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From a Rocking Boat…
A few weeks back I realized that by the end of 2012 I would be putting up my one-thousandth post on The Perpetual Bird. And here it is—saved for New Year’s Eve! I’ve noodled over it for days with the intention, as always, to offer something interesting, provocative, insightful, and/or unusual.Read More
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Friday Notebook 12.02.11
Kenny G. reading at PresidentObama’s”A Celebration of American Poetry” at the WhiteHouse on May 11, 2011. “Do not attempt to adjustthe picture. We are controllingtransmission.“ I really don’t have notebook entries for this week because I’ve been working on a new class for University of Denver’s University College, a “special topics” course on the poetic image. It’s great fun, but like all online classes, especially new ones, the pre-planning is tough.Read More
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Careless
Joseph Duermer has a thoughtful Plumbline School post that draws on a quotation from Gaston Bachelard. It hit me with the force of revelation, though there’s nothing new in its core idea—that “the true poem awakens the unconquerable desire to reread.” What this means, of course, is that poetry in this country doesn’t suffer from a lack of readers but a lack of re-readers. And why? Maybe it has to do with our long cultural history of preferring disposability over durability.Read More
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Awakening…
I’ve been contemplating a Bachelard quotation: “The imagination is not, as its etymology suggests, the faculty for forming images of reality; it is the faculty for forming images which go beyond reality, which sing reality. […] Primal poetry, poetry that allows us a taste of our inner destiny, is an adherence to the invisible. It give us the sense of youth and youthfulness by constantly replenishing our ability to be amazed.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
