Ever since I first read the lines:

Glory be to God for dappled things
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

when I was no more than 12 year old, I have been in love with the musical quality of Gerard Manley Hopkins poetry. His poems play with sound like an artist plays with color, rubbing consonants against each other, stretching vowel sounds by laying them side by side, dancing words in couples that one would not ever imagine together until you see them frolicking on the page. So when I spotted a press release for The Alchemist, it was a given that I”d check it out. Mind you, I”m seldom happy with poetry set to music – unless it was meant that way to start. Song lyrics are song lyrics, after all – poetry of their own genre – and most of the time when I listen to someone”s perception of what the tune of a poem is, it falls far short.

That”s not the case with Sean O”Leary”s musical adaptations of Hopkins” poetry. The musical compositions showcase the poetry as if they were written together, a seamless melding of the poetry of music and the music of poetry. They are absolutely, purely lovely – simple in the way that simplicity is a beautiful thing. They make marvelous use of traditional instruments that one might hear at a Ren Faire, intertwining with the melody and never ever overpowering the beauty of the words.

The Alchemist features the adaptations of 23 of Hopkins” poems, including my favorites, God”s Grandeur and Pied Beauty, but it was The Woodlark that most enchanted me in this collection. And it comes as no surprise to me that O”Leary has released the song as a single to support the cause of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, hoping that Hopkins” celebration of the tiny woodland bird will raise awareness of its status as a vanishing species. It”s another case of poets caring enough to make a difference in our world.

Among the other things dropping into my mailbox this week are updates from Quickmuse, which is rapidly developing into a mini-media sensation. It”s been written up in a few offline newspapers and journals, which has, I”m quite sure, made it easier for the QM folks to entice known poets to feature in their advertised poetry bouts. Since the last time I wrote about the site, they”ve added agons (their word for a head to head poetic bout, adopted from the ancient Greek) from Andrew Hudgins and Charles Bernstein, and Jeffrey McDaniel and Mary Jo Salter. That”s a bout every two weeks, for those who are keeping track.

In addition, Quickmuse is starting to follow the best advice offered to stock market investors – diversify! Coming up in the next few weeks are:

• On September 5, Rick Moody and David Leavitt will do our first-ever fiction program.
• September 20 is an evening of Anglo-Irish poetry, with U.K. Poet Laureate Andrew Motion and Pulitzer Prizewinner Paul Muldoon.
• Famed translators Jonathan Galassi and Geoffrey Brock will do a night of translation on September 27.

That”s all for now. Please let us know if you have any comments or concerns, either at info@quickmuse.com, or in the forums. Cheerio!

And don”t forget to drop by their forums. The discussions there are beginning to get lively – and range far afield from the poetry posted on the main Quickmuse site. In fact, the latest Quickmuse newsletter contains the following invitation:

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Reader Submissions?

Think you can do better? Show us your stuff! Register for the forum and drop your verse here.

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This is definitely one site that gets high recs from us, if only for the fun of seeing what name-brand poets come up with under pressure.

Publishers have 15 more days to make their nomination for the Library of Congress” biennial Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Poetry Prize. Nominations for the $10,000 may be made for the best book of poetry published by a living U.S. author in 2004 or 2005. The selection will be made by a prize jury of three judges selected by a committee of four people – the Poet Laureate Consultant, the Librarian of Congress and two others appointed by the Academy of American Poetry and the Bobbitt family. Read the full press release below:

Library of Congress Seeks Nominations for 2006 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Poetry Prize

Former winners of the award have included:

1990: James Merrill, “The Inner Room”
1992: Shared by Louise Gluck, “Ararat,” and Mark Strand, “A Continuous Life”
1994: A.R. Ammons, “Garbage”
1996: Kenneth Koch, “One Train”
1998: Frank Bidart, “Desire”
2000: David Ferry, “Of No Country I Know: New and Selected Poems and Translations”
2002: Alice Fulton, “Felt”
2004: B.H. Fairchild, “Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest

Dame Louise Bennett-Coverly, Jamaican poet and cultural icon, passed away Wednesday at the age of 86. Better known as Miss Lou, the poet and performer is one of the best loved of all Jamaican artists. Her presence has loomed large in the popular Jamaican culture for decades, and she has been honored by both her own government and others for her work.

Born in 1919, Miss Lou began performing in dialect at the age of 19, and has never stopped. Her poetry and performances are credited with raising Jamaican patois to an art form, and elevating the language of the “common man” to poetry. Her poems capture the spirit of the Jamaican people – the rhythm and swing of the language, the spontaneity of language and expression, their philosphy and religion. A scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art took her to Coventry, England to study during the 1940s. Upon her return to Jamaica, Miss Lou taught drama to both youth and adults in various venues, and lectured widely throughout Jamaica, the U.S., Canada and the world, gaining many honors for her portrayals and her cultural impact. Those honors have included M.B.E., the Norman Manley Award for Excellence (in the field of Arts) , the Order of Jamaica (1974) the Institute of Jamaica”s Musgrave Silver and Gold Medals for distinguished eminence in the field of Arts and Culture, and in 1983 the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies. In September 1988 her composition “You”re going home now”, won a nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema ad Television, for the best original song in the movie “Milk and Honey”.

In 1998 she received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from York University, Toronto, Canada. The Jamaica Government also appointed her Cultural Ambassador at Large for Jamaica. On Jamaica’s independence day 2001, Bennett-Coverly was appointed as a Member of the Order of Merit for her distinguished contribution to the development of the Arts and Culture.

One of the first to react publicly to the news was Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller. Simpson-Miller noted that Miss Lou was one of her own cultural mentors and icons, and ended her expression of condolence with the farewell phrase popularized by Jamaica”s leading comedienne and poet – and which we echo.

Walk good, Miss Lou.

From my mailbox this morning:

Dear Fellow Poet,

The editors of The Backwaters Press are pleased to invite you to submit your best poems for consideration in an anthology of contemporary Nebraska poetry tentatively titled Nebraska Presence: The State of Poetry. This collection will afford readers across the state and the nation a view of Nebraska”s richly diverse poetic voices at twenty-first century”s inception.

Authors may submit up to ten pages of poetry. Please include a brief (no more than 100-word) biography and publication acknowledgements with your submission. Editors will select a total of three pages from the ten submitted for each poet chosen to be represented in the anthology.

To be eligible for inclusion in Nebraska Presence, poets must have work published in at least one major publication, or have published at least one chapbook by a non-vanity press.

The deadline for submissions is July 31, 2006. Final selections will be made by December 31, 2006. We expect the anthology’s arrival in the fall of 2007 in time for the Nebraska Book Festival.

All submissions must be on paper and must be mailed to:

Mary K. Stillwell, Editor
Nebraska Presence
908 Elmwood Avenue.
Lincoln, NE 68510-3320

Please send a SASE for returns if desired.

After selection, electronic copies of the poems will be requested in order to facilitate production.

Sincerely,
The Editors,

Denise Banker
Greg Kosmicki
Mary K. Stillwell