Line Break

Never Night March 14th

2009-02-02T02:27:00.009-09:00

Line Break will be off the air until March 14th.

Do not despair. Dr. Derick Burleson, poet extraordinaire, will help us kick off our Spring season with his hot new book Never Night.

If you don’t already own a copy of Never Night, you still have more than a week to get one. There is nothing nicer on a cold Alaskan afternoon than to curl up next to the radio with a brand new book.

Adam Zagajewski says that:

"Never Night is a hymn to life, a meditation on day and night, on the seasons, on nature and on love. Alaska may be real chilly in the winter but these beautiful poems are more than warm. Apparently poetry can change climate.."

Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Edward Hirsch, writes:

"Derick Burleson has given us a far northern book of invitations ('You'd like it here where/ it's never night'), which shines with a radiant spirit. It is a work of soul-making."

I am totally jazzed. This show promises to be more fun than a monkey full of barrels.

Upcoming Show

2009-01-23T15:00:00.003-09:00

Tomorrow's show will feature the poems of T.S. Eliot. In no small part this decision is the product of re-reading "The Wasteland" in preparation for Dr. Coffman's class this term. Tune in and listen to me run rough shod over his carefully considered feet.

I'll also read a few poems from this month's edition of Poetry because there are some fabulous poems that make me want to cry and write.

I've missed you KSUA.

That's it for 2008

2008-12-10T14:05:00.003-09:00

"Line Break" will be off the air until 2009. We're headed home where the stars are bright and the weather warm. Until then enjoy the fine programming the KSUA robot has to offer.

Thanks for listening ya'll. Have a great holiday and read some poetry. I know I will

22 November

2008-11-24T18:40:00.004-09:00

In keeping with the spirit of Thanksgiving, this week's show featured poetry to be grateful for read by the poets who wrote them. No, Elizabeth Bishop and Amiri Baraka did not stop by the studio. Yours truly did assemble a veritable poetcopia of recordings for Line Break's interior Alaskan audience. I hope you enjoyed the show. I know I did- except for Tennyson's reading of "Charge of the Light Brigade." Sorry. It sounded much clearer on my headphones.

Next week- Lance A. Twitchell. Tune in- its good for the soul.

We're Back

2008-11-19T14:15:00.003-09:00

"Line Break" is back in business. After Dr. Cooper's stellar show, the Line Break production crew was hamstrung when Wendy the musical mistress broke her wrist during roller derby practice. Three weeks and nine titanium screws later we're back to a minimum operating standard (please hold the applause).

I still have to schedule our upcoming shows but, with the well of poetic talent here at U.A.F., expect awesomeness.

Its good to be back.

Final Year

2008-09-24T12:48:00.004-08:00

Third year of the M.F.A.

Line Break enters its final year. We kick off our fall schedule beginning in October. Expect greatness.

Remaining Summer Schedule

2008-07-17T16:06:00.002-08:00

If you happened to tune in to KSUA Saturdays between noon and two recently you might have caught an episode of our "Paradise Lost" Summer programming.

Then again, I might have been fishing.

For those reading along this week we're starting Book III - free from perdition Satan crosses the realm of Chaos and Night towards some mysterious new creation and state.

You are our only hope

2008-05-15T20:26:00.002-08:00

As "Line Break" moves into it's second summer, I would like to do more shows featuring the work of living poets who are not yet part of the canon (i.e. Seamus Heaney, Lee Young-Li, and Charles Simic) but have at least one book out by a reputable publisher.

Such poets are , thanks to our reliance on the retail transmission of art, hard to find. "Line Break" needs your help.

Please e-mail, or comment on this post, your suggestions for upcoming episodes.

How often do you get the chance to affect how the world sees poetry?

I do want to say though (for myself mostly I'm sure), the book is practical requirement due to the limitations of the show and not an aesthetic standard.

Goodbye Steve

2008-05-10T17:02:00.002-08:00

Well we've had the Steve show, and we've had the James show. I'll clue you in when the podcasts are up. I miss Steve already.

"Line Break" will continue over the summer - hopefully at the same broadcast day and time. If you have any requests or advice for the show please contact me.

I'm told by the manager of my grey matter, not to worry - next week's show is being organized as we speak. Frankly, I'm worried. Grey matter manager is not particularly competent.

Thank you all so much for listening. Thanks for the kind calls. See you next week.

Hayes and Burleson Podcast

2008-04-30T20:32:00.004-08:00

The podcast is up, check it out here.

I'm still not used to the sound of my own voice on the air. Steve sounds smart.

Thanks again Derick and Terrance.

Terrance Hayes and Derick Burleson

2008-04-20T15:05:00.003-08:00

Rather than diminish this episode of "Line Break" with retrospective witticisms, I'll share these pictures and get let you know when the podcast is up.

By the way, both poets read a number of new unpublished poems (which was awesome) unavailable anywhere else but here.

Terrance recently added his 3,500th song to his iPod.

Moore rocks the mic.

Derick reads an unreleased poem.

Later, we discussed perspective.

Two kind men and a shameless one.

Derick and Terrance, thanks for visiting "Line Break." It was a real pleasure to chat with both of you.

Ya'll come back anytime.

Ya'll Ready For This?

2008-04-17T18:44:00.003-08:00

If you are reading this you probably already know both Derick Burleson and Terrance Hayes will be on this week's show.

Go.

Now.

Tell everyone you know to listen.

We're hoping to get to know these poets better, maybe even learn a bit about the art and science of this sweet science with two real contenders.

If you've sold your radio to buy more poetry books, don't miss the chance to see Terrance Hayes Friday the 18th at the Museum of the North. Show starts at seven. If you've sold your feet, you're committed.

This reading is guaranteed to go down like a pre-lapsarian post-modern funk rave without the twenty dollar cover or two drink minimum.

I like to think we're hosting the day after after party

Derick, author of "Ejo" poems detailing the Rawandan genocide, is promoting his new book of poems "Never Night" which will appear on bookshelves everywhere this May.

Terrence Hayes, author of "Muscular Music", "Hip Logic", and "Wind in a Box" has won so many awards it boggles the envy, will also join us for what is sure to be two hours of truly awesome poetry.

Tune in - its good for your soul.

What do you mean this Chinese restaurant doesn't serve barbeque?

2008-04-17T14:40:00.004-08:00

Last week Steve Moore and charming Natasha were on the interstate between Chicago and New York deciding their future.

Without a collaborator/patsy to help with the show I thought we were doomed to a week without banter.

To the rescue Amanda Bales M.F.A. sprung to the rescue. Not only was Amanda the first guest on the first edition of "Line Break" almost a year ago, she had also defended her thesis the day before.

What a trooper. If we had more women like her the war in Iraq would be over.

We discussed features and techniques common to both verse and prose. Amanda spoke at length and with erudition about the identity writers create in their work irrespective of genre.

Amanda began by reading Heather McHugh's narrative poem, "What He Thought." For the most part, Amanda told us, fiction writers are warned to never begin with extensive explication. But, in McHugh's case it establishes the character's identity through her voice.

When I asked Amanda if she, as a prose writer, was ever frustrated with the disregard most poets pay to narrative.

"No!" Amanda shot across the mic. "That would be like going into a Chinese restaurant" she began waving her arms like a spoiled lunatic, "and being really pissed off because they don't have good barbecue."

Indeed, Ms. Bales. That is exactly what it would be like.

Edson

2008-04-08T14:03:00.001-08:00

I'll be honest, I wasn't the greatest fan. Steve makes a strong argument for a little known and under appreciated poet. You should read him, or at least buy a steam monkey.

Romantic Train Wreck

2008-03-27T17:02:00.002-08:00

An entire poetic movement cannot be covered in two hours. You should not attempt it. Trust me.

New and Improved Time

2008-03-19T18:16:00.002-08:00

We are back at a new and improved time; "Line Break" can now be heard from noon until two every Saturday afternoon live for you Alaska listeners - all others please adjust your paradigm accordingly.

In all honesty, we've been on the air at this time for the past few weeks and I've been remiss in my web-related duties.

"Line Break" has an awesome new format. Steve Moore M.F.A. has joined the "Line Break" team on the slippery slopes between elucidate and debate.

Not only does Steven's skeptic sled work wonders around my mystic jackknifes he is the Meg to my Jack, the Hussein to my Barack, and as musical director Wendy observed - the Hannity to my Colmes.

Before appearing on "Line Break", Steven was our poet abroad. Bending both time and space from a Roman/Dublin/Paris hotel room Steve labored thanklessly for our listeners to provide our podcast archives and indeed any "real" presence we have in the hyperreal.

Welcome to the show Steve.

Line Break Returns

2008-01-22T17:35:00.000-09:00

Well we're back after our sabbatical in the sun.

After a season in less than prime-time day shift, "Line Break" will now be airing Saturdays from noon until two. Our new time slot should cause less scheduling conflicts with potential guests and reach a wider listening audience.

I hope everyone will tune in and enjoy some great poetry.

I'm still working out this season's guest schedule. More details to follow.

Line Break 2008

2007-12-14T16:35:00.000-09:00

Well folks, "Line Break" will be off the air from December 9th through January 22.

A month is a rather long hiatus for the show, but it will be spent by the host on the gulf coast of Texas with friends, family and hopefully hooked flounder.

"Line Break" will be moving to an as yet to be determined day and time. We're shooting for a mid afternoon weekend slot. Monday morning schedule conflicts prevented many potential guests from appearing on the show. I'm also looking to snag a few new listeners in the ear (can you tell I've got fish on the brain).

While the date has yet to be set I do hope to get international poet extraordinaire and my good friend Steve Moore on the 2008 premiere of "Line Break" schedule permitting.

That's all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday spent with loved ones.

Be well

19 November

2007-11-19T15:22:00.000-09:00

Dr. Chris Coffman was on the show today. We had a lot of fun with Gerturde Stein who taught us all the ways to be gay. Special attention was given to Stein's portraits of painters and friends.

In reading Stein aloud, the sonic quality of her work was highlit and at times eclipsed the "meaning" of the words.

Also, who could avoid a brief foray into queer and post-modern theory when in the company of Dr. Coffman's brilliance? I couldn't.

Hopefully a podcast will be available soon.

Volkswagens and Line Break

2007-11-01T15:30:00.000-08:00

Line Break did not air this week, and sadly will not next. I promise the show is still alive and rolling. Apparently when something called a timing belt rips free from its oil womb it can tear the head off of an 87 octane head. Who knew? Who knew it would cost in the neighborhood of $2,200. Who knew my father-in-law would be called (okay I knew that)? If anyone knows what the aforementioned automotive terms mean please let this neo-Luddite, admittedly inept, poet know.

Shameless picture with Yusef Komunyakaa

2007-10-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

22 October

2007-10-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

Without a guest today, I shared the poetry of James Wright, Derek Walcott, and Paul Celan. Sadly, due to intestinal difficulties, Line Break was not aired last week. Looking over the schedule of upcoming shows, the number of guests scheduled drops dramatically. Perhaps there is a correlation between temperature and Line Break guests. I have no idea what -30 guests even means.

If anyone has any idea for upcoming show formats please comment on this post or e-mail me.

8 October

2007-10-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

Sarah Dorchman joined Line Break today. She discussed 300 years of German poetry from courtly love to reuinification.

Much of the show was in German to both highlight the effect sound has on poetry- how sound can communicate meaning even when the language is not always understood. An example of this can be found in English language poetry when obscure words are used.

Furthermore, Ms. Dorchman's reading avoided any of the stick problems associated with translation.

Unfortunately, due to cross-Atlantic technical difficulties the show is not available in a podcast format. You should still check out Steve Moore's site because he is a groovy guy.

Yusef's talk on the craft was stellar and his reading was standing room only. I'll post pictures post haste.

Yusef Komunyakaa

2007-10-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

Friday, October 5th, at 7:00 pm Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa will be reading at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Museum of the North.

Please restrain me if I scream like a girl at a Beatles concert.

A short biography and sample of Mr. Komunyakaa's work can be found on Poets.org.

On today's Line Break, October 1, I shared some of my favorite Andre Breton poems.

The last half hour or so of the show was dedicated to the poetry of Mr. Komunyakaa.

24 September

2007-10-01T13:54:00.000-08:00

Jacob Stephens joined us on today's show. Unfortunately due to a pre-existing commitment to teach English 111X, Jacob was only able to appear for the first hour of Line Break.

Sadly, due to a concurrent snafu in the interstellar techno-web, a podcast of the show is unavailable. This episode has been committed binary body and soul to the void.

If you caught the show, you know it was an exercise in awesome poetry.

Good times.

17 September

2007-09-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

Due to a last minute schedule change, this week's guest was Doug Cost, a Fulbright scholar who taught English in Turkey, and the newest addition to the M.F.A. poetry family here at U.A.F..

Jacob Stevens from what I've heard had a lovely time in Denali with two other friends of the show, Amanda Bales and Lisa Janout. Grizzlies were seen, caribou taunted, eagles annoyed - good times.

The poetry Doug shared with us were reflections on all the places he has been, from Spring, Texas to Prague. We also discussed why he loves Pablo Neruda.

For more information on this show, listen to the podcast generously provided by Steve Moore.

10 September

2007-09-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

Lisa Janout, an MFA canidate in her third year, joined me in the studio today. We had a swell time discussing how she came to poetry, what separates good poetry from bad, and why she still writes.

I apologize for the tardiness of this update, such are the demands of the first weeks of graduate school.

I will direct you to This Garden the personal website of the brilliant and generous Steven Allen Moore for more information on this episode, in other words to podcast archive.

7 September The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

2007-09-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

Due to global technical difficulties, last week's show was not recorded. If you caught it on air I have no reason to tell you how well the Sylvia Plath show went. If you missed the show the only way you'll feel complete is to read, tonight, The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath. A brief biography of this groundbreaking and perennial poet is graciously provided by the Academy of American Poets. I apologize for the tardiness of this update and its reflexive brevity.

27 August Marion Jones

2007-09-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Marion Jones joined us on the show today. Marion is working on her inter-disciplinary Ph.D at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

We discussed poetry in translation and the role translators play in the craft of poetry. Marion shared with us her views on the difference between a translation and a version of a given poem.

While we primarily discussed Sufi and Hindu ecstatic poetry, I believe James Wright and Robert Bly's (cooperatively I assume) translation of Neruda's "Era El Otono De Las Uvas" illustrates some of what is often lost in translation. Much is also lost in transcription when your keyboard is not equiped with Spanish punctuaion or accent symbols and the transcriber is a neo-luddite.

Era El Otono De Las Uvas

Era el otono de las uvas.
Temblaba el parral numeroso.
Los racimos blancos, velados,
escarchaban sus dulces dedos,
y las negras uvas llenaban
sus pequenas ubres repletas
de un secreto rio redondo.
El dueno de casa, artesano
de magro rosto, me leia
el palido libro terrestre
de los dias crepusculares.
Su bondad conocia el fruto,
la rama troncal y el trabajo
de la poda que deja al arbol
su desnuda forma de copa.
A los caballos conversaba
como a inmensos ninos: seguian
detras de el los frios durazneros.
El conocia cada rama,
cada cicatriz de los arboles,
y su antigua voz me ensenaba
acariciando a los caballos.

It Was The Grapes Autumn

It was the grape's autumn.
The dense vinefield shivered.
The white clusters, half-hidden,
found their mild fingers cold,
and the black grapes were filling
their tiny stout udders
from a round a secret river.
The man of the house, an artisan
with a hawk's face, read to me
the pale earth book
about the darkening days.
His kindness saw deep into the fruit,
the trunk of the vine, and the work
of the pruning knife, which lets the tree keep
its simple goblet shape.
He talked to his horses
as if to immense boys: behind him
the five cats trailed,
and the dogs of that household,
some arched and slow moving,
others running crazily
under the cold peach trees,
and his ancient voice taught me
while it was stroking his horses.

Thanks to the tireless effort of Master Stephen Moore a podcast of the show can be found on iTunes or you can listen to a streaming version of this and previous shows on Steve's website This Garden

20 August Dr. Michael Schuldiner

2007-08-27T12:31:00.000-08:00

Dr. Shuldiner, author of Gifts and Works: Spiritual Life and Political Controversy in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts, editor (I assume) of The Selected Writings of Mordecai Noah and all 'round swell mensch joined us on the show today.

Dr. Schuldiner spoke at length about American poets of the 1960s in particular Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsburg, and W.H. Auden (I know he wasn't American but what can I do it was a great story).

We heard an excellent recording of Sylvia Plath reading "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus." The tape Dr. Shuldiner brought to the show was untouched and the quality phenomenal. I thought I had heard these recordings before. I was mistaken.

Dr. Schuldiner also performed (and I choose that verb specifically) "Ghost Tantra" which was by far the best-read poem on the show thus far.

Usually this is where I copy one of the poems shared on the air. However, not only can you hear the show (without the music sadly) as a podcast here, you really should listen to it for yourself.

I had more fun doing this show than I have any other. I hope Dr. Schuldiner will visit the show again soon.

13 August Carolyn Stice

2007-08-14T16:49:00.001-08:00

Carolyn Stice joined me on the show today. Carolyn graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks M.F.A. program. She shared her poetry and some of her favorite pieces by contemporary female poets including Gwendolyn Brooks and Anne Sexton.

Carolyn Stice was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study poetry written by Venezuelan women. She leaves the first of September with her new husband Jake.

Here is one of the poems Carolyn shared with our audience:

Honeysuckle Vine

The girl stands contemplating the honey
on her lips, her hand reaches among bees
who work flower to flower, she squeezes
another bloom on her tongue. A noise from
the house drowns the bee's private humming, draws
the girl back. Now she considers branches,
touching each one with her fore-finger and
thumb. Too thick and she may as well have picked
the belt, too thin and the whipping cord breaks
the skin. She chooses something in between
and turns then, back to the house, last week's welts
red as a tattoo down her butt and thighs,
stinging ever so slightly as she walks.

6 August - The poetry of Charles Simic

2007-08-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

Today's show was dedicated entirely to Charles Simic, the fifteenth Poet Laureate of the United States. On the air today I read my favorite Simic poems, shared some of his biography provided by the Poetry Foundation, and listened to a few MP3s of Simic reading his own work. Some of the poems on this program were:

Prodigy
Toward Nightfall
Little Night Music
Medieval Miniature
Mystic Life
Muttering Perhaps, or Humming
De Occulta Philosophia
Baby Pictures of Famous Dictators
Riddle
Dark Farmhouses
The Street of Martyrs
Mystics
Evening Walk
The Devils
My Shoes
Jackstraws
For the Sake of Amelia
St. Thomas Aquinas
The Devils
Trees at Night
Watch Repair
Butcher Shop
Fork

In preparing for the show, I read all of the Simic I had on hand. I put together a nice list of what I wanted to read. To my knowledge, I had never read Simic aloud until today. Doing so gave me a new appreciation for poems I'd overlooked until now. I also realized today that Charles Simic is obsessed with clocks and shadows.

Mystics

Help me to find what I've lost,
If it was ever, however briefly, mine,
You may have found it.
Old man praying in the privy,
Lonely child drawing a secret room
And in it a stopped clock.

Seek to convey its truth to me
By hints and omens.
The room in shadow, perhaps the wrong room?
The cockroach on the wall,
The naked lovers kissing
On the TV with the sound turned off.
I could hear the red faucet drip.

Or else restore to plain view
What is eternally invisible
And speaks by being silent.
Blue distances to the North,
The fires of the evening to the West,
Christ himself in pain, panhandling
On the altar of the storefront church
With a long bloody nail in each palm.

In this moment of amazement...
Since I do ask for it humbly,
Without greed, out of true need.
My teeth chattered so loudly,
My old dog got up to see what's the matter.
Oh divine lassitude, long drawn-out sigh
As the vision came and went.

These poems and the others read today were selected from Unending Blues, Selected Early Poems, Jackstraws, The Book of Gods and Devils, Hotel Insomnia, A Wedding in Hell and The Voice at 3:00 A.M..

Poet Laureate

2007-08-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Charles Simic, this nation's newest Poet Laureate.

When I heard the news this morning, I went to my bookshelf pulled down my Simic favorites, "Walking The Black Cat", "Selected Poems", and "School For Dark Thoughts". As Poet Laureate should, he inspired me all over again.

In honor of one of my favorite living poet's recent honor, next week's "Line Break" is devoted to the man who had "Hitler and Stalin as travel agents" - Charles Simic.

"Watch Repair" was the first Simic poem I read. The moment,the poem- vivid and profound as personal tragedy, still awakens in me a great love for small things and words.

Watch Repair

A small wheel
Incandescent,
Shivering like
A pinned butterfly.

Hands thrown up
In all directions:
The crossroads
One arrives at
In a nightmare.

Higher than that
Number 12 presides
Like a beekeeper
Over the swarming honeycomb
Of the open watch.

Other wheels
That could fit
Inside a raindrop.

Tools
That must be splinters
Of arctic starlight.

Tiny golden mills
Grinding invisible
Coffee beans.

When the coffee's boiling
Cautiously,
So it doesn't burn us,
We raise it
To the lips
Of the nearest
Ear.

A short biography of Charles Simic is provided by the Academy of American Poets

30 July

2007-07-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today we had Peggy Shumaker on the show. Peggy read some of her own work from her "Greatest Hits 1974-2005" chapbook. She also shared "Blaze" a collaboration with the painter Kesler E. Woodward. Lastly, we got a sneak peek into her newest book "Just Breathe Normally." Peggy is charming and a brilliant conversationalist. She was a real joy to have on the program and I hope she visits us again soon. For those of you who just cant get enough of a good thing check out her website.

Strong Stars

Mottled grouse peck
up gizzard stones
before the first snow-

seasons move on
as if the human heart were not
infinitely fragile.

The sow bear's stained snout lifts,
sniffs the wind, then bows
to claws raking in

stems, berries, rasping leaves.
A twelve-year-old, pleased, tells her aunt
I kissed a boy four times and my tooth

grew back in.
Beside the barrow ditch, the bandy-legged fox
bounds into finger-thin willow.

Strong stars surround the green
wash of the aurora, God's love, the moisture
of a woman's orgasm...

From here, we can see much farther
than we can walk.
We walk to the edges of our bodies.

-Peggy Shumaker

Peggy also edited "Hidden Alaska" a Special Feature in the current Alaska Quarterly Review. Here is a sample poem by Renee Singh that Peggy read for our listeners.

At Fish Camp

smoke rises, twisting
against kings sliced
dripping slow deliberate
delicious clear oils
that run then drop
down gently into ashes
below

23 July

2007-07-25T15:24:00.002-08:00

I was joined by John Morgan on the show today. Mr. Morgan read his work and offered advice to developing poets. He said the way he knows when he has a poem is if he thinks about it when he's not working on it. "If I sit down and don't know what to work on I probably don't have anything."

DJ Dorian is still attending the Summer Arts Festival so I bungled my way through two stutter-filled hours. Good times. Next week Peggy Shumaker will be on the show.

16 July

2007-07-16T16:56:00.001-08:00

Dr. Derick Burleson joined the show today. He shared his favorite Elizabeth Bishop poems with our audience. Dr. Burleson also discussed Bishop's impact on American poetry and how she transmuted personal difficulty into art. Dr. Burleson suggested that the incredibly detailed minutiae found in many of Elizabeth Bishop's poems may be a reflection of her rigorous revision process.

Some of the poems read were:

A Cold Spring
The Fish
First Death in Nova Scotia
Visits to St. Elizabeths
The Moose
One Art
At the Fishhouses
The Bight
Arrival at Santos

Today's poems were selected from Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927-1979.

Sandpiper
The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.

The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.

--Watching, rather, the spaces of sand between them
where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains
rapidly backwards and downwards. As he runs,
he stares at the dragging grains.

The world is a mist. And then the world is
minute and vast and clear. The tide
is higher or lower. He couldn't tell you which.
His beak is focussed; he is preoccupied,

looking for something, something, something.
Poor bird, he is obsessed!
The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray
mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.

- Elizabeth Bishop

9 July

2007-07-09T17:38:00.000-08:00

On this show I read the poems of Robert Frost, Theodore Roethke, and Ander Monson. Some of the poems read were:

Robert Frost
Into My Own
Acquainted with the Night
Sitting by a Bush in Broad Sunlight

Theodore Roethke
I Knew a Woman
Journey to the Interior
My Papa's Waltz

Ander Monson
Salt
Vacationland
Proposed Self-Elegy with Torque

I read from Theodore Roethke's The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. The Frost selections were provided by Frost, Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays. Winer of the Yupelo Press Editor's Prize in Poetry, Vacationland is where you can find Ander Monson's work.

Into My Own
One of my wishes is that those dark trees,
So old and firm they scarcely show the breeze,
Were not, as 'twere, the merest mask of gloom,
But stretched away unto the edge of doom.

I should not be withheld but that some day
Into their vastness I should steal away,
Fearless of ever finding open land,
Or highway where the slow wheel pours the sand.

I do not see why I should e'er turn back,
Or those should not set forth upon my track
To overtake me, who should miss me here
And long to know if I still held them dear.

They would not find me changed from him they knew-
Only more sure of all I thought was true.

-Robert Frost

2 July

2007-07-02T17:33:00.000-08:00

This week we read Asian poetry in translation and Asian-American poetry. We focused on the works of: Bei Dao, Kimiko Hahn, Li-Young Lee, Basho, and Ho Xuan Huong. For good measure we threw in some Blake as well. I was joined by my daughter Emmaline, who loves Blake (memorized The Tiger in grade school), and the Basho-Bawdy Tara.

Some of my favorites read were:

Bei Dao
The August Sleepwalker

Bodhisattva

Harbor Dreams

Kimiko Hahn

The Artist's Daughter

The Breast's Syllabics

Li-Yound Lee

Pillow

With Ruins

A Table in the Wilderness

Basho

105

107

219

Ho Xuan Huong

Young Scholars

On a Portait of Two Beauties

Old Pagoda

The Bei Dao selections were taken from The August Sleepwalker. I broght my copy of Kimiko Hahn's The Artist's Daughter and searched online for her poems. Li-Young Lee's poems were selected from the city in which i love you and Book of My Nights. Basho's On Love and Barley provided our Haiku. Spring Essence (which is a rough translation of the poet's name) carried Ho Xuan Huong's poems across two hundred years.

Friends part

forever – wild geese

lost in cloud.

-Basho, Haiku 219

25 June

2007-06-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

Today I read the following poems:

T.S. Eliot
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock

W.B. Yeats
Prayer For My Daughter
Easter 1916

W.H. Auden
In Memory of W.B. Yeats

Theodore Roethke
Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt and Frau Schwartze

Ilya Kaminsky
Author's Prayer
Dancing in Odessa

Robert Pinsky
The Uncreation
The Haunted Ruin

Charles Simic
Fork
Watch Repair
Prodigy

Ai
Sleeping Beauty

Wislawa Szymborska
One Version of Events

Yehuda Amichai
Elegy
Wildpeace

Jack Gilbert
Refusing Heaven
Resume

These poems are in no particular order. I'm sure I've forgotten one or two as well.

Next week we're looking forward to having David Crouse on the show with us.

Dr. Carr approached me after the show and said that he really liked Jack Gilbert's "Refusing Heaven". He had never heard of the poet before. So in some tiny way I've achieved all the goals set for this show- to bring good poetry to good people.

11 June

2007-06-11T18:41:00.001-08:00

The first show went great with the exception of me asking Amanda about her experience in Alaska instead of Australia.

Dr. Rich Carr did a great job explaining the Australian idiom. He focused on the role history and place play in contemporary Australia.

Amanda did a great job reading some very brutal poems. I hope she'll come on the show again. She was charming and funny. I can see how she did well in theater.

We read the following poems:

Dorthy Porter
Charles Baudelaire's Grave

Robert Adamson
The River
My First Proper Girlfriend
Green Prawn Map

Emma Lew
Riot Eye
Prey

Jill Jones
New Aesthetic

Kate Lilley
1972

Lisa Bellar
Final Warning

John Kinsella
Drowning in Wheat
Death of a Farm Boy

Jane Gibian
Vietnamese Bite

Dr. Carr also read from Les Murray's Book Vernacular Republic.