Happy spring, happy Poetry Month, happy everything. A post on Harriet’s poetry blog on the Poetry Foundation site has been circulating through the waves of the Internet. It’s the one written recently by Camille Rankin and titled "Do What You Do, Love What You Love.” The post talks about how there is no money in poetry and how most poets have to have another kind of work for income. But as Camille Rankine works out her logic on the value and poetry and the value of … [Read more...]
April 1: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Daffodil
It's April Fools Day (so beware) and it's the first day of Poetry Month. To commemorate the two, I have mashed up two well-known poems (William Wordworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and Wallace Steven's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird) with some of my own words to create a daffy poem. Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Daffodil I After the gray snow melts, The only moving thing: A host of daffodils. II I was of two minds, Wandering … [Read more...]
Poetry news: celebrities, critics, and “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg
Celebrities have been making news in the poetry world. The actress Kristen Stewart (who played Bella Swan in The Twilight movies) shared one of her poems (“My Heart Is A Wiffle Ball/Freedom Pole”) with readers of Marie Claire. Critics, especially entertainment writers, pounced on it. Jenn Selby writing in The Independent called it “the worst poem of all time.” Facebook and Twitter blew up with snark. I did see one positive use for the poem; Chicago writer Kathleen Rooney … [Read more...]
Upcoming May readings: Weaving the Threads, Barry Silesky
Last night I went to the very moving launch of Weaving the Threads at Evanston Library. The room was filled to capacity and the audience was captivated by the memoirs read from this anthology. Editor Enid Baron talked about how the book came to be and emphasized that everyone has a story and should tell it. There is another reading for the book this Sunday at Women and Children First Book Store in Andersonville. At the reading I ran into Sharon Solwitz who told me that … [Read more...]
Celebrating Poetry in Chicago
Chicago is a literary town. This month the focus is on poetry--there's so much to do and see and hear. Sunday, April 7 at 1:30 pm is the 16th Annual Women’s International Open reading at Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee. Hosted by Nina Corwin, the event will feature Xanath Caraza, Kelly Davio, Marty McConnell, Simone Muench, Amy Newman and Rita Mae Reese. Marcia Pradzinski will be reading her poetry on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:00 pm at THE NEW STUDIO located at … [Read more...]