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Reinventing the Life of a Poet in the Modern World

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Poetry Postcards

December 8, 2013 / / 0 Comments

PaigeI recently started going through all my boxes of junk in order to prepare for a garage sale and pare down. I found in a box of stationary some postcards I had collected when I lived in New York and in Los Angeles.

One is a postcard similar to the image on the left, a card I bought at the gorgeous and amazing Mark Twain House in Concord, Connecticut. Growing up in St. Louis, I have my own prejudices and partialities toward Mark Twain, but this museum in Concord is hands down my favorite writer's house. The postcard depicts the Paige Compositor, the prototype of the typewriter that Twain sunk all his money into. Although Twain wasn't a poet outright, this machine is a piece of poetic history in its own way.

Ph2I also found a postcard for The Poet's House in New York City back when it was located on Spring Street. The postcard was meant to remind me to visit the place and I never did. I'm keeping the postcard to remind me to visit them at their new location on River Terrace the next time I visit NYC.  Be sure to stop by the next time you are a poetry tourist in the Big Apple.

  

I also found a postcard that was created in Los Angeles as a plea to then-Governor Gray Davis in an effort to express support for public arts funding and the naming of a new California poet laureate. The postcard was produced by Poets & Writers Magazine with the motto that "Arts are the Soul of California" and the picture side simply containing this quote:

"You will find poetry nowhere
unless you bring some of it
with you."

— Joseph Jourbert

I used to keep this postcard on my fridge. Now I feel a bit blasé about it. Sometimes you find poetry already there, unexpected, sometimes even unwanted.

 

A Book About Women in Language Poetry

November 21, 2013 / / 0 Comments

41Lu7o9KqXL._SS500_Recently finished  American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language edited by Rankine and Spahr. And although the title is meaningless and uncreative (typical language poetry like), the book was an interesting but difficult study of 10 female language poets and their relationship, sometime antagonistic or conflicted relationship, to lyric poetry. Each section includes sample poems by the poet, their artistic statement (such as they believe in that…some did more than others) and a long essay explicating their work and contributions to poetic thought. The poets included are:

  • Rae Armantrout *
  • Mei-Mei Breissenbrugge
  • Lucie Brock-Broido
  • Jorie Graham
  • Barbara Guest *
  • Lyn Hejinian *
  • Brenda Hillman
  • Susan Howe *
  • Ann Lauterback
  • Harryette Mullen

The essays deal with (mind) turns in poems, using space, associations, broken questions, mind failings, betweeness, abstractions, shifting syntax, fragmentation and the fallacies of reason, the typical things language poets grapple with.

The poets with asterisks are ones that were included in a recent MOOC (massive online open course) I participated in this fall, Modern & Contemporary American Poetry. I almost wish I had waited to read the book until after I had taken the course. I don't think I would have found it as slow-going. The MOOC discusses many of these topics but in a way more succinct and user-friendly way.

MullenHowever, even without the class, my favorite sections were those on Jorie Graham who is more conflicted than dismissive of the lyric and Harryette Mullen who covers language poetry from a perspective of race and privileged literacies and whose poems felt the most young, modern and pop-culture inclusive.

 

Finished My First MOOC

November 21, 2013 / / 0 Comments

MoocFor that last 10 weeks I've been taking my first MOOC, massive open online course on Modern American Poetry taught through the University of Pennsylvania by Al Filreis. The course starts with Whitman and Dickinson and moves through modernists like Williams, Stein and Pound, Communists poets, Harlem Renaissance poets, anti-modernists, the Beats, the New York School, language poets and conceptual poetries.

There were a few amazing things about this class:

  • It was haaard: difficult, experimental poems, hours of lectures, four challenging essay assignments. I loved every minute of it but it was very time consuming.
  • It was huuuuge. Thirty-five to forty thousand people participated in the 2013 fall class including novices, masters students, and professors, people from all around the world.
  • The course utilized the online tools of coursera.org very effectively. In fact, the poetry MOOC is the most popular mooc of all the scholarly topics they surmise because it manages to energize students with/despite its online tools.
  • It was an ivy-league quality class offered for FREE!

I've been working this past year to get my head around more experimental and difficult poetries. Al Fin-ale-c06442-dFilreis took us through his version of the American poetry lineage and I actually really enjoyed almost everything we covered. Al is an open, friendly and challenging but cheerful teacher to take you through the world of mind-bending  conceptual and meta poetries. This is his bag for the most part. If this isn't your bag,  if you think poetry is the language of the Gods and the voice of humanity (which it can be but doesn't have to be all the time), please don't bother with this class. You'll only be a buzz-kill to about 34,900 people.

I didn't agree with everything he said, myself, and I hated the confusing way his online quizzes were worded, but his enthusiasm and help was invaluable and I came out of the class with poets to investigate further, including Whitman and Frank O'Hara who I've already read before and Susan Howe (I bought her My Emily Dickinson). The most mind-blowing piece we discussed was the final poem, Tracie Morris' performance piece Afrika(n) which was a mash-up commentary on pop culture, racial history and computer technology…all in one sentence!

Anyway, my take-aways from the class also included the following amazing things:

RrrOur last essay was about conceptual Mesostic poetries and we were tasked with doing our own. Here is where my Cher and poetry blogs converge. I did a Sonny & Cher mesostic with song lyrics.  Here's my post on Cher Scholar: I Found Some Blog about it: http://cherscholar.typepad.com/i_found_some_blog/2013/11/sonny-cher-mesostic.html.

  

Affirmations for Poets

November 9, 2013 / / 0 Comments

StuartYears ago a friend of my gave me a book called The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo. We were going to read it together but we never did. I'm about 50 pages in now and each little section begins with an affirmation, many in verse. As I read the book, I'm compelled to share.

Here are the first few:

"The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some new thing; it is a long and painful return to what has always been." — Helen Luke

"What we reach for may be different, but what makes us reach is the same." — Mark Nepo

"I learn, by going, where I have to go." — Theodore Roehke

"The greedy one gathered all the cherries, while the simple one tasted all the cherries in one." M.N.

"We tend to make the thing in the way the way." M.N.

"The glassblower knows: while in the heat of beginning, any shape is possible. Once hardened, the only way to change is to break." M.N.

"If I had experienced different things, I would have different things to say." M. N.

 

A Book About the 99 Percent

November 9, 2013 / / 0 Comments

SwearI recently purchased a book by the Albuquerque Poet Laureate and slam poet champion, Hakim Bellamy.

Swear is divided into three parts: the first section contains political poems about the Occupy New Mexico/Occupy Wallstreet movement; the second section contains more general political poems; and the third section deals with Hip Hop and more personal poems. I particularly liked "Jamesetta" about Etta James and "Immortal Technique," a great poem about race.

Hakim also touches on issues in New Mexcio, the struggles of Genearation Y, the education system that fails poor kids. There's intimate heartache in his poems about poverty.

I have a degree
in sociology
and survival
and only one
is coming in handy.

Bellamy is great with a calm, angry diatribe and his poems have forceful endings. And is as much a comment on America as  "McDonald's apple pies."

 

Stuff in the Mail: Science Fiction Poetry Association

November 9, 2013 / / 0 Comments

SlReceived my latest journals of science fiction poetry, Star*Line and Dwarf Stars. I have enjoyed my membership in the Science Fiction Poetry Association and will renew soon.

Denise Dumars talks about Eliza Griswold's Afghan Women poetry piece that was recently featured in The Poetry Foundation podcast and the June 2013 issue of Poetry magazine.

Speaking of Poetry magazine, I back-ordered the February 2013 issue for
Poetrymag its feature on Joan Mitchell. I always enjoy my individual copies of this infamous journal but I've never been able to bring myself to purchase a subscription. I'm not sure why that is. Do I associate this journal too much with being the gatekeeper of the canon? APR is kind of a gatekeeper too and yet I subscribe to that. 

But there I'm swayed by APR's on-the-ground style newspaper format. I'm so transparent. Anyway, I really enjoyed Poetry's notebook commentary by W.S. Di Piero.

 

It’s Full of Brains! Poetry is Good Zombie Food!

October 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments

RavenHappy Halloween!

Be sure to check out my Top 10 Ways Kids Today Can Use Poetry: Halloween Edition from last year.
Poets.org has a page of make-your-own Poet costumes for Halloween: The William Carlos Williams costume idea comes complete with a bowl of plums and a red wheelbarrow full of candy.

See? Even poets can be fun! Who knew.

Here are a few Halloween poems for you:

The Little Ghost

I knew her for a little ghost
That in my garden walked;
The wall is high—higher than most—
And the green gate was locked.

And yet I did not think of that
Till after she was gone—
I knew her by the broad white hat,
All ruffled, she had on.

By the dear ruffles round her feet,
By her small hands that hung
In their lace mitts, austere and sweet,
Her gown's white folds among.

I watched to see if she would stay,
What she would do—and oh!
She looked as if she liked the way
I let my garden grow!

She bent above my favourite mint
With conscious garden grace,
She smiled and smiled—there was no hint
Of sadness in her face.

She held her gown on either side
To let her slippers show,
And up the walk she went with pride,
The way great ladies go.

And where the wall is built in new
And is of ivy bare
She paused—then opened and passed through
A gate that once was there.

–Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

Each night Father fills me with dread
When he sits at the foot of my bed;
I'd not mind that he speaks
In gibbers and squeaks,
But for seventeen years he's been dead.

–Edward Gorey

If you want to read a great long-form ghost poem, I recommend Albert Goldbarth's "The Two Domains" from his book The Beyond.

I love ghost poems…send me yours!

 

Subtext by Charles Baxter

October 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments

SubtextSubtext, Beyond Plot by Charles Baxter was my second selection from Graywolf's The Art of Series. And I loved it.

Although ostensibly the book is more geared for novelists (and I was using it for instruction on my first novel), there is so much pertinent food for thought for all writers here. This will definitely go into my list of best reads on writing. How many poems, short stories and novels fall flat due to…well, their flatness? Writing guides have talked around this issue forever but Baxter finally takes it on: subtext–not only why it's important but, more interestingly, how you can get it into your work.

This small book is divided into 7 sections:

 

1. A short introduction about why subtext matters.

2.  Staging  to give external clues to inner lives; dialogue and why not to say what you're trying to say.

3. Subterranean desires and focusing agents.

4. Aspects of denial and selective attention.

5. Inflection and tonality.

6. The problem of conflict avoidance.

7. The art of describing the face.

Aside from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, this book has really helped me conceptualize certain aspects of attacking a novel that have tended to frighten me. I also think there is much to learn here for poets: discussions of tonality and focusing agents, particularly, and what we pay attention to,  what we tend to avoid writing about just as much as what we choose to write about.

 

Stuff in the Mail: Totes, Journals, Funnies

October 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments


WhitmanWalt Whitman Tote

Did Walt Whitman think one day he's be the inspiration for so many tote bags? What would he make of it if he had known?

I re-subscribed to the Academy of American Poets (mostly for their journal) but since then, I've received three more letters from them (September 19, October 4 and October 11). One is asking me to renew (this must have gone out before I renewed online), one thanking me for renewing, and one offering me a "small commemorative Walt Whitman canvas tote" for an additional $35. I was highly interested in this tote and now have one. I went online today to see if I could find a picture of it (so I wouldn't have to take one) and I found a quite amazing bouty of Walt Whitman tote bags which have been created for some purpose or other.

I guess the idea of a tote bag and Walt Whitman go together like ramma lamma lamma, ka dinga da dinga dong. View the plethora of Walt Whitman totes out there in the world!

The Poetry Society also sent me a post card (Poetry, I too, write it.) letting me know that I can enter their annual contest for free because I'm a member. But I don't think I'm still a member.

Journals

PlFor my birthday I asked for a one-year subscription to Poetry London, four issues a year. My parents ended up getting me a two-year subscription (which was a bit pricey considering the trans-atlantic mailing costs). I haven't yet made up my mind about this journal. Maybe after 8 issues I will.

This Autumn issue to the left sat on our coffee table for two weeks while I was reading it. My husband, Monsieur Big Bang, kindly asked me to remove it a few days ago because he was tired of looking at that poet's bemused mug.

In the two issues I have, about 22 pages are devoted to poems and the last 30 pages are devoted to a huge amount of book reviews sprinkled with an interview or two.

I really enjoy the international selection of writers (which is why I also like Scottish Poetry Library newsletter), and I admire how many book reviews this journal tackles, including published "pamphlets." Since there are so many, they could be shorter but then again I admire the journal for giving new books so much space and attention (and organized in small  thematic groups) and I do find I learn new perspectives from these longer reviews. The poems are varied in style (from forms to experimentals) although I tend to like American Poetry Reviews varied selection better for some reason. What I'm not sure I like is the journal format. It's a huge journal and both the cover and inside paper are very thick. One thing that most irks me about AWP's The Chronicle magazine is their use of wide margins between unjustified column text. Reading that magazine is headache inducing. But Poetry London gets the multiple-column, unjustified text layout just right, thankfully.

The autumn issue has a good opening essay about risk taking, some poems I liked by Timothy Donnelly, Crissy Williams, Penelopy Shuttle, David Lehman, Jason Schneiderman, Nuar Alsadir, and Greg Delanty, an interview with Glyn Maxwell. The Autumn issue has poems I liked from Christopher Middleton and Mathew Dickman and an interview with Daljit Nagra on his recent reinterpretation of the Ramayana.

Email Funnies

Graphic
My fiction-writing friend Julie also emailed me this very funny link to 30 Awkward Moments From Your Creative Writing MFA from BuzzFeed. The list was all very true and funny, but I absolutely loved the re-creation of the rejection letter: Charlie Bucket opening his golden ticket that says, "HA! REJECTED  GO FUCK YOURSELF Thanks for the App Money $" There's a version two of this graphic later on that is just as funny.

I also loved the puppy dog pic attached to "When feted, laureled, Pulitzer-anointed visiting authors tell you
that publication’s not important, and you should write as if no one’s
reading." If you're part of the Creative Writing MFA army, definitely check it out.

 

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