filled with words (audio)

Missed last week due to being away for the Dodge Poetry Festival. Now I am back filled with words and ideas wanting to become words.




The Dodge Poetry Festival can be found online  http://www.dodgepoetry.org/

autumn color in rain

You can find my poetry at http://www.quietpoet.com/

It's sooner than you think - Dodge Poetry Festival 2016

Good news! View this email in your browser Less than a Year Until #DPF16!   October 20-23, 2016 The Dodge Poetry Festival is returning to Newark, New Jersey, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Newark's Downtown Arts District.  The 4th consecutive Festival in Newark will feature: more than five dozen poets, storytellers and musicians a vibrant Downtown Arts District – home to galleries, historic churches, museums and NJPAC's gorgeous theaters – transformed into a walkable poetry village alive with readings, music and conversation festive outdoor area with multiple food options magnificently restored historic Military Park with gardens, walkways and areas for relaxation and contemplation new downtown hotels within easy walking distance to all Festival sites deep discounts to the Festival on mass transit Poetry Bookstore featuring book-signings by participating poets. Visit our website for regular updates leading up to the 16th Biennial Dodge Poetry Festival.  The complete list of poets will be announced in April during National Poetry Month. Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2015 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and Program, All rights reserved. You are on the Dodge Poetry Festival mailing list. Our mailing address is: Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival and Program 14 Maple Ave. Suite 400 Morristown, Nj 07960 Add us to your address book I missed going in 2014, did go in 2012, would like to get back there is 2016.

Reflections on Newark, NJ

Sunday morning, the streets are nearly empty. Only a few cars here and there. Only a few pedestrians. Some with the programs for the Dodge Poetry Festival walking to their next session.

Newark is architecturally rich. I think as much as any other city that has been around since the early days in America. The variety and mix of new and old buildings. Buildings re-purposed as times have changed.

Buildings are also barred, gated, access restricted even where the entrance was inviting you to come in to worship. Sign of the times? Or were these added in the late 60's? Newark has had an interesting history. I want to know more. In one park, I found a statue for Seth Boyden. Who is this Seth Boyden who has merits a statue not far from one to George Washington and Christopher Columbus?

According to wikipedia, Boyden was born in Foxboro, MA and moved to Newark where he

Boyden perfected the process for making patent leather, created malleable iron, invented a nail-making machine, and built his own steamboat. He is also credited with having invented a cut off switch for steam engines and a method for producing zinc from ore. At the time of his death, he told friends that he had, even at that time, enough experiments on hand to last two whole lifetime.

A prolific inventor who apparently was instrumental in the early business life of Newark. Newark will need more Boyden's today. They may be already toiling away doing good stuff. We just haven't heard of them yet. Time to explore!

Exploring the pause

Day 2 at the Geraldine R Dodge Poetry Festival began well and ended on a high note. The major disappointment during the day was the reading by Fanny Howe during the Friday night prime time.

Terrance Hayes read several poems wrapping them with what we needed to know before hand in either a short explanation or a longer one. There was an intensity in his work that came through clearly.

Fanny Howe followed Terrance. She admitted being still moved by his works. Maybe that was what held her back. It was my first real exposure to her extended reading. I had heard her during the sampler on Thursday evening. So disappointed with her reading that I immediately wrote and tweeted this:

sherku: Fanny Howe 

she reads
on and on
no break, no pause
which poem
ends where
only she knows
for sure

Thomas Lux and Jane Hirshfield read from their works restoring the evening to credible readings. Then the evening closed with a performance by Kurtis Lamkin.

Kurtis opened with "jump mama". The third time I heard this during this Festival and it is rich each time. He then was accompanied by a tip dance virtuoso; Maurice Chestnut

Maurice added percussion with his feet to create some memorable performances. You can view a sample of Maurice's work accompanying a jazz band at Lincoln Center




Without the space between each tap, without the timing/ the rhythm, this would be noise. Without the pause between poems, Fanny created only sounds of words. You can find those anywhere.



#dodgepoetry
#140poets

Taylor Mail: Undivided attention

The 14th Geraldine R Dodge Poetry Festival opened on Thursday in Newark, NJ. I missed the last one of these but had been to the 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 events. Four days of poetry. An amazing gathering!

The first poem from the first session on this first day was "jump mama" by Kurtis Lamkin. I could have left after that. I could have left and been satisfied. But there is so much more. Oh, so much more. I stayed and am having a great time.

Taylor Mail Dorianne Laux had joined Kurtis Lamkin for the opening session. Taylor is reading while everyone else listens.

In this video, Taylor performs "Undivided Attention". While this version was recorded in 2007, Taylor performed this during his turn in the 'poetry sampler' on Thursday evening. Each of the about 50 poets read one or two of their poems to provide a sample of what we can hear more of as the event continues.



Enjoy!

Note: jump mama had been posted earlier and if you missed it, you can view it here
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2012/09/dodge-poetry-festival.html

Dodge Poetry Festival

The Dodge Poetry Festival occurs every two years. I missed the last one but plan on getting to this one being held in Newark, NJ.

Some of my favorite poets apparently are not scheduled to be there (Robert Bly, Billy Collins, Coleman Barks) but that just means that I'll be able to explore other voices.

One who will be there and I want to see is Kurtis Lamkin. What he does with word and music is enchanting.


Kurtis Lamkin reads 'jump mama' from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

One of my favorite of his performances!

For more about the Festival you can visit their webpage  http://www.dodgepoetry.org

For more about my own poetry you can visit http://www.quietpoet.com/

Happy birthday Robert Bly!

One of my heroes, Robert Bly, celebrates his birthday today.

I have shared a few of my favorite poems of his here over the years. His translations of Kabir hold a special place. One poem closes with the lines:

Kabir says this: When the guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the guest that does all the work. Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

Bly also either influences or appears in some of my own writing. For example, The Scorecard, written in 2007:

The Scorecard

It's my father's fault.

answers to math questions in an instant

Cost accountant, meticulous rows of figures

kept score for the family card games

columns of names and numbers

tallied for the winners and players

diabetic diary, daily food intake

peanut butter toast, mashed potatoes

dog eared book, calories for each

so I'm at the festival

scribbling who spoke in order

what poem was read

can go back to 2004, 2002 even

words, images, scenes called forth

and the festivals come alive

Bly on the mound, Barks at bat,

Paul Winter on deck, early morning Rumi

the pitch, and it's a home run!

Originally posted to quiet poet here


Additional works of Robert Bly can be found in good bookstores or online at the Poetry Foundation

Galway Kinnell to Read Rilke's Duino Elegies

I will miss the Dodge Poetry Festival this year. It seems like it will be another good one. If you are around Newark, NJ, see if you can participate.

Galway Kinnell to Read Rilke's Duino Elegies at the Dodge Poetry Festival   Rainer Maria Rilke's masterpiece, the Duino Elegies, opens with "Who, if I screamed out, would hear among the hierarchies/of angels?" This haunting and disturbing question begins one of the most influential poetic sequences from the first half of the twentieth century. At times soaring through spiritual heights, at others quietly observant of the earthiest facts, the ten Duino Elegies draw the reader or the listener into an intimate encounter with one of the most curious, questioning and original minds to ever write poetry. New translations of Rilke's work into English have appeared with increasing frequency over the last eighty years. Festival Poet Galway Kinnell is one of many poets of his generation whose sense of what a poem or poetic sequence could do was deeply affected by his reading of the Duino Elegies. His The Book of Nightmares, also a sequence of ten poems, is, at least in part, a response to Rilke's earlier collection. Like Rilke, Kinnell is capable of an interior soaring, a delving into the self that goes deeper than notions of self and other. Also like Rilke, he is willing to project himself out into the physical world, into animals, plants, even minerals, and sense our kinship with the nonhuman. For Kinnell, these explorations are not leading in opposite directions: Attention to the things of the earth is attention to the sacred, and we are sacred because we are part of the earth. Wallace Stevens, commenting on the ancient epics, once wrote that the great poems of heaven and hell had been written, but what was missing was the great poem of the earth. It could be argued that both Rilke and Kinnell have tried to write it. It is no wonder that Kinnell would be drawn to translating Rilke, or that his translation of the The Essential Rilke (with Hannah Liebmann) has been widely praised for its capacity to capture both the earthiness of Rilke's language and the power of his spiritual yearning.

So we are very excited that on Saturday, October 9, at the Dodge Poetry Festival, Galway Kinnell will read his translation of Rilke's Duino Elegies in its entirety. It will mark the first time he has read the entire sequence in performance, and offers the rare opportunity to hear one of the great poetic sequences read by one of our most influential poets. This is only one of many special events at this year's Festival. Take a few minutes to look over our Festival Program and read the Descriptions of Festival Events to learn more about the variety of Conversations and Festival Poet Readings we have planned for you. If you haven't purchased your Festival tickets yet, keep in mind that all events this year are taking place in performance venues that, unlike open-sided tents, have fixed seating capacities. If you want to guarantee a seat for the evening events, you should purchase your tickets in advance. -Martin Farawell, Program Director, Poetry

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Remembering Lucille Clifton

Lucille has passed on from this world. I had the pleasure of hearing her during the last several Dodge Poetry Festivals that I attended. She was special.

From 2008:



From 2006:




"Who can distinguish one human voice amidst such chorus of desire?"

5 for Friday

To help spread some good links today, here are 5 for Friday:

1 - great summary on what you should think about before you actually do it

The 5 Essential Pillars of a Social Media Campaign

from Social Media Examiner by Jason Falls

2 -  a recent post on politeness generated some conversation in Tim's comments and leads this post

Another Thought On Politeness In Job Search. When To Say Thank You.

from Spin Strategy - Blog by Tim Tyrell-Smith

3 - This one is close to home in the sense that I did go back to my former employer on a short term contract position hoping for an extension or a move to full time.

After Landing a Job, Continuing to Network

from WSJ.com: Laid Off And Looking by Kevin Hudson

4 - My networking will not stop not that I am into it. I would still like to land a full time position. To that end, my community activities are also continuing.


I will be at the Welcome desk for NewBcamp this Saturday and I am lead organizer for the LaidOff Camp coming November 7th. We'll take the unconference to the unemployed. 



5 - Patti Digh has a series for "poetry wednesday" and this time features Naomi Shehab Nye reading a poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival. I was in the audience when this was recorded.

The Dodge is a biannual festival and although it was scheduled for 2010, word from the Dodge Foundation was that it would not be held. Alas the hue and cry of poetry lovers around rose and they have reconsidered. It will be held in Newark, NJ with details still to be provided. But it will be held in 2010. I plan on being there.

Will you join me for this festival of words?

Chris Abani - Dodge Poetry 2008

I have written frequently here and elsewhere of the great experience that the bi-annual Dodge Poetry Festival is. Alas, it will not be held in 2010. Maybe it will come back for 2012.

In the meantime, we can step back into time with the video clips from prior poets and prior sessions of the Festival.





It also reminds me that I did not complete my write up of Dodge 2008. I got swept up into work upon the return and it was OBE (yes, overcome by events).

Don't forget to check in on quiet poet to see the daily sherku underway for National Poetry Month.

Billy Collins - 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival

From the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival, Billy Collins reads three poems. This was from the Friday afternoon "sampler" where all the major poets got up to do 2 or 3 poems right after one another. It was an orgy of words and images in different voices.

Thankfully, the Dodge Foundation is now making the video available. Viewing this, I can step back in time, sit under the tent and get lost again.

For those who were not able to attend, picture walking across lush green lawns, crossing a dirt path, entering a large white tent. There is no circus. No animals. No one hawking "Peanuts, popcorn, candy!"

Just chairs arranged in rows facing the stage. Other folks are entering from left and right, all moving to find a seat close to the stage. There is a buzz not unlike church service, for we are gathering to hear great words from wonderful voices.

Take a seat. Relax. Enjoy!

Billy Collins on Poetry 2

Image by shersteve via FlickrContinuing my recap of the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, in one of the Billy Collins sessions I attended he told an analogy that writing poetry is like an eye chart. You know the eye chart you see in the doctor's office.

It has the big E and lines of other letters in decreasing size.

We can all see the E, the next line, maybe the next, then we start squinting, guessing, there is ambiguity, and uncertainty.

Poetry is like that. You start with something known and move to the unknown.

"Real poetry takes place after prose has exhausted itself."

Billy Collins on Poetry

Image by ronk53 via FlickrContinuing my recap of the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, I managed to catch Billy Collins a couple of times. In his "poets on poetry" session he said:

They are very different activities; to write and to talk about poetry, especially when talking about your own poetry.

and on poetry

There is so much intuitive luck and verbal happiness that is unexplainable and untransferable

Billy says

Poetry is an interruption of silence. Prose is a continuation of noise.

more from Billy later. Need to think about these for awhile.

my fellow children

During the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, I caught a "Poets on Poetry" session with Sharon Olds. One of my take-aways was when she said:

"I write for my fellow children, however old they are"

I like that.

We should all live as children in that they can (and we should) approach daily life with no fear, there is just a world of amazing things to discover.

Maybe that is why Peter Pan is my hero!

Jane Hirshfield: Poetry is

During the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, Jane Hirshfield joined Coleman Barks on the Main Stage Sunday morning with the Paul Winter Consort providing some musical background for their joint reading. She said:

"Poetry is an investigation on what is real; very much like science."

Jane was a wonderful partner with Coleman on Sunday morning. They created a "church like" experience on the Main Stage.

Martin Espada

Continuing my recap of the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, Martin Espada tells the story of visiting his in-laws house for Thanksgiving. The story is long and I won't do it justice here. Short version, he is not well accepted by the in-laws due to his heritage. He writes a poem about the experience, naturally. When he publishes his book, he includes the poem. He gives a copy of the book to his in-laws. Any problem with that? No, he says:

"The safest place in the world to hide a poem is within the covers of a book."

Martin was a new find for me. I liked the passion with which he read. There was an intensity to his work that created an electric atmosphere where ever he read at the Festival.

I was more selective in buying books in the Festival bookstore, but his new book was one I did bring home:

Alabanza: New and Selected Poems,

1982-2002

You can visit Martin's web site here.

"We all have that power"

During one of the sessions at the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, Steve Sanfield opened his reading by telling that while he was originally from Lynn, MA, he was living in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Coming to Waterloo Village is a little different. He is used to arid and dry but came here to find lush, deciduous greenery. He did not feel comfortable until he smelt a skunk. Now that was something he could recognize.

I was intrigued to hear him. He was featured as a storyteller, yet he also writes haiku. Two extremes of the writing rainbow. He has much to say for us to ponder.

He said:

"Words have great power. We all have that power."

and

"What it all comes down to is a belief in yourself and your work."

You can find and read some of Steve's haiku here

Mark Doty: Poetry is

Image by ronk53 via FlickrContinuing my recap of fine moments from one of the sessions at the recent Dodge Poetry Festival, I recall Mark Doty saying:

"Writing becomes a way for discovery. Do the opposite of what you know. Write what you don't know - it's a way to find out."

"Bodies are always in danger. Bodies are always on the edge."

"Poetry is a meaning that can't be reduced to anything else."

and

"Artists try to find a family to fulfill their creative needs."

If you substitute bloggers for artists, this helps to explain how we find each other in the wide world of the internet.




As a special bonus for reading this, why not jump over to Mark's blog and see what he writes there.

What is revenge?

Taha Muhammed Ali reads "revenge" at the 2006 Dodge Poetry Festival. I was there to here this in person and it was powerful.




Peter Cole translates the poem in English and reads it after Taha reads it in Arabic.

Jim Haba, Director of the Festival does the introduction.

How do you define revenge?


-----

By the way, the GR Dodge Foundation has a channel on YouTube. You can subscribe to hear more poetry from their Festival archives as they get to posting them. Currently less than a dozen from 2006 are available.

There is also a Donation button available. Why not make a contribution to help get more of this fine poetry posted?