Poetry: December 03, 2008 Issue [#2751]
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Poetry


 This week:
  Edited by: larryp
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

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The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
~~Jean Cocteau


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Letter from the editor

Some thoughts about poetry and a few poems:

Poetry inspired me early on. A quirky only child, I spent a fair amount of time reading alone in my pale blue bedroom or in a wooden playhouse in my backyard. I wasn’t entirely antisocial, but found many of my best friends in a parallel universe of words occupying a small bookshelf in my closet. And while I never considered myself a poet, I composed silly limericks while the neighborhood kids played dodge ball.

I like to encourage everyone to make a habit of reading poetry. Reading a poem a day will change the way you look at your world, and if you happen to be a writer, it will enhance your own work. Start with accessible contemporary poets like Mary Oliver, Jane Kenyon, and David Whyte. They’re easy to digest — but soulful and satisfying.

~~ Cindy La Ferle, blogger ~~ http://www.laferle.com/?p=637


Poetry reflects on the quality of life, on us as we are in process on this earth, in our lives, in our relationships, in our communities.
~~ Adrienne Rich, poet

Whoever lives for poetry must read everything. How often has the light of a new idea sprung for me from a simple brochure! When one allows himself to be animated by new images, he discovers iridescence in the images of old books. Poetic ages unite in a living memory. The new age awakens the old. The old age comes to live again in the new. Poetry is never as unified as when it diversifies.
~~Gaston Bachelard ~~ French philosopher


Even beginning readers can know if a poem appeals to them...because it enables them to see things in ways they've never seen before. For example: since I read James Reeves' poem about the snail as a 'toppling caravan,' I've never been able to look at snails the same way... The poet's job, you see, is not to give us straight encyclopedic fact but to tell us something new or to tell something old in a new way--to give us fresh images.
~~Myra Cohn Livingston, poet


The Snail
by James Reeves

At sunset, when the night-dews fall,
Out of the ivy on the wall
With horns outstretched and pointed tail
Comes the grey and noiseless snail.
On ivy stems she clambers down,
Carrying her house of brown.
Safe in the dark, no greedy eye
Can her tender body spy,
While she herself, a hungry thief,
Searches out the freshest leaf.
She travels on as best she can
Like a toppling caravan.



Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.




Fueled
by Marcie Hans

Fueled
by a million
man-made
wings of fire---
the rocket tore a tunnel
through the sky---
and everybody cheered.
Fueled
only by a thought from God---
the seedling
urged its way
through the thickness of black---
and as it pierced
the heavy ceiling of the soil---
and launched itself
up into outer space---
no
one
even
clapped.



Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture.
~~Jean Cocteau, poet philosopher

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
~~Jean Cocteau

Tread softly; listen to the whispers.
larryp


Editor's Picks

More poems to read:

 The Hint of Rain Open in new Window. (E)
watching and listening to a summer night as rain approaches
#1496917 by turtlemoon-dohi Author IconMail Icon

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This item number is not valid.
#1026768 by Not Available.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#918851 by Not Available.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1264259 by Not Available.

 Sounds Unseen Open in new Window. (E)
incongruity of sights and sounds
#1159807 by rl Author IconMail Icon

 urban symphony Open in new Window. (E)
The city sings in sounds and images.
#1159361 by Bear Author IconMail Icon

Dimensions Open in new Window. (E)
The sites and sounds we see and hear raise images forever etched in our minds.
#947158 by Mothermouse--come visit me Author IconMail Icon

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1395393 by Not Available.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1218157 by Not Available.

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1500636 by Not Available.


 
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Ask & Answer

The editing team of the Poetry Newsletter, and our guest editiors, appreciate that you take time to read this newsletter. We appreciate your feedback.

Fyn Author Icon
Excellent, EXCELLENT newsletter!


Thank you fyn, and thank you also for the Newsletter Merit Badge.

monty31802
This is one powerful newsletter Larry. worth taking time to read regardless of anything.
I knew a little about this but not the amount I do now.
Thanks for another great Newsletter.


Monty - thank you for your response - like you, I knew little of these things, until I began researching them. It is a story that is all-too-familiar in our world.

lindamv
Larry, thank you for a fantastic newsletter, and for introducing me to the poetry of Dunlop and Wullati. They are names that are new to me. It is strange I haven't come across them, as I worked with Aboriginal people for years. I even compiled an anthology of poems by and about Aboriginal people back in 1989.

I have learned so much of the evils perpetrated by white settlers in this country. I have seen the discrimination still practised against them. I look around the world and see the terrible plight of people caused by wars based on ethnic or racial 'differences'.

As writers and poets, we need to use our talents to speak out against such evils and do what we can to overcome them. I have written a few such pieces, but they are not in my port as I have downgraded my membership. Thanks for including my item here - though it is rather light compared to the topic on discussion.

Thanks too for continuing to offer interesting and challenging items in your newsletters.


Linda- thank you for understanding the true meaning of this edition of the newsletter and for allowing me to use your poem.

maryelle
Wonderful newsletter.


Thank you Maryelle for your very meaningful response, for it is a subject that touches us all in one way or another.

Meriki Moon Author Icon
Dear Larry,

You did an amazing job with this.
The respect & warmth you have shown in your intro is enough to believe YOU are an Aussie!

Thanks for including me, there are some great pieces, & I am glad to be a part.

Have a nice day,

Meriki.


Meriki - Thanks for your kind words and thanks for allowing me to use your poem.



The editing team of the Poetry Newsletter, and our guest editors, wish you a safe holiday season.


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