To discover this amazing resource? Why does it give me an odd, voyeuristic thrill to keyword-search “poetry” and find out what’s been written in the 44,000+ plus blog entries in the last hour that mention the word? It wasn’t actually an individual blog that struck me, though. I came across this item, which is worth repeating, in case your local newspaper didn’t carry it. U.S. Poet Laureate to Offer Free Newspaper Column The Seattle Post-Intelligencer…
Today is the 129th anniversary of this event: On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson had a breakthrough. The men were in separate rooms in the house where they had been working on a remote communication device. Bell spilled battery acid on his pants and said into the device, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” Watson, listening to the receiving device, heard Bell’s words and rushed down the hall. This…
Scent of Home The air is like no other. As I reach the edge of San Pedro after years away, a perfume yet to be named thrills my nose, an eclectic brew of aluminum and salt, tar and eucalyptus. My response is automatic, layers of memory connecting with a long-gone day, making me want to grab my books and charge through the door of Seventh Street School. Any moment now, the air raid siren will…
I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle today by Benny Evangelista that convinced me I don’t want to try podcasting myself. I remain, however, fascinated by podcasting’s potential for transmitting literature. I think what may happen is that podcasters with time and talent will create Internet radio sites for poetry and literature that will develop vigorous — even paying — audiences, much as popular blog sites have turned into a vigorous new form…
“No amount of prayer or meditation can do what helping others can do.” — Meher Baba, born February 25, 1894. One of the things a blog can do is help other poets and writers along their paths. Providing inspiration, ideas, links and simply the camaraderie of knowing that there are others out here, working hard at the craft, suffering the difficulties and enjoying the scant rewards of writing — all these are the help provided…
On Kelli Russell Agodon’s blog is a priceless quote from Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. All writers should make a note of this: “I’ve inadvertently written lots of poems that meant nothing to anybody else, and I’ve mailed those poems to editors from coast to coast, hoping that they would be published, only to realize when they were rejected that I’d written them just for myself. I’d been delighted by what I’d written but I hadn’t…
I finished reading Ann Patchett’s luminous Bel Canto not long ago. As soon as I got well into it, and long after I finished it, I was struck by the thought that this book could never have been written by a man. Well, never is a stupid word in a world that can come up with manatees and twin quasars, but unlikely seems apt — Bel Canto is unlikely to have been written by a…
Just read a hilarious account by Jennifer Weiner, an author who all but turned backflips to get published in The New Yorker, only to be told after moving heaven and earth to get a contact, that she is geographically incorrect in her choice of residence. (Authors, take note: “Talk of the Town” appears to refer only to NYC. If you don’t live there, forget breaking in that way. ) I’m at that stage of submitting…
To blog or not to blog: does it limber up the creative psyche or simply exhaust it? Is it a tool of endless self-promotion or a dialogue in an increasing community? I’ve learned as much about the poetic process in reading a week of blogs as from reading an astute book on craft. Often I’m learning from poets I know, which keeps it interesting. I also have learned a few more things about communications. I’m…
A month or so from now, my book Femme au chapeau will be out. Dread is mixing with anticipation in about the ratio of gin to vermouth in a good martini. There’s so much to do to support a book! It’s truly frightening. First, there’s compiling the mailing list. Then comes the dread prospective reviewers list. Then the chilling media contacts list. Actually, I’m inserting these links as notes to myself on resources. I’ve discovered…