dumbfoundry

How to Foster a Poem

1) Select a poem of mine which you would like to foster. In case that poem isn't here, I can bring it in;
2) Send by e-mail to sidgomezhildawa @ rocketmail .com your answers to the 'Questions for Would-be Parents of Poems,' here dated March 28, 2007;
3) If your request is approved, I will include your name in the 'Labels' found at the bottom of the poem you have chosen;
4) As foster-parent to a poem, you agree to take it into your life for some time. One poem at a time, please. I retain all legal rights to my poems and writings;
5) Foster-parents shall be informed of subsequent developments in the life of their chosen poems.

"For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to 'Native Guard' by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin)."

Recently I came across the following quotation from a newspaper column written by Irish novelist and satirist Flann O’Brien in the mid-1940s:

Having considered the matter in – of course – all of its aspects, I have decided that there is no use for poetry. Poetry gives no adequate return in money, is expensive to print by reason of the waste of space occasioned by its form, and nearly always promulgates illusory concepts of life. But a better case for the banning of all poetry is the simple fact that most of it is bad. Nobody is going to manufacture a thousand tons of jam in the expectation that five may be eatable. Furthermore, poetry has the effect on the negligible handful who read it of stimulating them to write poetry themselves. One poem, if widely disseminated, will breed perhaps a thousand inferior copies. The same objection cannot be made in the case of painting or sculpture, because these occupations afford employment for artisans who provide the materials. Moreover, poets are usually unpleasant people who are poor and who insist forever on discussing that incredibly boring subject, ‘books’.

How to dignify such toejam with a response? Where to begin? Perhaps with the obvious: that at first I was struck by this piece’s wit, its ‘droll humour’ already familiar to me from my reading of O’Brien’s novels, including The Third Policeman, At Swim-Two-Birds and The Poor Mouth. Shortly after, however, I started to seethe inside. Despite the influence of the voice of reason inside me whispering Mate, it’s what they call a joke, I began to recall the many and various occasions previous on which I had been told the same thing by some insufferable goon puffed up with self-righteousness, two glasses of clearskin wine and a pathological loathing for “the Left”. I recalled also an observation made by Pam Brown, namely: “Poetry is the only art form that is constantly asked to assess its relevance.” Clearly, one person’s joke is another’s insult; and clearly, also, O’Brien’s ‘droll’ - no, acerbic - wit, while moderately humorous, is representative of a systematic bias against my profession that I no longer find funny.

Poets and artists have very generously donated the following items on this auction blog for the purpose of raising money for the Frank Sherlock EMERGENCY FUND.

[...]

The bidding begins Friday, April 13th, and will stay open until noon, Sunday, May 13th (eastern standard time). Once a week in this time period the bidders will be given updates about the highest bids. On the morning of Sunday, May 13th bidders will be given one more update on the highest bids.

Hi, I'm starting a new print poetry journal (actually it's zine sized). I'm looking for submissions of poetry until July 31st, 2007. I plan on publishing the journal by early December 2007 (maybe earlier I hope). What I'm looking for: Here are some writers I love: Tony Hoagland, Dean Young, Jennifer Knox, Denise Duhamel, Ben Lerner, Kim Addonizio, Bob Hicok. I like humorous and surrealistic poetry, but with some heart and weight to it. I'm open to good formal poetry, as well as free verse. I want poems with exciting ideas more than another perfectly crafted poem that just lies there dead on the page.

Frederick Seidel -- a protege of Ezra Pound and a founding editor of The Paris Review -- is in the running for the lucrative Griffin Poetry Prize.

The Canadian short list, meanwhile, includes two poets from Toronto as well as veteran wordsmith Don McKay from Victoria.

The prize, created seven years ago by Toronto businessman Scott Griffin along with trustees who include writers Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, awards $50,000 to the best book of Canadian poetry and $50,000 to the best book of international poetry. [...]

Seidel's first collection, Final Solutions, created a controversy in 1962 when it was chosen by a jury of Louise Bogan, Stanley Kunitz, and Robert Lowell for an award sponsored by the 92nd Street Y which included a $1,500 honorarium and publication by Atheneum Press. The Y rejected the manuscript, claiming that one of the poems libeled a famous living person and Seidel was unwilling to make the requested edits. In protest, Stanley Kunitz resigned as director of the Poetry Center's workshop, along with Betty Kray, who had worked as the executive secretary for twelve years. Initially, Atheneum agreed to publish the book, even without the Y's support, explaining to the New York Times: "The poetic diction and style may have obscured the intended message, but it is a sincere, honest, and dramatic work of great intensity and was selected by the unanimous decision of three distinguished judges." However, Atheneum eventually dropped the book and it was later published with Random House. Seidel did not publish another book for seventeen years. [...]

FLESHING out Seidel's biography is not easy. He refuses to make public appearances or give readings. He was born in 1936 in St Louis, graduated from Harvard University, and lives in New York City. He has been married and divorced and has two children. In the early 1960s he worked at Paris Review and was an occasional lecturer at Rutgers University.

It's not clear how he makes his living but it may be as a screenwriter: he has cowritten several filmscripts with Mark Peploe, including Samson and Delilah and Afraid of the Dark. Sunrise was dedicated to Jill and Bernardo Bertolucci.

In other words, he travels light, without the backdraft of biographical details or insinuations that allow one to strap his work to the armature of a flesh-and-blood life. He is the author of 14 books and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, in 1999. [...]

Maureen Thorson: This year, as I have done since 2002, I will celebrate National Poetry Writing Month by writing one poem every day for the month of April, and post them to my NaPoWriMo blog. The first year, I NaPoed alone, but in each following year, people have joined me in celebrating the awesomeness of writing first and asking questions later.

So, will you, won't you, will you, won't you join the dance?

In April, Octopus Books will read full-length manuscripts for publication in the winter. All manuscripts will be read anonymously & we will choose at least one book from the submissions we receive. We are asking for a ten-dollar reading fee, which will help fund the project. For more information click here:
http://www.octopusbooks.net/submit.htm