Thirst (Mary Oliver)
Mary Oliver”s latest book of poetry, Thirst has been hailed as a work of faith and an affirmation of love. At 71, the poet takes a long, loving look at the world around her, and reaffirms the good and the beautiful, while acknowledging that there is darkness as well. This is a powerful book for anyone who loves Oliver”s poetry, and a wonderful introduction to poems of strength, faith and nature.

Strong Is Your Hold (Galway Kinnell)
Kinnell”s first new collection of poetry in over a decade was long-awaited and met with critical praise. The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning poet writes luminous poetry that invites readers to view everyday objects with a poet”s vision. This book contains the entirety of Kinnell”s requiem for the Twin Towers, first published in the New Yorker, “When the Towers Fell”. It includes a CD of the poet reading his own works, with introductions and little stories about each piece as he reads. A truly thoughtful gift for anyone who loves poetry.

I Heard God Laughing (Hafiz, translated by Ladinsky)
Daniel Ladinsky”s translations have helped popularize the poetry of traditional Persian poet Hafiz in the English speaking world. Hafiz” poetry captures the essence of love in all its forms, becoming a journey in which the only constant is growth and transformation.

How to Read Poetry (Terry Eagleton)
For the student of poetry, Eagleton”s book is one of the most accessible discussions on how to read poetry with an ear to more than just “what it says”. Using examples taken from poetry throughout history, he carefully dissects each to show how the mechanics of poetry add to the meaning and feeling of a poem in a way that few others writers can approach.

Collected Poems: 1947-1997 (Allen Ginsberg)
Speaking of long-awaited… this book is an absolute must for any fan of Beat poetry. It”s the first complete collection of Ginsberg”s work. It includes the full text of the 1980 Collected Poems, and adds White Shroud (1986), Cosmopolitan Greetings (1994) and Death and Fame: Last Poems (2000)

The presenter at Grand Rounds on that morning will be the U.S. Poet Laureate, Donald Hall, and his presentation is titled Love and Death and Patrick Clary, founder and owner of The Palliative Care Service. The Grand Rounds announcement was made in the Dartmouth Vox, newspaper for the Dartmouth faculty and staff.

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical specialty that focuses on giving comfort, not only physical but spiritual and emotional as well, to patients and family members facing life threatening illnesses. Some of Hall”s most well known works are the poems and books that deal with the illness and death of his wife, poet Jane Kenyon. Clary, in addition to being the founder of The Palliative Care Service, is a poet as well. His second book of poetry, Dying for Beginners, is due out later this month. As a physician and a poet, he has made it his mission in life to bring comfort to those dealing with all the myriad complications that come along with life threatening illnesses and death.

Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth, invited the two poets to present at Grand Rounds in an attempt to educate and illuminate, he said.

“Good poetry allows us to perceive things we might miss. It stops us and holds our attention and illuminates something real. Donald Hall and Patrick Clary allow us to see, and more importantly, feel how illness, caregiving, and grief both tear at and expand our ability to live deeply.”

Clary”s work has been lauded by many in both poetic circles and the halls of medicine. Says a hospice nurse of his poetry:

After years of reading Dr. Clary”s poems to patients and pedestrians, finally, I can carry his work to everyone whose path will be enriched by his rare, articulate and compassionate company.
— Virginia Lynn Fry

The fact that this need for processing through poetry is being recognized by established medical bodies is encouraging to me, one more bit of evidence that no, poetry is not dead. It is not even on life support. Poetry in today”s world is alive, well and thriving as people in all professions recognize the importance of ritual, poetry and meaning in our lives.

Listen to Clary read selections of his poems
Clary”s book is available through Lost Borders Press.

Technorati Tags: poems, poetry, Patrick Clary, poetry healing

The poems in the book were written by clients of the drop in center, and are accompanied by photos taken by them. The book will also include biographies and email addresses where the poets can be contacted. “There”s a lot of pride in the book,” says Rickhaus. “It”s a very big step to have your own poetry in a book [...] In a poem, you”ve poured down your heart. The hard things on your mind are out there, raw, for whoever wants to see. The book was an opportunity for growth.”

The book will be sold at the St. James Drop-In Center and other locations around the city. If you”re interested in knowing more or making arrangements to sell the book at your own venue, email info@stjamescentre.ca.

From nthposition.com”s announcement page:

Nearly 90 poets from around the world have contributed to Babylon Burning: 9/11 five years on, an anthology of poems on the Twin Towers atrocity and its consequences. But we are aiming for more than pious hand-wringing: the anthology will be free, but there is a request to donate to the Red Cross, which works tirelessly to help people caught up in disasters and conflicts, wherever and whoever they are.

Enjoy Babylon Burning, then please give something to the Red Cross.

Please feel free to host it on your site, or email it to friends and colleagues and ask them to consider donating. Like nthposition”s other anthologies, it”s copyleft, so pass it on, spread the word and raise some money…

A paperback version of the anthology will also be available, with all profits going to the Red Cross. Please contact Val Stevenson for notification of when it”s ready.

Remembering the desperate on 9/11
For immediate release
Nearly 90 poets from around the world have contributed to Babylon Burning: 9/11 five years on, an
anthology of poems on the Twin Towers atrocity and its consequences. But they aim for more than pious
hand-wringing: the anthology will be free, but there will be a request to donate to the Red Cross.

nthposition, the site behind the anthology, wants to maximise the money raised by listing it on iTunes as a PDF. Though sales of poetry books are flat, online poetry is booming the internet is “more fluid, flexible, and much more accommodating”, as Marjorie Perloff said recently.

Many of the poets involved contributed to 100 Poets against the War, which the London Times said gave
protest poetry “a new lease of life”. The first edition went online in January 2003, a week after the idea
was floated. Two further online editions and a print edition followed. Readers were encouraged to host
the PDF on their sites or forward it to friends, and tens of thousands of copies were downloaded from
nthposition alone. Val Stevenson, nthposition editor, said: “The success of 100 poets blew us away, but
we”re being more ambitious this time. It”s hard to think of an organisation that”s doing more to help the
desperately needy than Red Cross.”

Todd Swift, the poetry editor, agreed: “Auden said that “poetry makes
nothing happen”, but we think it can, and we”d like to prove it.” Like 100 Poets, Babylon Burning will rely
on readers to spread the word the site is completely unfunded. A print-on-demand paperback of the
anthology will also be available from lulu.com, with all profits going to the Red Cross.

Contributors to Babylon Burning are: Ros Barber, Jim Bennett, Rachel Bentham, Charles Bernstein, bill
bissett, Yvonne Blomer, Stephanie Bolster, Jenna Butler, Jason Camlot, J R Carpenter, Jared Carter,
Patrick Chapman, Sampurna Chattarji, Maxine Chernoff, Tom Chivers, Alfred Corn, Tim Cumming, Margot
Douaihy, Ken Edwards, Adam Elgar, Elaine Feinstein, Peter Finch, Philip Fried, Leah Fritz, Richard Garcia,
Sandra M Gilbert, Nathan Hamilton, Richard Harrison, Kevin Higgins, Will Holloway, Bob Holman, Paul
Hoover, Ranjit Hoskote, Ray Hsu, Halvard Johnson, Chris Jones, Jill Jones, Kavita Joshi, Jonathan
Kaplansky, Wednesday Kennedy, Kasandra Larsen, Tony Lewis-Jones, Dave Lordan, Alexis
Lykiard, Jeffrey Mackie, Mike Marqusee, Chris McCabe, Nigel McLoughlin, Pauline Michel, Peter Middleton,
Adrian Mitchell, John Mole, David Morley, George Murray, Alistair Noon, D Nurkse, John Oughton, Ruth
Padel, Richard Peabody, Tom Phillips, David Prater, Lisa Pasold, Victoria Ramsay, Harold Rhenisch, Noel
Rooney, Joe Ross, Myra Schneider, Robert Sheppard, Zaid Shlah, Henry Shukman, Penelope Shuttle, John
Siddique, Goran Simic, Hal Sirowitz, Heather Grace Stewart, Andrew Steinmetz, John Stiles, William E
Stobb, jordan stone, Sean Street, Joel Tan, Nathaniel Tarn, Mark Terrill, Helên Thomas, Vincent Tinguely,
Rodrigo Toscano, John Tranter and John Welch. All gave their work for free.
Babylon Burning is available from nthposition.com/babylonburning.pdf

+++
Notes
nthposition was shortlisted for the 2002 European Online Journalism Awards, nominated for a People”s
Voice award in the 2003 Webbys, and won a Readers” Poll award in the 2004 Utne Independent Press
Awards. In 2005, the site was selected as Webby Worthy, and in 2006 it was archived into the British
Library”s permanent collection. More from the “About us” page. Val Stevenson, nthposition”s editor, is a
reviews editor and writer. Todd Swift, Babylon Burning”s editor, writes, edits and teaches poetry.
Contacts: Till 7 September – Val Stevenson: val@nthposition.com
After 8 September, Todd Swift: toddswift@clara.co.uk

My Pick
Thirst (Oct., $22) by Mary Oliver presents 38 new poems from the Pulitzer Prize winner, illuminating her perspective on grief, loss and faith.
# Hardcover: 88 pages
# Publisher: Beacon Press; 1st edition (October 4, 2006)
The reviews are, as always, good, though there”s a strong undercurrent that Oliver has taken a new direction in her work. The Publishers Weekly review suggests that some readers may find some of the poems heavy-handed in their religious imagery.

The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems: 1937-1952 (Oct., $27.50) by Allen Ginsberg contains previously unpublished poems by the Beat Generation poet.
# Hardcover: 416 pages
# Publisher: Da Capo Press (November 2006)
Scheduled for release in November, new poems from Allen Ginsberg. No reviews yet – available from Amazon.ca, but not on the US web site yet.

So What: New and Selected Poems 1973-2005 (Sept., $18) by Taha Muhammad Ali, trans. by Peter Cole and Gabriel Levin. This bilingual collection marks the American debut of the Palestinian poet.
# Paperback: 280 pages
# Publisher: Copper Canyon Press; Bilingual edition (September 2006)
Ali is Palestine”s most highly regarded poet. His work is fresh and forthright, and inspired the Washington Post to say, “He has developed a style that seems both ancient and new, deceptively simple and movingly direct.” So What is the first of Ali”s books to be translated for an American audience. Again, can be pre-ordered on Amazon.ca, but not yet available at Amazon.com.

See the Publishers Weekly list for other releases.

Those are the words that greet you on the National Initiatives page of the National Endowment for the Arts. The project, Operation Homecoming, has been two years in the making. Launched in 2004, the project offered workshops in writing at 25 different domestic and overseas military installations, and sent out a call for submissions to troops who have served in any branch of the service since 9/11. That call drew over 10,000 submissions for inclusion in an anthology. All of those submissions will be permanently archived by the federal government.

The workshops were conducted by writers and poets who included Tom Clancy, Mark Bowden, Bobbie Ann Mason, Tobias Wolff, Jeff Shaara, and Marilyn Nelson. They encouraged servicemen and their families to open up and write honestly and creatively about their experiences during wartime – and the result, according to those who have seen advance copies of the book, is nothing less than stunning.

The anthology is edited by Andrew Carroll, the editor of War Letters, a collection of letters written by soldiers during various engagements. Beginning September 16, Carroll will be doing a 30 city tour to promote the book Operation Homecoming. For tour dates, visit Book tour dates.

“As a teacher I have struggled to find new and innovative ways to instill a love of poetry in my students. This wonderful book of poems was such a big hit with my students that I bought extra copies for our classroom library. Mary O”Neill”s style of writing introduced the concept of poetry without overwhelming the children. They were eager to write and share their own color poems after listening to this collection of easy to follow poems. They also couldn”t wait to take the book home to share with their families. This is a great choice to use as a read aloud or as part of a poetry unit for grades 3 and 4.”

It”s a delightful book to share with your child, your nieces and nephews, a gift for a family with children or as a special gift to leave behind with a favorite teacher. The poems never lose their magic and power to bring color AND poetry to life.

— Be open to everyday things. Some of the most poignant, lasting poetry has its roots in the mundane – the taste of an orange, the feeling of a knife slicing into a tomator, the soft float of a dandelion seed on a stray breeze. Says Peseroff in Steinbaum”s article:

`I try to keep alert for images, sounds, rhythms, something that feels like it has potential. It has to have some kind of emotional engagement for me, something that brings a lump to the throat.”

— Write about things that are “emotionally engaging”. If it brought a smile to your face, made you see red or sent a quiver of sheer awe through you, then you have something to write about. Work with emotion – because more than anything else, poetry is distilled emotion. It is that emotional engagement that comes through in your work, the hook that tugs at your reader and makes them feel what you felt.

— Mull it over. Some images just tug at you. You feel that there is a poem in them, or that they fit into a poem. It may be the perfect phrase that jumped to your lips. It may be the way the sun filters through a child”s bright curls or the smell of turned earth – or something far less pleasnt. But the poem just won”t come. Tuck it away and wait. It will, when it”s ready. Or, to give credit to the poet rather than to anthropomorphize the poem itself, when you”ve processed and are ready to write about it, you will.

— Write it down. Pen and paper, computer keyboard, tape recorder mic – it doesn”t matter. When you actually start to shape a poem, you become engaged with it. It takes on a concrete form that you can push around and manipulate, moving line breaks, erasing words, sculpting it into a rough or finished piece.

— Open yourself to criticism. Some poets have flourished in near isolation – we all know Emily Dickinson, after all. But there is a magic in engaging yourself with other poets and writers and sharing your work with them that transcends laboring away in your lonely garrett. Exposing yourself and your work to other voices and eyes is an inspiration in and of itself. Whether it be a writers” group that meets around a table in a coffee shop or your living room, or an email list of poets whose work you trust and admire, the input of others words both in their own poems and in response to yours is one of the most energizing, inspiring influences of which you can avail yourself.

Joyce Peseroff”s latest book, Eastern Mountain Time, was published in January 2006 by Carnegie-Mellon Press. The publisher says, “Peseroff speculates with a clear-headed, wry look at the world”s catalogues and almanacs of largesse lilies, Jerry Garcia, men in fog, animal joy as well as its sorrow. In startling, original poems full of leaps and digressions that reveal the mind in action, readers will encounter life through a person made raw by observation, a mind processing loss and mortality in a petal, a poet alert to how syntax and language can reconfigure the experience of grief.”

Part of this belief, I think, is in the fact that so much of the “formed” poetry that we read is in the form of rhyming couplets or abab four-line stanzas – which is a true shame when there is such a wide variety of poetic forms from which to draw. Most people – even those who don”t write, or even read, poetry often can name a few – sonnet, haiku, limerick, ballad. As popular as those four are, they barely scratch the surface of the myriad forms that poetry has taken over the ages – villanelle, sestina, pantoum, ghazal, tercet, cinquain, tanka – even the names have a poetic sound to them.

If you have never considered writing in form, have never studied poetic forms, then I would highly recommend adding a few interesting books on the forms of poetry to your bookshelf. My own personal favorites include:

The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics (Lewis Turco)

Poetic Meter and Poetic Form (Paul Fusell)

Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms (Babette Deutsch)

Rhyme”s Reason: A Guide to English Verse (John Hollander)

Strong Measures: Contemporary American Poetry in Traditional Form (Dacey & Jauss)

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (Mark Strand)

No one of these is, in and of itself, a complete guide to all the myriad forms of poetry – but any one is an excellent introduction to the notion of writing in meter and rhyme, and taken together, they will give any poet a comprehensive grounding in the art. And honestly? Flipping through to a random form and fitting a poem to it is just plain fun!

Thirsty and languorous after their long black sleep
The old gods crooned and shuffled and shook their heads.

Say it aloud and feel how the rhythm moves the line along, how the l sounds in the first line succumb to the sh sounds in the second – this is mastery of sound. So I feel justified in stating plainly that there are few others writing today more qualified to write on how to use the magic of sound in your poetry. The book is not a comprehensive or exhaustive list of exercises. It isn”t replete with diagrammed lines showing how the stresses of the lines rise and fall in dactyls and anapests. Instead, Pinsky moves to the heart of things, covering rhythm, stresses, accents, the differences between long and short sounds and how pitch, length and volume all contribute to accenting a syllable or leaving it unstressed.

While this may all sound like a book for advanced poets, it is not. If anything, beginners with little notion of anapests and iambs will benefit even more from learning by sound rather than by rote. This is easily one of the most valuable books I have ever had the joy of reading, explaining in clear terms how sound informs and elevates poetry.