January 2, 2019

News and Jabber

Today, the correspondence between T.S. Eliot and Emily Hale is being opened to the public. By agreement with the couple, the letters have been kept under wraps for fifty years after the death of the later to die. 

Note, too, that the collected poems of Herman Melville have been published. He is much less known for his poetry than his other work but many find his poetry more than estimable. Here is a link to the Library of America piece on its release: https://www.loa.org/books/610-complete-poems. You can find other articles via a google search.

I have been reading Different Hours by Stephen Dunn. His "Dog Weather" struck me as something that should  be posted in every senior center. Read it here:

https://stillgreen.tumblr.com/post/92601677/dog-weather-stephen-dunn?is_related_post=1.

I also came across a Christmas poem by J.R.R. Tolkien. It lay undiscovered in a school library for 80 years, finally found in 1936. It's a lovely poem, worthy of a reading every Christmas. The story about the poem and its discovery, along with the text of the poem may be found at the following link: https://www.carolinemcalisterauthor.com/blog/two-new-tolkien-poems-noel-and-the-shadow-man.

Check out poems by Louis Jenkins, a -mid-America prose poem writer who recently died. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louis-jenkins, and http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=97 for samples.

The next assignment:

Write a humorous poem, something to address Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

The Next Meeting

Will be on January 16, 2019. Bring money. I'll have copies of my new book, Mis-Givings.