Tuesday a return to Plath

Went back to Sylvia Plath - reread several poems from Ariel today. I return to them periodically. How can I not?

A new read to me, Michelle Chan Brown - Read her poem Blind Date With My Father, 1976. Fascinating, I need to find some more of her work.

Victoria Chang is a poet who I enjoy reading,  today I read her poem Dear P. XII

Sunday Poems

A few of the poems I read today:

• Heather McHugh - DOMESTIQUE
• Heather McHugh - NOT TO BE DWELLED ON
• Heather McHugh - FASTENER
• Dorianne Laux  - THE SHIPFITTER'S WIFE
• Dorianne Laux - ON THE BACK PORCH
• Dorianne Laux - ENOUGH MUSIC
• Kelli Russell Agodon - HOOVER

I've been so neglectful

Yes it's eons since I posted here.  While I'm very routine on my regular blog, I don't always make note of what I've been reading. I am going to try and do better.

Today: 

• Fenny Sterenborg - poet / blogger from the Netherlands.   Come Lie With Me For A While. This is a new post of Fenny's and I enjoyed it. 

• Joannie Kervran Stangeland - The Musician Plays on Rue Corneille. I like how Stangland's poem moves from one point to another and the juxtaposition between them.

• Re-reading some of the poems in Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes

A few poems from yesterday

• Robert Phillips - Insturment of Choice
• Elizabeth Bishop - Letter to N.Y.
• Robert Bly - For My Son Noah, Ten Years Old
• Vassar Miller - Morning Person
• Arthur Guiterman - Routine
• Charles Bukowski - Petry Readings

I woould say that none of these were remarkable. Elisabeth Bishop's Letter to N.Y. perhaps struck my fancy more than any of the others. Still, they were all worth reading.

Relying on Short Term Memory Here

I'm way behind here and I won't even pretend to catch up... Just to say here are a few of my more recent reads that I can recall:

• W.S. Merwin - Now Renting, To The Insects
• Kevin Prufer - The Astronomer's Dream
• Faye Adams - Cameo Appearance
• Gary Beck - Confusion

I'm behind.... this to update

Not read as much poetry per say as I would like to recently, but I have had my nose in some poetry related books.

I did read some more Jane Kenyon this weekend and last week a read a poem sent to me by a local K.C. area poet and friend Missi Rasmussen. Missi's poem was absolutely amazing and I have to say, one of her very best.

I've read a couple W.S. Merwin. Hopefully I can finish out the week with a variety of other poets including some new ones.

Jane Kenyon Night

Last night I took a break to read some poetry... read only poetry written by Jane Kenyon.

The following Poems:

• Happiness
• Mosaic of the Nativity: Serbia, Winter 1993
• Man Eating
• Surprise

Yesterday I read by the following:

• Louise Gluck
• Donald Hall
• Jumah Al Dossari

Hall's poem - The Wish is comprised of three, 8 line stanzas. Lines 5 through 8 in similar, shorter length then the previous. The poem constitutes a dialogue between Hall and his wife Jane. A tug and pull of will between life and death that has great humility in it.

Gluck's poem - The Drowned Children is dark and unsettling and yet the easy flowing imagery keeps you reading it even though you feel like you should be ill at easy with the words them self. The poem is stirring - I believe she has achieved a difficult task with this work.

Al Dossari's poem - Death Poem is one from the book Poems from Guantanamo. There is no evidence that the writer had any formal poetry or literary experience prior to detention. Additionally, what is in print is a translation. The voice in the poem is that of a sufferer at the hands of another, in this case the United States. There is not a strong tone of bitterness that one might expect, but rather a hopelessness that sees its end in death. A death it hopes will provide a glimpse of his torment both to his captors and the world.

words

Yesterdays Poets

Ok, I've really been delinquent where it comes to posting my readings. So sue me! LOL

Yesterday, I did read poetry and these were the poets:

• Shaker Abdurraheem Aamer
• Paul Muldoon
• Abdulaziz
• Elizabeth Macklin
• Cate Marvin

Reading on the road...

This week I've brought we me on the road some Frieda Hughes, Charles Simic, a book with a number of local poets from the KC area. I'll update the of all the poets tomorrow.

This week I've read a poem here a poem there... not nearly as many as I might like to have. I've had my nose in other things including some of Dana Gioia's essays. But I have managed a few reads. Hopefully more this weekend.

• Dana Martin --> a brilliant pantoum... they're so challenging
• Carol Muske-Dukes [Passport: A Manifasto] --> loved this
• Kevin Young
• Czeslaw Milosz
• Ted Kooser

Week in review...

This past week I read poetry from the following poets:

• Donna Masini
• Anne Sexton
• Margaret Atwood
• Carol Ann Suffy
• Donald Hall
• Victoria Radel
• Charles Simic

Weekend of July 7th & 8th

Over the weekend I real work from the following poets....

• Charles Bukowski
• Joanna Gardner
• Richard Fein

Simic & Gluck

I've spent some time last night reading Charles Simic and Louise Gluck.I received two poetry books in the mail courtesy of a very kind friend. I have not been especially familiar with Simic till recently and had only read a couple of his poems. A Wedding in Hell is the book I am reading and I bravo! to his work. I've read only about 8 of the poems so far and hope to sit down with the book again this evening.

I particularly enjoy Simic’s blending of simple things with a more complex storyline.
Two poems I have especially taken pleasure in have been Tattooed City an Miracle Glass Co.

As for Louise Gluck, I've read more of her in the past. I did read a maybe three or four poems from her book Descending Figure and they were only first reads, but I found these to be a bit different from another book of her I have and I rather prefer what I've seen in this one.

Kumin's Extraordinary Rendition

In reading from the Pushcart Prize XXXI Best of the Small Presses I was interested in Maxine Kumin's poem Extraordinary Rendition that appeared in originally in The American Poetry Review.

Maxine Kumin deals with a provocative topic. The final stanza: Extraordinary how the sun comes up / with its rendition of daybreak, / staining the sky with indifference.

She utilizes the oak and beech tree leaves - their lingering bruised colors, creating a very powerful visual.

Quick Update from Recent Reads

I've fallen behind on my list here. Just a few to update from recent reads that I recall.

• Anne Sexton, Several from her books Love Poems and All My Pretty Ones.
• Alan Britt
• Erin York
• Steve Gehrke
• Susan Terris (great poem that won a Pushcart Prize)
• W.S. Merwin
• Kay Ryan
• Missi Rasmussen

Atwood On Sleep

I've read a number of Margaret Atwood poems over the years and I've always enjoyed her range of diversity from political to humorous to serious. It shows her talent well as a writer.

Last night, I read her poem, Variations On The Word Sleep. The poem captures so well a very intimate presence.

This weekend catching up on some poets I've read before...

Reading from Robert Lowell's Selected Poems also delved into Everything Else In The World by Stephen Dunn. Two remarkably different poets. Both with a serious approach to the art. They just get there differently.

This one was new to me

I had the pleasure of reading several poems by J Michael Wahlgren. The tone of his work is very complementary to what I like to hear in poetry.

Recent Reads....

Little behind on this....

Kelli Russell Agodon - Small Knots - Fabulous!!

W. S. Merwin - Reading in his book The Moving Target - I continue to be impressed by Merwin's style and broad topical range.

Ruth Stone - Readin in her book Ordinary Words. What a remarkable person.