Today on My Poetic Side we take a look at Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Last Word” the winner of this year’s III Poetry Award SxS Antonio Machado, and finally, the poetry inspired benches in Swansea in honour of the centenary of the First World War.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Last Word” to be Published by Faber
“Little Boy”, the tale of one man’s rather extraordinary adventure during a rather interesting century is to be published by the publishing house Faber. This is they claim the last word of the poet and authorLawrence Ferlinghetti and it is:
“Little Boy” is scheduled to be published in March 2019 to coincide with the 100thbirthday of the author.
The author is one of the final members of what is known as the Beat-generation still living. He was one of the founders of the San Francisco City Lights Book sellers where he was a champion to many of the great authors of the century. He was even arrested on charges of obscenity as he published the Allen Ginsberg poem “Howl”.
During his lengthy career, he has created over 40 poetry collections and been awarded a
III Poetry Award SxS Antonio Machado Awarded to Charles Olsen
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The III Poetry Award SxS Antonio Machado is named for the Spanish writer who lived and worked in the cities of Soria and Sergovia in Spain It is an annual award open to any poet who is resident in Europe, of any nationality except Spanish but who has a basic knowledge of the Spanish language. The prize is €3,000 and travel costs between the various cities.
This year the award has been given the New Zealand poet Charles Olsen for his proposal of 30 to 40 poems which will be written in Spanish and divided into two parts one for each city. As part if the project he will spend one month in each city where he will follow in the footsteps of Antonio Machado who lived in the region between 1907 and 1912.
Beautiful Painted Benches in Swansea
A number of beautifully painted benches have been created in Swansea as part of the celebrations to honour those who gave their service for the country during the First World War.
The benches which are part of the Uplands art project have been painted by local Swansea artist James Burgess. The Uplands project began last year with the creation of the Dylan Thomasboxes. In total Burgess has painted six benches but he says there has been discussion about completing another six.
In addition to being given a brief to work from for the artwork, Burgess was able to draw on extracts from poems by a local Swansea poet. The benches feature images depicting soldiers at war and in reflection.
This is just one of the many projects taking place in the UK at the moment ahead of the centenary of the First World War, many of which have links to the poets who emerged during that time, men like Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke.
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