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Dear Readers,
Spring fund drive news: Many thanks to all of you who have donated so far to our spring fundraising campaign! As of Thursday's mail, our total stands at just a bit under $15,000!
If you have not yet given, please make your donation today (and ask your friends-in-poetry to join you in support of Poetry Daily)! We depend more than ever on individual contributions. Every donation makes a difference!
The Daily Poetry Association (publisher of Poetry Daily) is a 501(c)(3) corporation! Your contribution is tax deductible!
In our prose series this week, we present "My Ever New Delight: The Pleasures of Paradise Lost," by Robert Crossley, from the spring issue of the Hudson Review:
"'Mr. Crossley, there is only one way to read Paradise Lost. You must climb a mountain and read it all aloud, from morn to dewy eve.' A smile started to lift the corners of his pursed lips. There were, of course, no mountains convenient to Kansas City... I left college still innocent of Miltonic knowledge."
Look for it here...
Enjoy this week's poems!
Warmest regards,
Don Selby & Diane Boller
2. Sponsor Messages
The Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program, MFA+MA
This new dual-degree program at Northwestern University offers intimate classes, the opportunity to complete major projects in both creative and critical writing, and close mentorship by acclaimed creative writing faculty in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction and outstanding scholars. Students will receive full support for three academic years (including two summers) to complete the program, which awards both degrees simultaneouslyÂan MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English.
New Letters Literary Awards
Deadline: May 18, 2018. New Letters invites submissions to the New Letters Literary Awards. Winners in poetry and fiction receive $1,500 + publication. Essay winner receives $2,500 + publication. For guidelines, visit http://newletters.org/writers-wanted/writing-contests or send an S.A.S.E. to New Letters, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.
Sixteen Rivers Press
Sixteen Rivers Press, a Northern California publishing collective, announces the publication of The Language of Forgetting by Lynne Knight and The Cloud Museum by Beth Spencer. Of The Language of Forgetting, Al Young writes: “Lynne Knight’s mindful, lyrical book . . . thrills and intrigues, warns and shares, always in language that catches.” Of The Cloud Museum, Pamela Uschuk writes: “Beth Spencer leads us on a physical and spiritual journey into two worlds. . . . Rich in imagist language, [her] poems transcend simple explanation as they transform us at many levels.”
Instant Messages
Instant Messages is a new kind of writing, a mash-up of straightforward and accessible poetry, koan-like brain teasers, the delicate observations of Haiku, surprise one-liners, daily mumbling, text-based art, and aphorisms of penetrating insight. All wrapped together in a common theme: things and experience are Âmessages, where meaning awaits. Follow on Instagram!
ÂBite-sized wisdom on an invisible stick ÂBilly Collins
"Wonderful, surprising, often profoundÂmade me daydream. ÂXJ Kennedy
Vermont College of Fine Arts MFAs in Writing
Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a traditinal low-residency MFA in Writing programÂnow celebrating its 35th yearÂalong with a residential MFA in Writing & Publishing program.
The MacGuffinÂs 23rd Poet Hunt Contest
The Hunt is on! The MacGuffinÂs 23rd Poet Hunt Contest is now open! One first place winner will get $500 and publication. This year, weÂve brought in Alberto Ãlvaro RÃos to act as guest judge. There are two ways to enter: submit 3 poems, an index card with your name, poem titles, and contact info, and a $15 check/cash entry fee via post; or submit online by visiting www.schoolcraftbooks.com and selecting ÂMacGuffin from the SHOP tab. Full info can be found at www.schoolcraft.edu/macguffin/.
3. Poetry News Links
News and reviews from around the web, updated daily: Alexandra Schwartz on "The Swedish Academy and the Illusions of the Nobel Prize in Literature." (The New Yorker) Cadavers, by Néstor Perlongher, translated from the Spanish by Roberto Echavarren and Donald Wellman, reviewed by Douglas Messerli. (Hyperallergic) House of Lords and Commons, by Ishion Hutchinson, and The Radio, by Leontia Flynn, reviewed by Paul Batchelor. (New Statesman) Venus as a Bear, by Vahni Capildeo, reviewed by David Wheatley. (The Guardian) Declan Ryan on Andrew Motion and Christopher Reid. (Los Angeles Review of Books) Rebecca Foust introduces "WifeÂs Disaster Manual" and "The Gulf, 1987," by Deborah Paredez. (Women's Voices for Change) Terrance Hayes introduces a poem by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. (The New York Times Magazine) "The Opposites Game" - Brendan Constantine gave students a line of famous poetry and asked them to write, word for word, the exact opposite. (Blank Verse Films) John Yau is this yearÂs Jackson Poetry Prize winner. (The Washington Post) And more....4. New Arrivals
These new arrivals are available for purchase via Poetry Daily/Amazon.com.
Caribou, Thomas Mitchell (Lost Horse Press) Celadon, Ian Haight (Unicorn Press) A History of Too Much, Adrianne Kalfopoulou (Red Hen Press) 4:30 Movie, Donna Masini (W. W. Norton & Company) Because: A Lyric Memoir, Joshua Mensch (W. W. Norton & Company) Is That the Sound of a Piano Coming from Several Houses Down?, Noah Eli Gordon (Solid Objects) Poetic Just-Us: A Family Project, Doug Bengtson, Sharla Bengtson, Derek Burns, Grace Burns, Jonah Burns, Sheri Burns, Josh Wilson, Sheila Wilson (Ole & Lena Publications) Spare Change News Poems: An Anthology by Homeless People and those Touched by Homelessness, Lee Varon & Marc Goldfinger, ed.s (Ibbetson Street Press) Walking with Eve in the Loved City, Roy Bentley (University of Arkansas Press) False Spring, Darren Bifford (Brick Books) Standing in the Flock of Connections, Heather Cadsby (Brick Books) Reckon, Steve McOrmond (Brick Books) What Kind of Man Are You, Degan Davis (Brick Books) The Stone in the Air: A Suite of Forty Poems After Paul Celan, Daniel Tobin (Salmon Poetry) Crossing Places, Nicki Griffin (Salmon Poetry) After the Fall, Brian Kirk (Salmon Poetry) how do i net thee, Shira Dentz (Salmon Poetry) Landscape with Mutant, Frederick Pollack (Smokestack Books) Assembly Lines, Jane Commane (Bloodaxe Books)5. This Week’s Featured Poets
The work of the following poets will appear as Today's Poem on the days indicated:
Monday - Jeffrey Harrison
Tuesday - Matthew Dickman
Wednesday - Paul Martin
Thursday - Peter Mishler
Friday - Henrietta Goodman
Saturday - Alicia Mountain
Sunday -Christopher Buckley
6. Featured Poets April 30, 2018 - May 6, 2018
These and other past featured poets may be found in our archive:
Monday - Gretchen Steele Pratt
Tuesday - Talvikki Ansel
Wednesday - Melissa Stein
Thursday - Noah Stetzer
Friday - Zilka Joseph
Saturday - Heather McHugh
Sunday -Sean O'Brien
7. Last Year’s Featured Poets
These poems will be retired from our archive during the coming week.
Josephine Yu, "My Mother Demanded Gratitude"
Bob Hicok, "A full-service organization"
Cortney Lamar Charleston, "Still Life with Black Boy's Face Overlaying Project Buildings"
Susannah Nevison, "At Holmesburg"
Niall Campbell, "On Eriskay"
Stephen Yenser, Two Poems
Bruce Bond, "Blackout Starlight"
8. Poem From Last Year
A full-service organization
I robbed a bank. Didn't mean to.
I'd deposited a check when the woman asked,
Is there anything else? She had a great smile.
It reminded me of a waxing moon.
I didn't want her to be a moon in vain,
so I said, I'll take all the money in your drawer.
She said, Of course. Then she said a funny thing.
Her head was down, she was looking at a stack of bills
in her hand, when she said, How would you like that?
Meaning tens or twenties. Hundreds or quarters.
And as soon as she said this, she stopped,
dropped her hands, smiled, looked at me,
shook her head and said, Duh. And something
opened between us. A sense of life
as renewable and surprising,
full of little errors that make us notice
we need and can give help. There's only one way
to want everything, she knew that
and was admitting her mistake. So I pointed out to her
that I didn't have a gun. She pointed out to me
that money is a knife we plunge into each other
over and over for no good reason.
If I'd have had a cord of wood
or even a few logs, I'd have built a fire
right there and talked to her
well into the night, but there was no tree
in sight. At the end, having handed me the money,
once more she asked, Is there anything else?
Yes, I said. I'd like to deposit this.
Checking or savings, she asked.
Given how far we'd come together, I admitted
I've never known how to answer that question,
if it's better to live for the moment
or look forward to a better time.
That's why I'm here, she said,
taking out a pencil and paper and dividing
the paper into two columns, one labeled
The Sky Is Falling, the other, So Am I.
Â
Bob Hicok
Boulevard
Spring 2017
Copyright © 2017 by Bob Hicok
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
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