Poetry: January 01, 2020 Issue [#9939]
<< December 25, 2019Poetry Archives | More From This Day | Print This IssueJanuary 8, 2020 >>




 This week: Louise Bogan
  Edited by: Stormy Lady Author IconMail Icon
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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

This is poetry from the minds and the hearts of poets on Writing.Com. The poems I am going to be exposing throughout this newsletter are ones that I have found to be, very visual, mood setting and uniquely done. Stormy Lady Author Icon


Word from our sponsor

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Letter from the editor

Medusa
by Louise Bogan

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved, -- a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.

Portrait
by Louise Bogan

She has no need to fear the fall
Of harvest from the laddered reach
Of orchards, nor the tide gone ebbing
From the steep beach.

Nor hold to pain's effrontery
Her body's bulwark, stern and savage,
Nor be a glass, where to forsee
Another's ravage.

What she has gathered, and what lost,
She will not find to lose again.
She is possessed by time, who once
Was loved by men.

On August 11, 1897 the Bogan family welcomed daughter Louise Bogan into their family. The Bogan family lived in Livermore Falls, Maine. The family moved around a lot. Louise spent a lot of her childhood in working-class hotels. At a very young age Louise was witness to her parents constant fighting. Their rocky relationship made an everlasting impression on Louise. Most of their fighting was caused by her mother’s many affairs.

With the help of a family friend, Louise attended Boston Girls' Latin School for five years. This opportunity allowed her to get into Boston University. In 1916, Louise decided to leave school and get married. She married Curt Alexander, a corporal in the U.S. Army. This marriage was short lived. In 1917 she gave birth to Maidie Alexander. By 1918 she had left her daughter with family and had moved to New York to be a writer. Her husband died in 1920 leaving her a widow. She spent the next few years traveling.

In 1923 she returned to New York and published her first book of poetry “Body of This Death: Poems”. The same year her book was published she met the poet Raymond Holden. The couple had a two year courtship and they married in 1925. Four years later she published her second book “Dark Summer: Poems”, 1929. She was then hired to work for The New Yorker, where she worked for the next thirty-eight years reviewing poetry. Sadly Louise second marriage ended in divorce in 1937. It was around the same time as her divorce, that her third book was published, “Sleeping Fury.”

Louise published on last book of poetry in 1968, “The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968." In 1969 she retired from her job at the New Yorker. On February 4, 1970 Louise Bogan suffered a fatal heart attack at her home in New York City.

A Tale
by Louise Bogan

This youth too long has heard the break
Of waters in a land of change.
He goes to see what suns can make
From soil more indurate and strange.

He cuts what holds his days together
And shuts him in, as lock on lock:
The arrowed vane announcing weather,
The tripping racket of a clock;

Seeking, I think, a light that waits
Still as a lamp upon a shelf, --
A land with hills like rocky gates
Where no sea leaps upon itself.

But he will find that nothing dares
To be enduring, save where, south
Of hidden deserts, torn fire glares
On beauty with a rusted mouth, --

Where something dreadful and another
Look quietly upon each other.


Thank you all!
Stormy Lady Author Icon

A logo for Poetry Newsletter Editors
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Editor's Picks


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The winner of "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contestOpen in new Window. [ASR] is:

"In the Spirit of William Carlos WilliamsOpen in new Window.

In the Spirit of William Carlos Williams

bleak
naked trees
wait white falling snow

near-bye I embark
into lantern-lit
passageways

pine scents
replace lavender
and honey

familiar Carols
siren
the coming of Christmas

the melodies provide
a compass
to a warm hearth
and holiday cheer
~~Judi Van Gorder



Honorable mention:
 New Year's Voyage Open in new Window. (E)
Prompt: compass, embark, bleak, lavender, passage, melody, lantern, siren.
#2207132 by Prosperous Snow celebrating Author IconMail Icon



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These are the rules:

1) You must use the words I give in a poem or prose with no limits on length.

2) The words can be in any order and anywhere throughout the poem and can be any form of the word.

3) All entries must be posted in your portfolio and you must post the link in this forum, "Stormy's poetry newsletter & contestOpen in new Window. [ASR] by January 25, 2020.

4) The winner will get 3000 gift points and the poem will be displayed in this section of the newsletter the next time it is my turn to post (January 29, 2020)

The words are:




street collide innocence world cardboard passerby corners forgotten


*Delight* Good luck to all *Delight*

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 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2208698 by Not Available.

 Home For Christmas  Open in new Window. (E)
A snapshot of what is missed.
#2208025 by Nikola~Santa Bring a Pony! Author IconMail Icon

 FROSTY'S WINTER WONDER LAND Open in new Window. (13+)
A Poem From The Dark Side (by somebody who doesn't know how to write poetry!)
#2208518 by Angus Author IconMail Icon

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 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2207609 by Not Available.

Image Protector
STATIC
Eulogy to the Place that Raised Me Open in new Window. (ASR)
I thought returning to this place of magic would be a homecoming - a reunion of wonder.
#2208816 by Emily Author IconMail Icon

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2208678 by Not Available.

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Image Protector
STATIC
Twilight of the Year Open in new Window. (E)
Poem about December without mentioning "December." Second in Senior Center Forum Contest.
#2208017 by Beholden Author IconMail Icon

 
Image Protector
STATIC
The Phantom Open in new Window. (E)
Writing and venting. Dec. 17, 2019
#2208062 by Blue Moon Author IconMail Icon

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#2208543 by Not Available.

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Word from Writing.Com

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Ask & Answer




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