It is sad that poet Lucille Clifton passed on a few days ago. She was a poet of great wit and insight.
Here are two links to more information about her, one a recent article following her death, the other from poets. org:
Clifton article
Clifton on Poets.org
This is a good day to re-read some of her poems.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Black History Quiz and Africlassical.com
Should you have a hankering to take a quiz on Black history, then here's a link you might like to follow:
Black History Quiz
The quiz appears on the site, Africlassical.com, which explores the African and African American presence in classical music.
The site has a companion blog, which (finally, the self-serving part) kindly mentioned an upcoming musical program I helped to put together. Actually, the site borrowed a notice from another blog (thanks, Professor O'Neil)--ah, the complications of the web.
Langston Hughes/Awilda Verdejo
Black History Quiz
The quiz appears on the site, Africlassical.com, which explores the African and African American presence in classical music.
The site has a companion blog, which (finally, the self-serving part) kindly mentioned an upcoming musical program I helped to put together. Actually, the site borrowed a notice from another blog (thanks, Professor O'Neil)--ah, the complications of the web.
Langston Hughes/Awilda Verdejo
Friday, February 12, 2010
President Clinton Reads "The Concord Hymn"
Here is a link to a video of President Clinton reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Concord Hymn," as part of the "Favorite Poem" project:
Clinton reads Concord Hymn
It was good to hear that the former President is doing well after a visit to the hospital.
As to his other poetic tastes, the CBS site includes The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats on his list of favorite books.
Clinton reads Concord Hymn
It was good to hear that the former President is doing well after a visit to the hospital.
As to his other poetic tastes, the CBS site includes The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats on his list of favorite books.
African American Crime Fiction
Probably like most of you, I've been reading detective fiction since I was in my early teens. I think I received the Doubleday collected Holmes stories as a gift from my parents when I was about 16.
Later, I wrote and published one mystery novel, featuring a rural sheriff as the detective.
And I've taught a class on detective fiction a few times. One interesting aspect of such a class is that you get some students who take simply because they have been reading in the genre independent of "school" work. In a sense they are connoisseurs.
Now I'm considering developing a course on African American detective fiction, or at least I'm taking steps toward the consideration. In the process, I discovered a few recent anthologies, including
African American Crime and Mystery Stories, edited by Eleanor Taylor Bland. I'm enjoying it a lot. Here's a link:
anthology
Later, I wrote and published one mystery novel, featuring a rural sheriff as the detective.
And I've taught a class on detective fiction a few times. One interesting aspect of such a class is that you get some students who take simply because they have been reading in the genre independent of "school" work. In a sense they are connoisseurs.
Now I'm considering developing a course on African American detective fiction, or at least I'm taking steps toward the consideration. In the process, I discovered a few recent anthologies, including
African American Crime and Mystery Stories, edited by Eleanor Taylor Bland. I'm enjoying it a lot. Here's a link:
anthology
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Links To African American Poets
Here is site that provides a wealth of online links to information about African American poets:
Black poets
Black poets
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Duke Takes The "A" Train
A nice video--for Black History Month or any month--of Duke Ellington playing "Take the A Train":
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
William Blake and Soccer
Below is a link to a great short film on youtube that combines football (of the soccer variety) and the poetry of William Blake. I think you'll like this:
Blake Press Conference
Blake Press Conference
"Awful Library Books": A Most Amusing Blog
A link on the The Scrapper Poet's blog alerted me to the amusing blog, "Awful Library Books," which I hope you'll enjoy, too:
ALB
ALB
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Eugene Lipscomb
As I was getting ready to have a couple friends over for the Super Bowl (more chat than Super Bowl, truth to tell), I thought, for some reason, of Randall Jarrell's elegy for the professional football player Eugene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb, who played professionally for Baltimore, L.A., and Pittsburgh teams but who died of a heroin overdose in 1963. I don't think that in '63 I was really much aware of professional football, but I distinctly remember the name "Big Daddy Lipscomb," which I found enchanting, partly for the sound of it.
Anyway, below is a link to Jarrell's poem, "Say Goodbye to Big Daddy." The page starts with a sports poems by William Carlos Williams, so you just have to scroll down a bit once you're there.
Big Daddy Lipscomb Poem
Anyway, below is a link to Jarrell's poem, "Say Goodbye to Big Daddy." The page starts with a sports poems by William Carlos Williams, so you just have to scroll down a bit once you're there.
Big Daddy Lipscomb Poem
Errant
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*
*
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Errant
A wayward knight came into our
time zone. He was diminutive,
in need of a bath, and not
that great a horseman. We recycled
his armor, found a good home
for his nag, got him some job-
training: financial sector. Last
we heard, he'd been hired by
an Internet start-up called
errant.netcomorg.
Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom
*
*
*
Errant
A wayward knight came into our
time zone. He was diminutive,
in need of a bath, and not
that great a horseman. We recycled
his armor, found a good home
for his nag, got him some job-
training: financial sector. Last
we heard, he'd been hired by
an Internet start-up called
errant.netcomorg.
Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sequioadendron Giganteum
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*
*
*
*
Sequoiadendron Giganteum
From a classroom in the building on a knoll,
I look across, see the Sequoiadendron giganteum,
a shaggy green profile foregrounding faint gray
distant Cascades and clouds rippled like a tide.
The tree's A-shape's improvised upon by growth--
something like shoulders protrude there thirty
feet from the top. And near the top, there's a gap
in boughs, where the trunk looks like a thread.
Then, askew, a few wee branches appear, a tiny
comic feathery cap, a frivolous dash, a perfect
flaw. Of course, Sequoiadendron giganteum has
nothing to tell us we haven't told ourselves.
It has nothing to do with us, but has this nothing
at such a grand and unrushed pace, we're tempted
to be quiet, simply to stare at this other thing,
this individuality of tree that encompasses its
species and thinks nothing, thinks nothing of ours.
Link to info
Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom
*
*
*
*
Sequoiadendron Giganteum
From a classroom in the building on a knoll,
I look across, see the Sequoiadendron giganteum,
a shaggy green profile foregrounding faint gray
distant Cascades and clouds rippled like a tide.
The tree's A-shape's improvised upon by growth--
something like shoulders protrude there thirty
feet from the top. And near the top, there's a gap
in boughs, where the trunk looks like a thread.
Then, askew, a few wee branches appear, a tiny
comic feathery cap, a frivolous dash, a perfect
flaw. Of course, Sequoiadendron giganteum has
nothing to tell us we haven't told ourselves.
It has nothing to do with us, but has this nothing
at such a grand and unrushed pace, we're tempted
to be quiet, simply to stare at this other thing,
this individuality of tree that encompasses its
species and thinks nothing, thinks nothing of ours.
Link to info
Copyright 2010 Hans Ostrom
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