January 21, 2012                         Follow Me on Twitter! (below left) 

Get on the Spoken Word Bus!

I have just been invited to be a featured speaker on the Spoken-Word Bus Tour for the Somerville Open Studios 2012 Saturday, May 5! Mark your calendars!

What it is:

• A great way to spend an afternoon in the city.
• An opportunity to sit on a bus AND get your daily dose of culture.
• An hour that will recharge your psychic batteries. Unless we get a flat tire. Then we head over to the Thirsty Scholar Pub and call it a day.

"Visit nearly 400 artists in over 100 venues who will open their homes and studios for the 14th Annual Somerville Open Studios Event on Saturday and Sunday, May 5 and 6, 2012 from noon to 6 pm. During this free showcase for the arts, mid-career and emerging artists working across a broad spectrum of fine art styles and craft media will exhibit and sell their work to the public." -from their website.

Details coming soon!

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Glam Slam Cambridge Videos!

I know I know it's taking me forever to get footage of the Glam Slam we did in December online. I just didn't have the time what with all the post holiday sulking I usually do.

Here I am reading a new poem, "Satellite View," which I haven't read in public before. It's about my niece who moved to Missouri and whom I miss terribly. I didn't quite expect to get choked up reading, but I got through it. Visit my Youtube Channel to view more from Glam Slam Cambridge. Enjoy:

 

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Jan 1 2012

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky...

Anyone as glad I am bid 2011 adieu, so long, and later much?

Glam Slam was a resounding success, and it made me really start thinking about spending more time on writing. Also due for a trip to New York very soon.

So I'll take my cue from Tennyson:

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

[from In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells] Alfred, Lord Tennyson]

Dodge Poetry Festival Returns to Newark

The Board of Trustees and the staff of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation are pleased to announce that the Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America, will be returning to Newark in the autumn of 2012.

More on this story Dodge Poetry Festival 2012

Another Reason to Love Denis Leary

Homeboy Denis Leary a poet? Of course! I shouldda known. Emerson College alum Leary had his poetry published in the 1977 issue of Ploughshares and now he's going to host the PLOUGHSHARES' 40TH ANNIVERSARY FUNDRAISER AT EMERSON COLLEGE on November 14th.

Good comedians have to be good writers (that is, if they write their own material, not all do) and I've enjoyed his standup work and his writing for his TV show Rescue Me. Getting published in Ploughshares is pretty impressive and I like that he's bringing some star power to a local poetry fundraiser. Go D!

Where to Get Tomas Transtromer Poetry?

If you haven't heard yet, Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Waking up is a parachute jump from dreams" goes the first line of Transtromer's Prelude, translated by Robin Fulton, from his collection The Great Enigma.

 I'm intrigued! Robert Haas and Robert Bly have both been translators of his poetry, so I'm very interested in reading Transtromer's work through the eyes of these favorite poets of mine.

I got a Barnes and Noble gift card from my sis for my birthday, so it will go towards one of these books---that is, if B&N actually decides to stock any.

I was sad to see Border's bookstore go because they actually had a better selection of poetry books than Barnes and Noble, at least in the stores in my area. Their poetry "section" is usually a few shelves with anthologies, a Sylvia Plath or two, and a few slapped-together books of love poems: not the full poems, mind you, just excerpts from poets like Shelley and Shakespeare, with lots of pictures; these books are meant to be given as wedding presents, to be flipped through and then set aside for the duration of the marriage.

So good luck to me actually finding Transtromer's poetry in Barnes and Noble. I know Amazon has these books in stock, but I'm old school: I like to flip through actual books before I buy.

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Poet's House Grand Opening

 Attended the Poet's House Grand Opening where I saw some poets I haven't seen before and I got pictures of all of them. See them HERE.

After the reading my sister Mary took me all around Tribeca and SoHo. Was a total blast but too short as always.

 Marno was representin, natch.  

Poet's House is a library, workshop, and event center for all.

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Stop seeking approval and just proceed.