What is the responsibility of the poet to truth? That may seem an odd question, but it's one that poets sometimes struggle with, especially when they write poetry using the "I" voice. A story reported by Diantha Parker on NPR today brings up the question in a rather haunting way. In 1993, Vice President Al Gore read a poem ...
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There"s a new issue up at Allinfoaboutpoetry, with news, poems, reviews and calls for submission. And once again, I run into something that has become a theme lately - the reemergence of poetry as a force in the world today. Justine Eaglestone"s article on the growing demand for poetry books fits right into the reawakening that I"m seeing around me and on the ...
My new discovery this week - Poetry Thursday, a thoroughly delightful blog written in tandem by Liz Elayne and Lynn. Every Sunday night, Liz or Lynn post a new poetry prompt and invite other bloggers to write about it. The prompts are filed as "this week"s (completely and totally optional) idea", because, in Liz Elayne"s words, "You have a lot more freedom than ...
I was drawn into the Scoplaw blog by a conversation on the values of poetry, and the need for a common vocabulary with which to discuss and criticize poetry, and then drawn further and further along to read about the esthetics of poetry, what is needed to encourage quality poetry, the writer"s adventures as a poet on the internet - and eventually to other ...
When Mazisi Kunene died this past August, it was in the city of his birth, Durban, South Africa. Kunene, 76, had spent over thirty years in exile from his native land before returning to it in 1993. In 2005, his country honored him with the title of Poet Laureate. It was a finally fitting tribute from the land that he never stopped loving, even through ...
I just found the absolute coolest tool on Technorati. It"s called Technorati Mini, and it"s a mini search window that is updated every minute or so with the search of your choice. Now, understand, if there"s one thing that I love almost as much as I adore poetry, it"s little techie toys. Not hardware toys, though those are nice enough, but the soft ...
I spent some time this morning dropping back in on folks I"ve written about in the past thanks to Frank Wilson at BooksInq, who graciously helped put out the word about Carlos Contreras, the New Mexico teacher looking for poems to hand out to his students. The followup on that - Carlos is still looking, and thanks those that have sent poems. He says ...
In the bustle of the past week, this story escaped me. I saw it and read it early in the week, and tucked it away for later, then completely forgot about it till I was poking through the latest poetry news. Reported in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on September 6 is this little tidbit about a poet with a mission. Diane ...
I"m not often one to follow media hype to something slick and commercial. I"m always the last one on the block to read the current bestseller out of sheer stubbornness - and this press release that showed up in my mailbox really nicked at my resistance to commercializing art. Then again - it"s a poem a day project so I had to ...
