MassPoetry Blog — November 2011

Each month, in addition to topics each blogger wants to discuss, we are selecting one essay or remark for bloggers to respond to if they wish. This month some bloggers are reacting to Joan Houlihan’s The Tell-Tale Lines, which you may want to read, too.  We’ve marked these blogs with a blue arrow. 

Blogs that are date specific — that is, they refer to upcoming events — are marked with a red arrow.

Notes on Contributors

Human Error Publishing

Paul Richmond

When I was asked to be a part of this Blog post I said sure. Now it seems like months have gone by and I haven’t written anything. It is amazing how quickly time passes. I wanted to report on the recent festival in Greenfield, Massachusetts even though it happened in October; I think that it is still news worthy. More…

Plymouth This Sunday

Jack Scully

POETRY:The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series next reading will be this Sunday December 11, 2011 starting at 12 noon at the Plymouth Center for the Arts, 11 North St downtown, Plymouth, MA.

Karen Woodhall and Gary Engdahl will be the music features. Chuck Harper and Thomas Libby will be the poetry features, and the program will conclude with an open-mic. Admission is free, there are free refreshments, and from now until April 1 free parking at all meter in downtown Plymouth. For more information and direction please visit our site www.ptaow.com. More…

Blake

Irene Koronas

“Lost! Lost! Lost! Are my Emanations Enion, O Enion
We are become a Victim to the Living We hide in secret
…
All Love is lost Terror succeeds & Hatred instead of Love
And stern demands of Right & Duty instead of Liberty.”

There is no need for me to reference these phrases; verse, which speaks
To me now, is indeed a living reminder that poetry carries us from
Generation to generation. More…

Serendipity in finding a poet I love

Jacquelyn Malone

About twenty years ago I was browsing a warehouse store loaded with doo-dads and junk when I came upon a bin of books. I wasn’t looking for books. In fact I wasn’t looking for anything in particular – maybe a trinket for the cat or some weird gadget that had sounded good to an investor but had failed miserably in the consumer market. Sometimes weirdo stuff can be fun.  The books looked quirky, too, odd items that were printed and left to fade in a sunlit store. Now they needed a home.

I was surprised to see a book of poetry lying in the pile. It was by a poet that at the time I’d never heard of – Les Murray.  More . . .

Good Idea or Not?

Jack Scully

Is a good or a bad thing that currently on the radio there are at least two ad using poetry to bring forward their message to the public? Namely the ads for Coors Beer, where I have heard two different ones and the the one on banking featuring Alexander Hamilton. Granted the poetry is just this side of awful, but  they are using poetry as their vessel to bring the message to the general public. At least in my mind the jury is still out, but has anyone heard them and your thoughts?

The Colrain Poetry Manuscript program

Joan Houlihan

Poet-bashing police

Michelle Gillet

Former poet laureate Robert Hass and his wife Brenda Hillman were hit with batons during a peaceful demonstration at Berkeley the other day. Hass wrote about it in an op ed column in Sunday’s New York Times—if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth reading. Hass gives a close-up and personal view of the experience. “None of the police officers invited us to disperse or gave any warning,” he writes.  Although he got whacked pretty hard, he wasn’t badly injured, just sore for a few days.  “‘Whose university?’ the students chanted. Well, it’s theirs and it ought to be everyone else’s in California.” He points out the California university system “is under great stress and the State Legislature is paralyzed by a minority of legislators whose only idea is that they don’t want to pay one more cent in taxes.” More…

A wonderful surprise in my creative writing class

David Surette

This is the time of year for high school teachers to write college recommendations, and since four of my classes are senior classes, there are plenty to write.  This isn’t a complaint, but I am a procrastinator and they pile up, until one day, I sit and knock them out.  Last Friday was such a day.  I was on my last one, reading the student’s Senior Information Survey from guidance, when I came across this:

Please share a story or experience that significantly impacted your life. More…

Response to ‘The Tell-Tale Lines’ by Joan Houlihan

Irene Koronas

I couldn’t get through the whole essay because it was too dogmatic for me. Not that I don’t agree with what is being said. I do, but my opinion is not that important as to what a reader might buy, and I have never surveyed what poetry is being sold. I do not look for perfection in writing. Keeping the “I “out of poetry or the cliches is not my criteria for what book I will buy, and I will try not to impose my taste. But I do believe there is room for a range of poetry, from good to bad, better to worst. More…

Our book writing club

Irene Koronas

On the rare occasions when I view my image, my sense of time slaps me hard—dear reader please forgive any wrinkles in the years I present. I forget to count and I let days slip into years without a date or my signature.

We met some time ago in the school yard. Jenny’s two boys were a few years younger than my grandson. I needed to talk with someone who loved to read and write. More . . .

Chapter and Verse Literary Reading Series

Jamaica Pond Poets

Friday, December 2, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Loring-Greenough House, 12 South Street, Jamaica
Plain Centre. (See parking note below.)  Sponsored
by the Jamaica Pond Poets and featuring: Peter Bates, Joe Bergin, and Marcia
Karp.   More. . .

Powow Poets Blog

Rhina P. Espaillat

One of the many things poetry does well is help create a sense of community, even among people who may not know very much about each other except that they share an interest in this old, peculiar, enduring form of communication. That is worth doing right about now, when so many fractures are taking place in the society, and several states are enacting anti-Other measures to keep their communities from becoming multi-everything—or multi-anything. More…

 Calliope  Poetry Readings Sunday November 20th

Alice Kociemba

Calliope –a community of poets.  Why come?  It is warm enough to walk the nearby beach and bike path, and the traffic is kinder.  Our setting is gracious; an oak-paneled book-lined community room at a small library, and the refreshments are enticing–but not as special as our features who are wonderful poets.   The open mike gives a poet a chance to read a new poem to an appreciative audience.

Calliopewill be hosting one of its Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library, Sunday, November 20th, 3 to 5 PM. Open mike sign-up at 2:45 PM.  The featured poets of the evening are Lori Desroisiers, Barry Hellman and Sandra Kohler.  There is a requested $5 donation.  The event will also feature a book signing reception and refreshments.  West Falmouth Library, 575 West Falmouth Library, West Falmouth MA  02574.  www.calliopepoetryseries.com for details and directions.

Your Particular Emotion Machine

Lisa Olstein

The Pioneer Valley is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to readings and other poetry events these days. This week we’ll be treated to a reading by Peter Gizzi celebrating the publication of his breathtaking new collection THRESHOLD SONGS. The reading will take place Thursday, November 17, 8 pm, Memorial Hall, UMass Amherst. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly notes: Gizzi’s poems are filled with the same intricacies that enamor us of certain songs: the rhythmic flourishes startle but never betray his cadence, the timbres of his words share as much dissonance as they do harmony, and over everything is the lyric, the voice, speaking to us with urgency and occasion. Here’s one from the new collection (which also appears in the new issue of jubilat): More…

Blog from Calliope

Alice Kociemba

Do you ever wonder why no one complains about the cartoons in the New Yorker?
It is  because we save our negativity for their poems.  My standard advice:  turn the page.

The bloggers thus far have made cogent points about Joan Houlihan’s essay “The Tell-Tale Line” in Contemporary Poetry Review.  They have spotted her preference for I-Narrative that “pushes the boundaries of narrative.”  Her perspective is interesting, but not mine.  Some of the first lines she found “dull,” I found intriguing.  And some she found “alluring,” I found, well, confusing.  It is good for poetry that we all have such different tastes—there is something appetizing for each of us. More…

The Handwritten

Irene Koronas

Is anyone worried about the fate of handwriting? What difference does it make to the world? Maybe it’s just me, the worry wart, but the handwritten letter becomes more important to me as I watch people in coffee shops with their laptop computers or computerized notebooks; those coffee sippers tapping on a keyboard, a generic print appearing on screen. Perhaps their thoughts are being put into print, but not their handwritten identities. It doesn’t seem to matter much in this instant oatmeal society, this seedless lemon squeeze way of being, without the need to pen a poem or letter. We don’t even seem to be able to take the time to brew our own coffee, let alone take the time to write by hand. I’m beginning to feel antiquated. I feel like a curmudgeon every time I take out paper and pen in a public place. Even people my age are sporting their competence by using a laptop. More…

Facebook

Irene Koronas

Let’s face it–Facebook is becoming a place for some writers to vent some pretty nasty stuff. This morning after my daily search for poetic banter, I came across a famous poet’s post, demeaning with audacity, and using foul language to demonstrate his superiority, as the only, or among the only, writers to be thinking the ‘right’ way. His constant harangue against other genres, poets, academic degrees, and people who do not think like him is cause for concern.  It is so frustrating to me to think so much intolerance can spew from his famous mouth. There’s enough room for different ways of writing and thinking. Fundamentalism is dangerous in writing or in any form. But we tolerate radical behavior as long as it does not try to destroy us and the way we want to write.More…

Poetry for the Departed

Kris Weinrich

Last year, at one of our poetry workshops at the Brockton Public Library Poetry Series, a young woman had brought in a poem she had written about a woman whose mother had died.  I felt unable to connect with the poem because there was no description of the mother; nothing about soft eyes and gentle hands, no stories about the good times or the bad times, no cherished memories of being handed down a family heirloom, etc. More…

Advanced Seminar at The Frost Place

Patrick Donnelly

For those of you who don’t know, The Frost Place is a non-profit center for poetry and the arts located at the old homestead in Franconia, NH, where Robert Frost and his family lived full-time from 1915 to 1920 and spent nineteen summers. There are many fine summer poetry conferences, but to me The Frost Place is special: the beauty of the White Mountains, the literary history, the intimate workshops, and the we’re-all-in-this-together feel of the gatherings—in which the strong hierarchical divisions characteristic of some other conferences aren’t emphasized—immediately made a strong impression on me when I first taught there in 2008, and helped me understand why the institution inspires strong loyalty in anybody who has had a connection. Though there’s snow on the ground at The Frost Place now, our conference directors and staff are busy planning for 2012 programs, especially our three summer conferences: More…

Blog from Cape Cod

Barry Hellman

In deciding whether the first line of a poem warrants any further interest, I think we use a decision-making template containing both academic and emotional criteria. At its upper level, we might be looking at craft features such as cliché vs surprise, image vs rhetoric, mystery vs clarity, syntactical strategy. Underneath, there are criteria driven by things like our age or stage in life, temperament, unfinished emotional business, what kinds of experience fills us up and what kind depletes us. I believe a two-level template is used in every situation where we’re deciding whether we want more of someone, or whether we’re ready to move on. Deciding about a poem based on its first line / deciding about a person in the first few seconds after meeting them at a speed-dating table or in a bar or at a party probably involves the same process.  More…

 Blog from Plymouth

Jack Scully

The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series will hold their next reading on Sunday November 13, 2012 at noon. The program will begin with this month’s musical feature “The Harp & The Minstrel.” Jay and Abby Michaels will perform a selection  of Celtic, Folk and Renaissance music. The feature readers will be poet Zvi Sesling of Brookline, who is the editor of the poetry website “The Muddy River Poetry Review.” He will be joined by Cambridge novelist and essayist Paul Steven Stone. Paul’s thoughts on most everything under the sun can be viewed on his site “Or So It Seems”. Following an intermission the program will conclude with an open-mic session. For more information please go to our site www.ptaow.com

Wondering what’s going on in the poetry world south of the Boston arena? Then you need to read the monthly newsletter “South of Boston Poetry Trail”.  It is in its second year of existence and gives you all poetry news from south of the city. Drop me a note at johnscully36@yahoo.com and you will be added to our e-mail list.

On Reading at Dewey Square,  October 27, 2011

Don McLagan

It felt good to stand in the 40-degree rain Thursday in Dewey Square – a kind of solidarity-in-misery with Occupy Boston. The rain was persistent, but had a feeling of equality as it fell fairly on the 1% as well as the 99% and trickled down to 100%.

Organized by Peter Desmond, Robyn-Su Miller and Susie Davidson, poets contributed their verses to the protest at 2pm each day of the fourth week of the occupation. Alice Weiss was the featured poet on Thursday October 27th, and led off with a dedicated poem, “Dewey Square.” I read my poem for the occasion, “The Bankers’ Song.” Another dozen poets read their poems of resistance, inequality and
distress.  More . .

See the Boston Globe story on Don’s reading at Occupy Boston.  .

Blog from Worcester

Mark Wagner

Joan Houlihan’s critical response to Word Comix by Charlie Smith (Norton, 2009), The History of Forgetting by Lawrence Raab (Penguin, 2009), Blind Rain by Bruce Bond (Louisiana State University Press, 2008), and Trust by Liz Waldner (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2009) in Contemporary Poetry Review has gathered a good deal of headwaters for this critic’s turbines – admiration on one hand and a further complaint.  Houlihan is largely correct to suggest — in the cases she or her editor has chosen — that we can get a sense of what is to come by looking at the opening lines of the poems in these four books, and it would be fun for our blog members to all admit to having a favorite first line, or what we take to be an effective first line.  More . . .

Learning to read and write

Irene Koronas

It’s the 7th grade and our English teacher gives us Crime andPunishment by Dostoyevsky to read. Reading out loud, during class, we come to understand and relate with some of the reasons teacher heaves that heavy book at us. He wants us to take a different path than the one laid before us.

Our working class town with one library, also, offered me a different view. I knew early on, my life would evolve around pigment and words, a community of artists, poets and musicians like the ones I read about. There was a crime in the choices I made. My parents thought I would be a housewife and mother and I did try for a while but the punishment, not being myself, took time away from the larger books I wanted to read and write.  More . . .