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Lovelandia
I want to thank the good people of the Loveland Public Library, Columbine Poets, and the Loveland Museum/Gallery for producing a rather large crowd for this past Friday’s reading and the workshop next morning. Since Gov. Hickenlooper whacked me with his gubernatorial wand and transmogrified me from an ink-stained wretch into a laureate, I’ve done more such events than I did in the ten years previous, and I have to say that this audience was one of the most engaged I’ve ever come across.Read More
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The Three Voices
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H. R. Hays and Trump Nation
When I read this morning that Donald Trump’s “pep rally” tonight in Mobile, Alabama is being moved to the 43,000-seat Ladd-Peebles because 35,000 tickets to the event have been distributed, this poem by H. R. Hays came to mind. It first appeared in 1969, I believe, in George Hitchcock’s Kayak magazine. THE OLD WOMAN Who sits in her yard Every day Beside a flag Tied to a stick Is trying to Nail down America. She is afraid It will take off From under her feet, Piloted by long-haired Chinese astronauts.Read More
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Me and My Betters…
Join me and a number of my betters—Veronica Patterson, Bob King, and sundry others—for a free reading at the Loveland Public Library at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, August 21st. And/or come to the free poetry workshop the next morning, Saturday, August 22nd, from 10 a.m. to noon.Read More
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Tamura Ryuichi: The Inner Pathway
I believe what is most important for a poet is the point in time and place at which he discovers his own archetypal poem. That is because this archetype represents the entirety of the “mapless journey” he is destined to take, and contains therein all concepts of time, death and love as a single entity. It seems to me that a poet perilously travels through the discovery and re-discoveries of the archetype, and his journey takes the form of battles against his own archetype. * To a poet, imagination is the energy that ceaselessly stimulates and re-creates his passion.Read More
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The Satire Lounge
The Satire Lounge is Joe’s 16th collection of poems. Title: The Satire Lounge Publisher: Folded Word ISBN: 978-1-61019-227-9 Publication Date: August 21, 2015 Length: 42 pages Binding: Trade paper From the back cover: “The Satire Lounge is a guide to the underbelly of the writing world, lit by a lone ‘laptop’s screenlight glint’ and fed by ‘Mike’s Fine Sardines.’ Here, ‘Thought Police’ patrol ‘high-speed poetry,’ while cowpies take over haiku.Read More
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Invitation to Colorado Poets—Ekphrasis x 2 (Note Highlighted ¶)
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Adios, Hiatus
After my marathon of posts in April, celebrating Poetry Month, I took a hiatus and gave myself over to reading (Roderick Beaton’s biography of George Seferis, mainly, along with which I reread Seferis’s poems in all the translations in my library–Englishings by Warner, Keeley/Sherrard, and Kaiser) and my own work. I also read two new collections by Ted Kooser, Splitting an Order and The Wheeling Year: A Poet’s Field Book. I plan to write about all these in more detail, but for now I want to pass along a gem from The Wheeling Year.Read More
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First Saturday at BookBar with David Rothman and Steven Wingate
Come on down and hear these two excellent poets! Don’t forget: the reading starts at 6 p.m.Read More
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Poetry Month 2015: Update on “A Marked Man”
Patricia Calhoun at Westword has written a fine article about Thursday’s performance of “A Marked Man.” The article will appear in Wednesday’s print edition of the publication. Patty has long had an interest in the many issues surrounding Sand Creek, and it’s heartening to have her take notice of this production. Tickets are still available here for the performance.Read More