Don Share

New Year Greeting

Harriet asks me to wish you all the best in the new year, and to thank all the readers, bloggers and commenters who’ve stopped by these last twelve months and more – please do keep coming back!
In the new year’s resolution department, she also wants me to remind everyone to be kind as circumstances permit: to fortify and express your passions without injury to those with whom you find disagreement. H. loves the differing viewpoints represented here, but reserves the right (hardly ever exercised, in fact – a tribute to those who put in their two cents or flarf-dollars here!) to refrain from publishing remarks that aim to be hurtful and little more. You know, name-calling, etc.
I’d like to add my own warm wishes on behalf of Poetry, and especially to thank some Poetry Foundation folks who’ve helped create this interesting place but have moved on to other poetical pursuits, namely Emily Warn, Nick Tremelow, Elizabeth Stigler, and Milan Gagnon. We’ll miss them, but hope they’ll continue to drop by…
And now, a snippet of an new year greeting by W.H. Auden:
I should like to think that I make
a not impossible world,
but an Eden it cannot be:
my games, my purposive acts,
may turn to catastrophes there.
If you were religious folk,
how would your dramas justify
unmerited suffering?
Here’s wishing you a happy ‘09!

01.02.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1)

Poetry

It wasn’t a writers’ strike

Harriet has been experiencing technical difficulties the past several days, meaning our writers couldn’t post, and we couldn’t publish your comments. We’ve resolved the problem, so look out for a barrage of new entries.

04.07.08 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Michael Marcinkowski

What are some creative ways to promote poetry?

In the Spring issue of American Poet (put out by the Academy of American Poets) Lyn Hejinian gave an interesting answer to what is by now (especially around these offices) a rote question. She was asked, “What are some creative ways to promote poetry?” to which she responded:

Poetry doesn’t need promotion. People need time. A revolutionary way to promote poetry might be to criminalize capitalism’s theft of people’s time.

It’s an answer that brings to bear the issue of poetry’s place in our wider culture and one which raises lots of terrific questions. Should poetry be something that is sold to consumers just as any other product, or is it indeed something special, something that carves out space in our daily lives, apart from all the buying and selling that seems to occupy us today?

08.22.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (11)

Emily Warn

Trackback

About half our readers come from search engines and other places looking for poems to post on their blogs. Here’s a few linking to us today:
1. Can’t you put up some more?
Chris Frizzale on the The Stranger’s blog complains about our Heather McHugh selection. What he might not understand is the complicated world of poetry permissions.

05.01.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1)