My friend, Norton Nearly, recently asked me to submit a reading for his gathering “Poetry Night at the Brewery at JAKL Beer Works”. I’m jazzed to be asked and would have loved to attend if only I were closer, but it was held in Delaware.
This piece was first published here on November 13, 2019, and on Spillwords Press in December 2019.
During the last week of April, I listened to Meryl Streep read Marianne Moore’s piece – Poetry – during a program sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. The event was called Poetry & the Creative Mind — Virtual Gala Supporting National Poetry Month. Meryl Streep’s reading – A.MAZ.ING.
Wanting to see if it was just the perfect actress reading the poem or a truly standalone incredible poem, I searched for it on their website. A.MAZ.ING.
Wouldn’t you agree?
Marianne Moore – 1887-1972
I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes
that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a
high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are
useful; when they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the
same thing may be said for all of us—that we
do not admire what
we cannot understand. The bat,
holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf under
a tree, the immovable critic twinkling his skin like a horse that feels a flea, the base—
ball fan, the statistician—case after case
could be cited did
one wish it; nor is it valid
to discriminate against “business documents and
school-books”; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry,
nor till the autocrats among us can be
“literalists of
the imagination”—above
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, imaginary gardens with real toads in them, shall we have
it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, in defiance of their opinion—
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness, and
that which is on the other hand,
genuine, then you are interested in poetry.
From Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse, edited by Alfred Kreymborg. This poem is in the public domain.
Please come join us!
Saturday, 10 April 2021
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Eastern Time Zone
Hope to see you there 🙂
Click link to RSVP your attendance.
**FOR THOSE WHO COULDN’T ATTEND, PLEASE CHECK OUT THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!! CLICK HERE!
Click this Meetup Link to attend!!
Just like in the old days when poets came together, perhaps imbibed, or had some coffee, and talked about the problems of the world and how they would use poetry to speak their minds. This is a Coffee Table Talk.
We will have a select group of panelists:
Susi Bocks
Chyrel J. Jackson
Maxima Kahn
LaVan Robinson
For this event, Susi Bocks will be sharing about her anthology of poetry as well as some of the poets involved will share their poetry.
We will also be talking about using poetry for social change.
Lisa Tomey will be the moderator.
Audience participation is encouraged after the panel discussion.
About Our Panelists:
Susi Bocks, writer/author/poet, has self-published two books – “Feeling Human” and “Every Day I Pause” and is the Editor of “The Short of It,” which she is developing into a anthology. You can find her work at IWriteHer.com or follow her on Facebook, where she invites you to read her thoughts to get to know her. Bocks’ work has been published in the anthology “SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women” and in VitaBrevis, Spillwords, Literary Yard, and other literary magazines.
Chyrel J. Jackson is a poet and artist who, along with her sister Lyris D. Wallace, published “Different Sides of the Same Coin.” It is a modern collage of poetry as experienced from the Black female perspective of 2 sisters and authors. This collection of poems is refreshing and unique. It is a heartwarming work of new age black voice and spoken word. This adaptation highlights the human experience of life, love, loss, parting and sorrow. Timeless wording, honestly written with a little of the unexpected. Black Expression has never been more relevant and real. This work is an interesting twist on Harlem Renaissance revisited as it collides with 2020 social struggles of our current time. In no short order we are reminded of why written and spoken word is so vital to the sustenance of African American Literature. Website: sistersrocnrhyme.com
Maxima Kahn is a writer of poetry, essays and fiction. Her debut collection of poems, “Fierce Aria,” was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020. Her work has been featured in numerous literary journals and on popular blogs and she has twice been nominated for Best of the Net. She has received scholarships and fellowships to the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and the Vermont Studio Center. Her popular workshops and one-on-one mentoring in poetry, creative writing and The Artist’s Way have helped hundreds of people to unleash their creative gifts, realize their aspirations and create lives of passion, purpose and deep play. Having taught formerly at the University of California, Davis Extension, she now teaches and blogs at BrilliantPlayground.com. You can get intimate, insider access to her creative projects and process at Patreon.com/MaximaKahn. She is also an improvisational violinist, an award-winning composer and a dancer.
Veteran Larry Richardson started writing poetry in high school and as of October 2010 he published the second edition of “Songs of Lala – the Poet” Richardson shared, “I love poetry and will use it to inspire people and bring them closer to God.” He writes under the penname of LAVAN ROBINSON in honor of his mother, Mary Robinson. Robinson has published 4 books of poetry and is working on his 5th, a collaboration. Other books by Robinson: “Love’s Rhapsody,” “Cries of a Society,” and “Love’s Anticipation.”
Lisa Tomey has been a featured artist on The Short of It as well as a contributor to the Interpretations project which ran during 2019. I’ve also reblogged some of her work from The Prolific Pulse. You can find all her posts here. We had such a lovely conversation recently! It was so wonderful to meet and speak to her about my work, my thoughts and read some of my poetry. Plus it was so nice to brag about my bestie Terry Susi and fellow WordPress bloggers who are so talented, and some which have become cherished friends.
To all my fellow WordPress poets – would you like to be a guest or perhaps promote a book or project? She invites you to reach out to her! Lisa would love to meet you. 🙂
I hope you enjoy spending some time with us. Click the link below the image and it will take you straight to the podcast platform. Just hit the play arrow.
I Write Her 