POETS ONLINE - the blog

Poems Ripe To The Point Of Obscenity

2010-01-03T17:30:00.001-05:00

There are currently 180 writing prompts on the Poets Online main site. I counted them and surprised myself. I have been doing the site since 1998, and we were once more ambitious in our prompts - offering two a month.

I believe that almost all of those prompts were inspired by reading a poem. But, our January prompt was inspired by lunch.

One cold day last week, in a post-holidays, end-of-year mood, my wife started cleaning out "expired" items from our kitchen shelves. This led to a purging of the fruit in the baskets. She produced a rather large plate of apples, pears, bananas and a peach that she claimed were "ripe to the point of obscenity." They exuded a heady aroma that was enticing and just at the edge of revulsion.

The sense of smell can be a powerful trigger to the other senses and memory.

This month our prompt is amazingly simple: write about fruit. If that sound too simple, consider how some other poets have approached the subject.

I paged through a few anthologies looking at titles and did a quick online search and there are plenty of poems to choose from that use fruit.

I selected two poems this month that share that subject in a similar way.

"Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm" by Carl Phillips begins with damselflies hovering over the "blond stillness" of fallen peaches. And, in "Fallen Apples" by Tom Hansen, there are wasps in the apples.

Both poets chose fruit that was rotting and fallen, not picked. Neither poet can resist using "flesh" to describe the fruit - a cliche that still fits and explains why fruit often has an erotic place in poetry.

For Hansen, the apples are both "food of the gods" and a "mushy corpse." When he lifts the fruit, the wasps are a "congregation" that falls "into the cupped bowl of my hand." (If we were in the classroom, this might be the time for someone to bring up another famous piece of fruit and a Fall... but not here.)

Both poems move into another place in their second sections. I particularly like how the drunk-on-fruit and night-chilled wasps move "like sleepwalkers feeling around for the light" before they "fall into flight."

One poem I came across that I have always liked is the small "White Apples" by Donald Hall. It's not really about apples at all. It's a poem that both frightens me and makes me hopeful. It has the taste of a sweet white apple and the taste of stone.

when my father had been dead a week
I woke
with his voice in my ear
I sat up in bed
and held my breath
and stared at the pale closed door

white apples and the taste of stone

if he called again
I would put on my coat and galoshes

Here are some other poems - prompted, perhaps, by fruit.

"Forbidden Fruit" by Michael Lally
"Couple Sharing a Peach" by Molly Peacock
"The Pear" by Chad Davidson

Sacred Places and Winter Haiku Deadline

2010-01-01T03:00:00.018-05:00

Our two current writing prompts on "Sacred Places" and "Winter Haiku" will have submission deadlines of January 3, 2010.

We hope to see your submissions to these prompts.

Get details on the prompts here on the blog and, as always, on our current prompt page on the main site at poetsonline.org/prompt.html along with how to submit and our extensive archives of past poems and prompts.

Happy New Year!

Invictus

2009-12-31T19:43:00.001-05:00

I'm happy for any attention that the media can bring to poetry. The new film, Invictus, gets its title from a poem that inspired Nelson Mandela.

"Invictus" is a poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley. It was a poem that gave strength and courage to Mandela while he was incarcerated.

Henley, at the age of 12, was a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. The tuberculosis attacked his foot and caused his leg to be amputated below the knee. He was told by his physician that amputating the leg was the only way to save his life. While hospitalized, he wrote "Invictus." He lived nearly 30 years after his release from the hospital.

...It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation by John Carlin

Try A Triolet

2009-12-11T15:00:00.001-05:00

We did a triolet prompt back in 1999 on Poets Online using that 8-line form.

Diane Lockward posted recently about a little contest for triolets at Allison Joseph's blog, The Rondeau Roundup. That's a blog that is self-described as being for "the exploration, appreciation and publication of the rondeau, rondel, roundel, rondeau redouble, rondolet, triolet, and ballade."

Want to give it a try? Look at our earlier prompt, Diane's post and Allison's contest.

Winter Haiku

2009-12-05T17:30:00.002-05:00

Because Poets Online fell a bit behind last month, we are offering a second prompt this month.

Quite simply, write one or more winter, year-end haiku.

Traditionally, haiku (in English) have 3 lines: first line, 5 syllables, second line, 7 syllables third line, 5 syllables.

In Japanese, haiku also has three parts, but can be written as one line. And instead of counting syllables, the Japanese count sounds.

Haiku is required to suggest a single season. It might be directly, by using a word like snow or ice for winter, or indirectly, by tone or imagery. In our English translations, many times the season word is actually used, but it would probably not appear in the original.

Deadline for haiku submissions is January 3.

3 haiku by Basho

The sea darkens.
The voices of the wild ducks
turn white.

Winter seclusion:
once again I lean
against this post.

Grasshopper— you
be the cemetery watcher
after I die.

Winter haiku by Issa

The older we get,
the more easily tears come
on a long day.

The winter sun-
on the horse's back
my frozen shadow.

Awake at night,
the lamp low,
the oil freezing.

First winter rain-
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.

When the winter chrysanthemums go,
there's nothing to write about
but radishes.

First snow
falling
on the half-finished bridge.

The winter storm
hid in the bamboo grove
and quieted away.

T.S. Eliot Reading "The Waste Land"

2009-12-04T15:47:00.020-05:00

T.S. Eliot reading "The Waste Land." Nothing much visually, but interesting to hear the poet reading.

It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century."

The title alludes to the wounding of the Fisher King and the subsequent sterility of his lands.

Poetry Submissions

2009-11-29T10:00:00.002-05:00

Submit your poem written to the current Poets Online writing prompt.

Submissions information at http://poetsonline.org/submit.html

Sacred Places With Stephen Dunn

2009-11-22T20:45:00.002-05:00

I chose this month's poem for our prompt from a collection of Stephen Dunn's poetry because I like what he is doing with that word sacred.

If you look up "sacred" in the dictionary, the etymology is Middle English, from sacren, meaning to consecrate, from Anglo-French sacrer, and ultimately from Latin sancire, to make sacred. Definitions will include: dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; worthy of religious veneration; holy and entitled to reverence and respect.

But that's not what is happening in the classroom of Dunn's poem "The Sacred."

I also like that the poem is set in a classroom where I have spent so many years, and inside a lesson that I probably have taught.

The teacher asks a serious and probably too personal personal question. Does he expect an honest answer? Maybe. Maybe not. But he gets ones from the most serious student.

At first, you might think his sacred place - his car - is a joke answer, but he defends his choice well. So well, that the other students feel safe enough to talk about their own sacred places.

Do you have a sacred place or did you have one as a child? That is the current prompt for Poets Online.

Laughing At Poetry

2009-11-22T18:17:00.000-05:00

Take a listen to these three poems read by Billy Collins at a Dodge Poetry Festival.

Collins is much loved, and equally criticized, because his poems are accessible - even enjoyable.

These three are not so typical of that.

I particularly like the idea behind "The First Night" which was inspired by this line by Juan Ramón Jiménez: "The worst thing about death must be the first night."

I can sense the audience wondering if Collins means to be funny with some lines.

I used a few of his poems in a class last week. Students read "The Lanyard" silently first. I heard no laughter. Then I read it - pretty seriously - aloud. I didn't notice any chuckles from the crowd. Then I played an audio file of him reading it with an audience who laughed throughout the poem. The class wasn't rolling in the aisles, but they did laugh, smile and do that little exhalation of breath that shows they "got it."

Did they need permission to laugh? Was the laughter contagious? (Watch a comedy in a full theater and alone in your house for comparison.) Don't they know that poems can be funny?

Next we listened to him read "The Revenant" - a poem in the voice of a dog who was put to sleep to its owner. The laughs came much easier.

I asked them if they thought this poem was like most other poems - "You know, if the poet says it's a dog, it's probably not a dog. What would this poem be saying if he's talking about people?"

A nice discussion followed. One student said it was similar to what happens in class: "You don't really know us. We don't really know you. We behave the way we are supposed to behave in class, not the way we really want to behave."

"We are all good dogs," I said.

"You got it," he replied.

Want To Buy A Pushcart Prize Nomination?

2009-11-11T23:51:00.002-05:00

I came across a blog post at http://htmlgiant.com that details how No Colony ("a collaborative perfect-bound print fiction journal from the editors of NO POSIT & LAMINATION COLONY.") says it will give automatic publication in the magazine and a Pushcart nomination to whomever pays a $650 fee to them. PayPal link included on their site.

It makes you wonder about the nomination process for a Pushcart Prize if this can actually occur.

Which part is legitimate? Internet scam? Poetry scam? All of the above?

Do women write "female" poetry?

2009-11-10T10:29:00.004-05:00

I didn't ask the question. It was posted by Jo Shapcott today on guardian.co.uk.

A related question has been knocking around in my head for the past few weeks: "Do women genuinely write different poems from men and, if so, what could be said to characterise the 'female' poem?" The occasion which prompted the question happened yesterday, when the Aldeburgh poetry festival and the Poetry Society combined to host an event called The Female Poem, which I chaired, and which boasted a distinguished panel of writers: Maureen Duffy, Annie Freud and Pascal Petit. It was so popular that it sold out in minutes and had to be moved to a larger hall, which suggests the subject is urgent – and not just to women; our audience was mixed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/nov/09/do-women-write-female-poetry

What's your answer to that question?

Poetry - What Sells?

2009-10-30T02:04:00.002-04:00

I clicked a link today to the Poetry Bestsellers on Amazon.com and was surprised by the results (which change every hour).

Surprise #1: A lot of Kindle versions of classics including books like the King James Bible and The Iliad.

The Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies was there, along with the Fagles translation of The Odyssey and the movie tie-in Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne.

Surprise #2: I had to go to #33 to find a book of real contemporary poetry - Evidence by Mary Oliver.

17th Annual Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway in Cape May

2009-10-26T09:45:00.001-04:00

It's hard to believe that Peter Murphy has been doing this for 17 years. Not your typical writers' conference.

The 17th Annual Winter POETRY & PROSE GETAWAY in Cape May is right on the on the oceanfront in Historic Cape May, New Jersey with special guests MARK DOTY & STEPHEN DUNN on January 15-18, 2010 (MLK weekend).

Workshops include:

Poetry Writing for Beginners
Advanced Poetry Writing
Poetry Manuscript Workshop
Poetry Chapbook Workshop New this year!
Writing and Publishing New Fiction New this year!
Revising a Short Story Toward Publication
Finishing Your Novel
Writing for the Children's Market
The Art & Craft of Creative Nonfiction
To the Point: Short Creative Nonfiction New this year!
Turning Memory into Memoir
Reimagining Memoir New this year!
Song Writing

Special Guests Mark Doty's Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. His seven other books of poems have been honored by the National Book Critics Circle Award, the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and other awards. He's also the author of four books of nonfiction prose, most recently Dog Years, a New York Times bestseller, which won the Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award from the American Library Association.

He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

He has taught at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Cornell, Columbia, New York University, and the University of Houston and in 2009 he joined the faculty of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Mark will lead two special Advanced Poetry Writing sessions at the Getaway.

markdoty.blogspot.com

www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/91

Stephen Dunn has published fifteen volumes of poetry, including Different Hours, which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and the recently released What Goes On, Selected & New Poems: 1995-2009 (Norton, 2009).

He has received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine, an Academy Award in Literature from The American Academy of Arts & Letters, as well as Fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, three NEA Creative Writing Fellowships, a Distinguished Artist Fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Theodore Roethke Prize from Poetry Northwest, the James Wright Prize from Mid-American Review and many others.

A new and expanded edition of his book of essays, Walking Light, was published in 2001.

He is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, but spends most of his time these days in Frostburg, Maryland with his wife, the writer Barbara Hurd.

Stephen will lead two special Advanced Poetry Writing sessions at the Getaway.

www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/386

www.yaddo.org/yaddo/StephenDunn.shtml

Cost: $385 Tuition (Held at last year's rate!) Room packages begin at $250 (includes most meals & 3 nights)
Contact: 888-887-2105 / info@wintergetaway.com

For workshop descriptions, faculty bios, registration information and to learn about our other programs in New Hampshire and Wales , check out the website at
www.wintergetaway.com

Salting the Ocean

2009-10-21T11:27:00.001-04:00

"How should we use poetry?" people sometimes ask poet Naomi Shihab Nye.

She responds, "Read it! Share it with one another! Find poems that make you resonate. Different poems will do this for every person. We 'use poetry' to restore us to feeling, revitalize our own speech, awaken empathy."

Over the past 25 years Nye has "used poetry" in classroom workshops in schools all over the country. In this lush, amusing, and touching anthology, Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets, she gathers 100 poems and divides them into four groupings: "My Shadow Is an Ant's Night" (poems about the self and the inner world), "Think How Many Stories Are in Your Shirt" (about where we live), "My Grandma Squashes Roaches with Her Hand" (about family), and "Silence Is Like a Tractor Moving the Whole World" (about the imagination). Students in grades 1 through 12 are represented in this anthology, brilliantly illustrated by the talented Coretta Scott King Honor recipient Ashley Bryan.

These young poets have mostly grown up, now, to become dentists and actors and construction workers, but the purity of their work lives on.

from an Amazon.com Review by Emilie Coulter

Sample poem:

"One" by Butch McElroy

We had a
'Most commonly misspelled word'
Spelling test
Yesterday in English,
Fourth Period.
I commonly misspelled them all.
Except one.
Loneliness
Was the only one I got right.

New Century Poetics and Poets Online

2009-10-20T09:30:00.007-04:00

Today is the New Century Poetics: A Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College of New Jersey.

I am presenting in a session on "Resources and Publication Options" along with Peter Murphy, poetry organizer and poet; Melissa Hotchkiss, co-editor of Barrow Street, teacher, poet; Suzanne Parker, Brookdale Community College teacher & poet; Mark Tursi, editor of Double Room, publisher of Apostrophe Books.

My own focus today is on publishing online and online poetry resources. The OnlineColleges.net website listed 100 poetry links, but that's a bit much. Here are a few in different categories - not meant be be exhaustive.

POETS ONLINE also has a frequently updated links page with links on classic and contemporary poetry, publishers, poets, workshops, readings, festivals, and books for poets.

There is certainly a lot of poetry to read online. Here are a few sites that offer primarily classic poems:

Bartleby one of the largest free collections on the web.
Poem Hunter poetry search engine
Famous Poets and Poems
Net Poets
The Poetry Archive recorded poetry.

and some that offer more contemporary poetry links.

Favorite Poem Project: Started by former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky
Poetry Daily new poem each day.
Poets.org from the Academy of American Poets - good search tools
Contemporary American Poetry Archive archive for out-of-print volumes of poetry

There are sites on writing poetry, but I find this to be the most disappointing category. That's not surprising because it's tough enough helping people write poetry in face-to-face sessions. Also, amny writing workshops that are online have a fee. Of course, I must recommend our site which always has a current writing prompt, and one other interesting site - Poetic Asides.

You might actually find more writing help by connecting to a group or network online.

Writers’ Network new and experienced writers
YouTube: plenty of established and very unestablished poets have their readings posted online.
Writing and Editing Network international network of college professors helping writers edit their work.
Lowell (MA) Poetry Network there's probably a group near you, though most online groups have no borders
Creative Writing and poetry groups are always popping up on Ning and other social networks that offer groups free space
Poetry Dances @ Ning
Poetry Critique @ Ning
North Carolina Writers’ Network (even if you don’t live in NC)

Fast tips and links can come through your Twitter feeds if you follow:

Coffee Table Poet: Daily links and writing tips.
Poetry The Internet Writing Journal.
PENAmerican: An association of authors working to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship.
Poetry Magazine: Follow the Tweets of this great publication.
Poets & Writers: A source of information, support, and guidance for creative writers and poets.

And there are lots of poets talking about poetry, posting poems or just sharing their writing life through BLOGS.

Mark Doty's blog is an easy one to recommend today. I'm guessing that most poets blogging are in the "less-published" category, because it's a great way to get your work to an audience. Mark's blog is interesting to me because it's not really about poetry (though poetry comes in and out of it).

Chicks Dig Poetry

Poetry Instigator - prompts and a forum with a connection to George Mason University.,/li.
One Poet’s Notes by Edward Byrne
NJ poet, Diane Lockward, writes Blogalicious which has poetry and lots of useful links - like this post about publishers that accept online submissions.
Dana Gioia has a site that is more site and less blog
Laura Shovan's blog, Author Amok, focuses on poetry for children and includes many prompts.
The Best American Poetry David Lehman and crew from the book series

It is pretty much required that if you publish poetry, you have a poetry site. Some of these are print and some are online-only publications.

Poetry Foundation from the publishers of Poetry magazine
Zyzzyva West Coast writing
web del sol collects a number of publications
Spindle: Spindle is an online literary magazine with a twist, featuring creative non-fiction, poetry and short fiction by, for and about New Yorkers.
Fourteen Hills: The San Francisco State University literary review.

One of the great things about the Net is that the entry is so gentle that small groups and niche audiences can have a great space online. One example is Disability Writes which is an online forum for disabled writers.

Poetry Contest Deadlines

2009-10-18T03:53:00.002-04:00

Here are some opportunities to mail that poem, chapbook or full-length collection before the end of the year.

The Hollis Summers Poetry Prize from Ohio University Press and Swallow Press (postmark deadline October 31)

The Ledge Poetry Chapbook Competition (postmark deadline October 31)

Miller Williams Poetry Prize from University of Arkansas Press (postmark deadline October 31)

The T.S. Eliot Prize from Truman State University Press (postmark deadline October 31)

Bakeless Literary Prize in Poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference (postmark deadline November 1)

CBC Literary Awards for Canadian citizens and residents (postmark deadline November 1)

Donald Justice Poetry Prize from West Chester University (postmark deadline November 1)

Perugia Press Prize for a first or second book by a woman (postmark deadline November 15)

Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award (postmark deadline November 15)

Yale Series of Younger Poets Award (postmark deadline November 15

Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards (postmark deadline November 16)

Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition (postmark/online entry deadline November 29)

A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize from BOA Editions, Ltd. (postmark deadline November 30)

Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Competition (postmark deadline November 30)

The Motherwell Prize from Fence Books (postmark deadline November 30)

The Plough Prize Poetry Competition (postmark/email deadline November 30)

The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize from Waywiser Press (postmark deadline December 1)

Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books (postmark deadline December 1)

Writing Your Way Home - A Poetry Intensive Weekend

2009-10-15T19:51:00.000-04:00

WRITING YOUR WAY HOME
a poetry weekend intensive
at an English manor house
in Mendham, New Jersey

Join poets Laura Boss and Maria Mazzioti Gillan on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, December 11, 12, and 13, 2009. The purpose of this retreat is to give writers the space and time to focus totally on their own work in a serene and beautiful setting away from the pressures and distractions of daily life.

This writing intensive is open to all writers over the age of 18.

Saint Marguerite’s Retreat House is situated on 93 acres of wooded land with pathways that lend themselves to the serene contemplation of nature and nurturing of your creative spirit. Located at the convent of Saint John the Baptist, 82 West Main Street, Mendham, NJ.

Participants arrive before 6 PM on Friday evening, have dinner, settle into their rooms, and begin to retreat from the distractions of the world.

That evening, participants will be lead into creating new work. After each workshop, each participant will have the opportunity to read their work in the group.

After Saturday breakfast, participants will move into two groups for morning workshops, followed by free time for socializing and exploring the gounds.

After lunch, writing workshops will take place, followed by time to write. Each participant will have a chance to sign up in advance with Maria or Laura for one-on-one help with revision.

After dinner on Saturday evening, participants will be invited to read their poems to the groups, and the faculty will lead another workshop session on how to get published.

After Sunday breakfast, a final writing workshop and concluding reading by participants will serve as the “closing ceremony” to this inspiring and productive weekend. Lunch will provide a final opportunity for socializing.

The leaders envision this weekend as a retreat from the noise and bustle of daily life. They see this retreat as a spiritual and creative break from our usual lives. The setting certainly allows us to take some time to look at life in a new light, to listen for our own voices, and to create in stillness, in quiet, and in community. These are times of contemplation and welcoming the muse.

The workshops will concentrate on "writing your way home" and the way writing can save us, save our stories and our lives.

Participants should bring papers, pens, and the willingness to take risks. Please also bring previously-written work for one-on-one sessions and for the readings

Teachers may receive 15 professional development credits for attending.

Cost: $375 includes room and board (Deposit by November 1, 2009 - $225 with the balance December 1, 2009 - $150)
Early Bird Discount: Deduct $25 if paid in full by November 7, 2009
Full refund will be given prior to December 1, 2009.
Late registration will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Enrollment is limited. There are people already signed up for this workshop, so if you are interested, please sign up as early as possible.

Questions? Call (973) 684-6555 or (973) 423-2921 or email: mgillan@pccc.edu

6th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

2009-10-14T01:00:00.000-04:00

The 6th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival will be held January 18-23, 2010 at the Old School Square Cultural Arts Center in Delray Beach, Florida.

Their faculty includes advanced poetry workshops with Stephen Dobyns, Carolyn Forche, Marie Howe, Thomas Lux, David Wojahn and Kevin Young.

Intermediate Poetry Workshops
Mary Cornish
Ilya Kaminsky

Manuscript Conferences (additional fee)
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Kurt Brown

Florida Poets Reading
Jay Hopler
Sidney Wade

Performance Poetry Event
Andrea Gibson
Anis Mojgani

To participate in a workshop, intermediate or advanced, or to audit a workshop, apply before November 2, 2009.

www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org

Merwin and Neruda

2009-10-09T00:06:00.000-04:00

Merwin reads his poem "Yesterday" in this excerpt of video from the Bill Moyers programs on poetry recorded at the Dodge Poetry Festivals. (You should watch it all - but Merwin appears at the 5:30 point in the video.)

The poem is the model for our October writing prompt at Poets Online.

But, lest you think Merwin to be a cold poet based on this one poem, I would also recommend his translation of Pablo Neruda's poetry.

It's a collection that Neruda published at the age of 19 (in 1924) and that was considered scandalous then and, in this translation, its intense sexuality is intact.

Samples:

I have gone marking the atlas of your body
with crosses of fire.
My mouth went across: a spider, trying to hide.
In you, behind you, timid, driven by thirst.

and

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

W.S. Merwin - I Have Lost None Of It

2009-10-08T22:57:00.000-04:00

I had read poems by W.S. Merwin before I actually heard him read in person. But seeing and hearing him at one of the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festivals is what really got me to get his books and read the poems.

Last June, he did an interview on the Bill Moyers Journal and talked about that Dodge appearance which Moyers recorded and turned into several books and videos, including Fooling With Words.

Merwin’s book, The Shadow of Sirius, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and it is one of my favorites of his. Maybe that's because much of it is poetry of later life - loss, memory, time - and the backward and forward of what we see, feel, and remember.

This childhood memory at the intersection of past and present is part of the poem “Still Morning."

It appears now that there is only one
age and it knows
nothing of age as the flying birds know
nothing of the air they are flying through
or of the day that bears them up
through themselves
and I am a child before there are words
arms are holding me up in a shadow

This book that is named for the Dog Star has a good number of poems about Merwin’s own dogs. His poem, “Dream of Koa Returning,” has Merwin walking and looking at the river and trees

and all at once you
were just behind me
lying watching me
as you did years ago
and not stirring at all
when I reached back slowly
hoping to touch
your long amber fur
and there we stayed without moving

In that interview, Moyers wondered:

Now, Sirius is the dog star, the most luminous star in the sky, twenty-five times more luminous than the sun. And yet, you write about it's shadow. Something that no one has never seen. Something that's invisible to us. Help me to understand that.

and Merwin relplied:

That's the point. The shadow of Sirius is pure metaphor, pure imagination. But we live in it all the time. We are the shadow of Sirius. There is the other side of-- as we talk to each other, we see the light, and we see these faces, but we know that behind that, there's the other side, which we never know. And that — it's the dark, the unknown side that guides us, and that is part of our lives all the time. It's the mystery. That's always with us, too. And it gives the depth and dimension to the rest of it.

In the poem "The Nomad Flute"

You that sang to me once sing to me now
let me hear your long lifted note
survive with me
the star is fading
I can think farther than that but I forget
do you hear me

do you still hear me
does your air
remember you
o breath of morning
night song morning song
I have with me
all that I do not know
I have lost none of it

and Moyers asked, "What — how do you carry with you what you do not know?"

W.S. MERWIN: We always do that. I think that poetry and the most valuable things in our lives, and in fact the next sentence, your next question to me, Bill, come out of what we don't know. They don't come out of what we do know. They come out of what we do know, but what we do know doesn't make them. The real source of them is beyond that. It's something we don't know. They arise by themselves. And that's a process that we never understand.

And there is this poem, which I am selfishly attracted to because it is about a teacher and teaching.

The Pinnacle

Both of us understood
what a privilege it was
to be out for a walk
with each other
we could tell from our different
heights that this
kind of thing happened
so rarely that it might
not come round again
for me to be allowed
even before I
had started school
to go out for a walk
with Miss Giles
who had just retired
from being a teacher all her life

she was beautiful
in her camel hair coat
that seemed like the autumn leaves
our walk was her idea
we liked listening to each other
her voice was soft and sure
and we went our favorite way
the first time just in case
it was the only time
even though it might be too far
we went all the way
up the Palisades to the place
we called the pinnacle
with its park at the cliff's edge
overlooking the river
it was already a secret
the pinnacle
as we were walking back
when the time was later
than we had realized
and in fact no one
seemed to know where we had been
even when she told them
no one had heard of the pinnacle

and then where did she go

from The Shadow of Sirius (Copper Canyon Press)

Live Free and Write: A New Hampshire Getaway for Poets & Writers

2009-10-02T22:17:00.005-04:00

Live Free and Write: A New Hampshire Getaway for Poets & Writers is a poetry and creative non-fiction workshop in New Hampshire. The event will be held November 6-8 at Dexter's Inn, in Sunapee.

Leading the poetry workshop will be poet Peter E. Murphy. Mimi Schwartz will lead the creative non-fiction group.

Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York City where he operated heavy equipment, managed a night club and drove a cab. He is the author of Stubborn Child a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize, and a chapbook of poems, Thorough & Efficient both from Jane Street Press. In addition to receiving a 2009 Poetry Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, he has received awards and fellowships from The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Yaddo, The Folger Shakespeare Library, and the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. He directs the annual Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway in Cape May and other programs for poets, writers and teachers.

Mimi Schwartz, a veteran teacher and writer for over 35 years, has published five books including Good Neighbors, Bad Times - Echoes of My Father's German Village (University of Nebraska Press), soon to be out in paperback. Other recent books include Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed and Writing True and the Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction (with Sondra Perl), used in writing programs nationwide. She is Professor Emerita at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey and teaches at writer conferences, libraries and teacher institutes across this country and abroad.

This event is limited to 12 poets & 10 writers and both programs fill quickly. Register today online and save $25 by registering before October 5.

Endorsed by New Hampshire Writers' Project, this opportunity will also allow you a relaxing writing getaway which will energize and inspire you.

Teachers can earn 15 hours of professional development credit during this which occurs concurrent with the "NJEA Teachers Convention Weekend."

$275 Tuition ($300 after October 5) with Meal & Room Packages starting at $200

Contact: Amanda, 888-887-2105 or info@murphywriting.com

murphywriting.com

New Century Poetics: A Poetry Colloquium with Mark Doty

2009-10-01T01:08:00.002-04:00

UPDATED INFORMATION

The Gates-Ferry Lectures at Centenary College presents
New Century Poetics: A Poetry Colloquium at Centenary College of New Jersey on October 19 & 20, 2009.

Featuring poet Mark Doty, winner of the National Book Award, reading Monday, October 19 at 8 PM. Mark will also participate in the Poetics Colloquium on Tuesday, October 20.

The colloquium will offer workshops and panels for a wide range of participants, including educators, students, and the general public

This event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is requested. Please register by calling (908) 852-1400, ext. 4669, or by emailing: salasa@centenarycollege.edu and indicate which workshops or panels you plan to attend.

Notice to NJ Certified Teachers: Full-day attendance will earn 6 professional development hours through the Centenary College Teacher’s Academy. Mention you are a teacher when you register.

Full disclosure: I will be presenting as part of a panel on publishing at the event talking about publishing and resources online.

Heather McHugh Receives MacArthur Fellowship

2009-09-28T07:12:00.000-04:00

Poet Heather McHugh has received a MacArthur fellowship (the "genius grant" comes with a $500,000 honorarium).

Having taught for 33 years, McHugh says she that "to learn to teach has been to learn to pay attention to the work of others" and that she wil use the award to pay attention to her own work more closely.

Her new book of poems, Upgraded to Serious, will be available in early October.

The book has been described as "fast-paced, verbally dexterous, sarcastic and brilliantly humorous." The book uses medical terminology and iconography to work through loss and detachment. The book's title is a references being “upgraded to serious” from critical condition in the context of the healing powers of poetry.

Take as examples the opening stanzas of three of the book's poems:

Not to Be Dwelled On

Self-interest cropped up even there,
the day I hoisted three instead
of the ceremonially called-for two
spadefuls of loam
onto the coffin of my friend.

No Sex for Priests

The horse in harness suffers.
He's not feeling up to snuff.

The feeler's sensate but the cook
pronounces lobsters tough.

Domestique

Surfaces to scrape or wipe,
a screwdriver to be applied
to slime-encrusted soles, and then

there are the spattered hallways, wadded bedding —
and, in quantities astounding (in the corners,
under furniture, behind the curtains)

Heather McHugh was born to Canadian parents in San Diego, California, in 1948. She was raised in Virginia and educated at Harvard University. From 1999 to 2006 she served as a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets, and in 2000 was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For over 20 years, she has served as a visiting faculty member in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and since 1984 as Milliman Writer-in-Residence at the University of Washington in Seattle.

more on McHugh's award

poems by McHugh

This Weekend: Warren County Poetry Festival

2009-09-24T11:15:00.004-04:00

UPDATED INFORMATION

This weekend (Saturday, September 26) is the free one-day 6th Biennial Warren County Poetry Festival.

The updated schedule is:

11 AM - 12 PM
Poetry Readings
Pam Bernard, Robert Carnevale, Martin Farawell, Madeline Tiger

12:00 Noon -1:00 PM
Lunch Break (box lunches will be available)
Book Signing

1:00 PM - 2:15 PM Panel Discussion with Poets
"The Lyric Utterance: Its Challenges, Its Possibilities"

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Open Readings and Book Signing

3:45 PM - 5:00 PM Panel Discussion with Featured Poets
"Voice: Its Elements; Its Effects"

5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Dinner Break

7:15 - 8 PM Poetry Sampler
Pam Bernard, Robert Carnevale, Martin Farawell, Madeline Tiger

8:00 PM Reading by D. Nurkse

8:30 PM Reading by Laure-Anne Bosselaar

9 PM Reading by Tim Seibles

9:30 - 10 PM Book Signing

For biographical information and sample poems on the poets and directions to the festival (at Blair Academy, in Blairstown, NJ) go to http://poetsonline.org/wcpf

Housewarming Party for Poets House - New York City

2009-09-22T19:53:00.002-04:00

A Housewarming Party for Poets House Part 2

Saturday, September 26, 11:00am–5:00pm
at
Poets House
Pavilion of Nelson A. Rockefeller Park
10 River Terrace
New York, NY

Invocation of the Muse: Poets & Musicians Toast the New Poets House

11am: Kurt Lamkin performs for children and their adults.
12pm: Open House! Take a stroll through our new home.
3pm: Readings by Meena Alexander, Charles Bernstein, Regie Cabico, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Cornelius Eady, Kathleen Fraser, Kimiko Hahn, Michael Heller, Marie Howe, Galway Kinnell, Philip Levine, Marie Ponsot and Quincy Troupe , among others, and music by Natalie Merchant.

This event takes place at the Pavilion of Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, Poets House's new "front lawn." Cosponsored by the Battery Park City Authority.
Contact: (212) 431-7920

http://poetshouse.org
Poets House is a national poetry library and literary center that invites poets and the public to step into the living tradition of poetry. Our poetry resources and literary events document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, and stimulate public dialogue on issues of poetry in culture.