A Foremother Friday Trio

Tags

A Writer's Life, Adrienne Rich, Any Other Name, Deal Me In Reading Challenge, Deborah Eisenberg, Electric Literature tumblr, Ellen Moody, Foremother Friday, Free Comic Book Day, From the Women's Canon, Muriel Rukeyser, NPR interview, Reading the Short Story blog, Ron Hogan, Short Story Month, The Millions, Twilight of the Superheroes, Women's Poetry List-Serv

The New Novel (1877) by Winslow Homer

For those of you following the blog, you’ll remember that I mentioned the Women’s Poetry List-Serv as the inspiration for “Foremother Fridays”.  The wonderful Ellen Moody started the practice there and has put together an extensive library of archived postings at the dedicated website, From the Women’s Canon: Foremother Poets.

I’d like to refer you to two of her write-ups in lieu of an original poetry posting, and then we will move on to a foremother of the short story form.

                                      

Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)                     Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

 

For fans of the comic genre, tomorrow is a big day with free giveaways and a smorgasbord of activities at independent comic stores all over the country. While Deborah Eisenberg doesn’t really dabble in the genre, her short story collection, Twilight of the Superheroes takes some of the sheen off the superhero ideal and has a rocking comic-esque cover.  The collection won the PEN/Faulkner award in 2007 and revolves around a cast of the confused and hurting in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. Just the kind of dark, gritty thing for a bright May weekend!

But if you’d rather not shell out the funds for the book, you can read her story, “Your Duck is My Duck,” at the Electric Literature Recommended Reading Tumblr or  “The Girl Who Left Her Sock on the Floor” at the NPR archives. And do check out her Art of Fiction (no.218) interview with Catherine Steindler (of the Paris Review), as well as the A Writer’s Life piece at the Telegraph and the Beatrice interview with Rob Hogan for more on her views about short fiction and the writing process.

And last but not least, find out more about her life and views on society and justice at The Millions’ Reality Squared profile.

Then if you’re still looking to round out your Deal Me In Playlist, consult Reading the Short Story blog’s favorite collections for ideas on where to glean.

 

 

Some Lines from Mary Oliver for Foremother Friday

Tags

A Poetry Handbook, A Thousand Mornings, Foremother Friday, Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver Pinterest Goodies, NPR interview, the poet as witness, the poet's work, White Pine

Mary Oliver is at the top of my most admired poets list.  She is my go-to when I want to examine the natural world without leaving my doorstep, but perhaps her best lines are those that connect nature to the work of the poet.

This from her poem, titled “Work” (from the collection White Pine):

All day I work
with the linen of words
and the pins of punctuation
all day I hang out
over a desk

grinding my teeth
staring.
Then I sleep.

Then I come out of the house,
even before the sun is up,

and walk back through the pinewoods
to Pasture Pond.

In a 2012 NPR interview, Oliver talks more about the poet as witness and how discipline and nature help shape her poems.  We are also treated here to a reading from her collection A Thousand Mornings.

If you are interested in digging deeper into Mary’s poetic vision and technique, I suggest you pick up a copy of her slim, but powerful text, A Poetry Handbook.  It is the next best thing to taking her workshops, and is available at a reasonable price both new and used.

And now just for fun, a small grab-bag of Pinterest goodies featuring M. Oliver quotes for you to download and print: Instructions for Living; It is better for the heart ;One day you finally knew;Keep Some Room;We need beauty;To pay attention;I have been thinking ;Someone I loved;I want to think again;The world offers itself . FYI: These look great with dollar store frames and make lovely gifts for writerly friends.

 

• Open call to poet bloggers: If you would like to contribute to next week’s Foremother Friday (inspired by the Women’s Poetry List-Serv), please drop me a line at bonesparkblog@yahoo.com.  I love hearing from you!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poems with Presence: A Brief Note on the Late Elizabeth Bartlett

Tags

Bloodaxe Books, British Women's Poetry, damaged Britian, Elizabeth Bartlett, Foremother Friday, poems with presence, Surgery, The Visitors, Two Women Dancing, women's poetry, Women's Poetry List-Serv

British poet, Elizabeth Bartlett, passed away in 2008 at the age of 84. Her first collection appeared when she was well into her 50’s and drew high praise for her skill in evoking the lives and faces of the ordinary people she ran across in her work with the National Health Services.  Critic Adam Thorpe, described her as “a kind of weird cross between Anne Sexton and Philip Larkin,” and editor Peter Forbes called her a chronicler of “damaged Britain”.

Each of her poems has a very physical presence that any student of poetry would do well to examine. “The Visitors,” written about a patient who suffered from hallucinations, is perhaps one of her best examples.  Find both the text and a lovely sound file of the poet reading at The Poetry Archive.

Listen to it several times and then skip on over to the Poetry Book Society (UK) and read her more tender “Surgery,” which with its deep vein of emotion opens Bartlett’s work up to even those that would snub poetry.

If you do not already own one of her collections, I suggest you start with Two Women Dancing (Bloodaxe), which is perhaps my favorite sampling, as it touches on broader issues as well as her own motherhood and marriage.

*If you’d like to explore more great women’s poetry, visit the Women’s Poetry List-Serv and search for “Foremother Friday”.