MassPoetry blog — December 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 “Beyond Grief and Grievance“ by Philip Metres, 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

Classroom Poetry

David Surette

I’ve read somewhere a poem should end with the sound a door makes when it closes; the meeting of door to jamb to the double click when the lock engages and clicks shut.  I try to expand this analogy by telling the students that the poem begins with the door opening to let in the sensual moment but more comes in than expected.  The only thing to do then is to celebrate this unexpected moment and dance or sing or even mourn.   When the dance is over, out it goes with a door shut behind. More…

South of Boston Poetry Trail

VOL 2 NO   15         JANUARY 2012

Jack Scully

Check out a full list of January events for the South Shore — poetry readings, submission deadlines and poetry receptions. More . . .

Books for Hope

L. Soul Brown

We cordially invite you to Books of Hope’s “GIFTED” Showcase and Open Mic! More…

The Gift of  a New Poem

Carla Panciera

What does this have to do with poetry, you ask?  Well, the tree came from a student’s farm, one hundred untouched acres in Ipswich.  Her father and I talked about what it was like growing up in the middle of that kind of acreage, in the middle of that kind of peace and, though I had just met the man, I wanted badly – and unnecessarily, I’m sure – to entreat him to hold on to that place.  My family’s hundred acres is a Home Depot and 78 houses.  I haven’t gone back there physically but I have cow poems and cow essays and every time I write a piece of fiction, I play a game to see if I can stick a cow in there, too.  The longing for home never wanes. More…

An Appreciation of Christopher Logue

Jacquelyn Malone

 The English poet Christopher Logue, who died this week, wrote one of my favorite books of poetry in the last decade. I recommend it to you. The book, All Day Permanent Red, is a curious book for me to fall in love with because it is a retelling of the Iliad’s opening battle – I never fell in love with the original. I always preferred the adventures of the wily, brilliant Odysseus to bloody battles and dragging corpses around behind a chariot. More…

So What?

Don McLagan

Tents gone, ground scraped clean by front-end loaders, posters power-washed from the wall, forty final stalwarts in jail, poets gone home, Dewey Square unoccupied. So what?

So, 99% is no longer a statistic. The Ninety-nine Percent is a cause. More…

Setting Up a Protocol for Poetry, Spoken Word Events

Paul Richmond

Here’s one we came up with:

We instituted sand timers; three or five minute sand timers depending on the event and the number of writers. When a writer comes up to read they turn over the sand timer. When the sand is gone they are gone. More…

Creating a Venue

Paul Richmond

Five years ago a new brewpub opened in Wendell, Mass. It is a very small town, with just a country store and post office and the Wendell state forest. I thought why not have a poetry reading at this new pub? On asking the owner I was informed that three other people had had the same idea. We got together and created all small caps. Five years later and five anthologies later from all the featured writers, we still have readings once a month on the last Monday of the month. More…

Verse, Gainfully Employed

Rhina P. Espaillat

An item in this Monday’s local paper here in Newburyport cites a fundraising effort undertaken by students to assist a local charity during the holiday season. What the kids are doing is selling their services as aspiring young poets to create “gift poems” that purchasers may order for people on their gift list, by giving the poets the name of each recipient, and a few pertinent facts about him or her. The gift poem may amuse, praise, roast (mildly) or otherwise engage, may be requested in form or free verse, and will cost a few dollars. More…

The First and Last Word Poetry Series

Irene Koronas

Great Venue, Great Poetry, Great Open Mike! More…