The Best American Poetry

The Writer's Almanac

Listen to Garrison Keillor today -- and every day -- reading a poem of his choice. . .

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Page meets Stage at the Bowery Poetry Club

left to right: Michael Cirelli, Taylor Mali, David Lehman, Arianne Benford
photo credit: Marie-Elizabeth Mali

At the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC on Wednesday evening May 15, Arianne Benford read her poems followed by a poetry face-off featuring Michael Cirelli and David Lehman. Michael read from his nifty new book, which Hanging Loose Press has published. Asked to show off his memorization skills, Lehman recited from memory Antony's speech over the fallen Caesar in Julius Caesar. Taylor Mali, organizer of the series, was the debonair host. At an earlier event that Mali directed, Jeff McDaniel and Sage Francis read their work.

My Goal is to Go to Mongolia!

All day yesterday I tried to write a song in the Cole Porter manner beginning "My goal is to go to Mongolia," but the melody of "Columbia, the gem of the ocean" kept getting in the way. Well, I'll see what I can come up with when I'm over there. It's flattering to know they're prepping for my visit, though the cyclones and quakes do seem somewhat excesssive.

Tomorrow I fly to Beijing; I will visit that city and two others in China, giving readings and lectures, in the next week. Then comes a week in Mongolia. If I can manage to post from those outposts I will do so, and if not I'm sure I'll have lots to tell when I get back in early June.

-- DL

Burmese Poet Jailed for Valentine Verse

Saw Wai

In Burma this January the poet Saw Wai was arrested for writing and publishing a love poem for Valentine’s Day with a secret message critical of Burma’s military dictator, Than Shwe. Entitled "February 14," the poem –– which appeared in the Rangoon magazine The Love Journal -- is nominally about the end of a love affair. The brokenhearted speaker sobs that his love for a fashion model has gone unrequited. But the poem is also an acrostic –– that is, the first letters of the lines, read down vertically, spell out a message, and in this case that message is "Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe." In Burmese, Than means "million" and Shwe means "gold," so when Saw Wai writes, in the last two lines of his poem, "Millions of people who know how to love please clap your hands of gilded gold and laugh out loud," he is secretly pointing an accusatory finger at Than Shwe, the "power crazy" head of the junta. It took courage to write those lines.

Well, we are lucky for many reasons that we do not live in a military dictatorship that reads poetry with the meticulous closeness of a censor

See "Burmese Poet Arrested for Veiled Protest," Associated Press, January 24, 2008

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2246060,00.html

-- DL

Robert Rauschenberg RIP

Retroactive 1 (1964)

Robert Rauschenberg dies in Florida, age 82.

Sinatra Stamp To Go On Sale

The USPS releases the Frank Sinatra commemorative postal stamp (first class: 42 cents) on Tuesday, May 13, ten years (minus one day) after the death of Old Blue Eyes.

-- DL

Joe Brainard at Tibor de Nagy

It's not too late to see the Joe Brainard show at Tibor de Nagy Gallery! His "Nancy" paintings (homage to Ernie Bushmiller's beloved cartoon creation) are up for another ten days or so. 724 Fifth Avenue (near 57th Street). 212 262 5050.

-- DL

http://www.tibordenagy.com/#/exhibitions/

Masthead

In case you've just joined us, welcome to The Best American Poetry blog. We've been up and running since our "soft launch" in January. The editor is David Lehman ("DL"), the managing editor is Stacey Harwood ("sdh"), our West Coast correspondent is Jenny Factor, our Midwest correspondent is Jim Cummins, and Correspondent-at-Large is Mitch Sisskind. We regularly run the work of guest bloggers (by invitation only) and the range of our interests is wide. We hope you will bookmark this page and return often.

-- sdh

Jill Alexander Essbaum

In case you are joining us for the first time, our guest blogger this week is Jill Alexander Essbaum.  Jill's most recent book of poetry is Harlot (No Tell Books, 2007).  You can buy it here. 

Catch up on Jill's posts and read her poem "On Reading Poorly Transcribed Erotica" here.

Next week, Jim Cummins joins us from Cincinnati as Mid West Correspondent. 

-- sdh

This Just In

from The New York Post, April 29, 2008 [by-line Neil Graves]:

"A student at [NYU] found three razor blades in a muffin that had been left on a classroom desk.

" School officials said a professor had forgotten to remove the pastry, which had been used to illustrate a class on existentialism."

Challenge: Can anyone think of how three razor blades in a muffin can "illustrate a class on existentialism"?

-- DL