Photo by Vic Burkhammer
Some say poetry is the center of the moment, compressed. A way of looking at the world. Words of iron, butterfly words. Poetry can be both terrifying, comforting. Saying the unsayable.
My friends and I rarely write letters these days, the kind you find tucked away in a book years later. I found one the other day, and it captured my imagination.
Covenant House sends along a reminder about “Poetry & Politics: Protest in Verse” coming up soon, 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 8, 2008.
Click here to view flyer.
AFTER WEST. By James Harms. 77 pgs. Carnegie Mellon University Press. 2008. $14.95 paper
By Vic Burkhammer
MountainWord
WVU’s director of creative writing James Harms has published a new book of poems called “After West.”
This is his sixth, and it has me thinking again about the
whole notion of “west” and what it means.
“After West” the poem, the long centerpiece, weaves together many threads of the idea of “west.”
I simmer with possibilities while I read this book — I’m thinking of “The American Adam” by R.W.B. Lewis and how after the War of 1812 an air of optimism emerged in American life…. And then I’m thinking of the 20th century’s air of loss that extends into today. How we deal with that I think is part of what this book is about.
Carolyn Rose Garcia of Notre Dame High School, Harrison County, West Virginia, was one of the 12 finalists in the national Poetry Out Loud finals, according to the Poetry Foundation. She won a $1,000 scholarship prize and her school received $500 for poetry books.
ABZ, A Poetry Magazine, is continuing its poetry prize for a first book of poems.
In 2007, David Baker selected “Postcard on Parchment” by Christine Stewart-Nuñez. That book has just been published and is available from ABZ Press, from your local bookstore or from an online source.
Gary Snyder has won the 2008 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a $100,000 lifetime achievement award from the Poetry Foundation. The prize will be presented at the Arts Club of Chicago on May 20, 2008.
Snyder’s many awards include the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for “Turtle Island.” His “Plain Talk” in the back of that book is as extraordinary now as it was then.
Bring your poems. Bring your friends. The West Virginia Poetry Society online lists a couple of upcoming events:
– A poetry and politics poetry reading, open mic and haiku contest, 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 8, 2008. Hosted by hosted by Randy Elsea. Among those scheduled to perform are Crystal Good, Tuesday Taylor, Holly Cross, John James, Patience Deweese, Dave Roberts and Elliot Roseberry. Sponsored by The Covenant House, The West Virginia Poetry Society, Keep Your Faith Corporation, The West Virginia Mental Health Consumer’s Association and The MiC Group.
– Memorial Day poetry reading and open mic, 6 p.m., Saturday, May 24, 2008. Sign-up begins at 5 p.m. Sponsored by WV Mental Health Consumer’s Association, The MiC Group, and The West Virginia Poetry Society.
For locations, phone contacts and other information about these events, click here.
Press release
Ten soon-to-be graduates of West Virginia University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program will give a free, public reading at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 1, 2008, in Room 130 of Colson Hall on WVU’s Downtown Campus.
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Probably because way back I first heard of Wendell Berry as a poet — and I knew little about his farming, his academic life and other writings, less perhaps about his being an ecologist — and probably because “The Peace of Wild Things” is one of my favorite poems, I think poets and others in West Virginia might appreciate what Berry said at a huge rally in Frankfort, Ky., on Valentine’s Day this year. The Herald-Leader received a flood of letters for not giving more attention to the speech and the vital issues Wendell Berry the poet, the environmental defender, brought forth. For some of these reasons, I think poetry blog readers might find this speech instructive inasmuch as it is as clear a message as a poet can give about mountaintop removal and readers’ relationships with the health of place and community. I’ve uploaded the speech in two parts from YouTube.
