Susan Rich's Blog, page 89

"At Middle Life: A Romance" Many Thanks to Diane Lockward

Thanks to Diane Lockward I now have my very own pied-a-terre on youtube! Diane Lockward, as many of you know, is a poet with a brand new book, Temptation by Water which has just been published. She is also one of my internet wizards, learning new technologies and sharing her expertise with me --- I'm the last kid on the block to get a computer, a cell phone ... you get the --- paper-based --- picture.

And yes, you do hear a cat crying in the background. That's Sarajevo. I think she hates every...

From the Uncollected Poems ~

Forget, forget, and let us live now
only this: how the stars pierce the cleared
nocturnal sky; how the moon's full disk
surmounts the gardens. We've sensed so long
how the darkness breeds many mirrors; how a gleam
takes shape, a white shadow in the radiance
of night. But now let us cross over
and invest this world where
everything is lunar ---

Rilke (trans. E.S.)
Paris, early summer 1909

Reading Rilke (again)

I've decided to spend the summer with Rilke. It's complicated. I have his new collected poems translated by the superb Edward Snow, The Poetry of Rilke, the biography, Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke  by Ralph Freedman, and some of the letters. It's been ten years since I've spent much time with him. I am curious to see how my sense of what he can teach me has changed. One thing that hasn't changed: how much I love this poem. Of course I know that I'm not alone.

Evening

Slowly the evening pu...

Happy Long Weekend from Seattle ~

So this is listed as a 4th of July photo, but Seattlites and others can easily tell that that's not true. Whatever holiday we're celebrating this weekend -- happy travels and be safe.

Mystery Solved Thanks to Loomful of Hues

Thank you to Jeanne Heifitz for solving the Verse Daily mystery! Using expert detective skills and a dash of common sense, Jeanne surmised that someone at Verse Daily might have confused the poet from the Saturday feature with Wesley McNair, Verse Daily's Sunday feature. Now why didn't I think of that? Thankfully, Wesley McNair is the author of  "Mistakes about Heaven" and thus I did order the right book. The bio connected with him belongs to Karyna McGlynn - the Saturday feature - who it tur...

Off the Page features The Alchemist's Kitchen

Okay - so I guess it's more of an interview that Drew Myron has kindly done with me on Off the Page. Drew has included a portion of my poem, "Letter to the End of the Year," with the interview and a bio. Feel free to visit here.  It was fun to do and I am very grateful to Drew for asking. One of the cool things about the blogging community is becoming friends with people who without the internet, I probably would never know. Thank you, Drew.

It's a Mystery (to me)

Sunday's poem on Verse Daily was titled "Mistakes About Heaven" by Wesley McNair. I love the poem so much that I ordered her / his book. And here begins the mystery. According to Verse Daily, Wesley McNair is a woman with only a couple of books out. According to everything else on the internet, Wesley McNair is a middle aged, bald man from New England with over a dozen books of poetry. Could there be two Wesley McNairs? Which one wrote the poem "Mistakes About Heaven"? Whose book did I order?...

The Writer's Life: Rakesh Satyal Raises the Bar on Acceptance Speeches

Thank you Peter Pereira for this. It has me laughing out loud each time. And yet -- is it that funny? Yes! It's so unexpected. "I want to thank everyone here - from the straightest person to the littlest queer."
And finally, "thank you very much for letting me join the ranks." If I ever win a big prize I want to do something this outlandish. And yet what shines through for me in this video is exuberance. Congratulations Rakesh Satyal. May your book, Blue Boy , sell like hot cakes -- like crazy ...

Rakesh Satyal Goes Gaga @ Lammys

Review in Miniature: Between Water & Song

One of the many lovely surprises at this year's AWP conference in Denver was the book launch for Between Water and Song  anthology published by White Pine Press (full disclosure - also, my press). Although many of the poets were familiar to me -- poetry pals Ilya Kaminsky and Brian Turner are included here -- there were many other poets who were new to me. I was especially drawn to the women poets that read that night: Maria Melendez and Malena Morling. I can't help but mention that out of th...