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1. Letter from the Editors

Dear Readers,

We continue our prose series with "Poetry and Stupidity" by Lawrence Raab, from Plume, Issue 63:

"A poet fools around with words. And that’s one way of getting a poem started—just playing, not asserting a concept or an idea, because as Valéry says... 'If you want to write verse and you begin with thoughts, you begin with prose.' Redefining 'stupidity' as 'foolishness' feels both right and inadequate, as if the riddle’s answer were too easy. On the other hand, are we looking for an answer, or are we trying to discover those elusivve 'subtle relations'? 'The proper object of poetry,' Valéry writes, becoming oracular again, 'is what has no single name, what in itself provokes and demands more than one expression.'"

Look for it here.

Enjoy this week's poems!

Warmest regards,

Don Selby & Diane Boller

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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first or second unpublished poetry collection by a woman.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 
for the 2017 prize with a $26 entry fee between August 1 and November 15, 
2016. Both online and paper submissions are accepted. Visit our website for 
complete guidelines. The 2016 winner, Guide to the Exhibit, by Lisa Allen Ortiz, is now available from Perugia Press.
 
Perugia Press -  Celebrating 20 Years of the Best New Women Poets
P.O. Box 60364
Florence, MA  01062

Pleiades Press Book Contests: Now Reading Poetry & Prose
Lena–Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Pleiades Press.. Jaswinder Bolina will judge. Submit a manuscript with a $25 entry fee, which includes a free book from the press, by Nov. 15.
Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prose (Fiction & Nonfiction): A prize of $2,000 and publication by Pleiades Press for a collection of short stories, flash fiction, essays, or lyric essays. Jenny Boully will judge. Submit a manuscript with a $25 entry fee by Nov. 15. 
Visit PleiadesPress.org for complete guidelines.

Stay connected with creativity
Two Sylvias Press offers one of the best newsletters for poets & writers, as well as poetry books, book prizes, and The Poet Tarot. Currently, they are accepting poetry manuscripts for The Wilder Prize for Women over 50. Check out all the books & creativity tools Two Sylvias Press has to offer at: http://www.twosylviaspress.com

Work with award-winning poet Hannah Sanghee Park
Hannah Sanghee Park is a talented poet and a wonderful teacher. She was the 2014 winner of the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award, and received fellowships from the U.S. Fulbright Program, The Poetry Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. As your coach, she will help you deepen your writing practice, improve your craft, and finish big projects like chapbooks and collections. Group launches Nov. 13, first come first served, so apply today.

Palm Beach Poetry Festival Fellowships
The festival is now offering three full tuition & lodging fellowships for January 2017: the Palm Beach Poetry Festival African American Fellowship; CantoMundo Palm Beach Poetry Festival Fellowship; and Kundiman Palm Beach Poetry Festival Fellowship. Visit http://www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org/news/festival-fellowships/ for more information and to apply before November 14, 2016.

2017 UNT Rilke Prize
The 2017 UNT Rilke Prize, a $10,000 award recognizing the artistry and vision of a collection written by a mid-career poet, is accepting submissions through November 30, 2016. The winner will visit the University of North Texas April 12-13, 2017. Previous winners: Laura Kasischke, Paisley Rekdal, Katie Peterson, Mark Wunderlich, and Rick Barot.
Visit our Web site for guidelines or email UNTrilkeprize@unt.edu
Contact: Lisa Vining

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 “messages,.” where meaning awaits.

" Bite-sized wisdom on an invisible stick"
—Billy Collins

"… wonderful, surprising, often profound…made me daydream."
—XJ Kennedy

Develop Your Work’s Fullest Potential:
The Rainier Writing Workshop
RWW is one of the premier low-residency MFA programs in the country. Based at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, ours is a 3-year program with a once-a-year summer residency and year-long mentorships.  Come study fiction, nonfiction, and poetry with our stellar faculty.  Scholarships and fellowships awarded.  We have an early-decision deadline of November 30 and a regular-admission deadline of February 15.

ellipsis Submissions
ellipsis seeks submissions for its 2017 issue. Honoraria and a poetry prize judged by Matthew Gavin Frank.  November 1 deadline. https://ellipsis.westminstercollege.edu

13th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach, Florida, January 16-21, 2017
Focus on your work with 9 of America’s most celebrated poets: David Baker, Tina Chang, Lynn Emanuel, Daisy Fried, Terrance Hayes, Dorianne Laux, Thomas Lux, Carl Phillips, Martha Rhodes. Six days of workshops, readings, craft talks, manuscript conferences, panel discussion, social events and so much more. Special Guest, Charles Simic. Visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org to appy for a workshop online. Deadline: November 14, 2016.

Vermont College of Fine Arts MFAs in Writing
Vermont College of Fine Arts offers a traditional low-residency MFA in Writing program—now celebrating its 35th year—along with a residential MFA in Writing & Publishing program.

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3. Poetry News Links

News and reviews from around the web, updated daily:

• Lucia Perillo, 58. (The Olympian)
• Michael Farrell reviews Grass Hut Work, by Barry Hill, and Firebreaks, by John Kinsella. (The Australian)
• William Logan reviews Marie Ponsot's Collected Poems. (The New York Times)
• The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1966-1989, edited by George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn and Lois More Overbeck, reviewed by Chris Power. (The Guardian)
• Amit Majmudar reads Christopher Reid. (The New Yorker)
• The TS Eliot Prize shortlis is announced. (The Guardian)
• Amanda Petrusich reviews Peter Gizzi's Archeophonics. (The New Yorker)
• Carol Rumens introduces Paul Muldoon's "Medley for Morin Khur." (The Guardian)
• Ted Kooser presents George Bilgere's "The Forge." (American Life in Poetry)
• And more...

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4. Selected New Arrivals

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

• Sowing the Wind: A Requiem in the Modern World, Edward Foster (Marsh Hawk Press)
• Fleur-de-Lis, Jennifer Reeser (Saint James Infirmary Books)
• Pleasures of the Game, Austin Allen (The Waywiser Press)
• Downpour, Ruth Valentine (Smokestack Books)
• Bone Fire, Susan Millar DuMars (Salmon Poetry)
• Sleaze & Slander, A. M. Juster (Measure Press)
• Drone, Kim Garcia (The Backwaters Press)
• The Transit of Venus, Susan Firer (The Backwaters Press)
• In an aviary, Genevieve Kaplan (Grey Book Press)
• Tale of the Whale, Alice Sant'Anna / tr. Tiffany Higgins (Toad Press)

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5. This Week’s Featured Poets

The work of the following poets will appear as Today's Poem on the days indicated:

Monday - Peter Makuck
Tuesday - Emma Neale
Wednesday - Lowell Miller
Thursday - Alan Gillis
Friday - Robert Pinsky
Saturday - Matthew Nienow
Sunday - Stephen Dobbins

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6. Featured Poets October 17 - October 23, 2016

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

Monday - Paisley Rekdal
Tuesday - Ishion Hutchinson
Wednesday - Taije Silverman
Thursday - Mary Stewart Hammond
Friday - Mikko Harvey
Saturday - Susan Wicks
Sunday - Dana Levin

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7. Last Year’s Featured Poets

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

Floyd Skloot, "Returning Home"
William Logan, "Years of 1978"
Linda Pastan, "First Snow"
A. E. Stallings, "Colony Collapse Disorder"
Yusef Komunyakaa, "Latitudes"
Circe Maia/ tr.Jesse Lee Kercheval, "City of Low Houses"
Peggie Gallagher, "Day's End"

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8. Poem From Last Year

Latitudes

If I am not Ulysses, I am 
his dear, ruthless half brother. 
Strap me to the mast 
so I may endure night sirens 
singing my birth when water 
broke into a thousand blossoms 
in a landlocked town of the South, 
before my name was heard 
in the womb-shaped world 
of deep sonorous waters. 
Storms ran my ship to the brink, 
& I wasn't myself in a kingdom 
of unnamed animals & totem trees, 
but never wished to unsay my vows. 
From the salt-crusted timbers 
I could only raise a battering ram 
or cross, where I learned God 
is rhythm & spores. If I am 
Ulysses, made of his words 
& deeds, I swam with sea cows 
& mermaids in a lost season, 
ate oysters & poison berries 
to approach the idea of death 
tangled in the lifeline's slack 
on that rolling barrel of a ship, 
then come home to more than just 
the smell of apples, the heavy oars 
creaking the same music as our bed.

Yusef Komunyakaa
The Emperor of Water Clocks
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright © 2015 by Yusef Komunyakaa
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission