Marly Youmans's Blog, page 101

"Glorying in the language and the hope"

You may find a post at Elizabeth Adams's Phoenicia Publishing commenting on the review of Thaliad by poet Rachel Barenblat, aka Velveteen Rabbi, here. The full review can be found at Velveteen Rabbi.

In our era when poetry books often go without a greeting from the world, I am especially grateful for Rachel Barenblat's time and care in penning (or keyboarding!) a strong and lovely review.

Here

"Except the heart"

rereading Jung's Man and His Symbols (1964): 
Aniela Jaffe, "Symbolism in the Visual Arts"

Man and His Symbols approaches its 50th birthday... Rereading pieces of the book, I am struck by how pertinent some of its efforts to reconcile the past and Modernism still appear, as well as how well Jaffe's comments on visual arts apply to all the arts--as Chagall suggests when he says "painting, like

Mezzo Cammin, again--

Six poems of mine are up at Mezzo Cammin, edited by poet Kim Bridgford. Below find a taste, the first three lines of each. Three of the six poems will be in The Book of the Red King, some day.

If you would like to read more of my poems, check the contributors' notes--mine has links to other poems in earlier issues. Recent in-print poetry books of mine are: Thaliad (just out, a post-apocalyptic

Saline tributes welcome

It is Sunday, and I am feeling pleased, satisfied, and downright merry that a goodly number of readers have reported crying over Thaliad. Trala! I'm very fond of both laughter (with not at) and tears in readers, and think it a grand privilege to inspire them.

"All things fall and are built again"

Anyone who chases the muse with energy ends up on a narrow, solitary path. Long ago, I slowly grew to understand that I was opposed to a good deal in contemporary work and the realm of the avant-garde. Then a clearer sense of what I desired to do emerged, in part from rejection of certain books and choices; in that I was no different from any other writer.

My little row of books stands in

Most questions answered, no. 2

Or, The Return of the Pot Boy,
who has received the following question:


DAVID R. said...
Dear Potty
[sic] Boy--I wash my dishes in a sink and use the standard drying apparatus. Now, why is there always gunk accumulating in the bottom of the utensil drying bin though I just washed the pieces?
Note from Marly: As David R. is part of a lively group of fb-teasers, I hope he will not take it amiss

Most questions answered, no. 1

Paul Digby said... 
I'd like to see a post that discussed how your approach to writing might differ if there were no such things as publishing houses and ebooks and the like.
How would you write for hand-bound limited edition stuff (as though 'literature' were no longer published or read). 

Would there be changes to your approach?
Would there be differences in the way you completed work if

Salmagundi for the New Year

LISTEN TO A CASSANDRA?

Thanks to Beth Adams of The Cassandra Pages for listing a novel of mine among her favorites of 2012: "Particular standouts written by friends included Marly Youmans' evocative and poignant novel of an orphan boy-turned-hobo in the depression-era South, A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage. The whole list and discussion is worth a look.

LAST CHANCES: VAL/ORSON

Val/

Bright story, new year

The year past was a long and complicated journey, a tempering one--an interesting Bilbo sort of journey, where one grows older and means not to come back. And somehow I feel unready for New Year's resolutions. Perhaps I will make mine around St. Valentine's day, when it used to be said that the birds would fly back to summer homes... By that date, I start to believe that spring will come to the

In the eye of the beholder

Thanks, Alisa Alering. It's always interesting to find out what appeals to a young writer who has been digging around in one's word-hoard, and how one appears--what the strengths are, according to another mind. And I always wanted to be silver-tongued and maybe a bit strange around the edges! Nicely deckled, shall we say...