Month: January 2008

Maurice Manning’s poetry lecture…

…was ARGH-sum!

I arrived at Warren Wilson College’s Fellowship Hall a few minutes early and waited for the earlier session to conclude. First one out the door was none other than Steve Orlen. I wonder if he read my prediction? More interesting, how did he make it from the front row of a packed hall to be the first one out into the bright, cold morning? He looked at me fidgeting with my gloves. As he fished a cigarette out of its package he told me I should put the gloves away and get in there so I won’t miss the lecture. I smiled, said thanks and headed into the bustling hall.

I’ll provide highlights from Maurice Manning’s poetry lecture later. Gotta get my mind back into work mode. Just discovered that after two rounds of proofreading the word “foreword” was misspelled on a manuscript that is en route to the printer. ARGH. So much for quality control. Then again, I’ve been looking at this manuscript for months and it wouldn’t surprise me if the author’s name is misprinted.

Did any of ya’ll out there make it to Maurice’s lecture?

Warren Wilson College poetry lecture — free to the public

Anyone planning to attend the MAURICE MANNING lecture this morning? Here’s the lecture description from Warren Wilson College:

In 1771, Henry Mackenzie, a Scotsman, published a short satiric novel called The Man of Feeling. Literary historians tell us this novel—driven by the political philosophies of fellow Scots like Adam Smith and David Hume—helped to establish sympathy as a social virtue. Sympathy means “to suffer together”; more simply, I think it can also mean “to share feeling,” certainly one of the things we create as poets and seek as readers. In this lecture, I’d like to parse out an agreeable understanding of sympathy, briefly trace its history as a kind of ethical aesthetic in poetry, and discuss its continuing significance. I’d also like to demonstrate how English language syntax necessarily places phrases and clauses in sympathetic relation to each other. Finally, I think the poetic line itself is a sympathetic locale; such a proposition will turn the discussion to poetic devices such as tone, diction, alliteration, meter, and our old friend, metaphor. In a handout I’ll provide an example of a very bad poem, a poem from Robert Burns, one from Coleridge, and a couple of contemporary gems.

The lecture will be held in the Fellowship Hall, behind the Chapel, at 11:15 this morning. Hope to see you there.

Poetry blogosphere rawk star

Holy Shoot! About.com’s poetry blog listed and linked to my list of 7 things you should know about being a poet.

Crazy, right? Does this make me a poetry blogosphere rawk star? No. It means I spend way too much time blogging when I should be working… er… writing… like poetry or something.

Okay, so, About.com visitors, thanks for visiting. If you want to actually read schtuff that was published (poems, essays, etc.) follow this link. To read a weekly column I used to write go here.