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Does poetry need its own Glee? January 13, 2011: On The Moderate Voice, Michael Silverstein proposes an unusual solution to restoring the place of poetry in civic discourse. The problem isn't with poetry itself, rather the medium for delivering it to the masses. Silverstein has had it with the Op Ed pages of newspapers which are now as overrun with "spin doctoring" and "hype" as any other [...]
Def Constitutional Jam January 7, 2011: For all of the huff politicians and pundits have been in lately over poetry, the House of Representatives on Thursday decided to engage in a little spoken word by reading the United States Constitution aloud. Like a lot of poetry slams, this one wasn't free from politics or heckling, though it did take a solid 84 minutes. Fortunately the [...]
What could be more wasteful than poetry? December 21, 2010: Senator Tom Coburn has put together a chapbook of found poetry called Wastebook 2010. In it, he details what he sees as wasteful government spending. The USA Today took particular delight in one particular aspect of the publication: Then there is this: nearly $1 million was spent on poetry in the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and [...]
“What poets can teach us about the war in Afghanistan” December 20, 2010: From the New Republic: In her poem “Voices,” Wislawa Szymborska offers a more accurate and acute description of America’s trajectory than anything you will hear from the likes of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or General David Petraeus
Does poetry have a role in politics? December 16, 2010: Or vice versa? The Guardian wonders: At times of upheaval and unrest, is poetry's role to fan the flames or cool tempers? Down the centuries it has proved remarkably effective at both. Against a background of civil unrest in 1970s America, Gil Scott-Heron told the world "you will not be able to stay home, brother". In his searing, satirical [...]
Robert Mugabe in verse and disappointment December 14, 2010: Chaka Sichangi invited three poets to his Philharmonic Poet blog to collaborate on portraits of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The results, in four hugely different styles, portray not the political and economic conflicts he and his government have become increasingly known for, but rather the promise and the disappointment that Mugabe has [...]
Keeping the poetic tradition alive in Somalia December 3, 2010: Daniel Howden has been reporting from Mogadishu in a series of articles for The Independent. In the final dispatch, he looks at the last of Somalia's poets, once a title that once could have been given to practically anyone when, as Richard Burton put it 100 years ago, "every man has his recognised position in literature." The country's unrest [...]
Cultural narratives find community at Poets House November 24, 2010: In a November 13th discussion at Poets House on “(Re) Writing Culture,” Sueyeun Juliette Lee "said that one of her main concerns is 'achieving a sense of belonging' and she posited, 'alienation is the root of world problems.'” Each of the three poets featured-- Lee, whose work explores the multiple "national spaces" she exists in as a [...]
It’s William Butler Yeats, stupid November 19, 2010: As economists continue to tend toward sunny optimism in the face of collapse, the Wall Street Journal notes that finding appropriate doom-laden references within the field are few and far between. When confronted with losing their economic independence, the Irish Parliament looked to poetry for the answers instead: To illustrate their point, they [...]
The senses of the census September 30, 2010: The current census has prompted an analysis of Robert Frost's poetry on Vermont public radio. (It was bound to happen.) Vermont Humanities Council Executive Director Peter Gilbert introduces his audience to the poem "The Census-Taker," one of a number of Frost poems about abandoned houses in northern New England. There were lots of them in the [...]