I want to propose something you may find radical: that spending time on Facebook is not only not a waste, but a good influence on your writing. I hear you thinking of the fifty ways it is bad for your writing: the many varieties of distraction, the dumbing-down of social intercourse, invitations to sleaze and prurience, absurd brevity of newsfeed posts (who actually “reads more”), and the five-second-attention-span atmosphere, when your considered comment scrolls into…
Kate Benedict and guest editor Robert Schechter have created a superb new double issue of Umbrella, the eminently readable zine, and Bumbershoot, the annual of light verse published by Umbrella. The new issue of Bumbershoot is a collection of light verse unequalled, I daresay, anywhere in print or online. I make this claim on the basis of Bob Schechter’s able editing and a guest feature of children’s verse by — drumroll, please — distinguished poet…
A poet friend recently offered to translate my poetry, and it made me thoughtful about the whole process of translation. Some years ago I attempted translations – really they’d have to be called renderings – of Rilke’s sequence of poems in French, “Les Roses.” I showed them to another poet friend fluent in French. She verified my suspicion. My process had carried Rilke’s poems quite far from what you might term translations. I had wanted…
I wonder how many poets have been influenced by rock and roll and the Sixties-Seventies’ impact on language. I’ve been listening to vintage rock, appreciating its new rhythms and language, how much of a formative era it was. At the same time, I’ve been reading poetry by people who came of age then or not long after. They seem to have made a major shift in the handling of the line, using forceful new rhythms,…
News of California’s fiscal totaling is just hitting the media. It’s as pretty a picture as any pileup ever coned off on the fast lane of a freeway. This isn’t a poetry blog entry, but a lament. I can only respond to what may shortly be an official disaster by gardening. That’s right, gardening. Because the first response to devastation must always be new seeds taking hold. As I learned on a lava field in…
Sam Witt has a good article, Who Cares About Poetry? He quotes poet Charles Wright: “Poetry is a stairway to God.” If that’s even sometimes right, it’s a good reason to buy a poetry book! Redheaded Stepchild has a new issue up. The glorious mission of Malaika King Albrecht and Deborah Blakely’s zine is to furnish a place for previously rejected poems. And what good poem hasn’t made the rounds at least once? Some familiar…
A new publication has appeared from Online University Review, the Top 100 Poetry Blogs. Diane Lockward’s Blogalicious is on the list – congrulations, Diane! It has given me a new source for adding to my Blogroll, which I’m regularly doing, now that I cleaned house. Despite the intolerable slowness of the new Blogrolling.com (guys, can you do something about the atrocious loading time?). I noticed that Avoiding the Muse made #33 AND #34 on the…
When the weather is right, the mists part and the stars are in alignment (no, wait, that’s the revival of Hair The Musical), it appears. No, not Brigadoon, the all-new and improved Alsop Review’s Gazebo, a literary workshop at which I serve as a moderator. It has been, at various times, a legitimate claimant to the title of the Web’s most popular poetry workshop, judging by the numbers. We suffered a major hacking event and…
Facebook and Twitter can reduce the mental operations to quips and tweets. Seriously, I think these sites pose a danger for writers. Thinking in sound bites isn’t good for the creative process, unless your job is composing greeting cards. However, I have learned some interesting things on FB. One is that prayer and meditation can reshape your brain, according to NPR. Another interesting thing I learned today is from the Gazebo In Exile, the poetry…
The new and improved Gazebo is right around the corner. Watch this space for announcement: {SPACE} Valparaiso Poetry Review begs to remind you that it has accepted email submissions since its inception in 1999. Now that stamps are 44 cents — you might as well tear a dollar bill in two and paste it on an envelope to send out five poems. Visit https://racheldacus.net for more information and writing by Rachel Dacus.