A Link To A Great Poetry Site

A librarian-friend sent along the following link to the U.S. Library of Congress's poetry site, which is extensive and most satisfactorily browsable:

Link

Gathering Image

The other day some students and I visited the art gallery on campus, viewed the paintings, and then found a perch and began writing--or writing toward--an eckphrastic poem, or a poem concerned with another art-form besides poetry. The title of the exhibit was "Gathering Image, Fugitive Form," and the paintings & drawings that were featured occupied a fascinating position between the abstract and the representational. There was a series of paintings focused on the image of tree limbs.

Liminal Limbs

How tree limbs form patterns
and each branch follows its
own precise, crooked line
of work: such shaping is
the fruit of species and
individual, accident and
cell-division, weather
and vegetative whim. Whatever
the outcome of bark, branch,
and twig back-grounded by
sky, a painter comes along
and lets the branches suggest
an outcome on canvas, a tale
in pigment about color
and line, a story the tall tree
is alleged to have told. So
we turn from the canvas and
look through a gallery's
window at branches, which
wind shakes and bends.


Copyright 2009 Hans Ostrom

They Say About a Poem

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They Say About A Poem

Technically a poem ought to have words
in it although a blank page beneath a
title's mighty inviting, a bit like a
snowy meadow after a day filled with
looking at city crowds. They say
about a poem that a poem should show,
not tell, and be, not mean, but others
think a poem should tow, not sell,
and, really, how can a poem that is
not be, and why can't it mean while
it's being? From poems people crave
imagery, they say, they say about
a poem, but actually all
the imagery's in their heads, put there

by literacy's reflexive response to
letters applied to a surface such
as paper or a surface such as plastic
or indeed an ear's membrane. Should
a poem have conflict? Opinions about
that bicker. I know a poem that featured
many quiet rooms where you could go to get
away from all that conflict in plays,
life, novels, factories, politics,
and movies--where you could listen

to a clock chime and watch the weird
butler straighten ancient paintings
on the walls of your personality, but
I guess that, too, is a conflict.


Copyright 2009 Hans Ostrom

A Reading of "The Unknown Citizen" By Auden

Here is a link to a reading, with a visual presentation of the text, of W.H. Auden's poem, "The Unknown Citizen":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf1klIiCdwQ

Professor Irwin Corey, Performance Poet

I saw comedian Professor Irwin Corey often on TV when I was growing up, and I instantly took to his schtick, which was to parody the speech of politicians, scientists, and academics. His riffs are not just mocking blather, however; they're intricately timed and worded. Now that I'm a professor, I find his act even funnier. Here is a link to a recent (2008) video of Professor Corey doing his thing (and please note his hands are part of the act):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxtN0xxzfsw&feature=related

Bob Dylan's Favorite Poets

The site, poets.org, includes a long essay on Bob Dylan and poetry. The essay claims that a debate about whether Dylan is a poet has "raged" for a long time. I don't think it's raged very much, and I don't think there's much of a debate, although I wouldn't care to rage about the question. He writes and records ballads, among other things, and ballads are poems. Of course, everyone has an opportunity to argue about how good the ballads (etc.) are--as popular songs or as poems or as both. But that's a separate question.

The essay mentions scholar Christopher Ricks, of course, who has written extensively in support of treating Dylan's work as poetry. A paragraph from the essay:

"Christopher Ricks, who has also penned books about T. S. Eliot and John Keats, argues that Dylan's lyrics not only qualify as poetry, but that Dylan is among the finest poets of all time, on the same level as Milton, Keats, and Tennyson. He points to Dylan's mastery of rhymes that are often startling and perfectly judged."

Also, the essay notes that among Dylan's favorite poets are Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Woody Guthrie. Dylan is also said to like Smokey Robinson as a poet.

Henry David Thoreau's Favorite Song

According to author Caroline Mosley, in an article cited on http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/TomBowling.htm, Henry David Thoreau's favorite popular song was "Tom Bowling," with lyrics by Charles Dibdin. Factoring in time-travel (a form of transcendentalism, arguably), I might have guessed that HDT would have leaned in Bob Dylan's direction. Here are the "Tom Bowling" lyrics:

Tom Bowling

by Charles Dibdin

Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowling
The darling of the crew;
No more he'll hear the tempest howling
For death has broach'd him to.
His form was of the manliest beauty,
His heart was kind and soft,
Faithful, below he did his duty,
But now he's gone aloft.
Tom never from his word departed,
His virtues were so rare,
His friends were many, and true-hearted,
His Poll was kind and fair;
And then he'd sing so blithe and jolly,
Ah, many's the time and oft!
But mirth has turn'd to melancholy,
For Tom is gone aloft.
Yet shall poor Tom find pleasant weather,
When He, who all commands,
Shall give, to call life's crew together,
The word to pipe all hands.
Thus Death, who kinds and tars despatches,
In vain Tom's life has doff'd,
For, though his body's under hatches
His soul has gone aloft.

Epistemology: A Poem

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(image: Rene Descartes)
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Epistemology: A Poem

I never needed to prove whether an exterior
world existed. It proved itself to me, casually.
I get hungry, e.g., and the exterior world has
food, for which you work in the world. When
you work all day for minimum wage, or more,
the world exists. Could it all be an illusion?

Actually, no. And even if philosophers can't
disprove the illusion, that's their problem,
and they'll react to a fire-alarm and otherwise
live in the world, which contains their
arguments in exteriorish books and computers,
so as they say, let's get real. But could we

simply be brains in vats? I'm guessing no
because that's too many vats and too much
vat-maintenance, and besides, even if all this
were a vat-trick, we'd live as if it weren't,
digging in dirt and pondering vat-riddles,
so as they say, let's get real. This It

we experience mixes the real, our illusions,
and realillusion. If you don't think the
exterior world exists, good for you! I hope
your non-existent exterior world includes
farmers, fire-fighters, dentists, door-hangers,
masons, and . . . magicians, of course.


Copyright 2009 Hans Ostrom

William Shatner Reads A Found Poem By Sarah Palin

This may sound like a Zen koan (at best), but perhaps the best way to understand the confluence of American politics, entertainment, art, and absurdity is not to try to understand it all, grasshopper. More specifically, let me suggest that you meditate on William Shatner's rendering of Sarah Palin's resignation-speech as a poem--on the Tonight Show, with backup from a stand-up base and bongo-drums. Oh, yeah. Unfortunately, you will have to try to ignore the brief annoying advertisement (only seconds long) that precedes the video.


http://hillaryclintonarmy.blogspot.com/2009/07/william-shatner-reads-beat-poet-palin.html

Chimamanda Adichie On Writing

Here is a link to a "TED" video (via Youtube) in which Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adiche discusses her development as a writer and explores the topic of "The Danger of a Single Story":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

National Gallery of Writing

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) opened its online National Gallery of Writing on October 20, 2009. The gallery features writing in a wide variety of genres. Writers who are 13 years old and above may submit their work, and they may also open a “local” gallery on the site. Teachers at middle schools, high schools, colleges, universities, and other settings may also encourage their students to submit some writing. For more information, please follow the link:

http://www.galleryofwriting.org/

Ballad: Love Needed, Not In Demand

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Ballad: Love Needed, Not In Demand


I talked with Love the other day.
She's been unemployed.
When she offers expertise,
People get annoyed.

"It's nothing new," Love said to me.
"The times, they come and go.
It is a Hater's Market now.
Meanness runs the show."

In reply, I just observed
Love seemed necessary.
"I'm not in demand," Love said.
"But needed? Oh, yes--very."


Copyright 2009 Hans Ostrom

A Reading of a cummings Poem

Here is a link to a video of an unpretentious reading of "next to of course god america" by e.e. cummings, a poem that's a fine parody of mind-numbing, fatuous political speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxU348L2JR8

The poem is read by Dr. Ron Holzschuh.