The best in poetry (and poetic things), this week with Kimberlee Conway Ireton.
1 Art
Okay, so after looking at this collection of 15 writers’ bedrooms, I officially want to live in Emily Dickinson’s. I also wouldn’t mind spending a few nights (or more!) in Truman Capote’s simple red-and-white room or Virginia Woolf’s elegant apartment or even Henry David Thoreau’s rustic cabin on Walden Pond. But much as I love Flannery O’Connor, you couldn’t pay me money to sleep her god-awful green and gold boudoir.
Words can be an art form, of course, but what about last words? Touching and funny by turns, these famous (and not so famous) last words are well worth reading.
2 News
Poet Adrienne Rich died last week at the age of 82. Her lifelong vision was “the creation of a society without domination.” The New York Times offers two looks at Adrienne Rich’s life and her work.
Once the news broke, the Twittersphere lit up with Adrienne Rich posts, much to the astonishment of one poetry professor. All those tweets inspired the Tweetspeak staff to make a video tribute to Adrienne Rich, which you definitely want to watch. Trust me.
3 Publishing
Jane Friedman is one smart cookie. And generous, too. Friedman dishes on all things publishing. (And may I suggest following the rabbit trail of links inside that post, too?)
4 Reviews
In 2009, poet Craig Arnold disappeared while blogging and hiking his way through Japan, leaving behind bewildered and devastated fans, friends, family, and his partner of six years, Rebecca Lindenberg. Elissa Schappell reviews Lindenberg’s tribute to Arnold: Love: An Index is “an A-to-Z collection of poems that are passionate, plainspoken, elegiac, and lyric as they capture the moments of a life shared.” The excerpt Schappell includes is beautiful.
Caitlin Mackenzie writes a thoughtful and glowing review of Becca J.R. Lachman’s first book of poetry: “This is what the reader discovers in The Apple Speaks: the sore muscles of one thoughtfully and intentionally tending new soil.”
5 Creativity
If you want to be creative, apparently there are creativity rules. Just a few. And not all of them are intuitive.
A.G. Harmon waxes eloquent about the role of the artist in the creation of art:
At least from the religious artist’s perspective, is the agent/artist not himself an extension—albeit the most important and complex extension—of the process?
To mix in yet another metaphor: the violin may rest on the artist’s shoulder, but on whose shoulder does the artist rest? Who plays him?
John Estes makes a similar claim when he speaks of Annunciation and angels and icons:
One particular icon of St. John shows him …doing his writer/Theologian bit while a tiny angel perches on his shoulder….[perhaps] another instance of an angel asking the question: Will you receive this thing? An invitation, nothing more, to what might happen.
And speaking of invitations…
6 Write-It
You all know it’s National Poetry Month, of course, but did you also know it’s National Poetry Writing Month? That’s right. NaPoWriMo is a real thing. And every day this month, they’ve got a poetry prompt. The day three prompt (that would have been Tuesday’s) was to write an epithalamium. (You remember word from my last post, right?)
If you’re feeling ambitious, you might try your hand at writing a one-act verse play.
7 Poems
Spring has sprung. And Robert Frost reminds us that it won’t last long. So stay present.
The writing of poetry is, among other things, an attempt to stay present, to pay attention to the moment at hand. Dave Malone’s “White” captures one such moment:
White
The night you wore your white blouse
into the barn where cloggers yanked up dust
to their knees, all the corn farmers pulled at pressed shirts
behind bib overalls to breathe, overcome by a similar
feeling they knew in their muscled backs
when pressed against church pews
their grandaddies made before the only real War.
8 People
John Wooden, UCLA’s famed basketball coach, was also a lover of poetry—as in, he read it, he quoted it to his players, and he wrote it, too. At the end of the month of Madness, Catherine Woodard wrote a beautiful tribute to John Wooden as both coach and poet. If you watch the videos, make sure you have Kleenex handy.
C.S. Lewis received thousands of letters from children around the English-speaking world, and he wrote every last one of those children a personal letter in response. (And I have trouble replying to Tweets and status updates?)
9 Education
This poetry smackdown held me riveted. If you read it, I encourage you to take the time to study the poems and think about which one is better and why. I’d love to hear if you came out on the side of poetry or pop. For my part, I’m not telling which side I fell on.
And just for fun, try some onomatopoeia—in French! Or German! Or Arabic! It’ll educate your ears. And how a word sounds is as important as what it means. Well, if you’re a poet, it is.
10 Sound n Motion
I’ve never been to New York City. Don’t kill me, but I’ve never actually wanted to go there. In fact, I’ve pretty stridently not wanted to. But now there’s a cool new audio-poetry-history-walking tour of the East Village that sounds so completely and utterly, well, cool, that it’s making me rethink my I’d-rather-have-another-periodontal-surgery-than-go-to-New-York opinion. Now, perhaps, I’d just rather get a filling.
Honestly, the only way I’ll probably ever get to New York City is if I have to fly through it on my way to England. Last week, Matthew highlighted some of the world’s coolest bookstores. One of those, Barter Books in the north of England, lives in an old Victorian railway station. If that’s not swoony enough, it’s also home to an iconic (and long lost) World War II propaganda poster. Now, where’s my plane ticket?
Photos by Claire Burge. Used with permission. Post by Kimberlee Conway Ireton, author of The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year
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Thanks for the tribute to Adrienne Rich. I needed to learn about her.
Good stuff here, as always. Have to say, though, here in Macho House O’ Basketball (confirmed this week that my 6-foot-plus frame just moved to the status of “shortest in the household”), I really enjoyed the piece on Coach Wooden. Video=priceless.
Barter Books is a dangerous place – and only 60 miles or so away.
I’ve seen the first and last items on your list, so I need to taste a little o’ that meat in the middle (even though I’m a vegan).
Thank you for all the work in finding and organizing and presenting this information.
Blessings.
Excellent links! I’ve put Lindenberg’s book on my list.
Megan, I hear you. I learned much about Adrienne Rich this week that I didn’t know.
Lyla, I’m 5’9″ and can’t wait to meet you in person: It’s not very often I meet a woman I have to look up to
And yes, the John Wooden tribute videos were priceless. Makes me wish I were a college basketball fan…
Tony, you live 60 miles from Barter Books? Color me jealous!
Darlene, the first and last links are my favorites. In between, though, there’s good stuff, too. If I had to choose just one? Maybe the C.S. Lewis letter or the poetry smackdown. Or the Adrienne Rich video. Or the poems. Or…
Maureen, I am highly gratified that you found something new here…though I can’t take much credit for that review of Lindenberg’s book: L.L. found the link and sent it to me. Ah well.
I love the wisdom C.S. Lewis shares with Little Joan. Still, I find it hard to imagine him, as a writer, trying so hard to convey an idea with clarity. The writer is “lucky if, out of dozens of books, one or two sentences, just for a moment, come near to getting it across.” Thank goodness Lewis tried so hard.
Matthew, I was struck by Lewis’s letter, too. I am amazed that he treated Joan’s letter and the questions she asked in it so seriously: there’s not a hint of condescension in the advice he gives her, or the way he writes it.
And the lines you quoted? Oh, my. It makes me realize that too often I treat my writing more blithely than I ought. I want to take more care, as he did.
Okay, miss Kimberlee, I took the smack down challenge. I mean really, who could resist that?
The whole time I was distracted by what the “catch” would be. And I argued with myself about the 2 poems because I wanted to pick the one that would best match how I wanna come across as a writer. So, in the end, I’m not telling either, well, mainly because I picked neither but a combo meal of both.
See what happens when I think too much. I think I rolled out of bounds on that smack down.
And one more thing, Kimberlee: I think Lewis would be quite pleased with your attentive and honest replies today.
Thanks for the writers’ bedrooms! I liked that especially, since The Writer’s Desk is one of my favorite books.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Desk-Jill-Krementz/dp/0679450149
I rolled out of bounds, too, Darlene. Like you, I wanted to be “right” (whatever that means in this context), so I hedged. I sort of wish I’d taken a strong stand one way or the other and then just dealt with the consequences of what my choice says about me, as a reader of poetry and as a writer. Thanks for being honest!
Matthew, Thank you for your kind words
Monica, That looks like a cool book, one to pore over, drool over, and probably distract me from writing (as if I need more distractions!). It made me think of the new book, Unpacking my Library: Writers and their Books, which John Wilson reviewed in the most recent issue of Books and Culture. Another book to pore over, drool over, and be distracted by.
Kimberlee, the video on Adrienne Rich was really wonderful. Such a profound poet. I’m glad to see that she isn’t only experienced in college classrooms. And thank you much for the kind words. That “moment” was a snapshot at a pie supper, which we still have down here in the Ozarks. Some more old-timey than others. I attended a supper in a one-room schoolhouse in a tiny community down here about ten years ago–which crystallized that particular moment.
Dave, I’m so glad you liked the Adrienne Rich video (though I can’t take a particle of credit for it).
And I’m especially glad my words about your poem were okay by you. I always hesitate to assert anything about a poem for fear I’ve completely misunderstood it, a vestige, I daresay, of my high school days of being forced to analyze poems I didn’t understand for a grade. I still shudder. So, whew, I didn’t completely misunderstand yours…though I’m pretty sure I didn’t completely understand it, either
Pink lipstick morning,
rainbows melting in the rain,
teaching kisses to a clown.
Is this how one submits a poem?
I’m a bit late in the game here, but Lyla, I wanted to let you know I am 5’11″. Kimberlee, you can look up to me, too!
Great post, Kimberlee!
Kimberlee! You’ve won me over. I was talking about love languages with a friend the other day, and I said mine was, simply, “buy my book!” Thank you.
Are you going to Calvin Fest next week by any chance? I’m getting close to literally putting bells on.
oh heavens, you will all have to sit at my feet when we meet, as I am only 5’4″ and will need a moment of looking-up-to
Oh Laura, we’d all look up to you anyway