#poet laureate America

[genxvortex]

Monitoring dispatches

Phoning it in

Off the cuff

Backchannel that dog whistle

Draining the bayou

Sewing the seeds of graft

We love our namesake

TIS DO OR DIE and a

Diehard commitment to the

Absolute and mutually assured

FREEDOM TO FAIL

Monitoring dispatches

Phoning it in

Off the cuff

a simple yet complete

Backchannel

dog whistle

Drains swampland down

Through the updraft

Her laugh was infectious

Thank God her thighs were not

He visited often

Frequent flier special privileges in the officer's lounge

She had a thing after all for a throng of secret admirers from here to Timbuktu

He found himself uncontrollably drawn to her sublte displays of ability and the ubiquitous thongs

She sacrificed patella and Nomenclature to bed the Satan from the subcontinent of killers and not particularly great thinkers

I mean after the cross bow, silk, opium and gunpowder you've got thirty four thousand characters representing infinity of thoughts

But that's not the half of it

She breathlessly claimed

It's been in place and relevant for three hundred consecutive years

Then she took down Phyllis Eleanor that cunt from cahuenga who hates the drug addled artists among us

The peep show union's organizing

Halfway down the battered street holding hope hostage

As tagging and overcrowding

Conspire against the order of law

SMashing to smithereens all

Good deeds done

She can't wait to relent

Watch him repent

Without a regret

Dispersing discontent

En masse

In no particular sequence

With a clear absence of rules

With this it was with ease

And even less hesitation

That she was able to consume his considerable manhood with a gulp and a swallow more formidable

For the sheer bravado

With game changing

Follow thru

He roller over

And for the

first tolling time

Tongue rolling

SPine slurring on

the Malbec of seduction

A Chianti of the cunce

Time honored

Little displays

Of lecherous grunts

Still appealing less appalling

Since she was always full of

Well spliced restraint

Perfect pitch and

Effortless agony delivering a vanguard performance for the eon's ages

Baneless banality of hazes a ruffee in every hybrid coffee state craft

Stage three swagger

Trifling mortality

Unlicking envelopes tearing up pockets of despair

Like Trotsky to Stalin the Renegade fool tempting Lear with a truffle from a pub beau near Trafalgar square

It begins again every year

This time of day

Sewing the seeds of graft

We love our namesake

TIS DO OR DIE and a

Diehard commitment to the

Absolute and mutually assured

FREEDOM TO FAIL

[uwmspeccoll]

Voices of the Land

What better way to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day than to highlight this landmark anthology that commemorates the Indigenous Peoples of North America? When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry, edited by Joy Harjo with Leanne Howe, Jennifer Elise Foerster, is a curated collection that features the poetry of 160 poets each showcasing a distinct voice from nearly 100 Indigenous Nations. This is the first edition from 2020, published by W. W. Norton & Company in New York.

The anthology is the first to provide a historically comprehensive collection of Native poetry. The literary traditions of Native Americans, the original poets of this country, date back centuries. The book opens with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize winner American Kiowa/Cherokee N. Scott Momaday (1934-2024) and contains introductions from contributing editors for five geographically organized sections. Each section begins with a poem from traditional oral literature and closes with emerging poets, creating a rich and diverse tapestry of Indigenous voices.

Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a prominent figure in the literary world. She is known for her work as a poet, musician, playwright, and author. In addition to her contributions to literature, Harjo is also a celebrated performer and has released several albums combining poetry and music. In 2019, she made history by becoming the first Native American United States Poet Laureate and only the second to serve three terms. Throughout her career, Harjo has been a vocal advocate for Indigenous rights and has used her art to shed light on the experiences of Native peoples.

The following is an excerpt from Harjo’s introduction to this work:

“The anthology then is a way to pass on the poetry that has emerged from rich traditions of the very diverse cultures of indigenous peoples from these indigenous lands, to share it. Most readers will have no idea that there is or was a single Native poet, let alone the number included in this anthology. Our existence as sentient human beings in the establishment of this country was denied. Our presence is still an afterthought, and fraught with tension, because our continued presence means that the mythic storyline of the founding of this country is inaccurate. The United States is a very young country and has been in existence for only a few hundred years. Indigenous peoples have been here for thousands upon thousands of years and we are still here.”

View other Indigenous Peoples' Day posts.

View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection.

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

We acknowledge that in Milwaukee we live and work on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee homelands along the southwest shores of Michigami, part of North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.

[scotianostra]

On August 15th 1771 Sir Walter Scott the poet and novelist was born in Edinburgh.

Walter survived polio as a toddler which left him with a limp and he used a cane the rest of his life. He was the first author to have international fame in his lifetime and is credited with inventing the historical novel.

Scott used the great storytelling tradition of the Highlands to help bring back the Scottish identity that had been cruelly crushed by the British. His Waverly novels were very popular in Europe and America starting Romanticism and influencing American writers such as Thoreau and Twain.

As well as popularising the historical novel, his books more or less invented tourism in Scotland. A family holiday to Loch Katrine inspired Scott to write the epic narrative poem The Lady of the Lake; a romantic, stirring tale of secret identity, love and loss. It was a publishing phenomenon and readers flocked to see the landscape Scott had described. Thus when travel entrepreneurs such as Thomas Cook began selling packaged railroad tours in the 1840s, Scotland was one of the most popular destinations. Victorians who had grown up on Scott’s Waverley novels, and now technology made it possible to reach these areas

Scott was a prolific writer, publishing two novels a year. Readers around the globe devoured his tales of historic Scotland and its noble, heroic people.

Composers in particular found inspiration in his work, among them Gaetano Donizetti who was inspired to write the tragic opera Lucia del Lammermoor based on Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor.  Franz Schubert was similarly moved, setting text from The Lady of the Lake to music to create his much-loved work Ave Maria.

When King George IIII visited Edinburgh in 1822 Scott was put in charge of the festivities. This was the first time a reigning monarch had made it north of the border in over 200 years and Scott masterminded a spectacular Scottish show in his honour.

He created a romantic - and, some argued, and still do argue, an unrealistic - vision of the Highlands on the streets of the capital with parades, gatherings of clans and swathes of tartan on display. King George himself lapped up this romantic symbolism, dressing in a kilt for the occasion and, like a 19th century influencer, prompting others to wear it too. It marked a turning point in the way the world saw Scotland, and the return of tartan to fashionable society following a ban enforced by the government in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion.

Scott’s influence in society allowed him to lobby on causes he held dear.Sir Walter Scott got involved in a number of political issues. Particularly, his interested in issues where the government was trying to impose things on Scotland. For example, the Bank of England wanted to withdraw the right of Scottish banks to print bank notes, it's testement to the man that he features on bank notes not just today, but going back to the days of smaller nbanks, like the Linen Bank in Scotland, The Bank of Scotland range of notes still carry his portrait. Scott He stirred up such a furore that the government backed down, so you have him to thank that your not carrying English bank notes around with you, imagine a life where we Scots couldn't have a good old moan about businesses in England refusing to take our money as payment!

Scott’s popularity as a poet was cemented in 1813 when he was given the opportunity to become Poet Laureate. However, he declined and Robert Southey accepted the position instead.

Having suffered a stroke in 1831, which resulted in apoplectic paralysis, his health continued to fail and Scott died on 21st September 1832 at Abbotsford, I hope to read and post more about Sir Walter Scott in just over a months time.

[graysongoal]

One thing I often don't do a lot of is toot my own horn. After the past week and a half, though, I'm happy to do so.

I attended my first ever GenCon, the largest tabletop game convention in North America. Attendance this year was a record-breaking 71k. One-way masking and protections unfortunately meant that my spouse and I came home early with out first-ever COVID-19 infections. We're healed up now and mostly well.

Attending the con was exciting, overwhelming, and pushed me towards growth in a number of ways. In addition to seeing friends, I also got to see, meet, and spend time with several of my favorite comedians, game creators, and writers.

Perhaps one of the most impactful moments for me was attending the writer's symposium, which reminded me how much I loved to write fiction in my youth. Once I hit high school, I began to see it the same way I saw non-fiction writing. I always tried to include too many details. Plus, I quickly got too busy and decided it wasn't for me anymore.

Lately, though, I've been writing more poetry. I've also been entertaining the idea of possibly writing a few TTRPGs or short stories.

So, when I heard that Brandon O'Brien (the Poet Laureate for Seattle WordCon 2025) and Linda D. Addison (five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award) were co-hosting an open mic event, I nervously jumped at the chance to read probably my favorite poem I've ever written.

Hearing these two amazing individuals alongside a roomful of people respond positively to my words wasn't something I was prepared for. But, being that vulnerable with complete strangers in-person was restorative in ways that I can't even begin to express. That's especially true of hearing folks repeat and sit with the words I carefully crafted, taking in their weight.

I have experienced a great many fascinating and incredible things, and yet I quite honestly don't know that I've known such a wonderful feeling.

So, I'm sharing that same poem here. Feel free to read or listen to it, if you so choose.

As a note, this poem is about child abuse. However, it is spoken about in metaphor and there are no details. (It also has a happy ending.)

[lboogie1906]

Sergeant Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014) known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was a writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the State University of New York at Buffalo and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone. His plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African American culture.

He was born in Newark, where he attended Barringer High School. His father Coyt Leroy Jones worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. His mother Anna Lois was a social worker. Jazz was something he became interested in as a kid. The influence of jazz can be seen throughout his work.

He won a scholarship to Rutgers University but transferred to Howard University. His classes in philosophy and religious studies helped lay a foundation for his later writings. He studied at Columbia University and The New School without taking a degree.

He joined the Air Force as a gunner, reaching the rank of sergeant.

His career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range from Black liberation to white racism. Poems that are associated with him are “The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues”, “The Book of Monk”, and “New Music, New Poetry”, works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature. His poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some compare him to James Baldwin and recognize him as one of the most respected and most published African American writers. His plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African American culture.

His brief tenure as Poet Laureate of New Jersey involved a controversy over a public reading of his poem “Somebody Blew Up America?”.

He married Hettie Cohen (1958-64)​ and Sylvia Robinson (1966⁠–⁠14)​. He is the father of Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka. He has eight other children #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[jessbakescakes]

top 10 episodes of ww?

Oh noooooo. Okay. I'll do my best. This is simply what they are today, I can't guarantee I won't change my mind:

Dead Irish Writers

17 People

The U.S. Poet Laureate

Noel

Inauguration (1 & 2)

20 Hours in America (1 & 2)

Celestial Navigation

The Cold

The Supremes

Debate Camp

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

N. Scott Momaday passed in his home here in Santa Fe, January 24, 2024. Born in Lawton Oklahoma in 1934, Dr. Momaday who was a member of the Kiowa Nation spent many of his young years on Jemez Pueblo where his parents worked as teachers. He received his B.A. degree from the University of New Mexico in 1958 and his Ph.D. in English from Stanford University in 1963. He taught and researched at several universities over the years including the University of California, Santa Barbara, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Moscow State University in the former Soviet Union. Part of the Native American Literature Renaissance, Dr. Momaday won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel _House Made of Dawn_ in 1968. In 1992, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas. He also served as the poet laureate of Oklahoma. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2007.

From his last published work: "To An Aged Bear" "Hold hard this infirmity. It defines you. You are old. Now fix yourself in summer, In thickets of ripe berries, And venture toward the ridge Where you were born. Await there The setting sun. Be alive To that old conflagration One more time. Mortality Is your shadow and your shade. Translate yourself to spirit; Be present on your journey. Keep to the trees and waters. Be the singing of the soil."

N. Scott Momaday from The Death of Sitting Bear, 2020

[Thanks Scott Horton]

[mybeingthere]

Don Blanding (1894-1957) was an American poet who loved the climate of Hawaii and was sometimes described as "poet laureate of Hawaii".

Paul Sanderson from South California writes in his blog:

"I’m willing to bet most people have never heard of Don Blanding—the early 20th century poet who illustrated his own work with elaborate pen-and-ink drawings—but I grew up in a household filled with Blanding’s books, prints, and snippets of his verse running through my head. My dad was a fan from my earliest memory and spoke of the poet’s richly woven tableaux as if the places he wrote of might actually exist in the real world and not just in the imagination. All Blanding’s poetry depict highly romantic and idealized locales—South Sea islands awash in color, the scent of jasmine in the air; jungle temples choked in vines and brimming with treasure; Oriental ports-of-call populated with mysterious characters in exotic dress, much in the tradition of Rudyard Kipling and W. Somerset Maugham.

Unlike many modern artists and writers who spend considerable time cultivating a public persona to enhance their image, Blanding never had to invent or embellish his “street cred” as a bohemian world traveler. Serving in two world wars, traveling to Europe, Central America, and throughout the United States, he tasted the life he captured in verse.

Donald Benson Blanding was born in 1894 in the Oklahoma territory. After graduating from high school in 1912 he spent two years at the Art Institute of Chicago studying art with the plans of becoming a commercial artist, what today might be called a graphic designer. He earned his way partly by teaching drawing and working as a theater usher. In 1916 after seeing a play called Bird of Paradise he was so enchanted by its depiction of Hawaii that he left for the islands a month later, arriving in Hawaii “with five dollars in his pocket.”

Continue reading https://5thcolor.wordpress.com/.../don-blanding-an.../

[niibaataa]

Nishnaabe Nagamonan

Disclaimer: Some works deal with historical wrongs, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, colonialism, and residential/boarding schools. Exercise caution.

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm is a member of Saugeen Ojibway First Nation. Akiwenzie-Damm has served as Poet Laureate for Owen Sound and North Grey. In 1993, she established Kegedonce Press, a publishing house devoted to Indigenous writers. She has also authored Without Reservation: Indigenous Erotica.

Works: (Re)Generation, My Heart is a Stray Bullet.

Marie Annharte Baker is a member of Little Saskatchewan First Nation. Annharte's work concentrates on women, urban, Indigenous, disability, and related topics. She critiques life from Western Canada. After graduating with an English degree in the 1970s, she became involved in Native activism and was one of the first people in North America to teach a class entirely on Native women.

Works: Indigena Awry, Miskwagoode, Exercises in Lip Pointing.

Lesley Belleau is a member of Garden River First Nation. She is noted for her 2017 collection Indianland. She has an MA in English literature from the University of Windsor and is working on a PhD in Indigenous Studies from Trent University.

Works: Indianland.

Kimberly M. Blaeser is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Blaeser served as Wisconsin's Poet Laureate from 2015-2016. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Miluwakee. A contemporary of Vizenor, she is the first critic to publish a book-length study on his fiction. She has been writing poetry since 1993.

Works: Apprenticed to Justice, Trailing You, Absentee Indians and Other Poems.

Diane Burns was a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles band. Burns was Anishinaabe through her mother and Chemehuevi through her father. Burns attended the Institute of American Indian Arts and Barnard College (within Columbia University). She was also an accomplished visual artist. She is considered an important figure within the Native American contemporary arts movement.

Works: Riding the One-Eyed Ford (available online).

Aja Couchois Duncan is a Bay Area educator, writer, and coach. Duncan is of Ojibwe, French, and Scottish descent. Her debut collection won the California Book Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University.

Works: Restless Continent, Vestigal.

Heid E. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band. Erdrich is a granddaughter of Patrick Gourneau, who fought against Indian termination during his time as tribal chairman from 1953-1959. Erdrich holds a PhD in Native American Literature and Writing. Erdrich used to teach, but has since stepped back from doing it full-time. She directs Wiigwaas Press, an Ojibwe language publisher.

Works: Cell Traffic, The Mother's Tongue, Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media.

Louise Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain band. Erdrich is a granddaughter of Patrick Gourneau, who fought against Indian termination during his time as tribal chairman from 1953-1959. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the Native American Renaissance. Owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore that focuses on Native Literature.

Works: Jacklight, Original Fire, Baptism of Desire.

David Groulx was raised in Elliott Lake, Ontario. Groulx is Ojibwe and French Canadian. He received his BA in Literature from Lakehead University and later studied creative writing at the En'owkin Centre in British Columbia. He has also studied creative writing at the University of Victoria.

Works: From Turtle Island to Gaza, Rising With a Distant Dawn, Imagine Mercy.

Gordon Henry Jr is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Gordon Henry Jr holds a PhD in Literature from the University of North Dakota and is currently a professor of English at Michigan State University. He has authored several novels and poetry collections and is a celebrated writer in Michigan.

Works: Spirit Matters, The Failure of Certain Charms.

Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was Born in Sault Ste. Marie on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Schoolcraft was given the name of Bamewawagezhikaquay ('Woman of the Sound that the stars make Rushing Through the Sky') in Ojibwe. Her mother was Ozhaguscodaywayquay, the daughter of the Ojibwe war chief Waubojeeg. Her father was fur-trader John Johnston. Johnston is regarded as the first major Native American female writer. She wrote letters and poems in both English and Ojibwe.

Writeup containing works.

Denise Lajimodiere is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain band. Lajimodiere is considered an expert on Native American boarding schools following her work Stringing Rosaries, published in 2019. She is a poet, professor, scholar, and the current Poet Laureate of North Dakota.

Works: His Feathers Were Chains, Thunderbird: Poems, Dragonfly Dance.

Linda Legarde Grover is a member of the Bois Forte Band. She is a columnist for the Duluth Tribune and Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies at University of Minnesota (Duluth). She has written poetry, short stories, and essays.

Works: The Sky Watched, Onigamiising.

Sara Littlecrow-Russel is of Ojibwe and Han-Naxi Métis descent. Russell is a lawyer and professional mediator as well as a poet. She has worked at the Center for Education and Policy Advocacy at the University of Massachusetts and for Community Partnerships for Social Change at Hampshire College.

Works: The Secret Powers of Naming.

Jim Northrup was a member of the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota. Northrup lived a traditional lifestyle in his early years. As a child, he attended an Indian boarding school where he suffered physical abuse. Later in life, he served in the Vietnam war and experienced PTSD. Much of his poetry comes from these hardships.

Works: Walking the Rez Road, Rez Salute: The Real Healer Dealer, Anishinaabe Syndicated.

Duke Redbird was born in Saugeen First Nation. He became a ward of Children's Aid at nine months old when his mother died in a house fire. He began writing to give words to his experiences as an Indigenous man raised by white foster families. He is recognized as a key figure in the development of First Nations literature.

His poetry is available on his site.

Denise Sweet is a member of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Sweet served as Wisconsin's Poet Laureate from 2004-2008. She has taught creative writing, literature, and mythology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Works: Songs for Discharming, Palominos Near Tuba City.

Mark Turcotte is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band. Turcotte is a visiting assistant professor of English at DePaul University. He has published two books of poetry. His chapbook, Road Noise, was translated into French.

Works: The Feathered Heart, Exploding Chippewas.

E. Donald Two-Rivers was raised in Emo Township, Ontario. He moved to Chicago at age 16 and became involved with the Urban Native community there. A playwright, spoken-word performer, and a poet, Two-Rivers had been an activist for Native rights since the 1970s. He was the founding director of the Chicago-based Red Path Theater Company.

Works: Powwows, Fat Cats, and Other Indian Tales, A Dozen Cold Ones by Two-Rivers.

Gerald Vizenor is an enrolled member of the White Earth Reservation. Vizenor has published over 30 books. He taught at the University of California for many years and is currently at the University of New Mexico. He has a long history of political activism and he is considered one of the most prolific Indigenous ironists writing today.

Works: Favor of Crows, Cranes Arise, Empty Swings.

[bl00dysword]

Олена Ґердан-Заклинська, 14 квітня 1916 – 23 січня 1999. (із посиланням на статтю)

Українська танцівниця, хореографка, лауреатка Міжнародного фестивалю танку в Брюсселі, поетеса, публіцистка, художниця, поліглотка (володіла українською, польською, чеською, німецькою, французькою, англійською і латинською мовами). Також, жінка вміла співати, римувати, грати на фортепіано, та мала свої власні танцювальні школи в Америці та Канаді.

——

Olena Gerdan-Zaklinska. April 14, 1916 – January 23, 1999.

Ukrainian dancer, choreographer, laureate of the International Tanok Festival in Brussels, poet, publicist, artist, polyglot (she spoke Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, German, French, and Latin languages). Also, Olena could sing, rhyme, play the piano, and had her own dance schools in America and Canada.

[finishinglinepress]

FLP BOOK OF THE DAY: Rare Fuel by Rex Wilder “WINNER OF THE 2023 The Donna Wolf-Palacio Poetry Prize”

On SALE now! Pre-order Price Guarantee: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/rare-fuel-by-rex-wilder-winner-of-the-2023-the-donna-wolf-palacio-poetry-prize/

In Rare Fuel, Rex Wilder’s fourth book, #winner of the Finishing Line Press Donna Wolf-Palacio #Poetry Prize, the author is “the Virgil who guides us through the underworld of his own personal hell” (George Bilgere), “his time as an inpatient in a mental health facility, alongside the kindness, the weirdness, the characters and the discoveries he made there. You can place it alongside the language’s other great verse chronicles of madness: Christopher Smart, say, or Ivor Gurney” (Stephanie Burt). The book resonates with the wisdom of a man “deeply invested in the mortal world,” as A.E. Stallings once highlighted. The poems ring with “the exhilaration of freedom from the chains of confinement” (Grace Schulman). Rex Wilder does not merely return to form here; he transcends it, offering readers a rare and vibrant fuel to illuminate their darkest nights.

PRAISE FOR Rare Fuel by Rex Wilder “WINNER OF THE 2023 The Donna Wolf-Palacio Poetry Prize”

Technically deft and emotionally intelligent, devoted to clarity and never simple, open to all and yet resistant to normies, worldly and otherworldly, “off leash at last,” Wilder’s fourth collection holds together around its memorable topic: the poet’s time as an inpatient in a mental health facility, alongside the kindness, the weirdness, the characters and the discoveries he made there. You can place it alongside the language’s other great verse chronicles of madness: Christopher Smart, say, or Ivor Gurney. You can also place it, easily, in the company of poets known for a fine ear: half-rhyming “tell” with “economical,” say, and finding the assonance between “ashore” and “love” amid the “standoffish deeps. Also, “grave” and “grieve” and the sand in a sieve. Don’t let this one slip through your living hands.

–Stephanie Burt (she/her) Donald and Catherine Loker Professor of English, Harvard University, poet, and “one of the most influential poetry critics of her generation” (New York Times)

In Rare Fuel, Rex Wilder is the Virgil who guides us through the underworld of his own personal hell, a mental breakdown that nearly killed him. With utter candor, Wilder describes his remarkable, harrowing journey from the brink of self-annihilation and back to this lovely world, and what I admire most about these poems is that he finds a way to give language to the unsayable. How do you describe the mind unmoored, the soul deranged? Wilder finds words for this, in a collection that will leave you shaken—but nonetheless full of hope. A beautiful book.

–George Bilgere, Poet Laureate Billy Collins’ “welcome breath of fresh, American air” and Distinguished Professor of English at John Carroll University

Rex Wilder makes words unveil feelings, and his poems are new and surprising while hewing to traditional forms. He writes about serious mental illness with sly wit, unfolding meaning, and unsentimental pathos. This collection is generous and universal—embracing the world with all its trials and triumphs and grounding us in memory, recollection, and joy; as he writes in “Recipe,” “It will get dark with or without us / but without us, I won’t care.”

–Katherine Howell, Literary Editor, National Review

In Rex Wilder‘s poems, his “traumatized heart” beats with troubled and tenacious language. Excruciating experiences toward self-worth and sanity keep the reader rapt, awaiting an uneasy affirmation of “peaceable suspense.” These are honest poems of perseverance, seeking clarity and calm while his cri de coeur persists.

–Susan Kinsolving, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Lyric Poetry Award and finalist for The National Book Critics Circle Award

Honestly, as a psychiatrist and a human, I would read anything Rex Wilder writes. In these penetrating, intimate poems, the author courageously chronicles a dark night of the soul depression, his inpatient stay in a psychiatric facility, and breathtaking emergence into the light. I applaud Rex as a powerful role model for others on similar journeys as they grow in ways that will uplift their souls. Highly recommended.

–Judith Orloff, MD and New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Empathy

In Rare Fuel, by Rex Wilder, a severe illness leads to reparation, even wholeness, in language that is fresh and lyrical, and in an original use of classical forms. After recovery, the poet gains wisdom and shares it with us all. There’s a new music in many of his lines: “every song / begins in song’s absence,” in “looking is no substitute for seeing,/ And every illness can startle love into being,” “this strain of love, its stain,” “the high note / only a lover can bear” or “I laugh / at the Church of I Guess./ I have nothing to confess.” “Canal Nocturne” is a sensitive, original take on the pandemic. The book rings with the exhilaration of freedom from the chains of confinement.

–Grace Schulman, Author of Again, the Dawn: New and Selected Poems and winner of the Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in Poetry

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetrybook #read #poems

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Carmen Tafolla

Carmen Tafolla was born in 1951 in San Antonio, Texas. Tafolla has published more than 30 books, including prose, poetry, and children's books. She was the city of San Antonio's inaugural Poet Laureate, and the 2015-2016 Texas State Poet Laureate. Tafolla has received several other honors throughout her career, including the Tomas Rivera Award and the Americas Award.

[scarlettsabetlondongirl]

This blog is 8 years old!

It's been exciting to watch Poet Scarlett Sabet grow from a novice poet to an accomplished poet mentioned in the same breath as British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage.

Poet Scarlett has traveled around the world sharing her poems and emotions at The Library of Congress in America, to Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France.

Her collection started with Rocking Underground to lastly a spoken word album Catalyst produced by Led Zeppelin Founder Jimmy Page

Poet Scarlett is a smart, caring, sensitive, and beautiful woman inside and out.

Thank you to all followers for your support.

All her collections can be purchased here

2nd photo: Scarlettzsabet Instagram

[justforbooks]

On 22 September 1973, Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda – whom Gabriel García Márquez dubbed "the greatest poet of the 20th century" – received some visitors at the Santa María hospital in Chile's capital Santiago. Among them were Sweden's ambassador Harald Edelstam and the Mexican ambassador Gonzalo Martínez Corbala, offering a plane to fly Neruda and his wife Matilde into exile.

We know about their conversation thanks to as yet unpublished documents at the National Archive in Sweden. Edelstam asserts he found the poet "very ill" though still willing to travel to Mexico. In a memo sent to his superiors, Edelstam observes: "In his last hours [Neruda] either didn't know or didn't recognise he suffered a terminal illness. He complained that rheumatism made it impossible to move his arms and legs. When we visited him, Neruda was preparing as best he could to travel … to Mexico. There, he would make a public declaration against the military regime."

That made the poet dangerous to some very powerful people, who had shown they would stop at nothing to defend their interests. They had ousted his friend, Salvador Allende, from the presidency less than a fortnight earlier. Allende died in a coup that was as much about silencing dissident voices as bringing about regime change. Another voice, that of popular singer Víctor Jara, was cut off four days later. Neruda remained. He was perhaps the loudest. His face certainly the most recognisable worldwide. He was too dangerous.

Members of the junta are on record expressing the view on the morning of September 22 that if Neruda flew into exile, his plane would fall into the sea. In the afternoon, radio stations under military control announced the poet would probably die in the next few hours, at a time when he was still awake in the hospital. The following day he was dead.

That historical mystery alone explains why his body was exhumed this week. But there are more pressing reasons too, at a time when the destiny of the left hangs in the balance in Latin America. The death of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, one of many leftist leaders in the region to have fallen ill to cancer, has combined with the 700 documented assassination attempts against Cuba's Fidel Castro to fuel all manner of conspiracy theories.

More important still is the fact that, faced with an economic crisis without foreseeable end and few alternatives, a new generation of world activists needs to reconnect with the vibrant political imagination embodied by Neruda. The question is not merely whether the commitment he exemplified is possible now, but whether technology, and the institutions we use to manage it, can allow the kind of freedom Neruda called for in his poetry.

In this context, Neruda's life, as well as the shadows cast by his death, are Google-bombs waiting to be set off by a new generation of networked freedom fighters at the heart of our austerity-obsessed, repressive, and frankly boring narratives.

Neruda wasn't surprised by the 1973 coup – most people knew that the consequences of restoring "economic order" would be vicious, and many accepted it as necessary – but it wasn't inevitable: under a deal accepted by the government coalition as well as the opposition, President Allende was going to call for a referendum and would have resigned if the result went against him. This made any show of force by the smaller but influential sector within the Chilean armed forces unnecessary. But the conspirators were bent on regime change, so they brought forward the date of the coup, subjecting Chilean society to a trial by fire in order to cure it of a supposedly menacing communist "cancer".

The invocation of "cancer" to provide yesterday's rulers with a pretext to unleash war abroad and repression at home is mirrored by the questions being asked about Neruda's cancer today.

Neruda and the other individuals behind the Chilean revolution of the early 1970s made mistakes and were at least partially responsible for the consequences. But the real story behind their defeat and deaths hasn't been told yet. This is one of the reasons why people are looking to unearth new truths, hoping to shed some light on the origins of our problems today.

Through histories, testimonies, and documents declassified in the US or revealed as recently as last year by Wikileaks, we now know that the fate of Neruda and others like him had been decided long before they had any hand in mismanaging the economy or dividing political opinion. Persecution of the left had begun in Chile as early as 1948, at the behest of a US government awash with anti-communist paranoia.

That year, a controversial measure known as "the Damned Law" ("la ley maldita") outlawed the Chilean Communist Party, sent the communist leadership into exile and imprisoned hundreds of militants at the Pisagua camp under the orders of a young lieutenant named Augusto Pinochet – the concentration camp's director who would become Chile's dictator, and a friend and inspiration to Margaret Thatcher.

Neruda, radicalised like many others by the anti-fascist struggle of the 1930s and 40s, chose to flee the country. Fearing for his life he crossed the Andes on a horse, carrying with him the manuscript of his epic poem Canto General, before resurfacing in Mexico thanks to the help of his friends Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera.

His second exile would have been in 1973. Edelstam's conversation with Neruda took place a mere two hours before the poet went to sleep, never to wake up again. When the Swedish diplomat went to Neruda's house to offer his condolences, he found it destroyed. Pinochet's men were bent on erasing every trace of his existence. They would do the same with thousands of people during a reign of terror that would last for nearly two decades. That is why so many people this week are holding their breath to find out what clues Neruda's exhumed body might hold.

One of the most enduring mysteries in modern Chilean history may finally have been solved after forensic experts determined that the Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died after being poisoned with a powerful toxin, apparently confirming decades of suspicions that he was murdered.

According to the official version, Neruda – who made his name as a young poet with the collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair – died from prostate cancer and malnutrition on 23 September 1973, just 12 days after the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of his friend, President Salvador Allende.

But some, including Neruda’s nephew, Rodolfo Reyes, have long believed he was murdered because of his opposition to the then incipient dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Ten years ago, a Chilean judge ordered the exhumation of the poet’s remains after his former chauffeur, Manuel Araya, revealed that an agitated Neruda had called him from the Santiago hospital where he was being treated to say that he had been injected in the stomach while asleep. The poet died hours later.

Samples of Neruda’s remains were dispatched to forensic laboratories in four countries for analysis, and in 2015 the Chilean government said it was “highly probable that a third party” was responsible for his death. Two years later, a team of international scientists said they were “100% convinced” the poet did not die from prostate cancer.

On Monday, Reyes said scientific tests had shown the toxin clostridium botulinum was present in his uncle’s body when he died, suggesting he was indeed “poisoned” in the aftermath of the coup. The results of expert analysis are due to be published in a report on Wednesday.

“We now know that there was no reason for the clostridium botulinum to have been there in his bones,” Reyes told the Spanish news agency Efe. “What does that mean? It means Neruda was murdered through the intervention of state agents in 1973.”

The bacteria, which produce the neurotoxin that causes botulism, were discovered on one of Neruda’s exhumed teeth in 2017. Reyes said analysis by experts at McMaster University in Canada and the University of Copenhagen had established the bacteria did not find their way into Neruda’s body from the coffin or the surrounding area.

“We’ve found the bullet that killed Neruda, and it was in his body,” Reyes told Efe. “Who fired it? We’ll find out soon, but there’s no doubt Neruda was killed through the direct intervention of a third party.”

Pinochet’s US-backed coup, during which Allende killed himself as troops stormed the presidential palace, devastated Neruda and led him to plan an exile in Mexico.

But a day before his planned departure, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital in the Chilean capital where he had been treated for cancer and other conditions. He died there on the evening of 23 September, purportedly from the wasting effects of the prostate cancer that had first been detected four years earlier.

However, the official version of the events surrounding his death has frequently been called into question. Gonzalo Martínez Corbalá, who was Mexico’s ambassador to Chile at the time of the coup, told the Associated Press he had seen Neruda two days before his death, and that the poet had weighed almost 100kg (15st 10lbs) – contradicting claims that he was fatally malnourished because of his cancer.

Last month, Araya told AP that if Neruda “hadn’t been left alone in the clinic, they wouldn’t have killed him”.

The chauffeur said he and Neruda’s wife, Matilde Urrutia, had been at the couple’s mansion to pick up their suitcases for Mexico when the poet rang, asking them to come back to the hospital quickly. Neruda died later the same day.

Following Neruda’s death Urrutia maintained that he had been increasingly agitated as he learned of the early atrocities of the dictatorship and that it was the anguish of the coup d’état which led to his demise.

The lengthy investigation hit a number of obstacles, from non-cooperation on the part of the clinic where the alleged injection was administered to difficulty in funding foreign lab tests.

In the years after Neruda’s death, much of the focus has been on locating a mysterious “Dr Price” who had apparently been on duty at the clinic that night. However, there was no mention of the doctor in the records of Chile’s medical union, and it was eventually deduced that he had been invented to stall investigations.

Though described by his friend Gabriel García Márquez as “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language”, Neruda’s reputation has been damaged in recent years by details of his personal life. Not only was the writer a self-confessed rapist, he was also a man who abandoned his first wife and their daughter, Malva Marina, who was born with a neurological disorder and died at the age of nine.

In his posthumously published memoirs, Confieso Que He Vivido (I Confess That I Have Lived), Neruda admitted raping a Tamil woman who worked as his servant when he was posted to Ceylon as a young diplomat. After describing the rape, he wrote: “She was right to despise me.”

The rape confession, which resurfaced almost five years ago, led human rights activists to oppose an attempt to rename Santiago airport in honour of the poet.

Speaking at the time, the author and women’s rights campaigner Isabel Allende told the Guardian that Neruda’s criminal and callous behaviour did not devalue his work.

“I am disgusted by some aspects of Neruda’s life and personality,” she said. “However, we cannot dismiss his writing. Very few people – especially powerful or influential men – behave admirably. Unfortunately, Neruda was a flawed person, as we all are in one way or another.”

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[lboogie1906]

Henry Dumas (July 20, 1934 – May 23, 1968) was a writer and poet.

He was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, and lived there until the age of ten, when he moved to New York City; he always kept the religious and folk traditions of his hometown. He attended public school and graduated from Commerce High School. After graduating, he attended City College in New York, before joining the Air Force. He was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base and spent eighteen months on the Arabian Peninsula, where he developed an interest in Arab culture. He was in the military until 1957, at which time he enrolled at Rutgers University, where he attended as a full-time and a part-time student without attaining a degree. He became a teacher-counselor and director of language workshops at Southern Illinois University’s Experiment in Higher Education. Some of his early work was published in the Hiram Review. He became an editor of the Hiram Review.

He was shot to death by a white New York City Transit Authority police officer at 135th Street Station, in a case of “mistaken identity”. The tragic incident exemplified the position of African Americans in America in the 1960s. His death is mentioned in the poem “An Alphabet of My Dead,” by Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[texasobserver]

“The Texas Observer’s 2023 Must-Read Lone Star Books” by Senior Editor Lise Olsen, with help from Susan Post of Austin's Bookwoman:

Despite a disturbing rise in book bans, Texas is, against all odds, becoming more and more of a literary hub with authors winning accolades, indie bookstores popping up from Galveston Island to El Paso, and ban-busting librarians and other book-lovers throwing festivals. So as you ponder gifts this holiday season or consider what to read by the fire or by the pool (who can say in December?), pick some Lone Star lit. 

Here’s a list of #MustRead 2023 books by Texans or about Texas compiled by the Observer staff with help from Susan Post of Austin’s independent Bookwoman. (Several talented Texans also made best book lists in Slate magazine, The New Yorker, and NPR’s Books We Love.)

NONFICTION

We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America by Dallas journalist Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) is a dramatic takedown of the Texas foster care and family court system. It’s both a compelling narrative and an investigative tour de force.

The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine (Simon & Schuster) by Ricardo Nuila, a Houston physician and author, is an eye-opening and surprisingly optimistic read. Nuila delves deeply into what’s wrong with modern medicine by painting rich portraits of the patients he’s treated (and befriended) while working at Harris County’s Ben Taub Hospital, which offers free or low-cost—yet high-quality—care against all odds. Each of them had been forced into impossible positions and suffered additional trauma from obstacles and gaps in insurance, corporate medicine, and Big Pharma.

Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians and a Legacy of Rage (Simon & Schuster) by Fort Worth journalist Jeff Guinn is one of two books that mark the 30th anniversary of the standoff between the Branch Davidians and federal agents that ended with 86 deaths. (The other is Waco Rising by Kevin Cook.) Both authors recount how the 1993 tragedy shaped other extremist leaders in America—and still influences separatist movements today.

Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan (University of Texas Press) by Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay has been described as the quintessential Steely Dan book. As part of the project, LeMay, a native Houstonian, created 109 whimsical portraits of characters that sprang from the musicians’ lyrics and legends. In a review, fellow artist Melissa Messer wrote: “Looking at Joan’s oeuvre makes me feel tipsy, or like I’ve drunk Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drink and I’m swimming through the air after her, searching for the same vision.”

Memoir

Black Cameleon: Memory, Womanhood and Myth(Macmillan) by Debra D.E.E.P. Mouton, the former Houston poet Laureate, shares lyrical memories of her own life mixed with ample asides on Black culture and family lore. Her storylines sink deeply into a dream world, and yet readers emerge without forgetting her deeper messages.

Leg: The Story of a Limb and a Boy Who Grew from It (Abrams Books) by Greg Marshall of Austin has been described as “a hilarious and poignant memoir grappling with family, disability, and coming of age in two closets—as a gay man and as a man living with cerebral palsy.” NPR’s Scott Simon, who interviewed Marshall, described the memoir as “intimate, and I mean that in all ways—insightful and often laugh-out-loud funny.”

Up Home: One Girl’s Journey (Penguin Random House) by Ruth J. Simmonsis a powerful memoir from the Grapeland native who became the president of Brown University and thus, the first Black president of an Ivy League institution. Simmons begins by sharing stories about her parents, who were sharecroppers, and about her life as one of 12 children growing up in a tiny Texas town during the Jim Crow era. For her, the classroom became “a place of brilliant light unlike any our homes afforded.” (Simmons’s other academic credentials include being the former president of Smith College; president of Prairie View A&M University, Texas’s oldest HBCU; and the former vice provost of Princeton.)

Novels and Short Stories

An Autobiography of Skin(Penguin Random House) by Lakiesha Carr weaves together three powerful narratives all featuring Black women from Texas. Carr, a journalist originally from East Texas, plumbs the depths of each character’s struggles, sharing tales of gambling, lost love, abuse, and the power of women to overcome. 

Holler, Child (Penguin Random House), a new short story collection from Latoya Watkins, was long-listed for the National Book Award. Her eleven tales press “at the bruises of guilt, love, and circumstance,” as the cover description promises, and introduce West Texas-inspired characters irrevocably shaped by place.

The Nursery (Pantheon Books) by Szilvia Molnar—a surprisingly honest, anatomically accurate (and unsettling) novel about new motherhood—begins: “I used to be a translator and now I am a milk bar.” It’s a riveting and original debut by Molnar, who is originally from Budapest, was raised in Sweden, and now lives in Austin.

Two legendary Austin writers weighed in with new novels on our tall stack of Texas goodreads: The Madstone (Little, Brown and Company) by Elizabeth Crook, the 2023 Texas Writer Award winner, and Mr. Texas, a fictional send-up of Texas politics by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright. 

Poetry

Bookwoman’s Susan Post, who contributed titles to our list, also recommends filling your holiday shelves with poetry by and about Texans:

Dream Apartment (Copper Canyon Press) by Lisa Olstein; 

Low (Gray Wolf Press) by Nick Flynn; 

Freedom House by KB Brookins (published by Dallas’ Deep Vellum Bookstore & Publishing Co.) 

Essays

Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry (University of Texas Press) edited by George Getchow, contains essays from a who’s who list of Texas writers about Larry McMurtry’s influence on Texas culture and their lives. It includes an array of reflections on history and the writing process as well as anecdotes about McMurtry’s off-beat and innovative life. 

To Name the Bigger Lie (Simon & Schuster) by Sarah Viren, an ex-Texan who now teaches creative writing at Arizona State University, (excerpted in Lithub) includes reflections on Viren’s experiences (and misadventures) as an “out” academic and writer in states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona. As she dryly notes, “Critiques of the personal essay, and by extension memoir, are often gendered—not to mention classist and racist and homophobic.” 

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