Deborah Ager's Blog, page 18

Day 23: George David Clark on Five of His Favorite Poetry Books

George David Clark shares his favorite poetry books published in the last five years?

Elaine Equi's Ripple Effect (2007)

Nervy little jungle gyms of wit, these poems. You read Equi for the most serious kind of play there is.

Lisa Russ Spaar's Satin Cash (2008)

If poems are vehicles, Spaar's are sports cars. Everything inch of this book is bright and exotic. You read it first for the sheer horsepower of its language and you reread it for how smooth the poems handle.

Carl Philips' Speak Low (2009)

I can think of no other poet since Elizabeth Bishop so adept at dramatizing the shape a rigorous thought makes. His hesitations, his oscillations, the contortions of his syntax, are themselves romantic.

Bobby Rogers' Paper Anniversary (2010)

They certainly don't read like poems in a first book, these strange combinations of generosity and precision. Rogers can be candid on the subject of artifice, pithy in long lines, eloquently plain-spoken. There's actual wisdom in this book. Where else do you find that?

Christian Wiman's Every Riven Thing (2010)

These poems are challenging on a dozen levels, not the least of which is the poet's complicated relationship with God. Wiman's psalms, like David's, can be angry, demanding, humble, and intimate by turns. The loving care in their accoustics can make curses sound like worship.

BIO: George David Clark's poems have appeared most recently in Shenandoah, Smartish Pace, and Willow Springs as well as online at Verse Daily and Poetry Daily.

Day 22: Jeannine Hall Gailey Shares Her Five Favorite Poetry Books

These recommendations celebrate National Poetry Month and share five of Jeannine Hall Gailey's favorite poetry books.

–

Well, I have so many more than five poetry books that I love, really love, so I had to narrow it down by some self-imposed parameters, so I decided to focus on books by women that used humor in a surprising way.

Dana Levin's Wedding Day. Butterflies in the throat, words as play thing; the poem "Quelque Chose," is worth the entire cost of the book all by itself, a hilarious ode to the (faux?) divisions of the poetry world.

Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room from Kelli Russell Agodon. A book that combines darkness and light, tabloids and saints, best when it explores the humorous side of death and anxiety.

Dorianne Laux's Book of Men. Her best book yet, especially poems like "Superman" and "Cher" that combine the love of these pop culture icons and sharp insights into the nature of the vulnerabilities of our heroes.

Louise Gluck's Meadowlands. Acid-tongued, icy dialogues between mythological figures and a modern-day couple of the brink of divorce.

Denise Duhamel's Kinky. A book of poems in the voices of various Barbie dolls. Need I say more?

(Books I want to cheat and sneak onto this list too: Lana Ayers' A New Red, with a novel take on the old story of Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil's Lucky Fish, full of warmth, humor, and the love of cupcakes. Okay, that's it. Matthea Harvey's apocalypse and wordplay spectacular, Modern Life. Seriously, that's the last one.)

BIO: Jeannine Hall Gailey is the author of Becoming the Villainess (Steel Toe Books, 2006) and She Returns to the Floating World (Kitsune Books, 2011.) Her work has been featured on NPR's The Writer's Almanac, Verse Daily, and in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in journals like The Iowa Review, The Seattle Review, and Prairie Schooner. She volunteers as an editorial consultant for Crab Creek Review and currently teaches at the MFA program at National University. Her web site is www.webbish6.com.

Jeffery L. Bahr: An Interview With Serena M. Agusto-Cox

Poet Jeffery L. Bahr

1. How would you introduce yourself to a crowded room eager to hang on your every word? Are you just a poet, what else should people know about you?

I have been in love with computing for almost 45 years, back to a time when I could go to a large social gathering of 1000 people and be the only one involved with computers. I've studied every facet of computer science, been a professor and been in the industry all my adult life. I've only written poetry the last 12 years. I think there is tension in my poetry between the analytical and the mysterious.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

I was never all that enamored of spoken verse. I supposed I'd rather hear a poem in my head with my own cadence and emphases. There are exceptions I can think of, however. I love hearing Plath readings of her own work.

As for writing helping humanity: I supposed it depends upon what is written and read, but good writing or informative writing helps anyone with the courage to listen and be changed.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

The only thing I've ever truly been obsessed about were a few women in my life.

4. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any "writing" books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott).

I have a bookshelf filled with books on writing poetry (e.g., Triggering Town (Hugo), The Poet's Companion (Addonizio), . . .), but the most valuable experience that actually made me a better poet was my years of running and participating in online poetry boards, including Alsop Review, QED, and others. I got lots of feedback when I needed it, and in return learned how to critique poems, and how to appreciate disparate styles.

5. Poetry is often considered elitist or inaccessible by mainstream readers. Do poets have an obligation to dispel that myth and how do you think it could be accomplished?

Poetry can be quite excellent and still span a very wide range of aesthetics. Some of those aesthetics take time to understand or acquire a taste for, and some are more readily accessible. For example, I think Bob Hicok, G. C. Waldrep, and Mary Jo Bang are terrific poets, but a "lay person" is probably going to connect more quickly with one of Bob's poems. I don't think there's anything you can do about this, and the same phenomenon takes place everywhere in the arts (music, visual art, sculpture, . . . ).

6. When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don't listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?

I can't do anything while listening to music more difficult than balancing my checkbook. The only rule I used to have was "write first drafts inebriated, then edit while sober", but now I just write poems when I feel like it. I also used to write with pen on paper and type it all later, but increasingly, I just compose while in Microsoft Word.

7. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

I have dozens of friends, some very close, whom I met through poetry. I probably know of or have emailed or blog-commented to/for/with another hundred poet buddies. Some of my poet friends I've known longer than a decade, chatted on the phone many times, and still not yet met in person. Some I've met finally at AWP or while traveling near their home town. These days, I keep in touch with email, Facebook, and my weblog (www.whimsyspeaks.com) , which many of my poet friends read to keep in touch. It is strange because in my personal and professional life, I have a completely different set of friends with completely different world-views and personalities. Some are even, God forbid, Republicans.

8. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

Well, I quit smoking and joined the Y. As a working software engineer, I'm in front of a monitor a lot (like 60+ hours a week), so I'm not worried by the sedentary nature of writing, I need a way get out of my chair periodically anyway (like taking a 15 minute break on my treadmill).

9. Do you have any favorite foods or foods that you find keep you inspired? What are the ways in which you pump yourself up to keep writing and overcome writer's block?

I have over 100 cookbooks and like to cook, so it's hard to get down to one favorite food, but I can probably get the number down to two dozen (see Whimsy's Cookbook on my weblog). When I have poet's block, I try to figure out some new source of inspiration, like an art or history book I haven't read.

10. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

Like a lot of poet, ideas come unbidden at all times. I once wrote a poem about Lucie Brock-Broido meeting Steven Segal at a museum because I was reading LBB when Under Siege came on. I write very quickly and don't edit a lot, so a poem can come from anywhere and at any time really. Anyway, I suppose what I was getting around to was: I don't have a writing space.

11. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I have finished a manuscript of poetry that I think represents the arc of my life in the last decade. I will tinker with it and submit it to lots of contests and cross my fingers.

Thanks to Jeffery for answering my questions. Please check out his sample poem:

Walking Reliquary

Primitive, and so, face

of stromatolite, glottal-stop

cilia, pre-Cambrian gut.

Derivative, and so, grackle's

nest mate, jackal's familiar.

Nose like a nocked arrow,

eyes like a lemur's, only lonelier.

Fatuous, and so, bag of bones,

old bones, some close to broken,

others opposable. Scot organs

and pipes, blood of a Choctaw,

stretched skin of a Norse war drum.

Inattentive, and so, collapse

at the waterhole, hair growing

gray like the seat

of a prayer bench.

Ebullient, and so, grief

of a treed raccoon,

arms like a starfish. Grin

like the wolves

at a timberline.

Acquisitive, and so, Isles

of Langerhorn, rings

of wild cypress, rings

of dead Popes.

Transitory, and so, brain

of an ocelot, brain

of a cockatoo,

mind of a lilac.

Heretical, and so, postprandial

half-life, quarterstaffs

for thighs, three-fourths

of a pumpkin's DNA.

Incorruptible, and so, knuckles

like gambling stones, shroud

of a leper, eggs like a fossil find.

Redeemable, and so, water-logged

flesh, airborne ash, sedimentary compression.

–The title is taken from a line in G. C. Waldrep's "Confessions of the Mouse King"

Day 21: Kelli Russell Agodon: National Poetry Month

Kelli Russell Agodon shares her five favorite poetry books with us today. 32 Poems is sharing recommendations for five poetry books each day of National Poetry Month. What are you doing to celebrate?

1) The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception by Martha Silano: A musical and vibrant collection that moves from aliens to Zinfandel, Aunt Suzie can really pole dance! to a kazoo. A light stick, the kind kids love. This is what I love about Silano's work, you never know what each poem will hold and how she will surprise you. She has been a favorite poet of mine since I first read her book, What the Truth Tastes Like. I am always amazed with what she does with language.

2) Every Dress, A Decision by Elizabeth Austen: This collection has just come out this month, but I'm lucky & thankful to have had the opportunity to read it before it was published. The poems in this book are rich with story and music. And as poems go, Austen doesn't just skim the surface, her poems will take you deep; she in an incredible poet who I know from the Northwest stage and so I'm happy to see her work reaching a national level.

3) Becoming the Villianness by Jeannine Hall Gailey: This has been a favorite book of mine for a long time. Poet Jeannine Hall Gailey is a feminist superhero in a pair of kickass pink boots. This collection is both fun and lively, but also poignant. From Wonder Woman to Spy Girls to the Snow Queen, you never know who you will run into in this book, but I tell you, you will always be interested and incredibly entertained. (By the way, Jeannine's second collection She Returns to the Floating World will be published by Kitsune Books in July 2011, and as a first reader to that collection, I highly recommend it as well.)

4) The Alchemist's Kitchen by Susan Rich: Susan Rich's book has just been named a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year Award in Poetry for 2010, so I feel confident recommending this book even though Susan has been a good friend of mine for the last ten years. To me, The Alchemist's Kitchen is delectable reading, not only do we explore relationships, food, love, and life, but also art—the middle section of this collection pays tribute to photographer Myra Albert Wiggins. Rich's poems calm me, help me to slow down and appreciate the details to life and her work make me pay attention to the music in our words.

5) A New Red by Lana Hechtman Ayers: A beautiful book of poems where a more modern Red Riding Hood gets to tell her story, along with the hunter and the wolf. Even Gretel wanders in for a poem. This is a tightly woven collection where the poetry reader can lose herself into the story of fairytales and at 129 pages, it's a good size book so you'll have excellent reading if you get lost on the way to grandmother's house.

BIO: Kelli Russell Agodon is the author Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize, which is currently a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year Award in Poetry. She is also the author of Small Knots (2004) and the chapbook, Geography.

Kelli lives in Washington State with her family where she is an avid mountain biker as well as the co-editor of Seattle's 28-year-old print literary journal, Crab Creek Review, and the co-founder of Two Sylvias Press.

You can find her blogging at Book of Kells, where she writes about living and writing creatively or visit her website at: http://www.agodon.com or on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/agodon

Day 20: Amit Majmudar's 5 Poetry Picks

Alicia E. Stallings, Archaic Smile.

This poet started out miraculous and has been improving her work rigorously over the past decade. She is not content—the way Kay Ryan, Collins, and Oliver are—to replicate early successes. Her early successes, and successes they are, you will find collected here.

Alicia E. Stallings, Hapax.

The fugue complicates itself; the fractal goes intricate; the crystal branches ever more finely. She distinguishes herself as a poet for whom the culture's poetic past(s) and present are foregrounded in the same plane; there is no silly striving after "timeliness." Her timeliness is the perpetual timeliness of music.

Kay Ryan, The Best of It.

I have an essay about her forthcoming in June's The Threepenny Review. It identifies seven paradoxical masks—Infinitude Disguised as the Sound Bite, Irrationality Disguised as Logic, Individuality Disguised as the Impersonal, Subjectivity Disguised as Dissolution, Design Disguised as Accident, Inclusiveness Disguised as Exclusion, and Vision Disguised as Observation—through which this poet achieves her sublime ends. I refer the reader to that issue for more detailed admiration.

Christian Wiman, Every Riven Thing.

You know you're a good poet when you form-reject me regularly and I still can't help but like you. In his most successful poems, the formal decisions, like those of Todd Boss, follow those of Kay Ryan; he is one of the many poets on whom she has had a salutary influence. He also has a terminal hematological malignancy, which he himself has made public; this fact, always in the back of the mind (both his and the reader's), adds a based-on-a-true-story frisson to the poems about dying.

Don Paterson, [Insert Title Here].

The great British master-poet. He, too, has worked constantly to transfigure himself. He began with a few books in which he presented himself a bawling-brawling, tough-guy-with-a-heart type. Then, just as fatherhood was deepening him, he began translating some poets rather unlike him, Machado and Rilke (Stallings, too, nota bene, has translated Lucretius), and he came out the other side with his language purified. I prefer his later books to his early ones, but all are uniformly masterful.

BIO: Amit Majmudar is a diagnostic radiologist specializing in nuclear medicine. His first book, 0′,0′, was published by Northwestern University Press/TriQuarterly Books. His second manuscript, Heaven and Earth, won the 2011 Donald Justice Award. His first novel, Partitions, is forthcoming from Holt/Metropolitan in 2011 as well. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry Magazine, 32 Poems Magazine, and The Best American Poetry anthology.

Day 20: Sally Molini's Favorite Poetry Books

Today's five recommendations come from Sally Molini. Please see below for more information on her work.

God Particles

Thomas Lux

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

2008

Long ago, for better or worse, the double-edged sword of human potential took over management of the world. Given the fact that the same homo sapien mind which conceives of transcendence, kindness, healing and selfless heroism, is the same mind that seems hopelessly addicted to war, hate, greed and cruelty, how are we doing? Not so good, according to the often scathing, always perceptive poems in this collection. The language is deft and direct, the imagery down-to-earth, and every topic has a take-no-prisoners relevancy.

Tourist in Hell

Eleanor Wilner

The University of Chicago Press

2010

Devastating, empathetic, complex, apocalyptic, enlightening, frightening, wonderful! No kidding, these poems give me the chills.

Upgraded to Serious

Heather McHugh

Copper Canyon Press

2009

Playful language and witty, fast-paced satirical hits on unexpectedly salient subjects, including phrenologists, the dodo's caca, and webcamming the world. A reader's delight.

The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Oxford University Press

USA 4th Ed. 1976

Hopkins' work, through striking word choice and rhythms, offers the reader a poetic thrill ride, especially when his poems are memorized. Memorization brings a closer intimacy and thus a deeper revelation of this poet's lush sprung patterns and intense sensibility that, among other sensations, rinse and wring the ear.

John Keats Complete Poems

Jack Stillinger, Editor

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

1991

Might be a cliché to say it but that doesn't make it any less true: the intellectual sweetness, tangible soulfulness and enduring sincerity of Keats never fail to nourish the heart and head. Tender is the night indeed.

BIO: Sally Molini co-edits Cerise Press, an international online journal based in the US and France (www.cerisepress.com). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Beloit Poetry Journal, American Letters & Commentary, Cimarron Review, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. She lives in Nebraska.

Day 20: National Poetry Month

Today's five recommendations come from Sally Molini. Please see below for more information on her work.

God Particles

Thomas Lux

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

2008

Long ago, for better or worse, the double-edged sword of human potential took over management of the world. Given the fact that the same homo sapien mind which conceives of transcendence, kindness, healing and selfless heroism, is the same mind that seems hopelessly addicted to war, hate, greed and cruelty, how are we doing? Not so good, according to the often scathing, always perceptive poems in this collection. The language is deft and direct, the imagery down-to-earth, and every topic has a take-no-prisoners relevancy.

Tourist in Hell

Eleanor Wilner

The University of Chicago Press

2010

Devastating, empathetic, complex, apocalyptic, enlightening, frightening, wonderful! No kidding, these poems give me the chills.

Upgraded to Serious

Heather McHugh

Copper Canyon Press

2009

Playful language and witty, fast-paced satirical hits on unexpectedly salient subjects, including phrenologists, the dodo's caca, and webcamming the world. A reader's delight.

The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

Oxford University Press

USA 4th Ed. 1976

Hopkins' work, through striking word choice and rhythms, offers the reader a poetic thrill ride, especially when his poems are memorized. Memorization brings a closer intimacy and thus a deeper revelation of this poet's lush sprung patterns and intense sensibility that, among other sensations, rinse and wring the ear.

John Keats Complete Poems

Jack Stillinger, Editor

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

1991

Might be a cliché to say it but that doesn't make it any less true: the intellectual sweetness, tangible soulfulness and enduring sincerity of Keats never fail to nourish the heart and head. Tender is the night indeed.

BIO: Sally Molini co-edits Cerise Press, an international online journal based in the US and France (www.cerisepress.com). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Beloit Poetry Journal, American Letters & Commentary, Cimarron Review, Denver Quarterly, and other journals. She lives in Nebraska.

Get Poetry Book Recommendations

Celebrate National Poetry Month with 32 Poems. We're sharing more than 215 favorite poetry books suggested by 43 poets in 30 days—and we're sharing them with you.

Thanks to Reb Livingston for the inspiration behind this idea. Each year, she invites poets to share their favorite books in December.

Through this celebration, we hope to:

1. Promote the work of writers who may be new to you. Someone already wrote me to say they bought a few of the books recommended by John Poch on Day One.

2. Promote the work of the writers who volunteer to share their recommendations. At the end of each post, you'll notice a juicy bio—often with links to the writer's projects. I hope you take a moment to find out what they are working on these days.

The schedule of writers follows. Please feel welcome to share it on your blog. We're creeping into the month of May, which shows poetry can't be contained to just one month.

April 1: John Poch

April 2: Jonterri Gadson

April 3: Eric Weinstein

April 4: M.E. Silverman

April 5: Arielle Greenberg

April 6: Lucy Biederman

April 7: Eric Pankey

April 8: David Lehman

April 9 AM: Collin Kelley

April 9 PM: J.J. Penna

April 10: Jennifer Atkinson

April 11: Luke Johnson

April 11: Interview with Terri Witek

April 12: Holly Karapetkova

April 13: Daniel Nester

April 14 AM: Donald Illich

April 14 PM: Ravi Shankar

April 15: Carolina Ebeid

April 16: M. Scott Douglass

April 17 AM: Adam Vines

April 17 PM: Erica Dawson

April 18: Elizabeth J. Coleman

April 19: Bernadette Geyer

April 20 AM: Sally Molini

April 20 PM: Amit Majmudar

April 21: Kelli Russell Agodon

April 22: Jeannine Hall Gailey

April 23: George David Clark

April 24 AM: Ren Powell

April 24 PM: Dan O'Brien

April 25: Randall Mann

April 26 AM: Mary Biddinger

April 27 AM: Juliana Gray

April 27 PM: Carrie Jerrell

April 28: Steven Allen May

April 29: Erin Elizabeth Smith

April 30: Rachel Zucker

May 1: Erika Meitner

May 2: Caki Wilkinson

May 3: Deborah Ager

May 4: Amy Lemmon

May 5: Andrea Hollander Budy

May 6: Lisa Russ Spaar

Confession Tuesday

January O'Neil's Confession Tuesday post inspired me to post this one. I wrote it long ago, in my head, about to fall asleep one night. I thought I'd remember.

I forgot.

The night persuades me I'll remember. Every time. Sleep, says the night. Sleep.

I confess I enjoy reading Sylvia Plath. I think she gets treated as the angst-ridden teenager's poet too often. I've always admired the powerful diction in The Edge.

Although this next poet I mention does not currently get accused of writing only for angst-ridden teens, I read this poem by Kelli Russell Agodon at The Rumpus and wanted to read it a second time.

__

I'm not quite done confessing.

One day, I said I'd never write a sonnet. Many times, I said I'd never write a sonnet. This not-writing-a-sonnet became a reality for many years. I did try. I did write many Bad Sonnets. Who knows what happened next? I injected some Edna St. Vincent Millay and drank some Shakespeare. I wrote a sonnet. I wrote another sonnet.

What happens when you fill up your brain with good food and that food is named Shakespeare or Keats or Millay or Dickinson? What happens when you say, I could never do that? For me, my brain starts to prove me wrong. Is this conscious? Not really. I can't say what it is, and I've never examined this oddity of how my brain works until today. Isn't that what makes this partly a confession? Give me something I can't do. My brain will do it. I am not even a participant in this process. I stand back and let the brain do its work.

__

I wanted to embed this video of Kasey Chambers singing a song, but embedding had been disabled. Why would someone not want to let others share her music via YouTube when it would only promote her work? I decided not to share the link either. I wanted. to. embed. the. video.

__

I have failed and succeeded at many poems in my lifetime. This month, I am failing at writing 30 poems in 30 days. I am succeeding at writing 15 new poems. Did I fail or succeed? It all depends on how I view the situation.

Day 19 of National Poetry Month

Thank you for joining us for NATIONAL POETRY MONTH and the 32 POEMS CELEBRATION of this month with recommendations for poetry books that will knock the socks (or tights or pantyhose) right off your feet!

Today Bernadette Geyer brings her suggestions to the 32 Poems blog.

Burning the Empty Nests, by Gregory Orr – Orr's poems are linguistically playful and emotionally razor-shap. I find myself returning frequently to the final section, "The Adventures of the Stone."

What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire, by Charles Bukowski – Shows that Bukowski is not just a poet of whiskey and expletives. His emotional range is phenomenal.

Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems, by Wislawa Szymborska – I will always return to this collection for Szymborska's poetic gaze, and for the brutally frightening power of the poem "Discovery."

Selected Poems, by Mark Strand – Strand exhibits a wonderful depth of emotion without losing his inherent sense of the wry and surreal.

True Stories: Poems, by Margaret Atwood – Atwood's voice is intimate and compelling in these poems which read sometimes as confessions, sometimes as myth.

BIO: Bernadette Geyer is the author of the chapbook What Remains and recipient of a Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. Her poems have appeared in Oxford American, 32 Poems, The Los Angeles Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Read her poetry book reviews.