News Archive No 2

Claudia Rankine (photo right) $50,000 US poetry prizewinner New York Times, Artsbeat – Apr 2014
Best books…??? A potboiler list from The Telegraph claiming to be the best poetry books of all time – along with the best food & drink… what next? Telegraph – Apr 2014
Dylan Thomas – BBC Major BBC season of broadcasts in 2014, marking centenary of Dylan’s birth. Media pack at BBC media – Apr 2014
Reviews of 4 new books, on Marianne Moore, Tennyson, Dorothy & William Wordsworth, E E Cummings New York Times – Apr 2014
Ranking anthologised English poems by computer 43-page academic article by Michael Dalvean Link to PDF – Apr 2014
Poetry & golf – tempo, rhythm, timing Here’s something different. Worth a look. New York Times – Apr 2014
Allen Ginsberg Still very relevant. Read this re global cleansing: Homework Poetry Foundation – Apr 2014
Miami Verses in bars, public conveniences, on the street and on prize-winning scratch cards New York Times story – Mar 2014
St Patrick’s Day Casual boy-meets-girl moments from New York Times – Mar 2014
Wifred Owen Article on WWI poet’s reputation. The Spectator – Mar 2014
Saudi police ban major poet’s works Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008) (Guardian report) is arguably the Arab world’s best known, most established, appreciated, internationally acclaimed and (I use the word deliberately) revered poet. This past week, his books – along with many others’ – have been removed from a literary fair by Saudi officials, claiming blasphemy. How sad, pathetic, stupid – against all that is good in the human spirit – is that? Come on, Saudi Arabia… Arab poetry has led the world – why should you seek to kill ideas and gentleness with ignorance and fists? Recommended book: The Butterfly’s Burden, bilingual Arabic-English edition: Bloodaxe Books, ISBN 978 1 85224 788 1.
Baghdad: the City in Verse – 170 poems translated into English, from centuries of tradition. Full review by Joseph Braude in Huffington Post – Mar 2014
Nine poems from the above book: Baghdad: the City in Verse Harvard University Press – Mar 2014
Derek Walcot (right) Full review of 1948-2013 collection of renowned Caribbean poet New York Times – Feb 2014
Fiercely erotic Vera Pavlova (left) – review & brief examples. Los Angeles Times – Feb 2014
Romantic poems Telegraph’s top 10
New Directions Why publish poetry? Full interview with major US poetry publisher New York Times – Feb 2014
Black Beans – Sarah Kirsch Poem of the week analysed The Guardian – Feb 2014
Emoji poetry – with social medi icons! Great fun! GeekSystem – Feb 2014
Conceptual poetry Heavy interview with Geoffrey Gatza. Huffington Post – Feb 2014
American football – a few poems. New York Times – Feb 2014
Robert Frost Article (& photos) pending publication of letters New York Times – Feb 2014
Jose Emilio Pachero Award-winning Mexican poet dies at 74 New York Times – Jan 2014
Free poetry e-books (no folks, this is not an advert!) for Kindle, iPad/iPhone, Nook, etc. Open Culture – Jan 2014
Amiri Baraka 3,000 attend poets funeral event New York Times article – Jan 2014
Coffee House Press A profile/interview with the poetry publisher. New York Times – Jan 2014
Baghdad The City in Verse. Review of book containing poetry from many centuries. Los Angeles Times – 12/13
Tennyson Long, informative piece. It’s a review of new biog, in fact. The Washington Post. Portrait (left) based on Bruckmann– 12/13

Seamus Heaney Short video about his life (ad at start) New York Times – 12/13
Romance in Winter 7 poems. New York Times – 12/13
Vernon Scannell (portrait by Charlotte Harris, right) Boxer, deserter, wife-beater, drunk – and a fine poet. Review of biography, Walking Wounded. The Spectator – 12/13
Ahmed Fouad Negm Egypt’s always dissident poet (left), who spent 18 years in jail. New York Times obituary article – 12/13
John Jarmain’s WWII poems (Photo right.) Manuscripts of artillery captain who served in North Africa donated to Exeter University. BBC News – 12/13
Nelson Mandela From ‘A Farewell to Madeba’ by Thabo Mbeki. The Independent – 12/13
Poems of peace in Afghanistan Evocative feature on Pashtun poets who meet weekly near the Himalayas. Times of Oman – 12/13
Ten poetry ‘books of the year’ briefly reviewed by The Independent – 12/13
Clive James Life-threatening illnesses bring new insights. Photo (left) from cover of his recent book of poems ‘Nefertiti in the Flak Tower’ – 12/13
Julian Peters illustrates T S Eliot ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ skilfully interpreted See artist’s own page. Also see Boston Globe article Lines are individually illustrated (right) in a skilful, sympathetic style, helping an appreciation of the taut, demanding narrative.
Rudyard Kipling New book, 100 poems, some unpublished New York Times Portrait (left) by John Collier, 1891 – 11/13
Poems needn’t be autobiographies… In-depth debate from the Poetry Foundation – 11/13
Cradle Song at Twilight Alice Meynell’s 1895 poem analysed Guardian’s Poem of the Week Illustration right: Lullaby, by Francois Riss – 11/13
Ode to a New York Dawn New York Times – 11/13
Wanda Coleman (left) LA’s campaigning poet dies. Los Angeles Times – just one of many articles/reports – 11/13

C S Lewis Honoured with place in Abbey’s Poets’ Corner New York times article – 11/13
The Saturday Poem 601 poems from the ongoing series in The Guardian – 11/13

Joan Kane Inuit family made firm roots for poet of northern landscapes New York Times interview – 11/13
Liv Torc successful UK poet/performer takes a realistic look at pregnancy, at 39 months + 4 days YouTube: Notes from a Small Island – 11/13

Pablo Neruda Nobel prizewinning poet’s 1973 death not poisoning New York Times – 11/13
Martinique in the Caribbean – and the renowned poet Aime Cesaire. Full New York Times article – 11/13

Publishing poetry US publisher Graywolf Press interviewed: what they look for, what they enjoy. New York Times – 11/13
Basics A rather strange US bar setting where a young couple explain feet, metre/meter and modernism Huffington Post – 11/13
Taliban poetry Review of book of 235 poems. The Guardian – 11/13
Philip Larkin (Photo right: The Complete Poems. Published 2012.) Full essay by Stephen Akey on Larkin’s poetry and books by and about Larkin. Books & Reviews/New York – 11/13

60 Years in poetry Click link for selection of poems by prominent poets, each poem recalling a particular year. From 2012 collection ‘Jubilee Lines’. The Guardian – 11/13
Alan Ginsberg Feature stimulated by new film Kill your Darlings US Poetry Foundation – 10/13
Siblings The creative interchange in families such as Bronte & Wordsworth US Poetry Foundation – 10/13
Ntozake Shange – a poet’s battle Moving account of black woman poet’s battle with illness affecting her speech and writing. A poet with words trapped inside: New York Times – 10/13
Seamus Heaney His final poem published in Guardian – 10/13
Emily Dickinson (Seen in Daguerreotype on right) Online archive of the American poet’s handwritten notes, etc New York Times – 10/13. Also, a later review of her handwritten poems, with facsimiles, in book form. Full NYT review here. – 12/13
Vibrant Paris & lost friend Poem & illustration. New York Times – -10/13
Tattoo. Here’s something different. Quotes from poems & plays on your skin. BBC report – 9-13
Plagiarism hits Forward Prize Report on latest scandal, involving C J Allen. Guardian – 9/13
Kofi Awoonor was among those killed at the Wesgate shopping mall in Nairobi. The 79-year-old Ghana-based pan-Africanist had a deep influence on poetry and academia. – 9/13

Shahriar Iran celebrates National Day of Poetry. Biog of Shahriar & a poem. Iran Book News – 9/13
Plagiarism in Australia Another case (not the same one as a few items below this). News.comm.au – 9/13
Payday poem By Tracy K Smith, ‘The Good Life’. American Life in Poetry – 9/13

Philip Levine $100,000 lifetime award. Other awards to poets Patricia Smith, Carolyne Forche & John Taylor BBC – 9/13
Classic Poetry Illustrated book for children reviewed The Guardian – 9/13
Plagiarism in Australia Another scandal. ‘Collage poetry’ defence. The Australian -9/13
Pam Ayres Article on the popular performer/poet. ‘Express’ – 9/13
Seamus Heaney Poetry & music at Dublin funeral. Toronto Star – 9/13
Matiullah Turab Afghan’s poet recites – video with translation. New York Times – 9/13
£20,000 prize biennially for Scottish poets under 30. Edwin Morgan Poetry Award – 9/13
The Farie Queene Poem of the Week analysis (Canto XI). The Guardian – 9/13
Save the Earth Winning poems by US high school students (Click the poets’ names) – 9/13
Seamus Heaney Articles & videos worldwide pay tribute to Seamus after his death, aged 74. New York Times (9 articles) News article and video – 8/13
Other NYT links:
Heaney’s Wilderness of Language
Capturing Rhythms of Nature
Singer-songwriter Paul Simon on Seamus Heaney
Poet of the Silent Things. NYT editorial board tribute
Simon Armitage starts his reading-in-return-for-food-and-accommodation walk around England’s South-West coast Somerset County Gazette – 8/13
Eliot first edition brings Oxfam £4,500 Guardian story – 8/13

In a Garden A love lyric Guardian poem of the week with critique – 7/13
Poems on trucks Aussie street cleaning trucks carry poems. Colorado paper – 7/13
£4,500 book A rare 1923 1st edition of Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ was donated to a London Oxfam shop and sold at auction. – 7/13
Nepal The country where everyone is a poet. Short article in The Himalayan – 7/13
Causley & Cornwall More cash for Cornish writers’ retreat. BBC report – 6/13

Canal poems sought See ‘Waterlines: Canal & River Poetry – 6/13

Australia:Jean Kent Interview and poem by Newcastle competition judge. – 5/13
Canadian poetry – modern, bizarre, refreshing a selection of four reviews – 5/13

Cornwall’s Charles Causley’s poems set to music premier in Launceston 6 June BBC story – 5/13
Cornwall’s Jack Clemo Conference soon on the clay country’s blind, “internationally significant” poet. BBC report – 5/13 (Also see Wiki biography here.)
Poetryline National Poetry Centre for Primary Schools. A rich resource. New UK website – 5/13
The Theory of Knowledge Poem of the Week. ‘Relational Epistemology’ analysed: profound fun! The Guardian – 5/13
North Korea Guardian article on poet in exile, once honoured by the god/dictator. “NK may have nuclear weapons, but we have the media.” The Guardian – 5/13
Cats, cats, cats… and poets ‘A cartoon tribute to cats, and the poets who loved them’ starting in C18th England. Well-illustrated US blog

Hymn of Hymns The Guardian, in-depth analysis of John Rodker’s vivid & ‘angry’ yet ‘bracing’ & ‘funny’ anti-religion poem. Carol Rumens writes. – 4/13
Plagiarism. Article on ‘poet’ who stole Exmoor Society’s prize. New York Times – 4/13

Lest We Forget From Cornwall to Australia – the story behind Binyon’s Ode of Remembrance.

The Saturday poem Take this link to The Guardian series listed here – 4/13

James Joyce Fragment of a lost poem. Irish Times – 4/13
Charlotte Bronte’s £92,000 poem Manuscript sold. See poem and manuscript in Guardian – 4/13

Poetry in John Lewis A department store window was stage for Scotland’s national poet Liz Lockhead Report & video Mar ’13

Arthur Conan Doyle £8,000 expected for signed copy of (awful) patriot poem The Scotsman 4/4/13

Simon Armitage writes about his proposed trek around South-West England, bartering poems for food and accommodation. The Guardian Mar ’13

Edward Thomas BBC broadcast Easter Fri/Sun -Easter 1913 and Thomas is off to the Quantocks Guardian report Mar ’13
£5,000 National Poetry Competition winner The Guardian report – Mar ’13
D H Lawrence’s Censorship & poor editing destroyed his powerful poems of war and sex, now Cambridge publishes 860 restored poems in two volumes, the first critical edition of his collected poetry. The Observer article – Mar ’13

‘bloody albatross’ Fiona Sampson interviewed on her new book of poems ‘Coleshill’, with a crisp portrait of the ex-editor of the UK Poetry Society’s ‘Poetry Review’ – and yes, the controversy has to be mentioned, that’s the ‘bloody albatross’ for the Welsh mountain lover who entered the Poetry Society’s urban flatlands. The Independent – Mar ’13
Tennyson’s final ‘Crossing the Bar’ & the Salcombe house Telegraph property – Mar ’13
Roger McGough Full profile of the prolific poet/broadcaster etc The Telegraph – Mar ’13

Charlotte Bronte, age 13, poem manuscript for sale Yorkshire Post – Mar ’13
Thomas Hardy fans fight plans for 1,000 homes on Dorset landscape BBC– Mar ’13

50 ‘new’ Kipling poems appear in full £200 3-vol collection The Guardian report – Feb ’13
Edward Thomas ‘Words’.In-depth poem-of-the-week analysis The Guardian – Feb -13
Simon Armitage plans 260-mile South-West Coast walk through Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, trading his words and performances for food and hospitality. Guardian also New York Daily News stories – Feb ’13
The World’s worst poet £3,000 manuscript Guardian story – Feb ’13

Robert Bly awarded Frost Medal by Poetry Society of America The Guardian – Feb ’13
Philip Larkin Complete Poems. Lengthy review of US publication – Feb ’13
‘Borrowing’ or using with acknowledgement, the work of other poets Guardian – Feb ’13
Zen and a love affair Guardian’s weekly analysis of a poem Daniel Hall’s Love-Letter-Burning – Feb ’13
Sasoon poems censored! UK army murderers – The Guardian – Jan ’13
Sylvia Plath is currently the subject of Julie Sampson’s in-depth blog on women writers in the South-West and notably those associated with Devon
Phil Bowen teaches Louis Theroux how to write a poem for a Liverpool open mic session – Guardian video – Jan ’13

Abuse of the elderly & pain of age is the less than happy subject of ‘Rendition’ by Australian poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe in The Guardian’s ‘Poem of the Week’ – Jan ’13
Launceston, Cornwall Funding gained for writer’s retrteat at home of late Charles Causley. BBC story – Jan ’13
The Emma Press is a new UK poetry publisher see The Bookseller – Jan ’13

William Blake 100s of remarkable lost etchings found. The Independant – Jan ’13
Bay Area books review of 4 Californian works from small publishers – Jan ’13
£15,000 prize goes to collection on divorce Guardian report – Jan ’13
Prize poem was stolen The Exmoor competition scandal This is Cornwall – Jan ’13
Obama’s inaugral poet A blog about Richard Blanco – Jan
Francis Quarles Shortness of life Guardian Poem of the Week discussed – Jan 13
Ted Hughes Widow plans memoirs. WMN report – Jan
Sharon Olds Guardian interview with one of USA’s best loved poets – Jan ’13
Poem Talk offers some 60 erudite podcast discussions readings and notes – Dec ’12
Arab love song Intense erotic Victorian vision. Poem & article in The Guardian – 20/12
Hollywood James Franco to publish debut poems Guardian story – 20/12
Poetry Books of the Year 2012 heavy reading from The Independent – 8/12
UNESCO blesses Oman Bedouin chanted poetry See UN story – 7/12
Yu Xuanji (844-868) Article and translations of executed courtesan poet – 4/12
Andrew Motion The Customs House Telegraph review of new book – 28/11
Hope Mirrlees Review of Collected Poems of this C20th radical Guardian – 25/11
Down the Bayou by C19th US poet Mary Townsend Several readings – 25/11
Angela Carter Teenage poetry discovered Guardian – 17/11
Food & Drink US poetry anthology reviewed ‘The Hungry Ear’ – 17/11
Poems from Portraits Times Educational Supplement/Poetry Society Register+details for this and other poetry teaching resources – 16/11
Nabati Poetry of the Arab Emirates wins British Studies prize Middle East Online Tradition poetry of the Arab tribes in translation – boasting, praise, satire, elegy, advice and guidance, love and lyric poetry. – 8/11
Sylvia Path Her life, work and suicide aged 30 remembered in Daily Telegraph – 27/10
I woke one day to see you, mother,
Floating above me in bluest air
On a green balloon bright with a million
Flowers and bluebirds that never were. Sylvia Plath

Gillian Clarke National poet of Wales Wales Online article – 27/10
Dylan’s Brown’s Hotel restored See full story Photo: Tony French

Where My Wellies Take Me Beautiful sample illustrations in children’s poetry volume The Guardian 5/10 Illustration by Olivia Lomenench Gill
Alice Oswald Guardian interview with the award-winning Devon poet – 3/10
£10,000 Forward prize results BBC report – 2/10
John Fowles Guardian review of late novelist’s just pubished poems – 23/09
Olympic Poem: Breathe Hear Katy Else’s poem here – 10/09
James Fenton ‘Yellow Tulips’ review in The Guardian – 9/09
Ireland’s €5,000 winner Michael Longley’s ‘A Hundred Doors’ – 9/09
Update… Stevenson book – see news item 4 down – an anonymous gift to Oxfam, has sold at auction for £500 – 1/09
Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer Article & translation in Guardian poem of the week – 25/08
Robert Louis Stevenson 1st edition at Oxfam shop – auction BBC News – 25/08
Poetry publishing in Internet age Crisp, honest article by Michael Walter – 20/08
Jen Hadfield (left) wins £5,000 Edwin Morgan prize Guardian story – 20/08
D H Lawrence ‘Obscene’ poems seized Guardian 1929 archive – 16/08
Graham Burchell shortlisted for our first Poems Please Me award has a launch at the Exeter Poetry Festival See Graham’s poem ‘Holiday in Sidmouth, 1957’ via our Poems page – 14/08
‘Impro Slam’ at Edinburgh Festival – 13/08
‘Pelt’ gets readers’ votes The Guardian announces Sarah Jackson’s nomination – 13/08
UK Winner Allison McVety Guardian’s (March) story on National Competition – 11/08
Poetry Foundation Newsletter USA, dated 3 August 2012 Click here – 4/08
Olympic poem ‘For Theron of Akragas’ in Guardian – 3/08
China’s media mogul is poet Article on Liu Jiang. – 31/07
Foyle Young Poets of the Year Deadline 31 JULY 2012. Read press release. – 18/7
Australian poetry Follow here on Twitter or go to website – 13/7
Poetry of the Taliban anger, Fascinating story in Stars & Stripes – 10/7
US Poetry Foundation latest newsletter Browse and/or sign-up – 7/12
Glasgow poems, stories & artwork, celebrating the city. Details via link – 7/12
Links between landscape & literature BBC News with glorious slideshow
New African Poetry Book Series More via this link – 25/6/12
Don Paterson Book review in The Independent of very pub-talk male poems.
Detained in Zimbabwe BBC classical music presenter arrested in Zimbabwe after poetry reading to 100s of schoolchildren. See The Telegraph report.
Roger McGough Roger McGough, 74, one of England’s most popular poets and president of the Poetry Society, has published more than 50 collections. He was appointed CBE in 2004. Financial Times ‘Inventory’ style biographical interview.
Rosemary Dobson, enduring voice of Australia, dies

Rosemary Dobson, the Australian poet whose first book, In a Convex Mirror, was published in 1944 and whose new Collected poems came out only three months ago, died yesterday. She was 92 and had been living in a Canberra nursing home. Read more here. – 28/6/12

Newspaper Taxis: Poetry After the Beatles
The Beatles changed popular culture in an era when popular culture was changing the world, high culture and low culture blending to become our culture. Newspaper Taxis is looking for poems ‘that exist only because The Beatles did… going beyond hagiography and reminiscence to capture what made them a vital force, at the forefront of creative and social change.’ The editors of ‘The Captain’s Tower: Seventy Poets Celebrate Bob Dylan at Seventy’ (Seren, 2011) will draw upon ‘Things We Said Today: Poems About The Beatles’ (Stride, 1994) to create a new anthology to mark fifty years of the only pop group guaranteed a place in histories of the future. Contributors then included Philip Larkin, Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy, Adrian Henri, Wendy Cope, Jeremy Reed, Wes Magee and Lachlan MacKinnon. Please email your submissions to: [email protected] – 27/6/12

Barack Obama on poets. And 4 book reviews
This is a quote from the letter of Barack Obama to a girlfriend, when he was still a student, talking of Eliot: Read his essay on “Tradition,” as well as “Four Quartets,” when he’s less concerned with depicting moribund Europe, to catch a sense of what I speak. Remember how I said there’s a certain kind of conservatism which I respect more than bourgeois liberalism – Eliot is of this type. Of course, the dichotomy he maintains is reactionary, but it’s due to a deep fatalism, not ignorance. (Counter him with Yeats or Pound, who, arising from the same milieu, opted to support Hitler and Mussolini)… A fatalism I share with the western tradition at times. The lengthy academic reviews by Carol Muske-Dukes are here in the USA’s ‘Huff Post’.