tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-363592192009-12-20T07:55:50.701-07:00Ruminations, intimations, protestations, proclamationsJoseph Hutchisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05678841372682695630noreply@blogger.comBlogger474125perpetualbirdhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36359219.post-88216529706686949902009-12-18T09:00:00.005-07:002009-12-18T15:36:57.605-07:002009-12-18T15:36:57.605-07:00

The following found poem stitches together 19 headlines from ads for MFA programs published in the January / February 2010 issue of Poets and Writers—an issue focused on "inspiration." Each discreet sentence is a headline; those presented as parenthetical statements are, of course, not in parentheses in the ads themselves. The headlines appear in the same order as the ads appear in the

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Although James Stotts has been a follower of this blog for quite a while, I somehow missed the fact that he has a fine blog of his own, The Fugue Aesthetics of J. H. Stotts, which I've added to the Recommended Links list. I especially want to note his post today about the debut of "a new journal of poetry and prose" named Little Star. James has work in the inaugural issue (I just ordered my copy

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Kevin Atteridg, whose blog is Something Like That, and a mystery woman named Mae (no profile—¿qué pasa?) joined our merry band as followers in the past week. Welcome!

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Remember your favorite mantra as a kid during car trips: "Are we there yet?" Dilbert creator Scott Adams thinks so. Technically, you're already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don't protest that your cellphone isn't part of your body just because you can leave it in your

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A thought-provoking post today on Chris Ransick's WordGarden blog. I have no desire to be a Renaissance man like Leonardo, but I do strive to be a balanced humanist!

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I awoke from a dream so vivid and disturbing that I had to wait for my heart to stop snare drumming before I could write it down. In the interval our two parrots, a quaker and a conure, started squawking in the other room: I had overslept in the grip of the dream and they wanted their cages uncovered now, after which they knew I'd feed them. I got up and uncovered them and fed them, and started

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I've been pondering a statement made sometime back in a blog post by Bill Knott: "I don't believe there are any unjustly forgotten 20th Century USAPO—the myth of the unjustly forgotten dead poet." I love Knott's contrarianism but wonder about this notion, especially today when I've run across a lovely glimpse into one of William Blake's notebooks, housed at the British Library. The Library's

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Don't miss John Latta's musings on sound in poetry. Example: He lifts this Roman Jakobson quote from The Sound of Poetry / The Poetry of Sound: "Poetry is not the only area where sound symbolism makes itself felt, but it is a province where the internal nexus between sound and meaning changes from latent into patent and manifests itself most palpably and intensely." One could walk around inside

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From an interview by Héctor Soto and Matías Bravo with the great Roberto Bolaño, published as "Literature is Not Made from Words Alone" in Roberto Bolaño: The Last Interview and Other Conversations:In one way or another, we're all anchored to the book. A library is a metaphor for human beings or what's best about human beings, the same way a concentration camp can be a metaphor for what is worst

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GOD OF THE INVISIBLE HAND swift Hermes     herald of the gods artful     cunning     cattle rustler god of roads and border crossings patron of traders liars thieves discloser of meanings     bringer of dreams conductor of souls to the underworld small wonder the invisible hand flowers before you     treacherous god of cattle futures and hedge funds derivatives and algorithmic trading Jon Green

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I was driving around running errands yesterday and listening to Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coanes interview the fiery Progressive Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and the moderate journalist John H. Richardson who writes regularly for Esquire. The two guests butted heads over whether Obama has delivered on his campaign promises or not, with Hamsher taking the critical-from-the-Left position and

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There's a move underway to honor the great Ted Hughes in Poet's Corner, and I for one can only applaud the idea. He was certainly, as Simon Armitage writes, "a genius with an unparalleled gift, a once-in-a-generation poet whose work was a major contribution to English literature." Leading the effort, apparently, is the Nobel Prize winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and his effort strikes me as an

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Just wanted to recommend this recent poetic post by the steadily amazing Tom Clark. 

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Welcome to Ken Flett—who has joined this blog as a "follower" (I always put that in quotes because the term makes me nervous) and our second Ken, the first being Ken Ludwig. (They joined within days of each other. Significance?) Ken Flett arrives from Nova Scotia (or is it British Columbia? He seems to be in transition ... but aren't we all...) and runs a blog called Shaping Stones. You can find

Joseph Hutchisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05678841372682695630noreply@blogger.com0http://perpetualbird.blogspot.com/2009/12/kennings.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36359219.post-46546282814308122072009-12-03T15:00:00.002-07:002009-12-03T23:08:01.230-07:002009-12-03T23:08:01.230-07:00

Opening any new book begins an adventure. It may turn out to be an adventure of the Disneyland type—mechanical rides, overpriced nutrition-free snacks, sweaty adolescents in cartoon character costumes (you know: the whole Post-Modern funhouse)—or one of those voyages "buoy'd on the dense marine": Leaves of Grass, Neruda's Fin de Mundo, Ammons's Sphere. Of course, most books fall in between these

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(Click here for more info)

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Welcome to new Perpetual Bird follower Ken Ludwig, a good friend who has not only a thoughtful blog but an inspiring internet radio show. Swing by both when you get a chance!

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Here's an extraordinary poem by Irish poet Pat Boran. You can read it and hear Boran read it. Lovely!

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In trying to prepare myself for Obama's Afghanistan speech tonight I went back to another charismatic, inspiring president whose desire to curry favor with the forces of militarism produced a dispiriting episode early in his first (and only) term. Robert Bly captured the mood of bleak awareness in this poem from The Light Around the Body: Listening to President Kennedy Lie About the Cuban

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For several weeks now Tom Montag has been writing "in the zone" about poetry on is blog The Middlewesterner—the process, the purpose, the inside and the out of it. Today's Montag post is especially resonant. (I wonder if it isn't something of response to this poem by Louise Glück.) Like William Michaelian, Montag uses his blog as a vehicle for daily literary practice—something I don't have to

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Well, not "all" All-Stars since I'm reading as well—at 8 p.m.—with Jake Adam York, Chris Ransick, Brian Barker, Mark Irwin, and Sandy Tseng. Be there or be square! (Wait a minute. Does that date me?) And support Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book. (Click to see full size.)

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Here's one of the most interesting literary sites I've run across, Digital Emunction—discovered, as is often the case for me, thanks to Bill Knott. Knott, by the way, misrepresents Michael Robbins' post, which is fundamentally a tribute to Knott and his work. (Robbins thinks it's part of Knott's "shtick," and I'm inclined to agree.) Enjoy!

Joseph Hutchisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05678841372682695630noreply@blogger.com3http://perpetualbird.blogspot.com/2009/11/yes-i-had-to-look-up-emunction.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36359219.post-14705740751465422972009-11-18T11:30:00.001-07:002009-11-18T11:30:00.501-07:002009-11-18T11:30:00.501-07:00

Joseph Hutchisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05678841372682695630noreply@blogger.com0http://perpetualbird.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-cant-help-itthis-just-cheered-me-up.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36359219.post-1723272716481732522009-11-17T15:00:00.003-07:002009-11-18T09:59:09.125-07:002009-11-18T09:59:09.125-07:00

I haven't gotten my copy of Linh Dinh's new collection Some Kind of Cheese Orgy, but this review by Hai-Dang Phan makes me anxious to get my hands on it.

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Linh Dinh is right, of course, in this powerful brief statement on poetics, which takes as its touchstone a powerful stanza by Czeslaw Milosz. The question is why. Why do we (poets, yes, but citizens as well of a system—there are no nations, really, not anymore—designed to maintain the hegemony of a mendacious, thieving elite) ... why do we tolerate and even promote poetry that is superficial,

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