Author Archive
Camille Dungy
My Mississippi Spring
I am on my way to Oxford, Mississippi where I will be reading on Friday. I’ve never been to Mississippi before, and though all sorts of poems and stories and songs come to mind when I think of Mississippi, because I realize it will be springtime in the South and because I love springtime in the South (the pear trees, the cherries, the forsythia, oh my!), I am thinking, most often, about the poem “My Mississippi Spring.”
Camille Dungy
Out of Isolation
“Although the literal act of putting words on the page is a solitary activity, no writer is ever alone. There are always those mentors, those students, who engage in a communal effort of creation.”
–Lee Martin
(Prageeta Sharma, Patrick Rosal, Myung Mi Kim & Regie Cabico at the Kundiman workshop/retreat)
Camille Dungy
What Keeps Me Coming Back
It’s been a particularly busy and exhausting week. As Thursday approached, I considered what I would write about here on Harriet. I am committed to the idea of discussing, every Thursday, what I am reading that is exciting me, and yet today that didn’t feel quite right. What I want to share, instead, are a few of the poems that keep me coming back to poetry even when I believe I might just be too tired to read more than three lines of anything my hands hold before my eyes.
Camille Dungy
Home Town Poets
I had a conversation yesterday afternoon about how deeply Richmond, VA honors the memory of Larry Levis.
Camille Dungy
The Line: Here
Three of the grand mysteries: What makes a poem? What makes a stanza? What makes a poetic line?
Camille Dungy
“am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?”
I’ve just returned from a stunning performance of György Ligeti’s 1965 Requiem. Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, introduced the Requiem via a rather thorough and moving exposition of a poem by Ranier Marie Rilke.
Camille Dungy
Looking for the Perfect Wedding Poem
My friends are having a public marriage ceremony soon, and they’ve asked for help choosing a poem for their special day. I’ve put forward several options already, but I’m curious what suggestions the Harriet community might have.
Camille Dungy
“For oh, I fear”
I’ve spent at least eight hours of each of the past four days reading other people’s poems. I am attending to word choice, comma placement, the arrangement of lines on the page. I am remembering, in this process, how vulnerable we poets make ourselves each time we take first the risk of writing poems and then the subsequent risk of sending these poems out into the world. This can be a terrifying prospect, writing and then sharing poetry. What I like to read, now and again, are poems that speak directly to the perils of this art.
I thought of this idea when I ran across this poem:
Camille Dungy
In Praise of the Anthology
Say what you will about anthologies. For my part, I love these treasure troves. Much of my early exposure to new work or, to put it better, work that is new to me, comes through anthologies. Given the opportunity I, like O’Hara, would certainly “buy/ an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets/in Ghana are doing these days.” I owe many of my love affairs with poets to the anthologies that first introduced me to their work. My bookshelves boast many spine-battered anthologies, favorites from my teens and early twenties. Many of these collections I still read and teach from today.
Camille Dungy
New kid on the block
I am going to assume, because you are here, reading this site, that you like to read. I am also going to assume, because you are reading this site, that you like to read good writing. My cousin always warned about what might come of you and me should we assume too frequently (if you don’t know the punch line, I’ll just say there’s a draft animal involved), but I am going to assume the risk of assuming you might occasionally want a tip or two about what to read. If that’s the case, visit Harriet each Thursday. I’ll tell you what’s keeping me happy that day.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Thom Donovan
Bhanu Kapil
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Craig Santos Perez
Sina Queyras
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RECENT COMMENTS
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Yes, I agree, Joshua. I understand that this is a big motivating factor for poets ... MORE »
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Thank you Henry. MORE »
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"there are many ways to be in the academy outside of teaching creative writing"
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Glad to be of help with your career - MORE »
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To Sonnet, to Son-net, Tuscon Net (55)
All sides now: a correspondence with Lisa... (4)
Who or what is a poet critic and why is the... (27)
Graphic Poetry Spotlight: Jai Arun Ravine’s... (3)
Beyond Careerism? (Redistributing Poetic... (30)
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- Saturdays in Early Spring
- All sides now: a correspondence with Lisa Robertson
- Graphic Poetry Spotlight: Jai Arun Ravine’s The Spiderboi Files
- On the matter of career
- Who or what is a poet critic and why is the academy so up in Poetry’s face?
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IN THIS ISSUE: March 2010
A selection of new work from Dorothea Grossman; new poems by Lavinia Greenlaw, David Yezzi, A.E. Stallings, Gerald Stern, and Dan Gerber; translations of Carlo Betocchi, and Mahmoud Darwish; an Editorial on Ruth Lilly; an exchange between Ilya Kaminsky and Adam Kirsch; an essay by Chen Li; and a review by Daisy Fried.
CHICAGO EVENTS
Poetry Off the Shelf: David Baker
Fri, March 26th, 6:00 PM
Open Books
213 West Institute Place
Free admission
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