// i’d rather be reading hafiz; ‘we should make all spiritual talk simple today’ (http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780143037811-0)
Category: poetry
// just returned from the BMCM+AC poetry reading wordfest event… two hours until the next reading at jubilee…
// drunk on sufi poetry from the reading/performance by Thomas Rain Crowe & Coleman Barks… the hangover should be delicious…
// so when the asheville police showed up at the bobo gallery, i told j- d- ‘now this is what i call a poetry reading’ …
Do you read poetry?
“In 2002, 12% of adults read poetry. 2008 it’s 8.3%.” 1
NOTES:
1) The Chronicle of Higher Education, accessed April 23, 2009, https://www.chronicle.com/review/brainstorm/article/?id=1312&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en (page no longer available)
Poetry Reading:
Sebastian Matthews @ Flood Gallery Fine Art Center. Sunday, October 26th, 1:00PM, Asheville, NC.
Poetry Reading:
Katherine Soniat @ Flood Gallery Fine Art Center, Sunday, October 26th, 1:00PM, Asheville, NC
Poetry Reading:
Erin Victoria Wigger @ Flood Gallery Fine Art Center. Sunday, October 26th, 1:00PM, Asheville, NC.
Poetry reading:
Elizabeth Bradfield @ Flood Gallery Fine Art Center. Sunday, October 26th, 1:00PM, Asheville, NC.
// weird. fell asleep reading an ezra pound bio and woke up thinking i’m late for class.
// i didn’t know ezra pound had wisconsin connections… chippewa falls connections at that.
// poetry vrs. the american poetry review. this month the the american poetry review wins (due to the publication of wendell berry poems).
Two things poets should consider
With the market plunging, here’s two encouraging items to consider as a poet:
1) “The state’s jobless rate began the year at 4.9 percent and has steadily increased since then. It stood at 6.6 percent in July.” Link The unemployment rate in N.C. is presently 7 percent.
DO NOT try to make a living writing poetry. Keep your day job (and your night job, too).
2) In the Asheville area, almost $400,000 was donated to political campaigns.
NONE of that money was spent on your livelihood as a poet, buying your poetry books, or purchasing coffee and other goodies at your public poetry readings.
Poetry reading at Malaprops
Poetry reading at Malaprop’s Bookstore this Sunday, Oct. 19, 3 PM. The advance poetry class that I am attending will present their work with a public, free reading.
This marks my return to Malaprop’s. It has been over two years since I read my work in that place. A lot has happened in three years. I trust that will show when I read my new work.
Poets Teaching Poets, part 3
Last night, I submitted one of my poems for workshop. For those readers unfamiliar with what happens to a poem/poet during a “workshop” session, imagine a colonoscopy performed by pre-med students.
I could play the pained poet and claim that I am still recovering from the ordeal, but that’s not true because I’m still giggling.
Poets Teaching Poets, part 3
Last night, I submitted one of my poems for workshop. For those readers unfamiliar with what happens to a poem/poet during a “workshop” session, imagine a colonoscopy performed by pre-med students.
I could play the pained poet and claim that I am still recovering from the ordeal, but that’s not true because I’m still giggling.
Poetry, the highest form of art
Poetry, the highest form of art
“Imagine living in a society where poetry was considered to be the most important art form. Where a poet could easily fill a football stadium. Where a poet’s death was the top news story for days.” Link
This echoes the thought that Icelandic books is the most important in Europe.
Poets Teaching Poets, part 2
The advanced poetry class in which I am enrolled, began last night. Two of the four predictions I made regarding the class are right (the other two will be determined later):
1. 25 percent of the students are male
2. 16 percent of the students are under the age of 40
The first night of class was an amiable experience and it seems as if several of my classmates know each other from other writing classes. I’m bracing myself for an onslaught of confessional lyric poems about grandchildren or childhood or something along that line. A good gardening poem would be preferable, in my humble opinion.
One of the poetry books I am reviewing collects poems about the decline of the working class in America. It is a fantastic subject and book. Can’t wait to see what the editor thinks of my review. It’s that type of material I want to tackle in poetry; some subject that changes peoples life or at least causes a physical reaction. The editor of Main Street Rag once said that the poems he likes the most are ones that make him react physically; meaning he laughs or cusses or throws the book across the room. A few years ago, I witnessed someone shed a few tears after I read one of my poems. That’s the stuff I want to write (and hopefully publish); the stuff that creates a place for the reader to inhabit. The teacher told the class last night that the word “stanza” is Italian for “room.” If that is the only thing I learn from this class, it will be enough; the composition of inhabitable poems. Maybe that’s why I like today’s featured poem at Writer’s Almanac; I can get into its space.
“Literature in the 21st Century” by Ronald Wallace
Sometimes I wish I drank coffee
or smoked Marlboros, or maybe cigars—
yes, a hand-rolled Havana cigar
//read more
Poets Teaching Poets
This weekend I picked up a copy of Poets Teaching Poets at Malaprop’s. It is the only required book for the advanced poetry in which I am enrolled. I read the introduction and first few pages of the opening chapter on the bus ride back home. I hope the class is as engaging as this book.
The first class is Tuesday and I have a few predictions about the class:
- male students will be a minority
- students (regardless of gender) under 40 years of age will be a minority
- half (if not the majority) of the students will have had taught in an educational capacity at some time during their adult life (and now that they have retired want to write and publish poetry)
- the majority of the students will write in confessional lyric verse
This sounds a bit cynical, but I’ve taken a few classes like this in recent years and that tends to be the trend. I’ll share the results of these predictions later in the week.
An email from the class teacher arrived this afternoon as instructed all students to bring the following to class this week:
- one of your own poems
- and one of your favorite poems
Writing book reviews
The nice thing about writing reviews of poetry books is the ongoing education I am receiving by reading contemporary poetry.
Often I am mistaken as a student on the bus. Last week an older woman asked me if I was a student at UNCA. I told her no and that I was reading a book to write a review of it. Later that week, a man on the bus asked me if I was in college. Again, I told him no and that I was reading a book (a different book of poems (I read two books last week)) to wrote a review about it. He then began to tell me about a book he read that absolutely amazed him. It was a narrative nonfiction book about Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition. The conversation was amiable.
I came away thinking that must I look like a student. I suppose there are worse things to look like.
Why do I do it?
Write Anything (formerly Write Stuff) asks a good question: Why do you do it?
I’ve been asking myself that question a lot recently: Why do I have the desire to compose poems and write prose? A few weeks ago I applied for a writing class–which begins next week–and thought I must be insane. Why should I spend money on an advanced poetry writing class when most readers in America don’t even read poetry. I mean, really, why do I torture myself? Why can’t I have a hobby like a normal American? Something like model trains or comic book collecting or kayaking. But no… I’ve got to do the hard things and hone my craft in the dark art of poetry. I might was well learn to speak Latin or something equally useful. I couldn’t even bring myself to attend the poetry event at Malaprop’s today.
This week at Malaprop’s
Time: Friday, September 5, 2008 7:00 p.m.
Location: Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe
Title of Event: Jonathon Flaum-A Fable of Leadership
Local author and CEO of WriteMind Communications,Inc., Flaum will read from his new book, How the Red Wolf Found Its Howl: The Internal Journey to Leadership
Time: Sunday, September 7, 2008 3:00 p.m.
Location: Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe
Title of Event: Poetrio- 3 Readings by 3 Poets
Join us every first Sunday for Poetrio, poetry readings by three poets. This month’s featured poets are Scott Owens, author of The Fractured World, Beverly Jackson, author of Every Burning Thing, and Pat Riviere-Seel, author of No Turning Back Now (New Women’s Voices Series, No. 30)
Poetry Class: What’s your all time favorite poems
The teacher of the poetry class I am enrolled in asked the class what are our all time favorite poems. I was surprised my my selections.
As I child I remember listening to my grandfather reciting an excerpt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” (Part I, Chapter 3). So, I chose that as an all time favorite.
In school, I memorized several poems that have become my favorites as well. They include:
- Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”
- Rudyard Kipling’s “If”
- Edward Rowland Sill’s “Opportunity”
- Thomas Hood’s “I Remember, I Remember”
Other poems I’ve found along the way include:
- Carl Sandburg’s “Grass”
- Sergeant Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees”
- W.B. Yeats’ “The Lake Isle Of Innisfree”
- Robert Pinksy’s “Samurai Song”
The list I sent to the class instructor is not final nor reflective of poets who have influenced me. I tend to enjoy a complete work rather than an individual poem. If I was asked what three books of poetry have influenced my own work, it would be more representative of the direction my poetic work is moving. Still, it is interesting to learn which individual poems became the foundation of my journey into poetry.
Coffeehouse Junkie 