iPoems Launches

I told you about this a few months back - the Brit company that was going to offer downloads of poetry for $.95 each. Well, it"s here and it"s happening today. Not only is it happening today, but they"ve caused enough of a splash to make the front page of Yahoo and get a short news story there. iPoems is modeled on iTunes, and will let people download ...

Poetry Festival Wins Alternate Nobel Prize

The function of art in general and of poetry in particular has not been or is to solve the fundamental problems of men and women. Its function is to remind us, from an ever new perspective, the existence of these problems. And our potential to solve them. Poetry and art are there to widen our conscience, and to spur it on an ...

Poetic Truth – Dana Shuster Never Served

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 ...

Quick Ketchup

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 ...

Another 9/11 Tribute

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 ...