March 17, 2016

March 17, 2016

• Welcome
  • Saint Patrick's Day is a good day to remember William Butler Yeats.
    The Wild Swans at Coole BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS                    The trees are in their autumn beauty,    The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water    Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones    Are nine-and-fifty swans. The nineteenth autumn has come upon me    Since I first made my count; I saw, before I had well finished, All suddenly mount And scatter wheeling in great broken rings    Upon their clamorous wings. I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,    And now my heart is sore. All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,    The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head,    Trod with a lighter tread. Unwearied still, lover by lover, They paddle in the cold Companionable streams or climb the air;    Their hearts have not grown old; Passion or conquest, wander where they will,    Attend upon them still. But now they drift on the still water,    Mysterious, beautiful;    Among what rushes will they build, By what lake's edge or pool Delight men's eyes when I awake some day    To find they have flown away? Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
• News and Jabber
  • National Poetry Month
    1. http://www.trumbulltimes.com/2016/02/12/poetry-in-us-reading-fest-returns-to-trumbull-library-feb-27/ TCTV is calling all poets to get in front of the camera Saturday, Feb. 27 for its annual Poetry in Us Reading Fest.  TCTV is having its fourth annual Poetry in Us Reading Fest at the Trumbull Library’s main branch from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27. Everyone far and near is invited to to come read a poem before the TCTV camera. Then TCTV airs them as interstitials — short segments between shows — during the month of April, to honor the creative community during National Poetry Month. According to TCTV’s Donna Girot, the event will have dozens of poetry books available to peruse for inspiration, and refreshments, too. “Drop in to watch or if you are feeling inspired, to read us a poem,” Girot said. “Sonnet, rap, haiku — any poem will do.” This event is open to people of all ages. 2. http://fairfieldpubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/FPL-Spring-2016-program-WEB.compressed.pdf Poem in Your Pocket Week Thursday, April 21–Thursday, April 28 April is National Poetry Month and April 21 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Started in New York City in 2002, and taken national in 2008 by the American Academy of Poets, Poem in Your Pocket Day celebrates poetry by having people tuck a poem in their pocket to share wherever they go that day. Here at the Fairfield Public Library we will have Poem in Your Pocket Week, because one day just isn’t enough. You will see denim pockets filled with poems hanging in various places in the Library. Take one (or more!) from our pockets and put in yours to share with family, friends, and work mates. You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you. —Joseph Joubert
  • At the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford
    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/nyregion/poets-give-voice-to-art-in-sound-and-sense-at-wadsworth-museum.html?_r=0 Go ahead and recite the verses that accompany the artwork in “Sound and Sense: Poetic Musings in American Art,” at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Feel the pulsing rhythms, like soldiers marching or the relentless ticking of a clock. Listen to the passion: the exuberance of love, the wonderment of nature, the sorrow of loss. Delight in the play of words: “Goosey goosey gander / Whither shall I wander? / Upstairs and downstairs / And in my lady’s chamber.” “Sound and Sense” pairs poetry with about 50 works of visual, sculptural and decorative arts from the museum’s collection. In some instances, the text of the poem is incorporated directly into the artwork. In others, the art illustrates the poem, or the poem illuminates the art. With eclectic selections spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and with objects as diverse as formal portraits, ceramic tableware, scrimshaw carvings and bits of molten revolvers, the pairings are sometimes lighthearted, sometimes provocative, sometimes heartbreaking. “So often in shows, the stories behind the artwork are narrated by the curatorial voice,” Alyce Perry Englund, who conceived and curated the exhibition, said in a telephone interview. “I was looking for different voices to speak for the artwork, to offer new interpretations.” (Ms. Englund was, through last May, the Wadsworth’s curator of American decorative arts; she is currently assistant curator of American decorative arts at theMetropolitan Museum of Art.) Examples: Nearby, a drawing by Rockwell Kent, one of a series illustrating “Moby Dick,” hangs alongside a passage from the novel, a hymn that begins, “The ribs and terrors in the whale … .” One of the doomed crew members about to be tossed from Kent’s upended whaleboat might have proclaimed a line from Herman Melville’s verse: “I saw the opening maw of hell … .” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Part of Walt Whitman’s elegy to Abraham Lincoln, “O Captain! My Captain!,” is next to Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of a somber Lincoln at Gettysburg. “It’s fascinating to have Whitman’s words mourning Lincoln, while Lincoln’s head is bowed mourning the dead lost in the Civil War,” Robin Jaffee Frank, the Wadsworth’s chief curator, said during a walk through the exhibition. “The mood of the two pieces is achingly similar.”
• Current Assignment
  • Bio poem
    • At first I thought this was a weak assignment. Then, after pondering it and after one false start I got into it, prompted in part by a scene from the movie "The Intern" in which Robert DeNiro said he could give his status to a prospective date in ten seconds. I took this abreviated form and wrote my bio poem and thus changed my attitude about the assignment. I hope you did not go to Google for guidance.
    • So who did the assignment?
• Next Assignment
  • It's spring. Write a poem of renewal but write it without the seasons and their typical meanings. None of the I'm growing because the daffodils are growing stuff. I want atypical renewals. One of my poems in the Leesburg book is about the joy of small deaths when compared with the large deaths we see in the world. Find a sense of renewal that is unusual, interesting in a new way.
    Dream Song 77: Seedy Henry rose up shy Seedy Henry rose up shy in de world  & shaved & swung his barbells, duded Henry up  and p.a.'d poor thousands of persons on topics of grand  moment to Henry, ah to those less & none.  Wif a book of his in either hand  he is stript down to move on.  —Come away, Mr. Bones.  —Henry is tired of the winter,  & haircuts, & a squeamish comfy     ruin-prone proud national     mind,     & Spring (in the city so called).  Henry likes Fall.  Hé would be prepared to líve in a world of Fáll  for ever, impenitent Henry.  But the snows and summers grieve & dream;  thése fierce & airy occupations, and love,  raved away so many of Henry's years  it is a wonder that, with in each hand  one of his own mad books and all,  ancient fires for eyes, his head full  & his heart full, he's making ready to move on. © by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
• Other Notes