George Witte's Blog, page 10

Philadelphia Inquirer review

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer has a long, thoughtful review of three new collections--one of them Does She Have a Name?-- written by Frank Wilson, the Inquirer's former book editor. Frank Wilson is one of the few book editors and reviewers who regularly writes about new poetry collections for a major daily paper. We all owe him our thanks.

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertai...

Does She Have a Name?

Small Press Distribution Poetry Bestseller

The one and only time a book of mine is likely to make any bestseller list: Does She Have a Name? debuted on the Small Press Distribution June Poetry Bestseller list at #18: http://www.spdbooks.org/pages/bestsel...

Thanks to all who have purchased and reviewed the book! Next on my bucket list: learn to fix things around the house with something other than duct tape.Does She Have a Name?

E-Verse Radio feature on Does She Have a Name?

Ernest Hilbert is one of our most accomplished formal poets and also the creator of E-Verse Radio, which makes poems available to subscribers. He was kind enough to use "Night Moth", one of the poems in Does She Have a Name?, for today's edition:

http://www.everseradio.com/night-moth...
Does She Have a Name?

First review of Does She Have a Name?

Well...as my boss used to say, any publicity is better than no publicity. This was just posted on Publishers Weekly online, and while of course I would have welcomed fireworks and fountains of praise, I'm grateful for the time the reviewer took with the book.

http://pw.mediapolis.com/978-1-63045-...

The poems in Does She Have a Name? emerged over many years, along with other poems that weren't for the book (some of which were published in Deniability, others filed away for the time being). I experienced them individually, rather than all in one go. Formal discipline freed the poems to be written; without it, they were just a blotto mess of emotions and memories. It may be that the cumulative effect of such discipline is a rigor that paralyzes the book. I hope not--and will be interested to see what others think. Does She Have a Name?

National Poetry Month #7: William Stafford

I once saw William Stafford read from his work, and still recall the quiet, informal grace, humor, and disquieting insight he delivered with each poem. Stafford is variously described as a regional poet of the West (he's about as regional as Frost or Ammons, in my opinion), as a poet of meditative/Zen mystical insight (which makes him sound much fuzzier than he is), and as a poet of peace and quiet, when in fact he is intensely aware of how precious our world is, how delicate, and how easily it might be lost. "I place my feet with care in such a world." "“There may be losses too great to understand/
That rove after you and--faint and terrible--
/rip unknown through your hand.”
The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems

National Poetry Month #6: James Dickey's Drowning with Others and Ted Hughes's The Hawk in the Rain

Two extraordinary books, which I purchased years ago before Dickey and Hughes were selected/collected/tombstoned into fat one-stop-shopping commemorative editions. Imagine being a poet and/or a poetry reader, and opening The Hawk in the Rain when it was first published in 1957: the utter freshness and power and cold clarity of that voice, unencumbered by laureate fame or marital infamy. That book and Hughes's second, Lupercal, remain touchstones for me. As for Dickey: Drowning with Others (1962) was the second in his ten year run of singular collections, before Deliverance won him the same blend of fame/infamy and changed the way he wrote. Poem after poem rolls off his tongue, each one a kind of alchemy: The Lifeguard, The Heaven of Animals, In the Tree House at Night, The Summons, and many others. Is there another poet with more standout poems in one single collection? The Hawk in the RainDrowning With Others

National Poetry Month #5: Kay Ryan and The Best of It

Kay Ryan's compact, uncanny poems are models of sneak-up-on-you, seemingly artless ambush. Poem after poem begins with an aside, a casual statement that with a precise detail or two broadens and deepens to tap springs of feeling and knowledge. If time really does tell, then Kay Ryan's poems will be told and read (aloud, where possible) as Frost's and Dickinson's continue to be. The Best of It: New and Selected Poems

National Poetry Month #4: Richard Kenney's The Evolution of the Flightless Bird

One of the more remarkable entries in the Yale series, Richard Kenney's debut fused science, arcane learning, ambition, and immense formal accomplishment into a book that announced its author as a singular voice and intelligence. I still treasure this book and re-read it with a sense of excitement and discovery (and no little envy at the poet's talent); it opens roads into the mind and the world. The Evolution of the Flightless Bird

National Poetry Month #3: James Applewhite

I first met James Applewhite as a freshman on fire with poetry at Duke University. His writing class was my first and only such class; since beginning to write while in high school, I have tended to work on my own. Jim was a patient reader and listener, who did not try to shape his students to fit a mold, but rather encouraged us to read widely, to explore different paths, wherever they might lead or dead-end. During my years as an undergraduate, he generously gave his time to reading my poems, and his quiet example was all I needed.

What I most value in his writing is plain language married with a sure sense of line, and a density of sensation that I can almost taste. A good place to start is his Selected Poems, recommended here. Selected Poems

National Poetry Month Book #2: Averno by Louise Gluck

I haven't always found myself in tune with Louise Gluck's poems, but this book reached deep into me: a journey to the underworld that explores life, death, myth, love, and other one-syllable words that have the range and power of epics.

Averno