Susan Rich's Blog, page 38

Poets Across the World Unite: Over 100 Ways to Share the Love

Poetry Lovers of All Ages Unite!

Wow. My heart is filled with appreciation for the 55+ bloggers that have offered books, journals, and full magazine subscriptions to poetry lovers anywhere in the world. Anyone, anywhere, can play.

What can you win?

Brand new books by Catherine Barnett, Erin Hollowell, Kelli Davio Marj Manwaring, and Jeanine Hall Gailey, for five examples.

Or international poetry books from generous bloggers in New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada -- if you want to learn more about international poets.

If you like poetry journals: Crab Creek Review or Los Angeles Review are two you can check out.

Look at the list of 55 poetry lovers (you don't have to be a poet to take part in the giveaway as non-fiction writer, Wendy Call, has demonstrated -- just one example) on the lefthand side of this blogpost. Click on the link to see what you can win.

How can you win?

I'm so glad you asked! All you need to do is leave your name and some way for the blogger to contact you in the comment area of the blog post you want to win. It's true that you may need a gmail account to leave a message on blogger -- but it's free to sign up and many other bloggers use wordpress and other systems. You can also simply email the blogger if you are having trouble posting. Bloggers want you to participate!

There's a catch right? Why would anyone give books away to strangers and promise to mail them anywhere in the world? 

No catch. Your email address will not be sold, mined, shared, or sent to anyone at all. No one is "selling" anything other than a love of poetry. Last year I sent my book to a young man in the Philippines; it makes me happy that my poems can travel to a country I have yet to visit. Sure, I'll spend a few dollars buying a copy of a book I love (and supporting poetry!) and another couple of dollars on postage, but the feeling of sending poetry to a someone you don't know and not expecting anything in return is strangely powerful.

Anything else I need to know?

You don't need a to be a poet to enter; there is no age requirement; no height or weight requirement either. You can go to as many blog sites as you want -- there is no limit. Enter all 55 --- why not? Show your support for poetry. During the first week of May bloggers will contact you if you've won a book.

Oh yes, one thing you could do...

Help us spread the word! If you are a teacher, tell your students; if you are in a poetry group, tell your group members. We want to show that people love poetry and that poets are cool enough to share work they love with the world.

Today is the Final Day to Send in Your Blog Posting for the Big Poetry Giveaway

50 bloggers from New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States have already joined in our third year of the Big Poetry Giveaway. We'd love to have you join, too.

I've been surprised that only 50 generous bloggers have joined us. I somehow thought that everyone who loved poetry and had a blog would be into this celebration.

Maybe you've just been waiting for the very last minute? Martha Silano joined today --- you can, too!

Here is the link for adding your blog post!

The Big Poetry Giveaway

And if you want a chance to win poetry books --- well you're in luck because the bloggers are not doing their drawings until May 1st. Come play!

My favorite images of the day: Matteo Massagrande's work

credit: Matteo Massagrande from Padua, ItalyMatteo Massagrande paints interiors of abandoned modern day buildings as if they were palaces. His angles shift and meet in unexpected ways. I've just discovered his work this afternoon. I'm very taken with it but wonder how he feels about poetry? I feel as if I should contact him before I fall in love.



I can imagine any of these as my next cover. And there are still more paintings to discover. Here's an excerpt from a New York Times article on Massagrande and his work. Here's an excerpt:

The artist’s “Interiors” inescapably bring to mind the mysterious stillness and atmospheric lights of some of the great masters of this genre, like Vermeer and Hammershoi, but are nonetheless highly individual.

Part of the secret of Mr. Massagrande’s intriguing interiors is that they are as much invented as real. Both the artist and his wife are connoisseurs of abandoned and derelict buildings. Said Angela Massagrande: “If we see one, we can’t resist going in and taking a look.”

Drawing on such chance visits and personal memories, Mr. Massagrande constructs his images often from quite disparate buildings and locations. So, for example, part of a picture might be inspired by an old apartment block in Budapest, while the garden seen in the watery sunlight glimpsed outside might be somewhere in the Veneto or even his own garden in Padua. “I sometimes feel more like an architect than a painter of pictures,” he said.

Another gorgeous painting by Massagrande

Poet Amber Decker with The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders

Poet Amber Decker Begins Her JourneyThere is nothing like receiving a photo in your inbox of a friend holding your new book in her hands. Poet Amber Decker sent this lovely photo of herself along to me this afternoon. Since The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders is less than a month old, I'm not used to seeing it anywhere other than my computer screen. To know that Amber is reading it on the other side of the country makes me ridiculously happy. To hear from her that it contains "incredible stories and is full of good advice" is cool, too. A few weeks ago I met with the lovely Seattle poet and pie maker extraordinaire, Kate Lebo, to brainstorm travel ideas with her after her reading of the book. It's pretty cool to bring two things I love so much --- poetry and global travel --- into one gorgeous volume.

This was my first experience editing an anthology and I learned so much! I worked with a fantastic team of people including Catherine Barnett, Ilya Kaminsky, Brian Turner, Beth Allen, and Jared Hawkley. And then there were the leagues of fact checkers, proof readers, permissions coordinator --- and a host of other key players. I can't imagine doing such an undertaking alone.

The idea for this book came from a conversation Ilya Kaminsky and I had a number of years ago when he came out to Seattle to give a reading at Highline Community College where I teach. We bemoaned that fact that young poets wanted to get out and see the world but had little idea how to make this happen if their pockets weren't lined with gold. Surely, there must be a book that could inspire poets to do what other American poets had done before them. Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Phil Levine, and Yusef Komunyakaa all spent considerable time living outside the United States. And they wrote about it -- how it influenced their poetics and their worldview.

The book also contains a large resource section with information on how to apply for grants, fellowships, and jobs abroad. It's a book I plan on using as I dream about poetry trips to India and Italy, Turkey and Thailand. Happy travels!

Thank you to CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action for Publishing "Invention of Everything Else"

Thank you to CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action for publishing a recent poem that will be published in CLOUD PHARMACY next year. I seem to write less and like less of what I write these days; I wonder if it is a sign of aging? However, this is a poem that satisfies me; I can read it without wincing. A strange test but it's one I use frequently. I hope you enjoy.





Invention of Everything Else
– SUSAN RICH –

Once a man offered me his heart like a glass of water

how to accept or decline?



Sometimes all I speak is doubt



delineated by the double lines

of railway tracks; sometimes



I’m an incomplete bridge, crayon red Xs extending


across a world map.

A man offers me his bed like an emergency



exit, a forklift, a raft.



The easy-to-read instructions

sequestered in the arms of his leather jacket.


Sometimes a woman needs


small habits, homegrown salad, good sex.

Instead, she cultivates cats and a cupcake maker,




to continue reading this poem click here

Lovely art work from the current CURA
CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action is a multi-media initiative based at Fordham University committed to integrating the arts and social justice. Featuring creative writing, visual art, new media and video in response to current news, we seek to enable an artistic process that is rigorously engaged with the world at the present moment.

Contact Information
Sarah Gambito, Editor in Chief
441 E. Fordham Road
Dealy Hall 541W
Bronx, NY 10458
curamag@fordham.edu

It's the Night Before School Begins: Spring Quarter

So this is not what happens in my classroom. I tend to like a bit of chaos where students talk in small groups and present on projects of their own making. The quarter begins tomorrow and I am nervous and not yet fully prepared. I wish I had new shoes to wear or at least a new scarf. I like scarves.

There is so much potential in the first week of a new quarter --- and so much fear. Students are doing their best to find new rooms, new books, and forge new identities. Professors are trying to send clear signals that they mean business --- and yet are also approachable, fun, and even human.

We are strangers setting off on a cruise together. My job is to steer the craft and keep my eye out for storms. I also need to enstill confidence in the crew --- they have to know that they have what it takes to stay afloat. Every quarter I hope to be the best writing (and film) instructor I can be; each quarter there are days when I succeed and days when I fail.

If there is one thing that I want my students to learn this quarter it's that writing is a way to better understand oneself and the world; that it is truly magical to construct a scaffold of words to live within.  

How can I relay that writing is a skill that can change their lives? That good writing allows them to leap far beyond self-imposed boundaries or the socio-economic limitations they feel acutely?

Wish me luck.

Hedgebrook is Celebrating 25 Years!

Carolyn Forche on April 9 <https://www.hedgebrook.org/newsdetails.php?id=88> Hedgebrook is celebrating its 25th Anniversary and its alumnae community with an amazing performance event at Town Hall Seattle (yes, upstairs!) on April 9 at 7pm.  Poet and human rights advocate Carolyn Forche < http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carolyn-forche >  leads a line-up that includes  poets Elizabeth Austen, Karen Finneyfrock, Tara Hardy, Rose McAleese, Storme Webber, me, and musicians Choklate Moore and Mary Lambert.  Tickets are $15 general admission, with an early bird special: 2 tickets for $20 before April 5. <https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=50425>  

It's been a few years since Carolyn has read in Seattle—she's a phenomenal presence and a tremendously moving writer, so I hope you'll be able to come!

It's Not Me, It's Blogger Problems ...

Waiting for Blogger to Fix Gadgets
Dear Poetry Lovers,

I am impatiently waiting for blogger to fix the current problem with adding links to their gadget lists. I am working on a work around as well. Meanwhile, if you have left me a comment to add your Big Poetry Giveaway, I am working on finding a fix. Meanwhile, if you are looking for poetry books, you can simply use the list to the left of this message and then go to comment section of this post for more options.  Blogger knows about the problem so I expect a fix is on the way. Sincere thanks for your patience.

In Perpetual Spring - Amy Gerstler

Spring debuting at the University of Washington, Seattle
In Perpetual Spring

BY AMY GERSTLER

Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
spiky voodoo lilies
and trip over the roots
of a sweet gum tree,
in search of medieval
plants whose leaves,
when they drop off
turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they
plop into water.

Suddenly the archetypal
human desire for peace
with every other species
wells up in you. The lion
and the lamb cuddling up.
The snake and the snail, kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds, revives
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.

Spencer Reece Comes to Seattle for One Night - Event Includes Screening of "The Clerks Tale;" a short film by James Franco

James Franco Filmed a Spencer Reece Poem?
Monday, March 25, 2013 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Yes, James Franco turned Reece's poem "A Clerk's Tale" into a short film, which will be screened following a reading by Spencer Reece on Monday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. Reece, who is a priest working with girls in Honduras, will read from his new collection of poetry,The Road to Emmaus, introduced by Tree Swenson. And by the way, Reece's poem "The Clerk's Tale," was based on his experiences working at Brooks Brothers in the Minnesota's Mall of America.



The reading is free, and the bar will be open.


This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Humanities WA, and ArtsWA.


Connect to the event on Facebook.

About Spencer Reece


Spencer Reece was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1963. He has a BA from Wesleyan University, MTS from Harvard, and a MDiv from Berkeley Divinity School, Yale. His first book of poems, The Clerk’s Tale, won the Bakeless Prize, selected by Louise Gluck, in 2003. James Franco made a short film from the title poem. His second book of poems The Road to Emmaus will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2014. Currently, he is completing a book of prose, The Little Entrance, about his decision to become a priest in middle age. Reece has won the NEA grant, a Guggenheim grant, the Wytter Bynner Prize from the Library Congress, the Whiting Writers Award, and the Amy Lowell Traveling Grant. His poems have been published in The New Yorker, Poetry, The American Scholar, and The New Republic.
Last year, Reece served as the chaplain to the Bishop of Spain for the Reformed Episcopal Church, Iglesia Español Reformada Episcopal. He recently won the Fulbright grant to return to Honduras, for 2012-2013. The project is for the abandoned and abused girls of the orphanage of Our Little Roses (www.ourlittleroses.org) to write poems in Spanish and English along with watercolors they will do on the theme of home. The book will be co-edited by Richard Blanco. Proceeds for the book will return to the orphanage. Film director, Brad Coley, is directing a feature documentary of the project for wide release. James Franco and Cassidy Friedman are executive producers. Dar Williams is composing the soundtrack.