Marly Youmans's Blog, page 32

Stephen Fry on poetic form

A genial, inviting discussion. Evidently Fry has much fiercer things to say about poetic matters (particularly form and shapeliness) in the book... And that book is The Ode Less Travelled. Tom Disch (in the form of poet Thomas M. Disch, author of The Castle of Indolence) would be proud.

Hat tip to A. M. Juster.

The Foliate Head, on sale--

Just back from the coast and noticed that The Foliate Head (second printing, hardcover) is now listed as not out of print and is on a very good sale. In fact, it is no longer 15 pounds but a mere 4 pounds. So, get it while you can--P. S. Publishing end of print run and clearance sale! Scrumptious wodwos art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, wonderful design by Andrew Wakelin. Poems by me--for more

A thimbleful

Parable of the Thimble

A being dedicated a life to words, to art, and to the great transcendentals of beauty, truth, love, and goodness. One morning, the being woke up and looked about at an apocalyptic landscape of toddler-slaying fanatics and Kardashian idol-worshippers and flashy, trendy drek. The being took up a thimble, pouring sparkling drops of cleanness into the oily, crimson,

A singing muse

Here's a challenging-for-poets and intriguing-for-readers paragraph from Bruce Bawer's review essay about Paul Mariani's biography of Wallace Stevens. While I haven't read anything else by Bawer, I have a strong interest in approaching music in poetry--in the recovery of joy in sound play--and so his thoughts interest me. (The emphases in black below are mine.) He concludes:

We began with

Epistle to F. D.

"Epistle to F. D." is up today--a blank verse poem written when I found the great Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in my head. I've read the autobiography a number of times, though not in a long while, and his clever, determined efforts to learn to read came to mind strongly, along with thoughts of sitting on the floor with my mother as she showed me flashcards of words. Frederick

World-wish

Seb Lester calligraphy.
Dove of peace mosaic, 12th century.

Poems at Mezzo Cammin

New at Mezzo Cammin: "A Curious Incident," a poem from the manuscript of The Book of the Red King; and "Rider Entering a Ruined City," a poem I wrote for painter and occasional penpal Graham Ward (UK.) Unfortunately, I cannot find an image of Graham's painting--thought I had saved it--but shall post later if I unearth one.

Poems at At Length

Damsels and Dragons



Marbles

The Folded Tree

Sorrow-praise

Spirit-fall

Amaryllis Hippeastrum

Poems inspired in mode and form by Yoruban praise poems. These are from a manuscript called RAVE. Read 'em here. Thank you to At Length editor Jonathan Farmer! And to photographer Paul Digby.

Becoming what we eat

Carlos Sillero of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Old Books, sxc.hu


The content we devour on the internet really can have a lasting effect on our cognitive abilities. At least, so says a new study published by the International Journal of Business Administration this May.... it may not be the screen time that’s at fault for lessened abilities—it’s the low quality of most online

Dear Yale English majors,

Wikipedia public domain

Various people have reasoned with the demands of your petition (included below) on many grounds: the paltry numbers of "women, people of color, and queer folk" actively writing major work in earlier centuries; the fact that literature speaks to the larger human condition; the brutal truth that we can't time travel to correct injustices and insert diverse writers; the