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Adios, Robert Bly
It’s startling to think of Robert Bly moving on, leaving us here without his energy, his restlessness, his exemplary dedication to opening a path toward a different way of imagining the purpose of poetry. Dana Gioia famously asked, “Can poetry matter?” Bly showed that it could matter … that poetry provided a way into the reaches of spiritual life that had been hidden away from us by America’s utilitarian values.Read More
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Carl Sandburg in Colorado Springs
Attention, fans of Carl Sandburg: “Prayers for the People: Carl Sandburg and the Sunburnt West” will take the stage at Colorado College’s Cornerstone Arts Center. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. and is free to the public. Produced by Kate Benzel, professor emeritus of English at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, and David Mason, Colorado’s poet laureate, the evening will include poetry from Sandburg and Mason, folk songs from Sandburg’s “The Great American Songbag” performed by regional artists Mike Adams and Sons and Brothers Trio, and narration by Charles Peek. More here.Read More
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Free in the Open
I discovered this lovely, if slightly battered copy of Carl Sandburg‘s Complete Poems (not the Revised and Expanded edition linked here) at The Broadway Book Mall for a mere 9 bucks. I have great affection for Sandburg, even though poetry about thinking about theories about language has made Sandburgesque poets verboten at the regatta. I first read him in high school, in Laurence Perrine’s Sound and Sense (OMG, now in it’s 8th edition). The poem, as I recall, was the first I’m quoting below, from Chicago Poems, published in 1916.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. 
