I have recently begun to think of writing as what Susan Sontag calls “a wisdom project” in her forward to Another Beauty, a collection of autobiographical essays by the great Polish poet Adam Zagajewski.
“…autobiography is an occasion to purge oneself of vanity, while advancing the project of self understanding—call it the wisdom project—which is never completed, however long the life.”
A few years ago, I reviewed the children’s classic Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti, written by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes in 1931. The Haiti presented in that book was a simple, lyrical place, in some ways almost paradisaical, and totally at odds with the terrible scenes of destruction and human suffering we are seeing in newspapers and on television broadcasts since the earthquake. Even before the earthquake, however, Haiti’s troubles in recent years, its political instability, social chaos, and poverty, made it an unlikely destination for most travelers.
This didn’t deter my husband, who began making regular trips to Haiti in 1995 to research a trilogy of historical novels (All Souls Rising, Master of the Crossroads, and The Stone That the Builder Refused) about the Haitian slave revolt of 1791. Since he is an intrepid, resourceful traveler, who recognizes little in the way of danger, I decided it would be pointless to worry about his safety until the day of one trip, when the Haitian Times landed on our doorstep in Baltimore running the bold headline “Kidnappers Run Amok.” Fortunately, his plane to Haiti had already taken off, which was a good thing, since I know that that particular story wouldn’t have stopped him from going. But my misgivings on that occasion spurred the poem “You Have Flown to the Dangerous Country.”
Poet Todd Boss knows Winter. He was born in Wisconsin, currently lives in Minnesota, and spent his MFA years in Alaska. He started the intermittent, online poetry journal Flurry as “a way of lighting the darkness of the season, staying connected during an isolating time, nourishing the spirit in the midst of a deep freeze, and celebrating nature even at its most foreboding.” Considering I woke up this morning to falling snow, Todd’s announcement that Volume 3 of Flurry is now online couldn’t have come at a better time. This issue features new poems by Robin Chapman, Sharon Chmielarz, Karl Elder, Alixa Doom, and Athena Kildegaard. And be sure not to miss Tim Nolan’s “New Year’s”.
Elizabeth Bishop once described the writing of a poem as a “happy accident.” She knew that the image or event that triggers a poem is always unexpected. It can’t be planned or contrived, willed or wished for.
This has certainly been true for me. I remember how a long-ago trip to the town dump in Stonington, Maine—certainly not a beautiful or “poetic” place—inspired a poem of mine titled “The Woman on the Dump.” And, a few years later, how a visit to my daugher’s elementary school led to my writing “Snail.”
For those few years when I worked in New York City public schools as an itinerant poet—Crown Heights, Harlem, the South Bronx—I’d lug a satchel heavy with books on the train every morning. Much of what I taught was directed toward finding out what the students saw every day. It was a way to honor their lives, which isn’t generally taught in public schools. The beginning exercises were very simple: Tell me one thing you saw on the way into school this morning. Tell me one thing you saw last night when you got home. Describe something you see every day, describe something you saw only once and wondered about from then on. Tell me a dream, tell me a story someone told you, tell me something you’ve never told anyone else before. No one, in school at least, had ever asked them what their lives were like, no one had asked them to tell about their days. In this sense it felt like a radical act. I tried to imagine what might happen if each of them knew how important their lives were.
• Watch out DC, poetry is about to stop being polite and start getting real. The Real World goes to DC the same year that the Beltway Poetry Quarterly turns 10 years old!
• Readers of Fiction Writers Review are getting a special subscription rate (just $12) on Poets & Writers Magazine between now and January 15th. Act now! Operators are standing by.
• The new issue of Cerise Press is now available. Francophiles rejoice!
• Poetry and e-readers. Match made in heaven? or Neruda is spinning in his grave? Comment with your thoughts in haiku form.
Not long ago, I took part in a fundraiser for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1895, this family of public libraries serves 2.6 million visitors each year at nineteen locations throughout the city. But a 1.5-million-dollar deficit for 2010 has resulted in orders to close four branches, in neighborhoods already “underserved” at best, and merge two others. Hours of operation will be shortened by almost 30 percent. Thirty staff positions will be cut.
Translation: “Sometimes I make typos”. A couple weeks ago I shared some random thoughts on video poems. This morning I got an email from a reader pointing out one of his own video projects. It’s a clever idea done well. Click through to check it out.
Have you noticed the new recordings we’ve added to the Audio section recently? There’s some great readings you shouldn’t miss. To keep up to date on all the recordings available on Poems Out Loud, try subscribing using the RSS feed just for readings or check out the podcast in iTunes.
• National Book Award finalist Thomas Lynch is about to publish a new collection of stories in February 2010 called Apparition and Late Fictions. Poems Out Loud asked him to revisit his only book of poetry published ten years ago. Listen to Thomas Lynch read “No Prisoners” from Still Life in Milford.
• Nick Laird‘s most recent novel, Glover’s Mistake featured a culture blogger as the protagonist. Now this blog features Nick Laird. What goes around, comes around. Listen to Nick Laird read “Light Pollution” from On Purpose.
• Martín Espada has been called “the Pablo Neruda of North America”. He was kind enough to read a poem that guest stars Neruda from his most recent collection which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Listen to Martín Espada read “The Soldiers in the Garden” from The Republic of Poetry.
• A first listen to one of the new poems from Sherod Santos’ forthcoming collection. Listen to Sherod Santos read “Variation on a Theme (I)” from The Intricated Soul: New and Selected available in March 2010.
“Avatar” notwithstanding, this weekend is an important one for Anglophiles everywhere. Yesterday was the American opening of “The Young Victoria,” a film based on the accession to the throne and early reign of Queen Victoria of England. These film goers may not be donning plastic glasses or “ooing” at 3D effects, but with a roster of producers including Martin Scorsese and Sarah, Duchess of York, expectations for “The Young Victoria” are high. The film has received some backlash for taking liberties with historical facts (Victoria was left-handed, not right, and Prince Albert was never grazed by a bullet in an assassination attempt on Victoria’s life). Nonetheless, we here at Poems Out Loud are eager to see the film. Look for us in line, we’ll be reading In Memoriam.
You Have Flown to the Dangerous Country
Memoir and Poetry
All Living Things Have Shoulders
Beth Ann Fennelly 
Edmund Keeley 
