Thanks
for the hundreds of visits to my new poetry website and Now in November Pulitzer Remix blog. More news: Asymptote Journal will excerpt my translation of The Hero by Hélène Sanguinetti; and my poem, “Sugaring,” will appear in Sundress Publications’ anthology, Not
Somewhere Else But Here: A Contemporary Anthology of Women and Place. Another anthology featuring
my work, Journey to Crone (Chuffed
Buff Books, 2013), is now available as e-book.
A Slant of Light
I am thrilled to be in A Slant of Light:
Contemporary Women Writers of the Hudson Valley (Codhill Press, 2013), edited by Laurence Carr and Jan Zlotnick Schmidt. A Slant of Light is divided into Mythos, Body & Gender; Identity;
and Woman in the World. The
divine Brenda Connor-Bey
suggested I submit my work—thank you Brenda wherever you are!
Night
of Rock
The Offbeats reunited to play the seventh Night of Rock, benefiting The
Scarsdale Teen Center. More than 140 people enjoyed 60s classics such
as “Gloria” performed by lead singer Jay Shulman (left), guitarist John
Moses, singer and mean harp-player Thom Pernice (bottom left), bass Andy Kreeger, drummer Ted
Spencer and my personal favorite, rhythm guitarist Michael Cefola (bottom right). Jimmy Fink of 107.1
The Peak hosted the event at Rudy’s in Hartsdale.
Fresh Take on Arthur Miller
600 HIGHWAYMEN will
re-spin Death of a Salesman in This Great Country at the South Street Seaport Theatre during the River to River Festival, July 10-13. Seventeen actors will join with audience members using 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s
unique theatrics and highly charged performance style. Look for my friend, the talented Wayne
Joseph, who will portray the next-door neighbor Charlie in this iconic American
drama. Click here for tickets.
Randy
Briggs gets ARTiculated
Randy's watercolor, Ocean
Street, Cape May, will be on display at the Summer ARTiculated Juried Show at Concordia College's OSilas Gallery. Opening reception will be
Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m. The
exhibit will run one month, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.; Thursdays,
12 noon - 9 p.m.; and Saturdays /Sundays, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. Congratulations, Randy!
Bookstock Literary Festival in Woodstock, VT
Nothing like escaping the hot
pavement of New York for Vermont’s
cool Green Mountains! If you’re heading north, take advantage of
the Bookstock Literary Festival in Woodstock July 26 -28. All events are free and open to the
public. Hear poets like Donald Hall, Richard Blanco, and Galway
Kinnell alone.
If you go, save room for pancakes at Sugar n’ Spice in nearby Mendon.
Meetinghouse
Readings in Canaan, NH
The Meetinghouse Readings
is an annual summer series at the 1793 Meetinghouse in Canaan, New Hampshire: July 11: Cleopatra
Mathis and Joyce Carol Oates; July 18: Jay
Parini and Nicholas Delbanco; July 25: Megan Marshall and Chris
Bohjalian; August 1: Joe Citro
and Ivy Pochoda.
Not more poetry
newsletters!
 |
| Mr. Yeats |
Students need a “guru”
who “gives permission” to allow forbidden thoughts into their consciousness. A
“guru” doesn’t necessarily teach at all. Some remain speechless for years,
others communicate very cryptically. All reassure by example… It’s no good
telling the student that he isn’t to be held responsible for the context of his
imagination, he needs a teacher who is living proof that the monsters are not
real, and that the imagination will not destroy you.
‘Round the Net
Thanks to everyone who
sent me these wonderful links and/or news:
 |
| Collage by Deborah Coulter |
· Congratulations to Terry Dugan on winning the Christopher Hewitt Award in
Nonfiction and a Finalist in
Poetry from A&U Magazine, which praised her writing’s’ “unique
perspective and beautifully considered language.” Go Terry!
· Congratulations to Pulitzer Remixer Gary Glauber on the publication of his poem, “Play,” in The
Kitchen Poet.
 |
| Jane Ormerod |
· Poet Cin Hochman on her superb
review of Jane Ormerod’s Welcome
to the Museum of Cattle in First
Literary Review East.
· Poet
and publisher Janet Kaplan for announcing E. J. Antonio’s
new chapbook, Solstice, available at Red Glass
Books.
· Actor
Tony LoBianco
for reminding us of the timeless appeal of The French Connection, a five-time Academy Award winner, which recently aired on
HBO.
 |
| Daniel Westover |
- · Poet Robert McDowell on this piece by Daniel Westover (left) which looks at effective poetry via the requirements of a journal called The Reaper.
- · Congratulations to vintage classical producer Jay Shulman on his just-released CD, the Stuyvesant Quartet with Al Gallodoro (2013).
· Poet Linda Simone for novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s talk on “The
Danger of a Single Story” and this glimpse of Afghan
life through poetry.
Until next time,
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath
them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.