory of Brownie Perry--December 14, 1921-September 5, 2006

Even after seven children and 51/2 decades of marriage, Mr. [Jerome Glen "Jerry"] Smock spent time in his final year writing poetry about the love of his life, Aurora Rocha Smock, who declined an interview.

"My father was in love with my mother up until the day he passed away," said daughter Debbie Speziale. "We cherished that. He inspired us that even that type of relationship could exist to this day. He always treated her like she was a princess."

from The Indianapolis Star: Man expressed love for his wife daily

Their mother [Georgina Steinsky-Sehnoutka] was a prolific poet who expressed her sadness through verse. She wrote in Czech under the pen name Inka Smutna, which translates to "sad Inka."

from Toronto Star: Georgina Steinsky-Sehnoutka, 83: Poet loved her homeland

[Cpl. Kenny F. Stanton Jr.'s] family has erected a memorial in the living room, with flickering candles and photos of Kenny, a nice-looking kid with a sweet smile. He loved words, say his parents. He worked for the school newspaper and wanted to be a writer, a poet and teacher. But he chose to join the Army first.

from The Los Angeles Times: Quietly accepting another Iraq death

A child of poverty, Lindalee Tracey ran away from home as a young teenager, made a living as a stripper and exotic dancer in Montreal and forged an award-winning international career as a writer and documentary filmmaker.

from The Globe and Mail: Lindalee Tracey, 49

10/17/2006

News at Eleven

These families into which we were born, these countries and cities to which the lottery of life has assigned us--they expect love from us, and in the end we do love them from the bottom of our hearts; but did we perhaps deserve better? [--Orhan Pamuk in "Istanbul: Memories and the City" translated by Maureen Freely]

from The Washington Post: Turkish Novelist Wins Nobel Prize

In 2005, he [Mazisi Kunene] was named South Africa's poet laureate.

He is survived by his wife, Mathabo, whom he married in 1973, a daughter and two sons.

from The Guardian: Mazisi Kunene

"In order to disrupt this conformity of Arabic and Islamic identity which is being forced onto them, they are turning to their own heritage and asserting that," she [Sarah Maguire] says. [Al-Saddiq] Al-Raddi's work "as a poet is part of that assertion of his African identity, through trying to make connections, particularly with people in the south who come from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds."

from The Guardian: 'There is a Sudanese culture'

Later on he [Mahmoud Darwish] invites Mr. Death to a glass of wine--"Relax a bit"--and softens death up in order to attack it frontally and land the knockout blow: "Death, you have been defeated by art./You have been defeated by the poetry of Mesopotamia. And the obelisks of Egypt/and the tombs of the pharaohs/and the carvings/in temple stones all these have defeated you/and won. Eternal life has evaded/your ambushes . . . "

from Haaretz: Palestine as poetry

Language is what separates poetry from music, he [Donald Hall] says, "because language has this everyday meaning, and we use the same language we use in our everyday speech. But we shape it into a work of art." He reads from his poem "The Poem" to illustrate:

from Voice of America: Donald Hall Takes Helm as New US Poet Laureate

In one she wrote prophetically "Your novel seems sometimes like a child, your own and none of me." Otherwise there are no letters at all from Emma before 1890, when she was 50 years old and the marriage was already deeply in trouble. There are none because she burnt them all in the garden at Max Gate.

from The Guardian: At home in his socks

"Hang Up"

By Landis Everson

from U. S. Newswire: Poetry Foundation Announces Publication of 'Everything Preserved' by Landis Everson

The final version of [Nikki] Giovanni's poem, written for the event and titled "I Am Cincinnati," referred to Ken Blackwell, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, as a "son of a bitch" and alluded to him as a "political whore," drawing gasps and applause from onlookers.

from The Enquirer: Poet out of bounds

by Joan Larkin

Vertigo

from The Brooklyn Rail: Poetry by Joan Larkin

. . . arms grow weak like levees
New Orleans, you are not just where I live
You are who I am

He [Frederick "Hollywood" Delahoussaye] wrote more of it, again in his head, while standing in a long line waiting for a $100 donation card from the Red Cross.

Somewhere between the water line
And the color line is the poverty line
And we stand . . .

from The Times-Picayune: Grand Slam

In his town workshop, Bewick turned in memory to the streams and fells, just as Wordsworth recollected the mountains of his boyhood; and the ecstatic feeling that [Thomas] Bewick experienced on his walks up the Tyne had much in common with the intense, physical apprehension of an all-enveloping presence that Wordsworth expressed in "Tintern Abbey".

from The Guardian: Small wonders

Great Regulars

In the poem A Reunion, which has surfaced in a private collection, [Siegfried] Sassoon shows a prescience about the onset of the cold war with the line:

While the face of youth
dissolved and went
I heard the drone of
endless armament.

from Olivia Cole: The Sunday Times: Bomb shocked Sassoon into late burst of poetry

Humans sometimes need art to help see the world more clearly. In this case, poetry helped these writers process their emotions and thoughts. [Marion] Winik thinks that might be due, in part, to the inexplicable nature of this tragedy. "Emotion that is beyond reason sometimes seems beyond prose."

from Bill Diskin: York Daily Record: Poetryork: Poetry helps us process tragedy

Read Anthony Taylor Dunn's poem from Down East slowly, savoring the sounds in the words, how they deepen the feeling in the poem.

Cemetery in the Woods

from Elizabeth W. Garber: The Free Press Online: A Year of Poetry from a Wealth of Maine Poets: October Journeys

Henry Timrod's name recently surfaced when it was discovered that Bob Dylan had plagiarized some of Timrod's poems in his most recent album, Modern Times. Unlike Allen Tate's original poem which was legitimately inspired by Timrod's poem, Dylan actually lifted lines the Civil War poet's poems without even mentioning Timrod.

from Linda Sue Grimes: BellaOnline: Poet Laureate of the Confederacy--Henry Timrod

Readers of this column during the past year have by now learned how enthusiastic I am about poems describing everyday life. I've tried to show how the ordinary can be made extraordinary through close and transforming observation. Here Tess Gallagher goes to the mailbox to post a letter. We've all done that, haven't we? But notice how closely she pays attention to this simple experience, and how she fits this one moment into the meaning of her life.

Under Stars

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 081

The contemporary poet C.D. Wright establishes a jaunty, comic air in a lyric poem that, like Clare's, implies the isolation of a single soul, known yet not known, with its unique peculiarities and history. Wright takes her title from a section of the newspaper:

Personals

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

"Listen," says the speaker at the poem's crucial turning point. I am grateful that back in Andy's dormitory room, in May of 1992, James Tate convinced me to listen, maybe for the first time in my life.

"Deaf Girl Playing"

from Good Times Weekly: Kafka's Axe

The Race and Flight by Don Paterson

from The Guardian: The Race and Flight by Don Paterson

'Cotton Candy Girl'
By Jane Vandervelde

from The Kansas City Star: Poet's Corner: 'Cotton Candy Girl'

'The Smallest Light'

By Susan Waldo Simmons

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase

by Griselda Liz Munoz

In The Sun

from Newpaper Tree: Poetry

The Turning
[by Rick Vetrone]

from The Oregonian: Poetry

Donald Hall: It was a very happy marriage, extraordinary. We were doing the same things we wanted to do. Every now and then, she would bring me some new ones. I would show her some new ones. We didn't come running to each other when we had a poem; we worked on them for a while separately. And then we would help each other out, and we were a team.

from PBS: Newshour: Poet Laureate Donald Hall Reflects on Age and Nature

"April 26, 2006"
By Barry Goldensohn

from Slate: "April 26, 2006" By Barry Goldensohn

Poetic Obituaries

As a testament to her connection with history, Mae [Beck] met her husband, Henry, at the University of Vermont--she was studying Home Economics and he, medicine--while attending a poetry reading of Walt Whitman.

from keepMEcurrent.com: Mae Beck of Gray dies at 101, an historic figure

[P C] Devassia's works include Kristhu Bhagavatham, the first epic on Christ in Sanskrit which was published in 1977. This work won the National Sahitya Akademi Award in 1980. His other noted Sanskrit work is Janakiya Kavyam, a satirical poem in Sanskrit with Malayalam commentary.

from The New Indian Express: Poet P C Devassia passes away

[Dale E.] Hibbard played Red & Black football and was a member of the Watertown G.I. football team started in 1946. He was a stock car driver in Northern New York and boxed at Camp Smith in Peekskill, NY.

He enjoyed researching his family genealogy and was a published poet and songwriter.

from Newzjunky: Dale E. Hibbard

[Nicholas Howe] works include "The Old English Catalogue Poems: A Study in Poetic Form," and the influential "Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England," which opened up new ways of looking at Old English literature and culture.

Howe's new book, "Writing the Map of Anglo-Saxon England: Essays in Cultural Geography," will be published by Yale University Press in 2007.

from UC Berkeley News: Nicholas Howe, scholar of Anglo-Saxon England, dies at age 53

Professor [John J.] Keenan was editor of Four Quarters, La Salle's literary journal. He wrote short stories, essays, poems and reviews that appeared in the journal and other periodicals and newspapers. In 1982 he published Feel Free to Write, and in 1987 he coauthored Writing for Business and Industry.

from The Philadelphia Inquirer: John J. Keenan, 75, English teacher

The author of more than 60 books of poems, [Shamsur] Rahman was a political activist who opposed and stood up to extremist Islamist s in his country of Bangladesh and abroad, for which he faced numerous threat s and attacks against his life and against that of his family.

from Queens Tribune: Queens Library Honor Bengali Poet

During that same campaign, the troll man, who appeared on ballots as Richard Schaller, offered a prescient solution to the country's environmental woes. "Let's get rid of the environment. It's too big and too hard to keep clean."

As recently as two years ago, Mr. Schaller ran as Richard Potato for mayor of North Vancouver.

from The Globe and Mail: There may not be reason, but there sure will be rhyme

[Lister] Sinclair was more than a voice to thousands of listeners over the decades. He was a prolific writer of television and radio plays. One play, Hilda Morgan, generated huge controversy--including an uproar in Parliament--in 1949 because the heroine was pregnant, unmarried and considering whether to end her pregnancy.

from Toronto Star: Legendary broadcaster `knew everything'

Stanton said his son [Pfc. Kenny Stanton Jr.] was a reporter for the Hemet High newspaper, The Bulldog, and enjoyed sports, such as wrestling and basketball.

Stanton Jr. also enjoyed poetry and had thought about becoming an English teacher, his father said.

from The Press-Enterprise: Soldier killed in Iraq 'only thought of others'

Visiting the Traces in 1977, New York Times columnist Rita Reif described "book-lined rooms" "filled with both rarities and recently published volumes in the specialty areas of the decorative arts, architectural history and design."

from Antiques and the Arts: Elizabeth Trace, 91, Antiquarian Book Dealer And Winter Show Exhibitor

John Variste--whose 15 siblings called him muscle head because of his physical strength--wrote poems, loved children and was a good cook, Ivy Variste said.

But he put drugs first, a choice that probably got him killed, Variste said.

from The Advocate: Man?s body found in burning home

[Sara M. Woulf] competed and received many awards, at the State level, in forensics and solo vocal performance in choir. Sara's main passions were art, photography, poetry, music, and loving her cat Mr. Pooh.

from Appleton Post-Crescent: Woulf, Sara M.

10/10/2006

News at Eleven

Traditional music and romantic poetry in the southern parts of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) are fast being replaced by commercially produced recordings of poems promoting the idea of waging "jihad" against infidel invaders.

from adnkronos international: Holy War Culture Is Killing Poetry

[Julius] Chingono writes simply, unfettered by self-consciousness. His work is imbued with a humanistic sensitivity gleaned from his personal encounters and observations as it deals with themes ranging from the abuse of women disguised as culture (My Wife) to the hunger pangs of the everyman (Grapes) and the shattered dreams of freedom (Propaganda).

from Mail & Guardian: Not yet Uhuru

"No, I was not compelled to write in English, but then you are not compelled to not write in English too. It is a language with free use. It breathes colonialism, but it lives in an honest way, so there is nothing wrong really with writing in English, as long as you know how to control certain things." [--Mafika Gwala]

from Mail & Guardian: Far from forgotten

Ko [Un] had once rallied against the former military dictatorship, and is now leading reunification efforts with North Korea.

Brother Anthony has been helping international readers appreciate Ko's literary talents by translating the poet's works including two important poetry collections--"The Sound of My Waves" and "Beyond Self."

from The Korea Herald: Hopes high for Korean poet's winning Nobel prize

The best poems from the entries are being published in the Forward Book of Poetry 2007, published today, National Poetry Day.

From this year's best collection

Lizard, by Robin Robertson

from The Guardian: Poet puts Heaney in shade by scooping £10,000 prize

As Americans pass through "Anahorish 1944" to assemble for Normandy, [Seamus] Heaney's anonymous narrator recalls a morning of pig slaughter, "sunlight and gutter-blood/Outside the slaughterhouse."

No one knew where they were headed, "like youngsters/As they tossed us gum and tubes of coloured sweets."

from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 'District and Circle' by Seamus Heaney

[Philip Larkin] had written no poems in the previous year. He added: "My mind is like a shallow-soiled garden: nothing takes deep roots in it/I despise my mind, and my character, and my instincts, and everything about me."

from The Sunday Times: Found: lines of self-hate Larkin tried to conceal

Coleridge believed that he, too, had 'a tendency to become a God', and trusted that the landscape of Cumberland would elevate and exalt his mind. But Wordsworth's ego tolerated no competition. While Coleridge extended himself in devout prostration, Wordsworth, as Sisman says, trampled him.

from The Guardian: William, my hero

Before his [James Whitcomb Riley's] death in 1916, Indiana schools celebrated his birthday, which is today. In 1915, the governor of Indiana declared it Riley Day, as did the National Commissioner of Education, who directed that Riley Day be observed in all the schools in the United States.

from The News-Sentinel: Indiana's Riley was the 'people's poet'

"The greatest growth has been the growth of poetry readings. Back when I was a kid there was very few. Robert Frost did a good many. But no other poets did. If they were alive today, they'd be asked to read three times a day." [--Donald Hall]

from Voice of America: Poetry Takes Center Stage in National Book Festival

[Jack Kerouac] spent some time in the U.S. Navy and as a merchant marine and was admitted to the sick list after eight days for headaches. Doctors diagnosed him with dementia, which he shrugged off as nervousness. He received an indifferent discharge for "unsuitability."

from The Lowell Sun: You don't know Jack about Kerouac

Great Regulars

[Michael] Drayton (1563-1631) was a friend of Ben Jonson's (1572-1637) and some think Shakespeare's, too. So, when readers say "I love e.e. cummings," I say, well, you'll definitely love Michael Drayton because he was doing that e.e. cummings thing 300 years earlier and cummings learned a lot from him.

from David Biespiel: The Oregonian: Like modern poetry? Take a look back

"In Julia Darling's poem Two Lighthouses, the speaker asks for an independent relationship: 'I would like us to live like two lighthouses. . . .each with her own lamp'. Lighthouses give light when the light is needed, like poetry, maybe. Poetry makes us think about who we are. Poetry keeps the light." [--Jackie Kay]

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian's Culture Vulture: Best of the Literary Blogosphere

The two poets merge for a moment on the page, identity becomes fluid, and Yeats comes alive again through Auden's lines. It's a heartstopping poem: I highly recommend you give yourselves a Poetry Day treat and read it.

And when you've done that, please recommend your own favourites, and link to them, so that we can read them, too. Happy Poetry Day!

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian's Culture Vulture: Share your favourite poems on identity

Michael Macklin from Portland wonders about these black-robed monks on his back porch all winter. Macklin is a poet/carpenter who is reviews editor for the Café Review poetry journal, has an MFA in writing from Vermont College, and has a chapbook called Driftland.

Before Coffee

from Elizabeth W. Garber: Free Press Online: A Year of Poetry from a Wealth of Maine Poets: The Cry of October?s Crows

"87" by E.E. Cummings from 100 Selected Poems. © Grove Weidenfeld.

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: For the week of October 09, 2006

One of poetry's traditional public services is the presentation of elegies in honor of the dead. Here James McKean remembers a colorful friend and neighbor.

Elegy for an Old Boxer

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 080

Au contraire: I commend American libraries for their purchases, the way they celebrate their holdings and nurture their relationships with the writers involved. We should learn from them, and we should be grateful for their generosity towards interested scholars. More than that, we would do well to consider the possibility that the American enthusiasm for British papers might have kindled our own interest in them to a degree that might not otherwise have occurred.

from Andrew Motion: The Times Literary Supplement: Saving writers' manuscripts for the nation

In his absorbing new book, Mark Strand also uses the notion of his own death as a springboard. Like [Jonathan] Swift's lines, but in a distinctly different way, Strand's poem includes laughter and sorrow not as mere opposites, but as one feeling:

2002

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

La Stanza Delle Mosche by Robin Robertson

from The Guardian: Original poetry: La Stanza Delle Mosche by Robin Robertson

Ekphrasis can include description of the art, or it can include enactment of the encounter in art. Sometimes it includes analysis, not only of what is seen, but of how and why such a subject is particular to the writer's/speaker's existence.

from The Guardian: Poetry Workshop: Amy Newman's poetry workshop

'River Water'
By Judith Bader Jones

from The Kansas City Star: Poet's Corner: 'River Water'

Lawrence Leaves

By Z. Hall

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase

by Peter Michie

Excuse Me

from Newpaper Tree: Poetry

"Poem Ending With Three Lines From 'Home on the Range'"
By Frank Bidart

from Slate: "Poem Ending With Three Lines From 'Home on the Range'" By Frank Bidart

Poetic Obituaries

[Marine Pfc. Christopher Adlesperger] killed insurgents who were heavily armed and probably high on drugs--and who had just killed his close friend, Lance Cpl. Erick Hodges.

He protected two wounded squad members from attack and saved innumerable Marines.

from Los Angeles Times: His Corps Value Was Bravery

[Prahalad] Mishra, who started his career as a Sanskrit teacher in Kendrapada, translated 100,000 verses from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata into Oriya.

The Orissa Sahitya Academy awarded Atibadi Jaganath Samanan to him in 1993 for his contribution to Oriya literature.

from Telugu Portal: Eminent Oriya poet dies

[David] Osgood enjoyed fishing and was a published poet. He also liked reading at open mike at the Coffee House for Poetry, and he sang karaoke at the Polish Club.

from The Boston Globe: David Osgood, 49; energy specialist

[Oskar] Pastior's sound-based & pun-rich work poses great problems to translators for wide stretches, but we do have an excellent selection of his work in English: Many Glove Compartments, translated from the German by Harry Mathews, Christopher Middleton, Rosmarie Waldrop, & with a guest appearance by John Yau (Burning Deck, 2001).

from Nomadics: Oskar Pastior (1927-2006)

"Omran Salahi felt pain in his chest on Tuesday evening. His family took him to Kasra Hospital, from where he was transferred to Tus Hospital and placed in the ICU, but he passed away early this morning," one of Salahi?s relatives told the Persian service of IRNA on Wednesday.

from Mehr News: Poet and satirist Salahi dies at 60 'without informing us'

[James S. Stoffel] was a veteran of the United States Air Force, serving eight years as an air traffic controller most of which was at KI Sawyer Air Force Base in Michigan. He also served one year in Thailand during the Vietnam War.

Jim proudly published a book of poetry titled "Pomes and Modern Versus from a Maniac Depressive Serf".

from Fond du Lac Reporter: James S. Stoffel

Drawing on material ranging from recent conversations to experiences dating back more than 95 years, [Henry] Townsend's improvised songs--many of them profound meditations on life, love and loss--were often performed only once, lost to history if someone in the audience didn't happen to record them.

from Riverfront Times: R.I.P. Henry Townsend: 1909-2006

Quiet and studious, Van Buren "Lil Pap" Wheeler knew from an early age where he was headed in life.

"I am kind and animal loving. I see what others don't see," he wrote when he was in elementary school several years ago in a collection he titled "Van's Poems."

from Macon Telegraph: 15-year-old accident victim remembered at funeral

10/3/2006

News at Eleven

The Solitary Spatuloon

By Jack Prelutsky

from U.S. Newswire: Poetry Foundation Names Jack Prelutsky First Children's Poet Laureate

The poem tells of a woman who looks out the window of an old house to see blue jays in a rage, fighting their own war:

She thinks of a winter camp
Where soldiers for France are made.
She draws down the window shade
And it glows with an early lamp.

Now, the rediscovered work will be published in the fall issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, which will be available Monday.

from The Daily Progress: Unpublished Frost poem sees light of day after 88 years

"It grew into this huge collaboration," said Jenny Johnson, digital initiatives project coordinator at IUPUI's University Library.

The current plan is to scan 100 original letters to and from [james Whitcomb] Riley, 200 photographs and 24 early editions of Riley's poems. Other items also are being scanned, such as handwritten poems, posters advertising Riley's appearances and newspaper accounts of his readings and lectures.

from The Indianapolis Star: Not too raggedy: Riley images headed for Web

Above all, it is the mood of the sequence of six love poems titled "Voyages":

--And yet this great wink of eternity,
Of rimless floods, unfettered leewardings,
Samite sheeted and processioned where
Her undinal vast belly moonward bends,
Laughing the wrapt inflections of our love.

No poet since Keats had achieved this kind of elated lyricism.

from The New Yorker: The Mystic Word: The life and work of Hart Crane

Readers also take what they want, and the many young women who wrote to him [Thomas Hardy], asking for advice on where they might settle in Wessex, were clearly selective in their responses to his books. They hoped to become happy Bathshebas, not to share the grim fate of Tess.

from The Sunday Times: Let?s talk about Wessex
for more Claire Tomalin on Thomas Hardy,
see: The Sunday Times: A fittingly awkward ending
and: The Guardian: At home with the wizard

After having dedicated over half a century to artistic creation, the prince of Cuban poetry, Pablo Armando Fernandez, has stopped writing. Maruja, his wife and muse, the woman who inspired his most beautiful love poem, has gone into "the realm of light," and she took a part of him with her.

from Periódico 26: Poet Pablo Armando Fernandez Returns

Choman [Hardi] remembers crossing back to her homeland; the journey captured in her poem At the Border.

"I was five years old and expected the other place behind the border to be much more beautiful. This is what my family had assured me. I realised I had been deceived. That day I probably learnt the first important lesson in my life: that the stories immigrants tell about their homelands are myths and beautiful lies. Suleimanya was not better than Kerej and the landscape was not that different."

from East Anglia Daily Times: Why I had to flee my country

In Teilhard de Chardin, [Leopold Sedar] Senghor found a way to develop a synthesis of the Christian concept of a God who is both the source and the aim of life with the African concept of a universal vital force in all creation. This vital force is the base for the essential oneness of all life, life coming from a common source, evolving through a multitude of different shapes and forms but called upon to become aware of its oneness through a planetary consciousness.

from Peace Journalism: Leopold Sedar Senghor : Humanist of the Civilization of the Universal

Army Sgt. Tina Beller, 29, survived a devastating mortar attack on the "green zone" in Baghdad. She wrote her parents how she replayed the images of the victims in her mind: "The horrified looks, their confused looks, the blood dripping on them, the sheer and utter pain mirrored on their faces, they all played like a silent movie in my mind all day and night."

from The Mercury News: In soldiers' own words

"The first time I lifted a pair of binoculars and looked through them, and saw, on the lake near the college, a huge Caspian tern hover above the lake and then plunge down into it, white body, black head, red beak, this plummeting plunge into the water and then come up with a fish, and seeing it close up, through glasses -- it just knocked me out," [Robert] Hass says.

from The Leaf-Chronicle: Poet laureate shares love of opinions

[Dafydd Johnston] said, "The most striking and memorable poems about the plague are the ones the poets composed about their own children who died of the plague.

"And this seems to have heralded a new development in Welsh poetry. Previously to that the poetry had been quite impersonal."

from Western Mail: How a dirty rat inspired Welsh love poetry

Great Regulars

Blood blurs the line between sex and death, as in "The Sacrifice", a poem featuring a bull, in which two maidens lead the mesmerised animal in a highly sexualised dance that climaxes when they take a knife to its throat and the bull "swoons/into its edge, blood falling/in bright gobs on earth/where corn will sprout/green and gold".

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Red Riding Hood's rebellion

Today, [Leslie] Delp continues to appreciate the power of poetry, and considers it a valuable part of her work with grieving families. "Any tool we have to facilitate our healing after a loss is a valuable one," Delp says. "Society has many ways of expressing itself . . . poetry is one of the most beautiful ways!"

from Bill Diskin: York Daily Record: Poetryork: Poetry can help children cope with grief

In the cool, clear light of late September, life slows down and we pay careful attention to the daily subtle changes in light and color. These poets are each lingering, noticing, and their fine slow focus and observation changes us, brings us more deeply into Autumn.

from Elizabeth W. Garber: The Free Press Online!: A Year of Poetry from a Wealth of Maine Poets: Watching Autumn Closely

Despite Dante's political troubles but also quite possibly because of them, we remember his accomplishment in his major poem touted by some as the greatest poem of the Middle Ages. Although it suffers from the major flaw of assigning Mohammed, the Islamic prophet, to Hell, The Divine Comedy is, nevertheless, a masterpiece that deserves all the attention it continues to attract.

from Linda Sue Grimes: BellaOnline: Dante Alighieri--A Political and Spiritual Poet

Hughes wrote his best poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," when he was only eighteen years old. Despite his descent into simplism and banality in his later work, this poem shows the brilliant talent he possessed as a young poet.

from Linda Sue Grimes: BellaOnline: Langston Hughes' Cosmic Voice

[Wallace] Stevens wrote poems for most of his life, but he didn't publish his first book until he was 45 years old. His wife had discouraged him from publishing because he'd written poems for her when they first started dating, and she felt that his poems belonged to her and her alone. But after many years of keeping his work private, he decided that he wanted to know what the world thought of it, and so he went ahead and published his collection Harmonium (1923).

from Garrison Keillor: The Writer's Almanac: For the week of October 02, 2006

The news coverage of Hurricane Katrina gave America a vivid look at our poor and powerless neighbors. Here Alex Phillips of Massachusetts condenses his observations of our country's underclass into a wise, tough little poem.

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 079

This is, in [Stephen] Fry's words, the general reader's sense that "poetry lies in inaccessible marshland: no pathways, no signposts, just the skeletons of long-dead poets poking through the bog and the unedifying sight of living ones floundering about in apparent confusion and mutual enmity. Behind it all, the dread memory of classrooms swollen into resentful silence while the English teacher invites us to 'respond' to a poem."

from David Orr: The New York Times: School of Verse

South African poet Ingrid de Kok has written poems about her country's historic transition from apartheid. They include accounts of testimony given to the new South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, childhood memories that reach to the time of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, and images of machinery lifting statues of the old regime's leaders away from their pedestals.

from Robert Pinsky: The Washington Post: Poet's Choice

Seisen Is Dancing and The Cigarette Issue by Leonard Cohen

from The Guardian: Original poetry: Seisen Is Dancing and The Cigarette Issue by Leonard Cohen

Am I Getting Through to You?

By John Clifford

from Lawrence Journal-World: Poet's Showcase

Muhammad
by Mahmoud Darwish

from MR Zine: Mahmoud Darwish, "Muhammad"

Tonight
by Rowan Ricardo Phillips

from The New Republic: Poem: Tonight, a poem

by Peter Michie

Excuse Me

from Newpaper Tree: Poetry

Scanning the Century (excerpt)
[by Lawson Fusao Inada]

from The Oregonian: Poetry

The eighth season of the Hoot began with wonderful, stimulating poems by featured readers Askia Toure and Richard Cambridge, both talented poets and performers. During the open mic portion of the evening, Bill Burtis read this beautiful and intriguing love poem:

Trouble With the Moon

from Portsmouth Herald News: Spotlight Poems from the Hoot

"Space Needle"
for Stephen
By Kristin Fogdall

from Slate: "Space Needle" By Kristin Fogdall

First Ending of the Fairytale
Ilya Kaminsky

from Zeek: First Ending of the Fairytale

Poetic Obituaries

Fishing was one of his [Allan Chan's] passions. So were painting and writing poetry.

"He wrote about deep things, God and dreams," [Michele Chan] Rice said, adding that her father taught her how to be a good parent.

from The Tampa Tribune: Landscape Architect Was Also Poet

"There was no map for that. Lucille [DeView] was one of the people who drew the map."

In the Register newsroom Thursday, people remembered her for holding poetry readings at lunch time (in her days as a courtroom reporter, she read poetry in halls to avoid writing in the legal jargon she heard all day.)

from The Orange County Register: Leading the write life: Mentor leaves her touch

"First, get me out of there without delay," [Frank] Fagan wrote. "If they want to lay me open somewhere, don't you hang around;/there'll be a bellyful of stuff: alarm clocks, newspapers, silage, swill . . ./other things I was trying to hide."

from Times Union: Politics paid bills; poems fed his soul

Ann Roznovsky, community relations and marketing director at the Tribune-Herald, remembers Clara Fentress at the side of her husband as he involved himself with the politics of the state, even the nation, often in the company of such luminaries as Lyndon B. Johnson.

But Clara Fentress was creative and talented in her own right. She wrote poetry, publishing several books, and "tinkered" in the stock market to the point she became proficient at investing.

from The Waco Tribune-Herald: "The end of an era": Clara Fentress dead at 104

My smile grew and his eyes twinkled as he [Glenn Fleming] finished his recitation, and not long after that my dad brought home an autographed collection of Glenn's poems.

And that's how I learned about cowboy poetry.

from The Baker City Herald: Reporter needed a poet to know it

A year later, her [Anke Furber's] mother is still desperate for answers.

"The last year after my daughter was murdered was horrible," said Ria Coesel. "I've been in counseling. I'm still in counseling."

Cousel says her daughter dabbled in poetry and art.

from WXIA 11Alive.com: Clues Sought in Cold Murder Case

The house is quiet. I sit at the kitchen table alone and read the Daily News, and a few other papers, too, mostly to read the obits.

I drink my coffee alone, and miss seeing my wife's face on the other side of the table. For 68 years, the two of us went everywhere, and did everything together.

from Philadelphia Daily News: A meditation on life & death

"If I'd have seen her [Barbara George] in a club, I wouldn't have given her a second thought. But Jessie and Melvin (Lastie) convinced me to record her" (in June 1961).

"Barbara wrote 'I Know.' It was like a poem. She had a whole notebook full of poems at the time," [Harold] Battiste says.

from OffBeat Louisiana Music & Culture Magazine: Where is the Love?

We will always remember the silly songs and poems he had for every occasion.

Phil [Hiney] served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955.

He was a teacher and a coach at Rudyard High School and at Munising Mather High School in 1956. He was Superintendent of Silver Creek Elementary School in Harvey, MI. in 1960.

from The Mining Journal: Philip I. "Phil" Hiney

As part of his defiance against the subjugation of colonialism, [Mazisi] Kunene wrote his great works in Zulu, and not in English. Moreover, he argued publicly and in his writing for the importance of using African languages in the writing of poetry and literature as part of the struggle against white colonial suppression of African culture.

from Party for Socialism and Liberation: Mazisi Kunene: South Africa's poet laureate

A collage of photographs, clips from newspapers and her [Donna Robinson's] comments (fear, anger, rage, disbelief), these pieces hit to the heart. Curtis had driven past the Pentagon moments before that plane stabbed into it, and that struck home.

By the time I had circled the room I was, much to my surprise, sobbing.

from The Aspen Times: Not good-bye to Donna Robinson

[Frederic E. Wakeman Jr.'s] books include "Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937" (1995), which details the life and politics of China's largest urban center during the Nationalist rule of Chiang Kai-shek, and "Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service" (2004), about Chiang's head of intelligence in the 1930s and '40s.

His most respected work was "The Great Enterprise," which displayed technical prowess, particularly in his translations of classical poetry, and a novelist's sensibility.

from Los Angeles Times: Frederic E. Wakeman Jr., 68; Historian Was Expert on China

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