a POEM for your THOUGHTS

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American Life in Poetry: Column 530

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

 

Poets often do their best work when they’re telling us about something they’ve seen without stepping into the poem and talking about themselves. Here’s a lovely poem of observation by Terri Kirby Erickson, who lives in North Carolina. Hospital Parking Lot  Headscarf fluttering in the wind, stockings hanging loose on her vein-roped legs, an old woman clings to her husband as if he were the last tree standing in a storm, though he is not the strong one. His skin is translucent—more like a window than a shade. Without a shirt and coat, we could see his lungs swell and shrink, his heart skip. But he has offered her his arm, and for sixty years, she has taken it.

poetry NEWS/EVENTS - AMHERST, MA

A great Amherst Poetry Festival and Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon weekend! Thank you to everyone who came out last weekend for the annual Amherst Poetry Festival and Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon! The four-day event, led by the reading of all of Dickinson's nearly 2,000 poems, drew hundreds of people (among them longtime marathon participant Steve Fratoni, right, who dressed as Emily Dickinson's father Edward for opening night), included a wide variety of offerings includingpoetry readings, workshops, panels, open mics, and musical performances. We also send our thanks to the many poets, artists, and performers who made this weekend so memorable, our festival co-sponsors, the Amherst Business Improvement District, and our media sponsors, the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Valley Advocate. See you again next year!     October 16: Poetry Discussion Group with Bruce Penniman The monthly Emily Dickinson Museum Poetry Discussion Group meets Friday, October 16, at noon at the First Congregational Church at 165 Main Street in Amherst. The fee is $12 for Museum members, $15 for non-members. The October discussion, "After Great Pain: Responses to Grief in Emily Dickinson's Late Poems and Letters," will be led by Bruce M. Penniman. For the discussion, the group will begin with the death of Dickinson's eight-year-old nephew Thomas Gilbert "Gib" Dickinson in October 1883 and look at several of the letters and poems that she wrote in response to that catastrophe over the next two years. Participants are encouraged to bring along for examination other Dickinson poems about grief, as well as related poems by other writers. The site director of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project and lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Bruce M. Penniman taught writing, speech, and literature at Amherst Regional High School from 1971 until 2007. He has served as a teacher curriculum mentor in all three NEH Emily Dickinson: Person, Poetry, and Place workshops and has facilitated discussions in the Poetry Discussion Group on topics ranging from Emily Dickinson and the Bible to Emily Dickinson and Science.  Find out more about the Emily Dickinson Museum Poetry Discussion Group here.   October 20: Teacher Tuesday at the EDM The Emily Dickinson Museum's first Teacher Tuesday takes place Tuesday, October 20, from 4 to 6 pm.  All educators are invited to this free program to learn about the resources we can provide for them and their students and to explore the Museum! Make an herbarium, read poetry in Emily's bedroom, try your hand at our reverse scavenger hunt, and enjoy some gingerbread and cider. Let the museum inspire your next project with your students. Learn more about our Teacher Tuesday series here.   A Halloween happening at The Evergreens  Get into the spirit of Halloween with The Aspect of the Place, a storytelling celebration of ghosts and all things Gothic at The Evergreens October 28 through November 1 from 6:30-8:30 pm. Co-produced by The Emily Dickinson Museum and TheatreTruck, a roving collaborative, The Aspect of the Place takes the audience through The Evergreens, the home of Austin Dickinson's family and a 'time capsule' of prosperous nineteenth-century life in a small New England town. The piece honors the house, the spooky delights of Victorian ghost stories, and the idea that phantoms walk within.  Tickets are $15, $10 for Museum members. Reserve your tickets here.    November 5: Amherst Art Walk with upstreetliterary magazine The Emily Dickinson Museum's monthly Amherst Art Walk poetry reading on Thursday, November 5 will feature local writers published in the literary magazine upstreet. Howard Faerstein and Maya Janson, both of Florence, are included inupstreet 11, the latest issue. Amy Dryansky of Conway, published inupstreet 9, and Karina Borowicz of Belchertown, who has a poem inupstreet 8 titled "Emily Dickinson's Dress," will also read. Upstreet founding editor and publisher Vivian Dorsel will introduce each poet.  The Amherst Art Walk runs from 5 to 8 pm. The poetry reading, which is free to all, will begin at 6:45 pm in the Homestead parlor.    Dec. 12: Emily Dickinson birthday celebration On Saturday, December 12, the Emily Dickinson Museum will celebrate Dickinson's 185th birthday with an open house of her newly restored bedroom. All are invited to this free open house, which runs from 1 to 4 pm. Stay tuned for more holiday-themed events the Museum will be offering throughout December!    Book your autumn group tours now! The leaves are changing colors, the New England air is brisk, and Emily Dickinson's bedroom restoration is complete - it's a perfect time to book a group tour at the Emily Dickinson Museum! The museum accommodates groups from varied backgrounds who wish to visit the museum, ranging from K-12 field trips to family reunions and alumni groups. Find out more about tours here.  So much grieved for the Little Boy...   Emily Dickinson had a deep love for her nephew Thomas Gilbert "Gib" Dickinson, the youngest of her brother Austin and sister-in-law Susan's three children. The whole family doted on the precocious boy, and were crushed when, on October 5, 1883, Gib died shortly after contracting typhoid fever. "'Open the Door, open the Door, they are waiting for me,' was Gilbert's sweet command in delirium." Dickinson wrote to her friend Elizabeth Holland in the days after his death. "Who were waiting for him, all we possess we would give to know - Anguish at last opened it, and he ran to the little Grave at his Grandparents' feet - All this and more, though is there more? More than Love and Death? Then tell me it's name!" Dickinson had gone to The Evergreens to sit by Gib's bedside the night before he died. Her health deteriorated shortly after, and some scholars believe the grief over Gib's death contributed to her own less than three years later on May 15, 1886.   www.EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org                           Emily Dickinson Museum 280 Main Street, Amherst Massachusetts 01002  |  413-542-8161  |  info@EmilyDickinsonMuseum.org

more poetry news - NYC

105 YEARS OF POETRY Dear Friend, On this day October 10, 1910, the first formal meeting of the Poetry Society of America was held in New York at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park South.  Here are some of things we have been up to since then!  1911: Ezra Pound attends a meeting on the eve of his journey to England. 1913: W. B. Yeats appears before a Society meeting and chants "The Dream of Wandering Aengus" to an enthralled audience. 1918: The first president of the Poetry Society of America, Edward J. Wheeler, finds patrons to donate $500 to establish a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.  1925: Countee Cullen is the recipient of the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Award. (Langston Hughes wins the following year.) 1944: E. E. Cummings is awarded the Shelley Memorial Award.  1952: Elizabeth Bishop is awarded the Shelley Memorial Award.  1967: Marianne Moore receives the Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Art. 1976: Gwendolyn Brooks is awarded the Frost Medal. 1984: Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan share the Shelley Memorial Award. 1992: Poetry in Motion, a public arts initiative placing poems on subways and buses across the country (and reaching millions of people daily), is launched in New York City. 1999: Hettie Jones wins the Norma Farber First Book Award. 2002: The PSA Chapbook Fellowship Program is established. Each year sees the publication of 4 chapbooks, selected and introduced by distinguished contemporary poets. To date, 48 careers in poetry have been launched though this award-winning program. 2007: Kimiko Hahn receives the Shelley Memorial Award. 2010: The PSA's Centennial Celebration "100 Years of American Poetry, 1910-2010" takes place in Cooper Union with U. S. Poets Laureate Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Daniel Hoffman, Kay Ryan, and Charles Simic and with Nathalie Merchant and Maria Tucci. Lucille Clifton is chosen as the PSA's Centennial Frost Medalist. 2013: The Tenth Anniversary Chapbook Fellowship Reading is held at the Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center.     2014: An Actors' Reading of Bertolt Brecht's Love Poems, organized by Tony Kushner, with musical direction by Kimberly Grigsby fills the Bruno Walter Theater at the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. 2015: Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life at the New York Botanical Garden draws more than 500,000 people. Rachel Eliza Griffiths curates the Poetry Walk for this fifth annual partnership between the PSA and the NYBG. Since that October day in 1910, the PSA, still located in the beautiful National Arts Club, is thriving. For 105 years we have worked to place poetry at the crossroads of American life. Because of the dedicated support of poetry lovers like you, the PSA has continuously promoted and honored poetry at readings across the country, on our website, through Poetry in Motion, and with our many outstanding annual awards.  With warm thanks for your continuing generosity and support,   Alice Quinn Executive Director   P.S. Please visit our website to learn more about upcoming programs and our annual awards, or to become a member!

POETRY event - CHICAGO

READING Curbside Splendor Publishing with Erika T. Wurth, W. Todd Kaneko, & Dasha Kelly Tuesday, October 13, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street Free admission Curbside Splendor authors Erika T. Wurth (Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend), W. Todd Kaneko (The Dead Wrestler Elegies), and Dasha Kelly (Almost Crimson) read from their works at this program introduced by Jacob S. Knabb, Curbside Splendor Publishing senior editor.   READING Poetry off the Shelf: Paul Muldoon Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street Free admission Paul Muldoon’s latest collection is One Thousand Things Worth Knowing (2015). He is the author of numerous other books of poetry, including Moy Sand and Gravel, for which he won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. He is the current poetry editor at the New Yorker.   READING Poetry off the Shelf: Joyce Carol Oates Friday, October 16, 7:00 PM Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street Free admission Joyce Carol Oates visits the Poetry Foundation for the first time to read her poetry. The author of many books, Oates has penned best-selling novels, critically acclaimed collections of short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, the unlikely bestseller On Boxing (1987), and a new memoir about her childhood, The Lost Landscape (2015).     CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION Open House Chicago Saturday & Sunday, October 17 & 18, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street Free admission The Poetry Foundation celebrates Open House Chicago, an annual festival weekend that provides an opportunity for people to explore Chicago’s rich architecture, culture, and history by visiting featured sites and neighborhoods in an open-ended format that encourages self-guided exploration.

POETRY NEWS - NYC

HOME | PSA | EVENTS | POETRY | AWARDS | STORE

AWARDS SEASON Annual Awards and Chapbook Fellowships Accepting Submissions until December 22nd Annual Awards judges include: Cyrus Cassells, Eduardo Corral, Elaine Equi, Yona Harvey, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Laura Kasischke, Jennifer Moxley, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Carmen Giménez Smith, & others Chapbook judges: Rigoberto González, Linda Gregerson,Major Jackson, and Marilyn Nelson  Each year from October to December the Poetry Society offers contests for poets at all stages of their careers, from a prize for high school students, to our Chapbook Fellowships for poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, to our first book contest, and our award for a poet over forty who has published no more than one book.  We're thrilled to announce we're currently accepting submissions, which are free to members. Begin your submission today. Good luck!  Not a Member of the Poetry Society of America?

POETRY contest

GOODREADS POETRY CONTEST

Want your words to reach millions of people? Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Join the ¡POETRY! group and vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also submit a poem for consideration. Here is our October winner!

Picasso Woman

for Brenda

by Jeffrey Heath

Pink cap over shadow's scalp,
skin papered, pale, transparent.
A child watches,
color flowering from this forever bed
as we teach the ways to say goodbye.

Driving through the night,
I listened to your memory
for an uncoordinated time
as you never should have been,
ought to remain:

a Picasso woman
(laughing in your mirror at the top of my stair)
one ghost of a breast
where surgeon's carved at your cancer
like bad spots from an apple.

Now, less fifty pounds
carrying more years
than you've been given,
lying in hospital
facing the ironies of dying.

These hours seek distraction:

Nurses percolate through echoed halls.
A husband, son, cousins
force their conversation--
construction & farming, church & family,
cheerful, bland, sincere, devastated.

I arrive with a final bloodless daughter,
woman you helped raise.

Perhaps this
is what raises you from the dead
hours of long coma,
when only the question remained
of what more there was to keep you

here. Her kiss releasing.
Shiver, shudder of breath,
a final thundercrack whisper. 

Read More Poetry

poetry event - AUSTIN,TX

Texas Book Festival: Conversation on Poetry

 

10/09/2015 10:10 AM EDT

Saturday, October 17, 3:00 PM

Chief Correspondent for Arts, Culture, and Society of the PBS NewsHour Jeffrey Brown will discuss his book, The News: Poems, with Robert Casper, head of Poetry and Literature Center, Library of Congress. Book sales and signing to follow.

Location: Texas State Capitol Extension (1100 Congress Avenue, Austin, TX 78701)
Contact: (202) 707-5394