Week Two #readNDN #2sDayPoems

Tags

#readNDN, #readwomen, Allison Hedge Coke, American Life in Poetry, Bee Poems, Burn, Cell Traffic, Cherokee, Coffee House Press, Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum of Archaic Media, Heid E. Erdrich, Huron, If Bees Were Few, MadHat Press, Metis, Michigan State University Press, Natalie Diaz, Native American Heritage Month, native american poetry, Native American Women's Poetry, Off-Season City Pipe, Ojibwe, Pen Ten interview, Poetry Foundation, Stung, The Change, University of Arizona Press, University of Minnesota, women poets

Award-winning poet and activist Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (Huron/Metis/mixed Cherokee, SE Native) writes the type of poetry that  is seared into the mind like a daguerreotype at the shortest  exposure. Fittingly, her latest collection is titled Burn (MadHat Press, 2017) and is an illustrated poetic endeavor. How cool is that?

Haven’t actually got my hands on it yet, but I hope to love it as much as Dog Road Woman (Coffee House Press, 1997), or Off-Season City Pipe (Coffee House, 2005).

Trust me, you’ll love her work. Here’s  “The Change,” straight outta Dog Road Woman, hosted at the Poetry Foundation archives.

 

So you’ve heard me talk about Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe) before.  ICYMI, I highly recommend her 2012 collection Cell Traffic (Univ. of AZ Press). The jury is still out on her latest Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum of Archaic Media (Michigan State Univ Press). It’s kinda trippy, what with its fairies, QR codes that link to film poems and other weird, but good, shit.

Before you dive into that book, try some of her more earthy work, like “Stung,” from the anthology If Bees Were Few: A Hive of Bee Poems. You’lll want Santa to bring you that one.

And while you’re out there floating in cyberspace, check out this Pen Ten interview with Heid E. and her sister, fellow writer Louise Erdrich, where the ladies answer questions (presented by Natalie Diaz) on writing in general and space for the voices of indigenous women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symbols of Life, Rebirth & Renewal (#2sdayPoems)

Tags

#2sDayPoems, Alice Walker, Andrea Cohen, blue bowls, Cherries, Daily Painter, flash fiction, Fourway Books, Furst Not Mine, Graywolf Press, Jane Kenyon, Kathy Wochele, New England, Orion, Poetry Foundation, Southern, women painters, Women writers

Kathy Wochele–“Cherries ” 8×10

Today’s picks are from New England masters, and are poems short in length but long on symbolism–life (blue bowls), rebirth (cherries) and renewal (robin), to name a few.  I also wanted to gift you with a beautiful bit of flash fiction centered around the same symbolism.

BONUS ALERT===> Click Alice Walker’s “My Mother’s Blue Bowl” to read the piece in its entirety.  And be sure to check out more work from Daily Painter Kathy Wochele, whose painting “Cherries” is featured above.

 

THE BLUE BOWL

by Jane Kenyon

Like primitives we buried the cat

with his bowl. Bare-handed

we scraped sand and gravel

back into the hole. It fell with a hiss

and thud on his side,

on his long red fur, the white feathers

that grew between his toes, and his

long, not to say aquiline, nose.

We stood and brushed each other off.

There are sorrows much keener than these.

Silent the rest of the day, we worked,

ate, stared, and slept. It stormed

all night; now it clears, and a robin…

 

FULL TEXT HERE (w/ audio)

from Collected Poems (Graywolf, 2005)

 

CHERRIES

by Andrea Cohen

 

In the minute it took
to fetch the blue bowl

from the kitchen
to pick the just-ripe

cherries, the blackbirds
had come. They picked

the branches clean, ascending
into their own blue bowl.

Lacking wings, I…

 

FULL TEXT HERE
latest collection: Furs Not Mine (Fourway, 2015)

American Landscapes (#2sdayPoems)

Tags

2sDay Poems, American Landscape, BOA, Constance Urdang, In a Landscape, John Gallaher, Pitt Poetry Series, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Out Loud, The Lone Woman and Others

Roadside “lawn ornament” (Mount Airy, NC)

I recently ran across this image of Mount Airy, NC’s Big Apple Cow in flickr wonderland.  Hope Bill doesn’t mind the link.  It made me think of a poem I’d seen on Poetry Out Loud in April, which led me back to another poem from  Poetry mag (June 2014), which ended in this interesting but somewhat rambling post. There are apples and cows and interior/American landscapes. Well, just read the post.

[ Use the links for full text, author bio and collection info.]

 

IN A LANDSCAPE: I
by John Gallaher

“Are you happy?” That’s a good place to start, or maybe,

“Do you think you’re happy?” with its more negative

tone. Sometimes you’re walking, sometimes falling. That’s part

of the problem too, but not all of the problem. Flowers out the window

or on the windowsill, and so someone brought flowers.

We spend a long time interested in which way the car would

best go in the driveway. Is that the beginning of an answer?

Some way to say who we are?

 

Well, it brings us up to now, at any rate, as the limitations

of structure, which is the way we need for it to be. Invent some muses

and invoke them, or save them for the yard, some animus

to get us going. And what was it Michael said yesterday? That

the committee to do all these good things has an agenda to do all these

other things as well, that we decide are less good in our estimation,

so then we have this difficulty. It just gets to you sometimes. We have

a table of red apples and a table of green apples, and someone asks you

about apples, but that’s too general, you think, as you’ve made several distinctions to get to this place of two tables, two colors. How can that be an answer to anything?…

 

FULL TEXT HERE

from In a Landscape(BOA,2014)

 

TO LIVE WITH A LANDSCAPE

By Constance Urdang

 

      1

Take your boulevards, your Locust Street,

Your Chestnut, Pine, your Olive,

Take your Forest Park and Shaw’s Garden,

Your avenues that lead past street-corner violence,

Past your West End, past your Limit,

To shabby suburban crime,

Vandalism in the parking-lot,

Abductions from the shopping mall—

Like making the same mistake over and over

On the piano or typewriter keys,

Always hitting the wrong note—

How “very alive, very American”

They are, how chockful of metaphysics,

Hellbent to obliterate the wilderness.

 

    2

Learn to live with sycamores,

Their sad, peeling trunks, scabbed all over

With shabby patches, their enormous leaves

In dingy shades of ochre and dun

Rattling like castanets, their roots

Thick as a man’s leg, crawling

Like enormous worms out of the broken pavements,

Continually thrusting themselves up

From pools of shade they make,

Sculpturing the street

With dappled dark and light

As glaucoma, a disease of the eye,

Makes the world more beautiful

With its mysterious rainbows…

 

 

FULL TEXT HERE
from The Lone Woman and Others (Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1980)

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 22)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, C.D. Wright, craft talks, Dead Poets Society, Deep South Magazine, Dorianne Laux, Emily Bedard, Flashbang Writing Studio, Guerilla Poetry, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Lisa Ann Sandell, Luci Brock-Broido, Mary Oliver, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Natalie Diaz, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetically Speaking, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, Poetry Northwest, poetry prompts, Sarah Heller, Shane Rhodes, Stories& Slams, Susan Stewart, West Trestle Review, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY-TWO of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

Stories& Slams’ “Cancer Sonnets”
Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Praise Poems after Christopher Smart”
West Trestle Review’s “First Person POV Historical Figure prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Nature Poems”
ARTSPEAK #22: “Peto’s Straw Hat, Bag and Umbrella”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Elements of Nature prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form: Apostrophe/Poems of Address”
Wild Violet’s “S is for Sevenling prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Pastoral poems”
Pink Ink Press’ “Poems about Home”
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads’ “Perfect Love Poem w/ Julia Bird’s Formula”
Mslexia’s “First Time prompt”
30dpc’s “Let’s Get Physical prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Mary Oliver| “Sleeping in the Forest”
Susan Stewart| “Four Questions Regarding the Dreams of Animals”
Natalie Diaz| “Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball”
Shane Rhodes| “Still Life with Apple” (w/ commentary)
Sarah Sloat| “Grassland” (video)
Dorianne Laux| “How to Sleep”

Miscellaneous

Emily Bedard on Reading Luci Brock-Broido in Mexico at Poetry Northwest
Understanding Poetry clip from Dead Poets Society
Talking Guerilla Poetry with C.D. Wright at Deep South Magazine
Poetically Speaking with Lisa Ann Sandell at Miss Print

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 21)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, Ampersand podcast, Anne Harding Woodworth, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, craft talks, Degas, Distinguished Writers, Dorianne Laux, Flashbang Writing Studio, floodmark poetry, G.C. Waldrep, Jessica Goodfellow, Kenzie Allen, Kevin Young, Mark Doty, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, Natalie Diaz, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, The Art of Reading (Poetry) Well, the language inside, West Trestle Review, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY-ONE of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Golden Shovel prompt”
West Trestle Review’s “Talking Pet prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “What You Are/What You Are Not prompt “
ARTSPEAK #21: “Degas’ The Dance Lesson”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Treasured Keepsakes prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Persona poems”
Wild Violet’s “R is for Repetition prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Erasure prompt”
Floodmark Poetry’s “Word List prompt”
The Language Inside’s “Transformation/Masks/Costume prompt”
Mslexia’s “Objects that Belonged to Your Parents prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Jessica Goodfellow| “Rain”
Anne Harding Woodworth| “Empty Nest”
Natalie Diaz| “Grief Work”
Kenzie Allen| “Pathology”
G.C. Waldrep| “Settlement Song”
Dorianne Laux| “Bed”
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat| “Day 17 (of the Omer): Taste & See”

Miscellaneous

Dorianne Laux and Kevin Young: Distinguished Writers Series at Wellesley College (video)
The Art of Reading Well: Poetry as an Art & Craft at dark ecologies
Ampersand: Poets& Writers podcast 1 ( Interview w/ Mark Doty)

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 20)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, Amiri Baraka, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, Ava Leavell Haymon, Carolynn Caddy, contemporary irish women poets, Corey Marks, craft talks, Fishouse, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Jericho Brown, Julia Alvarez, Maria Popova, Mark Strand, Molly Spencer, Orlando White, Poem a Day, Poethead, Poetic Asides, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY TWENTY of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

West Trestle Review’s “Through the Eyes of Your Nemesis prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “My (blank), the (blank) TITLE prompt “
ARTSPEAK # “Van Gogh’s Flowerbeds in Holland”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Fireside Yarn prompt”
Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “What’s Your Name? prompt”
Wild Violet’s “Stream of Consciousness Poems after Barbara Guest”
REWIND Adele Kenny’s “Food poetry prompt”
REWIND Poem Virtual’s “Domestic Poems after Kevin Prufer’s Seeds”
REWIND Cupertino Poet Laureate’s “Monday, Monday poems”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Molly Spencer| “Survival Guide for the Girl Trying to Avoid Capture”
Jericho Brown| “N’em”
Ava Leavell Haymon| “What the Witch Wanted” (video)
Carolyn Caddy| “Editing the Moon”
Mark Strand| “Dreams” (read by Maria Popova)
Julia Alvarez| “Hairbands”
Marilyn Chin| “How I Got That Name”
Orlando White| “Circle Shape”
Mary Robinson| “January, 1795”

Miscellaneous

Four Poets on the Legacy of Amiri Baraka at Lit Hub
An Index of Contemporary Irish Women Poets

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 19)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 52 blog, A River& Sound, Apparatus Magazine, artspeak, Boston Poetry Slam, craft talks, Deirdre Hines, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Food Poems, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Julie Feng, Lavinia Greenlaw, lesfemmesfollesbooks, lunch poems, Mary Cornish, Mei Mei Berssenbrugge, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, Poem a Day, poet interviews, Poetic Asides, Poetry 180, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, Rachel Dacus, Saveur, Tony Hoagland, Wild Violet, women poets, Yehuda Amichai, Younger Than That Now

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY NINETEEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

Drunk in a Midnight Choir’s “Letter to an Extinct Species prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Landay prompt”
lesfemmesfollesbooks’ “What Breasts are Not & What They Could Be prompt”
Younger Than That Now’s “How to Fail prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Authority Poems “
Negative Capability Press’ “Tootsies prompt”
ARTSPEAK #19 “La Forge’s Fisherman Spearing a Fish”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Google Image prompt”
Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “The Other Half of the Lemon/Mae West prompt”
Mslexia’s “Memories of [location] and [name of person] prompt”
Wild Violet’s “Q is for Quinzaine”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Rachel Dacus| “The Life of Umbrellas”
Tony Hoagland| “The Word”
Lavinia Greenlaw| “Blue Field” (w audio)
Deirdre Hines| “The Problem with Coats” (video)
Mary Cornish| “Numbers”
Yehuda Amichai| Near the Wall of a House”
Julie Feng| “Heliotropism”

Miscellaneous

A Feast for Bards: 13 Favorite Food Poems at Saveur
Lunch Poems: Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 18)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 52 blog, Anita Endrezze, Apparatus Magazine, Boston Poetry Slam, Chuck Perkins, craft talks, CryptoPo, Ellen Moody, Garrett Hongo, Harriet blog, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Jo Pitkin, Joy Harjo, lunch poems, Lyn Hejinian, Marge Piercy, Michael Dwayne Smith, mslexia, Negative Capability Press, New Orleans poet, pink ink press, Poem a Day, poet interviews, Poetic Asides, poetry foremothers, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, the language inside, Wendy Pratt, Wild Violet, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY EIGHTEEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

NaPoWriMo’s “Urgent Journey prompt”
REWIND 52 blog’s “HOME prompt after Zepeda, Figura or Sheryl St. Germaine”
REWIND Boston Poetry Slam “Urban Myth prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Vowels Poems “
Negative Capability Press’ “Bernadette Mayer Experiments prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “Personifying the Muse prompt”
Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Twitter Poems”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Exploring Music prompt”
The Language Inside’s “Holiday rituals & traditions prompt”
Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “Words of Nimoy or Pratchett prompt”
Mslexia’s “Eavesdrop prompt”
Wild Violet’s “P is for Prose Poems”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Marge Piercy| “The Scent of Apple Cake”
Jo Pitkin| “Luna Moths”
Anita Endrezze| “This is a Poem About Indians”
Wendy Pratt| “Nan Hardwick Turns Into a Hare”
Joy Harjo| “Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace”
Garrett Hongo| “I Got Heaven…”
Michael Dwayne Smith| “How to Grieve”
Chuck Perkins| “Jack”

Miscellaneous

Post-Poetry, Part 1: CryptoPo at Harriet Blog
30 Poetry Foremothers presented by Ellen Moody
Lunch Poems: Lyn Hejinian

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 17)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, Apparatus Magazine, BOMB magazine, Boston Poetry Slam, craft talks, Drunken Boat, Ed Bok Lee, Karen Marie Christa Minns, Kay Ryan, Kimiko Hahn, Liesl Muller, Matthew Zapruder, Miss Rumphius Effect, Monica Ferrell, Negative Capability Press, pink ink press, Poem a Day, poet interviews, Poetic Asides, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry prompts, Sherman Alexie, the language inside, tweetspeak, West Trestle Review, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY SEVENTEEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

West Trestle Review’s “Self Portrait with ____ prompt”
Boston Poetry Slam “Quaint Tech prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Swing Poems “
Negative Capability Press’ “Dare to Bitch prompt”
Pink Ink Press’ “Frantically Searching prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Social Media style prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form: Acrostics”
Apparatus Magazine’s “Bits of Whimsy prompt”
The Language Inside’s “Place, TIme, Change IN A YEAR prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Karen Marie Christa Minns| “Winter”
Matthew Zapruder| “Birds of Texas”
Liesl Mueller| “Naming the Animals”
Monica Ferrell| “The Coin of Your Country”
Kay Ryan| “Tenderness and Rot”
Ed Bok Lee| “Several Mountains”
Kimiko Hahn| “Sparrow” (w/ audio)
Sherman Alexie| “The Pow Wow at the End of the World”

Miscellaneous
Speaker in a Future Age: Ed Bok Lee on Poetry, Places and the Death of Tongues
Cooling the Surface, Tending the Cracks: An Interview with Kay Ryan
Interview w/ Vievee Francis at Muzzle
Artists in Conversation: Kimiko Hahn at BOMB

#NationalPoetryMonth Round-up (Day 16)

Tags

#NaPoWriMo, #NationalPoetryMonth, #NPM15, 30dpc, Adrian Blevins, AGNI, Black Poets, Books on the Nightstand, Boston Poetry Slam, Cleaver magazine, craft talks, crime poetry, Eric Nelson, Flashbang Writing Studio, found poems, Holocaust Poetry, Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, Jeremy Freedman, Jynne Martin, macaroni verse, Miss Rumphius Effect, mslexia, native american poetry, Negative Capability Press, Nikki Giovanni, On Being blog, pink ink press, Poem a Day, Poetic Asides, Poetry Foundation, Poetry magazine, poetry of witness, poetry prompts, Pooky Poetry, Rita Ann Higgins, Rita Dove, science poems, Sestinas, Sherman Alexie, terzanelles, Theodore Roethke, tweetspeak, W.S. Merwin, women poets

The best prompts, poems and news from DAY SIXTEEN of #NaPoWriMo/#NPM15 /#NationalPoetryMonth.

Best of the Prompts

Boston Poetry Slam “Directions for Putting Inanimate Objects to Sleep prompt”
REWIND 52 blog’s “Macaroni verse (dual language) prompt”
Poetic Asides P-A-D “Science Poems “
Negative Capability Press’ “Documentary Poems”
Pink Ink Press’ “There’s something misleading about clocks prompt”
NaPoWriMo’s “Terzanelles”
Flashbang Writing Studio’s “Back and Forth prompt”
Miss Rumphius Effect’s “Jumping Into Form: Sonnets w/ template”
Mslexia “One Sentence poems”
Imaginary Garden w/ Real Toads’ “Visionary Art prompt”
30dpc’s “Fake Commencement poems”
REWIND Pooky Poetry’s “Poems featuring the Opening & Closing of Doors prompt”
Found Poetry’s “Tax Form prompt”
Tweetspeak” “Sestina prompt”

Poems I Have Loved (Tweeters’ Shares)

Eric Nelson| “Apostrophe to Apostrophe”
Rita Dove| “Ach, Wien” (w/ audio)
Theodore Roethke| “Elegy for Jane”
Jeremy Freedman| “The Duck Lady”
Nikki Giovanni| “Ego Tripping” (video)
W.S. Merwin| “Thanks”
Rita Ann Higgins| “Be Someone”
Adrian Blevins| “How to Cook a Wolf”
Sherman Alexie| “Steel Anniversary”

Miscellaneous

20 Black Poets You Should Know (and Love) at The Root
Celebrating National Poetry Month w/ Jynne Martin podcast at Books on the Nightstand
Catalog of Crime Poetry at The Five-Two blog
Native American Poetry Sampler at Poetry mag
Holocaust Poetry: The Poetry of Bearing Witness at On Being