Poetry News Digest: March 2014

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1914.org, Afaa Michael Weaver, affair, Alison Chisholm, American, Anthony Holden, Archivist, award, Ban, BBC, Ben Holden, Beowulf, Bernard and Cerinthe, biography, Black Diamonds, book, Brentwood, Brentwood Gazette, Brentwood School, British, Byssus, Carol Ann Duffy, Ceremony, Claremont Graduate University, Crystal Good, Delhi, Douglas Adams, election, English, Estate, Express, festival, First World War, George Szirtes, GoodReads, Gov.uk, Grace Pritt, Griff Rhys Jones, HarperCollins, HMP Parkhurst, Hugo Williams, Hungarian, I Knew the Bridge, Industry, Jen Hadfield, Jonathan Bate, Kevin Powers, Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Korean, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, Linda France, London Evening Standard, Los Angeles, March, media, Melville House, National Poetry Competition, New Statesman, news, North Korean, NPR, Off the Book, Pentonville Prison, plagiarism, poem, Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, Poet Laureate, poetry, politics, Prison, Prisoner, prize, Raw Story, review, school, Scottish, Serhiy Zhadan, Shetland, State Media, Storyacious, Student, Ted Hughes, Teenager, Texas Observer, The Billows of Emotion and Happiness, The Daily Mail, The Government of Nature, The Guardian, The Independent, The Indian Express, The New Yorker, The Poetry Society, The Register-Herald, The Telegraph, The Wire, Times, Tolkein, translation, Ukrainian, UN, UNESCO, Veteran, video, Wales Online, war, We Break into Cheers from the Bottom of Our Heart, We Go to the Polling Station, West Virginia, World Poetry Day, World Poetry Festival, Yanukovich, YouTube

A summary of all the key headlines from the world of poetry in March.

News

• UNESCO’s World Poetry Day was celebrated on 21 March. In the UK, the public were encouraged to record themselves reading their favourite First World War poem in tribute to those who served. Read more at Gov.uk, 1914.org and The UN.

World Poetry Day
[Flickr Creative Commons © Karen Cropper]

• A ‘World Poetry Festival’ was held in Delhi from 21-24 March, featuring 50 poets from 21 countries including George Szirtes from the UK. Read more at The Indian Express and George Szirtes Blog.

• Serhiy Zhadan, Ukraine’s most famous counter-culture poet, was beaten up by pro-Russian activists for being involved in the protests that resulted in the overthrow of President Yanukovich. Read more at The New Yorker and Melville House. Here is a video of Zhadan performing:

• The North Korean state media released poems in the run-up to elections on 9 March. Titles included ‘The Billows Of Emotion And Happiness,’ ‘We Break Into Cheers From The Bottom Of Our Heart’ and ‘We Go To The Polling Station.’ Read more at BBC News, The Telegraph and The Wire.

• A prisoner in HMP Parkhurst was forced to hand back a £25 poetry prize for inmates for plagiarising the poet Alison Chisholm. Read more at The Express and The Telegraph.

• West Virginia officials tried to ban a student from reading ‘Black Diamonds,’ a poem about industrial disasters, at an awards ceremony. They were forced to back down in the face of public outrage. Read more at Raw Story, Crystal Good and The Register-Herald. Here is the student, Grace Pritt, reciting the poem:

• HarperCollins announced that they would publish JRR Tolkein’s translation of Beowulf in May this year. Read more at The Guardian, BBC News and The Independent.

• An archivist at Brentwood School discovered poems in a school cupboard written by Douglas Adams and Griff Rhys Jones when they were teenagers. Read more at The Guardian, Brentwood Gazette and Wales Online.

Douglas Adams
[Flickr Creative Commons © Michael Hughes]

• The UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy led a protest outside Pentonville Prison against a ban on sending books and other essentials to prisoners. Read more at The Guardian, Politics and London Evening Standard.

• The estate of Ted Hughes withdrew access to his private records from biographer Jonathan Bate after Bate uncovered new material about Hughes’s affairs. Read more at The Guardian and The Daily Mail.

Awards

• Afaa Michael Weaver won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his collection The Government of Nature. Read more at Los Angeles Times and Claremont Graduate University.

• Linda France won the National Poetry Competition for her poem ‘Bernard and Cerinthe.’ Read more at The Poetry Society and The Guardian.

Book Releases

• Byssus, the third collection from Shetland-based Jen Hadfield (rated 4.8/5 based on 5 ratings at GoodReads). Read a review at New Statesman.

• I Knew the Bride, the eleventh collection from Hugo Williams (rated 3/5 based on 1 rating at GoodReads). Read a review at The Guardian.

• Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, an anthology of moving poems edited by Anthony Holden and Ben Holden (rated 3.7/5 based on 10 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, Storyacious and Off the Book.

• Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting, the second collection from the Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers (rated 3.77/5 based on 22 ratings at GoodReads). Read reviews at The Guardian, NPR and Texas Observer.

All ratings are from GoodReads as at 10/04/2014.

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Poems I Like (7)

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2014, Ahrem Warner, All That Time, Auden, baby, Boris Pasternak, conductor, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Elinor Brooks, Engram, February, fun, hilarious, ink, inspiration, Jacqueline Berger, lean, Lines from the Creek, May Swenson, orchestra, poem, poet, poetry, Recovery Room Maternity Ward, sad, Sasha Dugdale, simple, stillbirth, Swallows, The Conductor, Their Lonely Better, touching, transcendent, tree, weep, words

A few more poems that I have enjoyed recently. I hope you find something here you like too.

Just click on the title to read a poem in full. Let me know what you enjoyed by adding a comment.

‘Lines from the Creek’ by Elinor Brooks

A parent watches their child fishing and reflects on how he’s grown up. “I remember how it felt / to cradle your baby skull.” Beautifully done.

‘February’ by Boris Pasternak trans. Sasha Dugdale and ‘Engram’ by Ahrem Warner

“Get out the ink and weep!” Two enjoyable poems about inspiration which affectionately poke fun at poets.

‘All That Time’ by May Swenson

Simply a poem about two trees that have come to lean on each other.

‘Swallows’ and ‘Recovery Room, Maternity Ward’ by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

Two incredibly sad poems about the aftermath of a stillbirth. “Someday, within these walls, / I will hear my baby cry.”

‘Their Lonely Better’ by W.H. Auden

A great poem from an old master. “Words are for those with promises to keep.”

‘The Conductor’ by Jacqueline Berger

About a conductor of an orchestra who suffers from Parkinson’s. Moving.

To see other posts about poems I like, click here.

Poems I Like (6)

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ancient, Bored, FaceBook, friendship, gender, Glyn Maxwell, jaunty, Jean Sprackland, Joshua Weiner, man, Margaret Atwood, mundane, nature, Past Tense, poem, poetry, poignant, power, Raymond Antrobus, Richard Skinner, sculpture, Similes of the Mallorcan Midwife Toad, Status, Sunrise Thoughts, teen, The Birds of the Air, The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish, the vauge notion of authorship, tongue in cheek, touching, wonderful, world

Here are some poems I’ve enjoyed recently.

Click on the title to read the poem

‘Bored’ by Margaret Atwood

A neat poem about gender, power and the mundane: “perhaps though / boredom is happier.”

‘the vague notion of authorship’ by Richard Skinner and ‘Similes of the Mallorcan Midwife Toad’ by Glyn Maxwell

Two jaunty, tongue in cheek poems that use quirky metaphors from the natural world to explore themes of ancestry and identity.

‘The Birds of the Air’ by Jean Sprackland

A different perspective of nature. A poem about the vague notion of wanting to feel light and free.

‘Status’ by Raymond Antrobus

His father dies and he wonders if he should update Facebook: “People will like that.” It’s a very poignant poem. Do read it.

‘Past Tense’ by Sunrise Thoughts

A touching poem. Looking back on a teen friendship.

‘The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish’ by Joshua Weiner

Wonderful poem – man against the world. Also just a refreshing insightful look at ancient sculpture. Loved it.

New Poem: This Winter

Tags

aglow, bare, cold, enfold, poem, poetry, snow, unaware, winter

It’s Winter.
But it’s not very cold.
Don’t let that stop you cuddling up to me –

Enfold.

It’s Winter.
But there’s no snow.
So let us find other white blankets to lie on –

Aglow.

It’s Winter.
But the trees are not yet bare.
Ignore them. Tonight we’ll shed our clothes –

Unaware.

Poetry News Round Up: June 2013

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Alexei Ulyukayev, American, army, award, Beattie's Book Blog, book, Booksellers NZ, Canadian, David McFadden, Economy Minister, Father Victor Phalana, Fleur Adcock, freedom, Ghassan Zaqtan, Glass Wings, Griffin Poetry Prize, In Flanders Fields, Israeli, Jeffrey Brown, John McCrae, John Redmond, loss, love, Madiba, Margaret Atwood, Mediclinic Heart Hospital, Natasha Trethewey, Nelson Mandela, New Zealander, news, NewsHour, Palestinian, PBS, photomosaic, poem, Poet Laureate, poetry, Poetry and Privacy, politician, politics, Pretoria, priest, radio, Russian, social media, society, soldier, South African, The Guardian, The Independent, visa, Vladimir Putin

We’re at the halfway point of 2013.  Here’s your regular poetry news round up. My pleasure.

A Poem for Madiba

As South Africans come to term with Nelson Mandela‘s recent deterioration in health, a Pretoria priest, Father Victor Phalana, has put his love and sense of loss for Mandela into a poem.

Mandela has been in the Mediclinic Heart Hospital for four weeks now and remains in a “critical but stable” condition. Here is an extract from Father Victor’s poem, which you can also read in full here:

“We are busy with your last paragraph and your last chapter

We have started to mourn and grieve as you melt away

We are anxious and worried; we are paying our respects,

We say Goodbye.”

– Nelson Mandela Photomosaic
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © MastaBaba]

Poets ARE Fighters

A Israeli soldier was banned from reading his poetry out on the radio because officers said it would “ruin the image of the combat soldier.” Cue much media outrage.

As The Independent pointed out, “Can anyone really say that John McCrae was a wuss when he wrote ‘In Flanders Fields’ and before dying of pneumonia on a French battlefield in 1918?”

An Unfortunate Poem…

Vladimir Putin appointed a new Economy Minister, Alexei Ulyukayev – who it was recently revealed wrote a poem two years ago urging Russians to leave the country and seek freedom. The poems begins: “Get out, my son, get out of here.”

Natasha still going strong

The US poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey, has been reappointed for a second one-year term. According to mail.com, in her second term she will collaborate with PBS senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown and the NewsHour series of reports about poetry and society from around the country.

US Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey
[Source: Flickr Creative Commons © WTPfefferle]

A Trip to Canada

The 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada was won by David McFadden and Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan. However, before the ceremony, Zaqtan had initially been the subject of refusal for a visa when Canadian authorities said the reason for his visit was “unconvincing.”

This unleashed a social media storm, with the likes of the novelist Margaret Atwood weighing in with their support. Happily, within 72 hours the visa was granted.

Book Releases

Here are a couple of highlights from the poetry books published during June.

• Poetry and Privacy by John Redmond, a study of the treatment of public and private spheres in contemporary poetry. The Guardian says there is “a cut and thrust to Redmond’s work” and that it is a “fine book.”
• Glass Wings by Fleur Adcock. Booksellers NZ assesses this collection as “a mixed bag,” whereas Beattie’s Book Blog thinks Adcock “has a stunning ear, pulling off rhyme- and rhythm-schemes which appear, deceptively so, easy.”