Harvey Pekar did the introduction to my first Iniquity press/Vendetta chapbook, A Portable Winter, back in 1999. Dave Roskos, perhaps the only true publisher and editor I know in the old sense (one hundred percent care about the underground and off the fringe poets, and zero percent bullshit) asked him to do it, and he read some of my stuff, called me up, asked me some questions, and did the intro. I spent an hour on the phone with him, finding out in that time that his wife occasionally hit him, he was getting up at ungodly hours to take his kid to various sports events, and he had cancer. A couple years later, he’d beaten that round of cancer and things were looking up. Harvey liked to kvetch. He was a great kvetcher. I like to kvetch, too. We got along. The article about his death mentioned he was [...]

Episode 5 of Poetry Fix! Louise Gluck’s “Mock Orange.”

Episode 4 now available on YouTube. Wallace Stevens’s poem “.” Related Posts Poetry Fix Episode 3: Pablo Neruda Poetry Fix Episode 1: Robert Hass.June 25, 2010 Poetry Fix Episode 2: ArchilochosJune 28, 2010 TheThe Roger Scruton on Beauty

Hey friends, Mary Karr and I have started a YouTube video series called Poetry Fix. . Twice a week on Mondays and Fridays we’ll upload a 2-4 minute video where we read a poem and briefly discuss it. We’re trying to pimp poetry for average humans. Any feedback is appreciated. We hope you enjoy. And if you do, consider joining and (@marykarrlit) for more updates. Also, please forward and spread the word! Share this: Related Posts Poetry Fix Episode 1: Robert Hass. June 25, 2010 Poetry Fix Episode 2: Archilochos June 28, 2010 Roger Scruton on Beauty Herman Melville Drinks Your Milkshake “While I was masturbating, more rainforest disappeared”

Poetry Fix Episode 9: Seamus Heaney’s “Digging.” Related posts: Poetry Fix Episode 8: Nicanor Parra Poetry Fix Episode 5: Louise Gluck Poetry Fix Episode 7: Robert Frost Poetry Fix Episode 6: Miroslav Holub Poetry Fix Episode 3: Pablo Neruda

Episode 8 of Poetry Fix now available. Related posts: Poetry Fix Episode 3: Pablo Neruda Poetry Fix Episode 1: Robert Hass. Poetry Fix Episode 5: Louise Gluck Poetry Fix Episode 6: Miroslav Holub Poetry Fix Episode 7: Robert Frost

Episode 7 of Poetry Fix: Robert Frosts’s “Once by the Pacific.” Poetry Fix Episode 8: Nicanor Parra Poetry Fix Episode 6: Miroslav Holub Poetry Fix Episode 9: Seamus Heaney Poetry Fix Episode 5: Louise Gluck tagged as Chrs Robinson, Episode 7, Mary Karr, Once by the Pacific, Poetry Fix, Robert Frost, YouTube

of Poetry Fix. Miroslav Holub’s “Ode to Joy.” Poetry Fix Episode 7: Robert Frost Poetry Fix Episode 5: Louise Gluck Poetry Fix Episode 4: Wallace Stevens Celebrating Sylvia tagged as Chris Robinson, Episode 6, Mary Karr, Miroslav Holub, Ode to Joy, YouTube

In a recent post, I based a discussion about the relationship between the poetic line and print culture on some of Marshall McLuhan’s ideas. I was recently listening to the below lecture by McLuhan and he discussed the effects of the phonetic alphabet. He said that the phonetic alphabet divorced the visual sense from the other senses by emphasizing it above the others. This separation creates the possibility of linearity, the space for “logicians, analysts, classifiers, the individualist pattern of Greek life.” The phoenecian alphabet made possible Euclid, who revealed that visual space is continuous and connected and homogeneous and static. All the other spaces created by the other senses–of touch, acoustics, kinesthesial–all these other senses are discontinuous, resonant and dynamic.” He gives an interesting example to demonstrate this. A boy is on his first flight and asks his dad, “When do we get small?” The “canopy” of the plane [...]

FIRST ANNUAL MAGGY POETRY CONTEST JUDGED BY DARA WIER (HAS BEEN EXTENDED!) Maggy poetry magazine is proud to announce its first poetry contest, with winning poems selected by Dara Wier. Winning poems will be published in Maggy, issue 2, due out in fall 2010, and will announced by September 1st. All winning entries will be selected anonymously by Dara Wier. Dara Wier is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including most recently, Selected Poems (Wave Books, 2009), Remnants of Hannah (2006), Reverse Rapture (2005), which received the 2006 SFSU Poetry Center Book Award, Hat On a Pond (2002), Voyages in English (2001), Our Master Plan(1998), which received the Phi Beta Kappa Award, Blue for the Plough(1992), The Book of Knowledge (1988),All You Have in Common (1984), The 8-Step Grapevine (1980), and Blood, Hook & Eye (1977). Guidelines 1. All entries must be previously unpublished poems. 2. Do not include [...]

I don’t feel bad when poets are forgotten. We are highly forgettable beings. Very often, the children of poets try to forget them and fail. Poets can be pains in the ass. I once dreamed that poets became discarded shoes without a match when they died—the kind of shoes you often encounter while walking down a street or by the rail road tracks. Sometimes, these shoes are still in good shape, and are your size, but they are always missing their partner. Oh Alas! If we lived in a world where it was ok to wear unmatched shoes, I might value poets more. But, putting this aside, discarding it like a three inch “fuck me” pump, I will say that I get very sad when good poems are forgotten. And so, I want to remember a good poem by a poet who was once prominent, and who is now seldom [...]

Preamble of questions Is there such a thing as “poetic language?” For example, which of the following words are poetic: Splat, emptiness, selvage, corporatization, loom, sequester, actually, rooster, surmise, demonstrate, fart, interpretation, destiny, tooth, ineluctable, meme, vector, duplicity, comma, consequence, drive, chant, teeter, tumult, fragrant, flounder, forget, suspend? Pick four words of five words from this list you think are most “poetic” and write a four line free verse or rhymed poem, using them. Example one: The shadows of trees are a (loom) On which you (sequester) your fear, Containing it through the (ineluctable) (chant) of days, through the weave, and thread of (tumult). Example two: (Drive) South on routes 1 and 9, Forsake (corporatization), and the rotting (tooth) of conscience.. Oh love, (suspend) your adorations until further notice! Example three: The lions (fart) in the sun. (Fragrant) with longing, I think of them: Those noble cats, ( teeter) on [...]

Related Posts Poetry Fix Episode 1: Robert Hass.June 25, 2010

These are my loose translations of a form in Ireland known as “three things there be.” Long before Saint Patrick came, the Irish thought in threes. They were a triune people, with a Celtic triune God, and they, like most Celts, cast spells, and framed their tales by the magic of threes. I have translated some Triads previously translated by the wonderful Irish poet, Thomas Kinsella. I am arrogant after all. *wink* 1. Three smiles that are worse than griefs: the smile of snow melting on the heaths, the smile of wives who to rogues their pleasures bring, the smile of a mastiff, teeth bared, about to spring. 2. Three qualities of a fair tale: good flow like rivers made from ale, full depth of thought just like the sea, and as with youth– sweet brevity. 3. Three qualities of a tale told ill: Much stiffness, like the hairs of [...]

Wendell Berry , and it got me thinking. While I know this news story isn’t directly related to the topic of poetry (and this is–loosely–a poetry blog), I can’t help but feel it connects on some other level as we (poets) think about the relationship of our poetry to the world around us. Most of my exposure to the world of modern poetry has taken place through the university system. And while I know there are many poets writing and thriving outside the university system, it seems to me that the relationship of modern poetry is hopelessly enmeshed with our modern universities. Let’s admit it, the modern university (as well as the various foundations, titles, etc.) gives us poets the prestige we desperately desire. Would we be satisfied reading in bars the rest of our lives? Some of us would, but many of us would feel cheated. We want, as [...]