Not Just 2: A Plethora of Medusa Poems & a Giveaway

Tags

#ReadWomen2014, 2sDay Poems, Academy of American Poets, Alice Friman, Body of this Death, British Poets, Carol Ann Duffy, Carvaggio, Chris Wauchop, feminist poets, finger tats, Frederick Sandys, giveaway, Louise Bogan, Medusa Poems, Melissa Dickson, Modern American Poetry, Negative Capability Press, Patricia Smith, Poetry magazine, slam poets, Sweet Aegis, Sylvia Plath, The World's Wife, women poets

Frederick Sandys (1829-1904)

 

 

One of my favorite finds from National Poetry Month is Negative Capability author Melissa Dickson’s  SweetAegis:Medusa Poems.  Enjoy Medusa’s Dilemma (and a bonus poem over on the Dead Mule blog. ) Here’s a link to an interview about the collection.

 

 

 

 

Alice Pike Barney, 1892

 

 

 

Louise Bogan’s darker Medusa is from Poetry’s archives.  The full collection  Body of this Death (1923) is available as a FREE download in several formats at archive.org. Find out more about Bogan’s life and career at Modern American Poetry.

 

 

 

 

 

Caravaggio, 1597

 

Carol Ann Duffy’s Medusa is part of The World’s Wife collection and is widely studied in Secondary Schools in the UK. A brief bio from the British Council.  Hear her speak on her fairytale/mythological characters in an hour-long Reflections Of The Poet Laureate lecture.

 

 

 

 

model by Chris Wauchop

 

 

 

Slam poet Patricia Smith’s Medusa is even more dazzling in person.  Get your performance fix from this Hampshire Slam Collective video. 

 

 

 

 

 

Finger Tat by Bang Bang

 

 

The great Sylvia Plath reads her Medusa in a vintage video find. Astute listeners will note that the spoken version differs slightly from that in The Collected Poems.

 

 

 

 

 

***Have a Medusa poem of your own or admire that of another poet? Post in the comments for a chance to win a set of handmade bookmarks with fairytale/mythological themes.

 

 

Go Ask Alice (2sDay Poems)

Tags

#ReadWomen2014, 2sDay Poems, Alice Friman, Alice Notley, Culture of One, LSU Press, Lucia Stewart, poetry readings, Songs and Stories of the Ghouls, University of Chicago, University of Georgia summer poetry, Vinculum, Wesleyan University Press, women artists

Alice in Wonderland by Lucia Stewart (prints available at Fine Art America)

 

Today’s post features not two poems, but two readings by women poets.  Alice Friman reads at The University of Georgia for Seat in the Shade: Summer Poetry Reading Series, while Alice Notley comes to you from The University of Chicago in a reading sponsored by the Renaissance Society.  Links to the collections read from by both Alices follow the videos. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Purchase Vinculum at LSU Press.

Culture of One available at Penguin/Random House.

Songs and Stories of the Ghouls from Wesleyan University Press.

If You’re Interested in the New Wave of Formalist Poetry…

Tags

#ReadWomen2014, Andrew Wynn Owen, C.A. LaRue, craft essay, Crooked Roads, Formal Verse, formalism, ghazal, Mezzo Cammin, new formalism, poetry movements, Rambling Rose Kelleher, Raspberries for the Ferry, received form, Sabotage Reviews, sestina, silk-ribbon bondage of the sonnet, sonnet, The Emma Press, The Review Review, Unsplendid, Venues for Formal Poetry, villanelle, Women and Form, women poets

 

Skip on over to Sabotage Reviews (UK) where I recently analyzed the young Andrew Wynn Owen’s little gem Raspberries for the Ferry  from The Emma Press.

And then pour through the resources, archives and stellar latest issue at Mezzo Cammin, an online journal devoted to formal poetry by women. I mentioned it briefly in speaking about the also gorgeous online formalist mag Unsplendid  for The Review Review back in 2013.

Unsplendid‘s latest issue is not only a double issue, but dedicated entirely to women+ form.   Perfect for the last days of #ReadWomen2014!!

&

Finally, if you’re a poet writing in received forms yourself (sestina, ghazal, villanelle, sonnet, etc…), use (Rambling) Rose Kelleher‘s handy-dandy VENUES FOR FORMAL POETRY submission guide. (Send updates to the email on her blog.)

Rose also has an interesting essay up from A.E. Stallings called “Crooked Roads Without Improvement:Some Thoughts on Formal Verse” which features insights such as this little zinger…

For me, however, to rule out meter or rhyme as tools available to the poet is far more limiting than the playful, silk-ribbon bondage of the sonnet.

Enticing.  Share your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to see someone come up with a further reading list and/or a list of recommended formalist collections.