Fred Sasaki

Poetry Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery, London

Philip Larkin*

Poetry contributor Caroline Bergvall attended the 50-some poet, 36-hour poetry marathon at the Serpentine Gallery in London on October 17–18. Her dispatch follows:

I’m writing in from London where I’ve recently been part of a highly ambitious poetry event. The internationally reputed Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park has for the past 4 years been hosting a mad type of event, an annual 36 hours live event, a more or less non-stop art marathon of presentations. This year they decided to create it as a Poetry Marathon. Some 50 poets were slated to take part, each reading for approx. 15 mins—a decent time given the chain of readings and the expected strained attention span.

The event has been summarized in great detail online, complete with program notes, introductory remarks by the curator and high-end cultural entrepreneur Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as pics and comments on many of the readers. Although amazing, I have to admit the event has left me thoughtful…

| CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY »

10.28.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (21)

Fred Sasaki

Poetry Tweets

O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill,
And cheep and twitter twenty million loves.
     —Lord Alfred Tennyson

Every morning I tweet bits from Poetry to 865 loves. Our trills are here. The posts are mostly unrequited, but sometimes we get a little love back. When we do, we invariably wonder what other Poetry tweets are out there, cheeping. See for yourself:

02.27.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3)

Fred Sasaki

Legendary, Lexical, Loquacious

Every year Poetry hosts a gathering for Chicago literary publishers called the Printers’ Ball. Over 100 local literary organizations showcase a diverse selection of print publications, available free of charge, including magazines, journals, weeklies, posters, and broadsides, plus a full night of live entertainment. See, hear, and read all about it, or get the gist from Poetry contributor Robert Archambeau’s blog post at samizdat.
Recently the editor of Sara Ranchouse Publishing, Sally Alatalo, stopped by the Foundation offices to collect the leftover books she exhibited at this year’s Ball…but we didn’t let her leave with them. Keep reading to see why.

10.17.08 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Fred Sasaki

Stop Making Sense

Those drawings on the cover of November’s Poetry are of chairs.
The chairs are drawn by David Byrne.
Why did David Byrne draw chairs?

11.15.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1)