Previously untranslated in English, “The Life of a Poet” is from Tomaž Šalamun’s eleventh book "Praznik" (1976), or "Feast." He wrote the poem during an especially productive period in his life, when he published eight books between 1971 and 1975. He also spent a significant amount of time in the United States during this time: two chapbooks ("Snow" and "Turbines") appeared in English translation in 1973; Yaddo and New York City feature in several poems in "Praznik"; and various poems in the book mention American artists and poets such as R. Crumb and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
Brain Henry on "The Life of a Poet" |
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200,000 Books Saved from the Landfill
"Standing amidst her towering piles of books, with barely enough room to move between them, Myriam Gaudet clings to the belief that each one will find a new home. Gaudet, who owns Red Cart Books in Cornwall, Ont., now has a barn and two other farmhouses on the same property full of donated hardcovers, paperbacks and coffee table books, spanning every genre imaginable."
via CBC |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Amaud Jamaul Johnson on Gwendolyn Brooks's "A Lovely Love"
"I was twenty and an undergraduate at Howard University, taking Dr. Jon Woodson’s Survey of African American Poetry. He was suspicious of labels and spent the first weeks of class arguing against his own course title. His first lecture began with a summary dismissal of Maya Angelou, who a year earlier was Bill Clinton’s Inaugural Poet. He would hand out poems with the authors’ names blacked out, and ask: “What makes this a Black poem, or is this good or bad?” We had to defend our answers. Our shortcomings were immediately evident. This is how I was introduced to Gwendolyn Brooks’s 'A Lovely Love.'" |
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