Last Friday at 7.30 PM more than a hundred of us crammed into the The Moca House on Hillside in Victoria. There were line ups at the bar for cookies and such, coffee and beer but we were there for even stronger and more nourishing fare. It was the launch of the anthology Poems From [...]
Category Archives: General
A Follow-Up To The Post: To Make Us Consider How Our Light Is Spent
April 13, 2013 – 5:13 pm
I am so glad to have attentive readers of my blog! And they were working overtime earlier this week thanks to poem called The Purposes of Poetry by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, a professor at the University of California. Here’s her poem: The Purposes of Poetry To find a way of putting what can’t be said [...]
“The” Love Poems – Join the Conversation
April 1, 2013 – 12:46 pm
At the 2013 Palm Beach Poetry Festival, the American poet Jane Hirschfield (1953 -) was asked to pick a poem that had inspired her. She demurred by saying she owed most to all the poets who have been sharing their words for the past 40,000 years. And Greg Orr (1947 – ), another fine American poet (see [...]
Words Make A Difference – Kay Jamison and Alfred Lord Tennyson On Grief
February 24, 2013 – 1:29 pm
Grief. I read Kay Redfield Jamison’s book Nothing Was The Same last night. It is her 2009 memoir to her husband who died in 2002 at 63 from a chronic illness. Grief is never an easy subject but poets have made it a prime subject for generations. It is how we sing out our losses and [...]
Jack Gilbert – July 1925 to November 13th, 2012 – Sing Going Down
November 30, 2012 – 9:36 am
A great hunger lay at the heart and genius of the American master poet Jack Gilbert, who, until his last years was little known, but in spite of his low-profile, was long considered one of the foremost poets of his generation. Yes, Gilbert was a man driven by hungers but luckily for the world, he [...]
An Alphabet of Poets – O is for Oh No
April 21, 2012 – 7:27 pm
Just a quick check in! First, thank you all who are reading my posts! This has been an exciting challenge. One that is taking a lot of time out of my days! And as you have noticed I have not just stuck to featuring one poet per letter in the alphabet! It is so hard [...]
An Alphabet of Poets – H is for Hikmet
April 11, 2012 – 8:09 pm
It’s This Way I stand in the advancing light, my hands hungry, the world beautiful. My eyes can’t get enough of the trees – they’re so hopeful, so green. A sunny road runs through the mulberries, I’m at a window of the prison infirmary. I can’t smell the medicines – carnations must be blooming nearby. [...]
An Alphabet of Poets – B is for Bly
April 4, 2012 – 1:45 pm
To celebrate National Poetry Month I am featuring a new poet for each day of April. I will be at my abecedarian best and go through the alphabet from a to z, followed by 4 random choices! The Roof Nail A hundred boats are still looking for shore. There is more in my hopes [...]
An Alphabet of Poets – A is for Ali
April 2, 2012 – 2:11 pm
A is for Ali – April 1 To celebrate National Poetry Month I will feature a new poet for each day of April. I will be at my abecedarian best and go through the alphabet from a to z, followed by 4 random choices! The River Cloud On paper, on the sky, on the [...]
Richard In Africa 2012 – Neema; Grace
March 15, 2012 – 5:10 pm
Five African women cram in the back of our land cruiser. They begin to sing; such a haunting tune embellished by trills and ululations: Waliyo pewa neema Walikataa neema The refrain translates as: You who have received grace have neglected grace. When my friend and interpreter Mama Virginie from the Congolese NGO Heal Africa interprets [...]