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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

On Tuesday we continue our series of prose features with Atar Hadari's "Why the Dead Have Lives," from the summer issue of Kenyon Review:

"In my twenties, a few years after taking all the poetry workshops I was ever going to take, I began to read biographies of poets. These were no random poets either—and not necessarily figures I admired—but rather people who had made a career in a particular way—William Carlos Williams, for instance, earning his living as a doctor, as well as Dylan Thomas,who did it by writing for radio and touring the poetry circuit. What I was looking for was guidance as to how the poetic enterprise ticks on once you are no longer bubbling along with a crowd of also-striving mini-bards. I was looking for a view of how people do this thing, really. I was looking for the shape of a poet's life."

Look for it on Tuesday on our news page.

We hope you enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller
Editors

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2. Sponsor Messages

Perugia Press Prize
A prize of $1000 and publication by Perugia Press is given annually for a first or second unpublished poetry collection by a woman  Submit manuscripts with a $22 entry fee between August 1 and November 15. Send an e-mail, SASE, or visit Perugia Press for complete guidelines. The 2007 winner, Beg No Pardon, by Lynne Thompson, is now available from our Web site.
 
Perugia Press Prize
P.O. Box 60364
Florence, MA  01062
info@perugiapress.com

Conduit
Conduit is a biannual literary journal that is at once direct, playful, inventive, irreverent, and darkly beautiful. Really, it is. Conduit publishes work that demonstrates originality, intelligence, courage, and humanity. If that isn't enough, Conduit reaches beyond the literary by interviewing astronomers, ethno-botanists, artists, musicians, and historians, et cetera, believing a vigorous imagination is one that is cross-pollinated by diverse areas of human inquiry.

Palm Beach Poetry Festival - Jan 21-26 Workshops
Palm Beach Poetry Festival, January 21-26, 2008, at Old School Square, Delray Beach, FL.  Advanced Workshops:  Kim Addonizio, Claudia Emerson, Thomas Lux, Campbell McGrath, Sharon Olds, and C.K. Williams.  Intermediate Workshops:  Major Jackson, Malena Mörling.  All workshops are limited to 12 poets, include a one-on-one conference, readings and gala celebration.  Tuition is $695 for advanced workshops, $495 for intermediate.  Visit the Palm Beach Poetry Festival website for application form and guidelines, or call (561) 868-2063. Application deadline:  October 31, 2007.

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Robert Pinsky introduces a poem by Erin Belieu. (The Washington Post)
• Catherine Ciepiela's The Same Solitude, examining the lives of Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva, reviewed by Rachel Polonsky. (Times Online)
• James Campbell traces the transformation of Amiri Baraka and explores his work. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Sean O'Brien reviews Matthew Sweeney's Black Moon. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Columnist Jon Carroll weighs in on accessibility in contemporary poetry. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• The $100,000 Wallace Stevens award is awarded to Charles Simic. (Academy of American Poets)
• Charles Simic succeeds Donald Hall as U.S. poet laureate. (The New York Times)
• Ted Kooser introduces a poem by Joshua Weiner. (American Life in Poetry)

 

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4. Selected New Arrivals

These and other new arrivals are available for purchase via Poetry Daily/Amazon.com.

• The Art of Attention: A Poet's Eye, Donald Revell
• O Woolly City, Priscilla Sneff
• The Invention of Zero, Chris Greenhalgh
• Poetry and Commitment, Adrienne Rich
• Ommateum: With Doxology, A. R. Ammons
• Bird Missing from One Shoulder, Linda Annas Ferguson
• North Northeast: New England Scenes, Rennie & Sarah McQuilkin
• Bad Bad, Chelsey Minnis
• The Cow, Ariana Reines
• Yes, Master, Michael Craig
• Structure of the Embryonic Rat Brain, Christopher Janke
• Keeping the Tigers Behind Us, Glenn J. Freeman
• Bonneville, Jenny Mueller
• Things You Think I Don't Know, Deborah Kay Davies
• Windrush Songs, James Berry
• Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak, ed. Marc Falkoff

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

Monday - Len Roberts
Tuesday - Luciano Erba / tr. Peter Robinson
Wednesday - Brian Swann
Thursday - Ralph Sneeden
Friday - Michael S. Glaser
Saturday - Deborah Golub
Sunday - Steve Gehrke

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6. Featured Poets July 30 - August 5, 2007

These and other past featured poets may be found in our archive:

Monday - Robert Kelly
Tuesday - Cate Marvin
Wednesday - Ciaran Carson
Thursday - Kelly Grovier
Friday - Munthir Abdul-Hur / tr. Sadek Mohammed
Saturday - Mary Jo Bang
Sunday - Maxine Kumin

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

These poems will be retired from our archive during the coming week.

Allan Peterson - "How Folklore Starts"
Robin Becker - "Sound View"
Kevin McFadden - "Tomfoolery, Seventeen"
Sarah Manguso - "Asking for More"
Spencer Selby - "Fidelity"
Wesley McNair - "As I Am"
Lawrence Raab - "The Uninvited"

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8. Poem From Last Year

The Uninvited

There are two ghosts in the house
Ray Milland and his sister move into
at the beginning of the movie.
They don't know that, of course,
and they're both skeptical when things
start happening—the weeping
before dawn, the room their dog won't go near,
that elusive scent of mimosa.
It's all pretty tame by today's standards,
where you can count on somebody
getting a spike through her head as soon
as she's had sex with her boyfriend. But in 1944
there was time to be unsettled.
There were good mothers and bad ones,
and it took a while, as it does
in this movie, to figure that out.
At the end you looked back at your life and saw
how the pieces fit together—why there was weeping,
and what made it stop. So the past isn't over
until you understand it, which is one of the reasons
ghosts keep appearing. They need you to see
who they were, and sometimes
they won't rest until you forgive them.

Lawrence Raab
Bat City Review
Number 2 - 2006

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Copyright © 2006 Bat City Review. All rights reserved. Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.