Bringing poetry to market December 6, 2011: Who: Holly S. Morrison What: Custom Poems Picked Fresh When: Wednesdays Where: Portland, Maine farmers’ market “Open Door” features audio, video, and online media to document dynamic interactions between poetry and its audience. “Open Door” showcases performance, scholarship, and engagement outside the usual boundaries of [...] by Annie Finch

Form and Suffering April 30, 2010: Kwame, dear Kwame, don't forget there is an inside to every outside, a trajectory to every incarnation!  You say,  "the absence of form, for what it is worth, is often the hallmark of change, innovation, disquiet and perhaps suffering."   You say, "literatures that are finding voice after having been silenced by the repressive control of old [...] by Annie Finch

Audacity of Voice: The Poet as Actor, Michael Maglaras’ Hiawatha Marathon, and How I Made my CD April 29, 2010: A good recent podcast in the Poetry Off the Shelf series is called Actors vs. Poets.  Not only does this spirited discussion between Curtis Fox and Don Share feature the recorded voices of Tennyson and Bishop—and a magnificent British actor crooning "April is the cruelest month"—it raises some important questions about the nature and [...] by Annie Finch

Place, Time, Consciousness: Three New Political Anthologies April 26, 2010: Rachel Zucker makes a good point re anthologies. They can be frustratingly fragmentary. Having edited or coedited a number of them, my feeling is that each anthology ideally ‘earns’ (that old poetry workshop term!) its right to exist by doing something a book of poems by one person could not do. An individual book of poetry can never speak [...] by Annie Finch

Dead Poets Remembrance Day: Putting America’s Dead Poets Back on the Map April 22, 2010: It is my great honor and pleasure to announce here on Harriet the founding of a new national holiday, Dead Poets Remembrance day. Unlike my recent "Kegels for Poets" post, this one is completely for real: (more...) by Annie Finch

Flowers From Algernon April 19, 2010: Algernon Charles Swinburne Finally, spring arriving in Maine, with such passion it calls for no less than Algernon. Yes, you too can receive his flowers, but first you must promise me three things: 1. you will read it aloud (IF circumstances require and you are sure you know how, you may read it to your inner rather than to your outer [...] by Annie Finch

Women’s Poetry on the Inhale . . . April 15, 2010: You know how after years of going through the motions of doing a movement in yoga class, suddenly you just finally "get it"? This happened to me recently with something very basic: breathing. The whole idea that the inhalation is the time to lengthen/stretch your muscles, and the exhalation is the time for exertion, suddenly worked for me. I [...] by Annie Finch

Kegels For Poets April 11, 2010: This is the best set of exercises you’ll ever learn. The Poetry Muscle exercises known as Meter Kegels have many advantages. They are best known to help strengthen and tone the whole poetic floor to prevent things like linguistic incontinence during middle age. But they are also the secret to Pompoir, turning oneself on inspirationally, and [...] by Annie Finch

Shades of the Eighteenth Century: Anne Finch, Quincy Troupe, and the Rock Me Ode April 7, 2010: On Jetblue a few weeks ago, I happened on an outrageous 18th century kitsch costumed version of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus." ... it reminded me that parts of the popular imagination have been heading back towards the 18th century for a while. And I also hunger for much of what went down at that time- (more...) by Annie Finch

The Poetry Walk April 2, 2010: Last week I spent some invigorating time in the Maine cold and rain marching next to my mother, who will be 89 this month. One day, my daughter, who is 11, joined us. We all walked 10 or 12 miles that day, and the walking was remarkably easy; it helped me understand how Thoreau used to walk 4 miles each way into town and think nothing of it. [...] by Annie Finch