Opening Day Poetry

Today is the opening day for baseball season. As a kid growing up in New York who loved playing baseball (see photo), the first day of baseball, which usually occurred at least a week into April, always seemed to be the real beginning of spring, its poetic unveiling. However, over the past few decades the major leagues have pushed the start of their season back until now it happens on the final day of March. Despite predictions of a possibility for rain and snow this afternoon, the first pitch of 2011 is scheduled to take place at Yankee Stadium. Weather permitting, I will be watching the game from the comfort of my own home, but I will be thinking of all those folks braving the cold in the Bronx and sitting in the stands, which also brings to mind John Updike’s poem, “Tao in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers.”

I will also be thinking back to those early spring days when I would oil my baseball glove to soften it after a long winter on the top shelf of a bedroom closet. I will recall the sound of the ball popping each time I snagged an infield liner or backhanded a hot ground ball during practice, as I awaited my own season normally still at least a few weeks away. I will be looking forward to milder weather in Indiana when my son Alex and I will be able to visit the nearby baseball field, actually visible from Alex’s bedroom window and throughout the frigid winter months always a reminder of summer warmth.

TAO IN THE YANKEE STADIUM BLEACHERS


Distance brings proportion. From here
the populated tiers
as much as players seem part of the show:
a constructed stage beast, three folds of Dante’s rose,
or a Chinese military hat
cunningly chased with bodies.
“Falling from his chariot, a drunk man is unhurt
because his soul is intact. Not knowing his fall,
he is unastonished, he is invulnerable.”
So, too, the “pure man”—“pure”
in the sense of undisturbed water.

“It is not necessary to seek out
a wasteland, swamp, or thicket.”
The opposing pitcher’s pertinent hesitations,
the sky, this meadow, Mantle’s thick baked neck,
the old men who in the changing rosters see
a personal mutability,
green slats, wet stone are all to me
as when an emperor commands
a performance with a gesture of his eyes.

“No king on his throne has the joy of the dead,”
the skull told Chuang-tzu.
The thought of death is peppermint to you
when games begin with patriotic song
and a democratic sun beats broadly down.
The Inner Journey seems unjudgeably long
when small boys purchase cups of ice
and, distant as a paradise,
experts, passionate and deft,
hold motionless while Berra flies to left.

—John Updike

Readers are invited to visit a couple of previous posts about baseball: “Baseball and Poetry: David Citino”and “David Bottoms: 'Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt.'”

Knopf's Poem-a-Day for National Poetry Month

Time to sign up: Knopf offers a poem every day in April, National Poetry Month.

Poem of the Week: “This April” by Alice Friman

The VPR Poem of the Week is Alice Friman’s “This April,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2003 issue (Volume IV, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Alice Friman is the author of nine collections of poetry, most recently Vinculum from LSU Press. Previous books are The Book of the Rotten Daughter, Inverted Fire, and Zoo, which won the Ezra Pound Poetry Award from Truman State University and the Sheila Margaret Motton Prize from NEPC. She has received fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the Bernheim Foundation, and she won the 2001 James Boatwright Prize from Shenandoah. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2009, Poetry, The Georgia Review, and other publications. Anthologized widely and published in thirteen countries, Friman was a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Indianapolis from 1973 to 1993, and she is now Poet-in-Residence at Georgia College & State University.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

The Big Poetry Book Giveaway: 2011

As we approach the beginning of April, designated as National Poetry Month, fellow blogger Kelli Russell Agodon has once again initiated a “poetry book giveaway” on the web and invited those of us who blog about poetry to participate. Kelli explains that, as a way to celebrate National Poetry Month, bloggers are urged to offer two books to be given away to visitors. One book can be one’s own and the other ought to be authored by a favorite poet. I believe this is an excellent idea, and I have decided to join in the activity. However, as a bonus, I have decided to offer a third collection of poetry.

Consequently, I vow to give the following three books, one each to be mailed free of charge to the winning readers: a hardcover copy of Adrienne Rich’s new collection, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010; my own book of poems, Seeded Light; and Poetry from Paradise Valley, the anthology of poetry from the first decade of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Information about Seeded Light and Poetry from Paradise Valley can be found above or in the sidebar on this blog page. Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010, published by W.W. Norton in January, is the latest of more than thirty collections of poetry by Adrienne Rich since her first book was awarded the Yale Series Younger Poets Prize in 1951. Rich comments on the book flap: “I believe almost everything I know, have come to understand, is somewhere in this book.”

As Agodon suggests, everyone who posts a comment below in response to this post between now and midnight of April 30, 2011 will be eligible for the free books, and I will use a random number generator to decide the winners. You only need to include your name and an e-mail address in your comment as a way to contact you. Readers are also urged to visit Kelli’s site to learn about other bloggers participating in the poetry book giveaway. Good luck!

“The Birthplace” by Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born on March 26 in 1874. One of Frost’s lesser known and perhaps under-appreciated poems, “The Birthplace,” was written in 1928, eighty years before the birth of my nephew Casey on March 26, 2008. In tribute to both of them on their birth date, I suggest the sonnet below:

THE BIRTHPLACE

Here further up the mountain slope
Than there was ever any hope,
My father built, enclosed a spring,
Strung chains of wall round everything,
Subdued the growth of earth to grass,
And brought our various lives to pass.
A dozen girls and boys we were.
The mountain seemed to like the stir,
And made of us a little while—
With always something in her smile.
Today she wouldn't know our name.
(No girl's, of course, has stayed the same.)
The mountain pushed us off her knees.
And now her lap is full of trees.

—Robert Frost

For previous posts and video of Robert Frost at One Poet’s Notes, readers are urged to visit the following: “Robert Frost Speaks About His Poetry: A Video” and “Richard Poirier Description of Robert Frost.”

Sneak Preview of New Book: TINTED DISTANCES

I was pleased to be informed that my new book of poems, Tinted Distances, which is scheduled for publication at the end of next month, now has its own web page in the online catalog at Turning Point Books. Although I have been notified about the ISBN number and price, these details are not yet public and will be added in a couple of weeks when the book is available for purchase.

However, I am honored to note that the web page does display a few kind pre-publication comments by Claudia Emerson, Sherod Santos, and Dorianne Laux about the poetry in Tinted Distances. I am thankful to these wonderful poets for their generous support.

I am also delighted by the book’s artwork, Mountain Landscape, a lovely and evocative oil on canvas by nineteenth-century artist Frederic Edwin Church that seems so appropriate to the atmosphere of the poetry included on the pages between the covers of Tinted Distances. I am grateful to the Brauer Museum of Art and its director, Gregg Hertzlieb, for permission to use this fine painting.

Among other reasons, the volume’s title has been chosen as a consequence of inspiration from lines in a Wallace Stevens poem, “The Auroras of Autumn,” that provides an epigraph for the collection: This is where the serpent lives. This is his nest, / These fields, these hills, these tinted distances, / And the pines above and along and beside the sea.

In addition, the publisher’s page for Tinted Distances supplies a link to a sample of four pieces from the collection, including the opening poem of the volume, “Morning Fire by the Shenandoah,” positioned to set the tone for those works that will follow. Therefore, I include this poem here as well:

Morning Fire by the Shenandoah

. . . . . We live by faith in such presences.
. . . . . —William Stafford


. . . . . I

Dried sticks or straw twist and sizzle
. . . . . as the hard barks of narrow branches crack

beneath a slender blue shoot of campfire
. . . . . smoke lifting again into this Virginia valley

damp with river mist. Those floating
. . . . . embers dispersed in the pre-dawn dark—

like even the lingering legion of late stars
. . . . . still visible, though kept far in that vast

pocket of emptiness locked at the edge
. . . . . of the universe—glow once more before

fading into a trapped scrap of shadow
. . . . . yet left to us in this fractured end of night.


. . . . . II

A quick glint of light tints a new group
. . . . . of thin clouds just showing in the distance.

Whole slopes are slowly opening up,
. . . . . one after another, unbuttoning in this dim

atmosphere hovering over everything,
. . . . . seemingly holding on only as long as it can.

Gray haze rises between these steep
. . . . . green creases to where a lone fire road turns,

a black switchback folding through one
. . . . . wooded hillside, still climbing even higher

to that frayed ridge of pines outlined
. . . . . by the red sunrise now burning behind them.


. . . . . III

The sleek Shenandoah, brightening
. . . . . like a tilted sheet of glass in this initial slant

of sunlight, whispers when it passes,
. . . . . as if it has to respond to those other voices

of dawn, the first squawks or whistles
. . . . . of bird calls now sounding out an alarm

all along the valley. By noon, when only
. . . . . a few cool pools of tree shade may remain,

they’ll have quieted, and the small circle
. . . . . of earth stained when we’d doused our fire

with river water will already be as dry
. . . . . as the nest of collected kindling we had lit.

I invite readers to visit the publisher’s web page for Tinted Distances to obtain a sneak preview of the book. I hope you will consider obtaining a copy when it is released next month and listings of the book appear at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere.

Poem of the Week: “The Moon Through Blue Glass” by Jackie Bartley

The VPR Poem of the Week is Jackie Bartley’s “The Moon Through Blue Glass” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2004-2005 issue (Volume VI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Jackie Bartley is the author of a number of poetry collections, including Ordinary Time (2007), Women Fresh from Water (2005), Hobo Signs (2004), Bloodroot (2002), The Terrible Boundaries of the Body (1996), and When Prayer Is Far from Our Lips (1994). Her work also has appeared in many literary journals, such as Artful Dodge, Hayden's Ferry Review, Sulphur River Literary Review, Tar River Poetry, and West Branch. Bartley teaches in the English Department at Hope College.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

Vernal Equinox: “Spring Walk Along the Lake”

As the vernal equinox arrives this evening and Monday represents the first full day of spring, I remind readers about “Spring Walk Along the Lake,” one of my poems that appeared in Tidal Air (Pecan Grove Press, 2002). Visiting the Indiana Dunes along the southern shore of Lake Michigan during the spring season has been an annual event since I met my wife and we spent our first day together there on a bright spring afternoon.

For decades, the spring trips to the dunes and our walks across the beach have served as opportunities to experience a sense of renewal, as well as ways to measure time or gauge changes that have occurred from year to year. This ritual has continued to have special significance for Pam and me, and it has even become a family tradition for us as our son, Alex, has grown over the years, accompanying us on our walks each spring. Indeed, this poem recounts his initial steps along Lake Michigan at the age of three.

SPRING WALK ALONG THE LAKE


. . . . . I

We listen to the sweet lilt of a warbler whistling
. . . . . in the thin fringe of dune forest that stretches

beside us. When its yellow feathers flutter
. . . . . among shadows, those startling splashes of color

light the low-growing oak and hickory like a lone
. . . . . night lantern flickering in a brisk wind. Despite

these still and chilly waters, my wife and I
. . . . . have returned again, as if in a ritual, to witness

the beginning of spring. And now our young son
. . . . . Alex wanders ahead. Stepping uncertainly

across the beach, as though to guide us, he tiptoes
. . . . . through the seasonal debris that has collected

for months in this cleft of shorefront,
. . . . . that still litters the whole expanse of sand.


. . . . . II

Instinctively, he picks up sticks and bits of shells,
. . . . . gathering together the grit left by another bitter

winter. However, this is only his first walk
. . . . . along the lake, and he doesn’t know the history

of these visits; he doesn’t understand yet
. . . . . the tacit covenant with nature that someday

also will govern his actions. A ring-billed gull
. . . . . skims the water’s surface. Following a repeated

pattern, it lifts toward the clouds and then tilts
. . . . . over the shore once more, unfurled wings riding

an otherwise indiscernible updraft. As if baffled
. . . . . by our presence, voicing its shrill call, it ties

loose loops twice around us before rising
. . . . . even higher in a widening reel beyond the treetops.


. . . . . III

I stare, spellbound. Alex watches
. . . . . for a moment, then turns away, unimpressed

by the bird’s apparent weightlessness,
. . . . . as though his three-year-old innocence

assures that nothing is impossible,
. . . . . no defiance of natural law is inconceivable.

Suddenly, I’m stunned by my son’s
. . . . . lack of surprise at anything nature offers,

and I realize how much wiser than I
. . . . . he may be, as I remember how quickly

this backdrop of trees will be transformed,
. . . . . how their leaves will be gilded in a flush of light

when at last a late June sun burns above
. . . . . the lake, warming these slack and shallow waters.


—Edward Byrne

In addition, I would like to remind readers that a signed copy of Tidal Air can now be obtained at a special discount of ten dollars during the current Spring Reading Sale, as detailed in the sidebar of this page.

Irish American Poetry on St. Patrick's Day

As I have done in the past on St. Patrick’s Day, I take this opportunity to remind readers about the extensive anthology (976 pages) of Irish American poets that was edited by Daniel Tobin and published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 2007: The Book of Irish American Poetry (from the Eighteenth Century to the present). The jacket flap of the volume responds to the question about what it means to be an Irish American poet:

The question is not merely rhetorical, claims Daniel Tobin in the introduction, for it raises the issue of a certain kind of imaginative identity that has rarely, if ever, been adequately explored. This anthology brings together exemplary poetry of the “populist period” of Irish American verse (in particular the work of poets such as John Boyle O’Reilly), with the work of those Irish Americans who have made an indelible imprint on American poetry: Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, Louise Bogan, John Berryman, Thomas McGrath, John Montague, Robert Creeley, Frank O’Hara, Ted Berrigan, Charles Olson, Galway Kinnell, X. J. Kennedy, and Alan Dugan, among others. Finally, the anthology includes distinctive poems by contemporary Irish Americans whose work is most likely to stand the test of time: poets such as Tess Gallagher, Alice Fulton, Brendan Galvin, Marie Howe, Susan Howe, Billy Collins, Michael Ryan, Richard Kenney, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly. The poems in this collection cut across the broad spectrum of American poetry and place Irish Americans within every notable school of American poetry, from modernism to confessionalism and the Beats, from formalism to imagism, and from projectivism to the New York School and Language poets.

I am honored that two of my poems, “Homecoming” (from Words Spoken, Words Unspoken: Chimney Hill Press) and “Listening to Lester Young” (from Seeded Light: Turning Point Books), are also included in this anthology.

Poem of the Week: "Snapshot at Uxmal, 1972" by Julie Bruck

The VPR Poem of the Week is Julie Bruck’s “Snapshot at Uxmal, 1972,” which appears in the Fall/Winter 2010-2011 issue (Volume XII, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Julie Bruck’s books include The Woman Downstairs (1993), The End of Travel (1999), and a newly completed manuscript, Monkey Ranch. Her work has appeared in New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Malahat Review, among other journals.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.

"January Light" from Autism: A Poem

As I have mentioned previously, I have created a separate blog site as an open experiment of poetry composition, perhaps a glimpse at an emerging manuscript as it matures. The contents represent portions of an ongoing personal project with a particularly narrow focus intended to eventually develop toward a book-length poem tentatively and simply titled Autism.

The poem will grow as sections are added. The individual pieces are designed so that they may be viewed as independent items; however, I have consciously carried themes, images, and language through the extended sequence with the hope that connectivity and continuity will be preserved among numerous sections of the long poem.

On Sunday, as we moved our clocks ahead for Daylight Saving Time, I posted a new section that perhaps seems somewhat appropriate, “January Light.”

Readers are asked to regard Autism as a work in progress, a partial draft rather than a finished product (even if a few selected segments previously may have appeared in print), and I request everyone realize various revisions—edits, emendations, or expansion—may be made to the posts at any time in the future.

The pieces I have written for the collection of poems in Autism often focus upon seemingly minor moments in life that have suddenly become instances of revelation due to a new perspective presented by my son Alex or realized because of his reactions to them. As my wife Pam insightfully wrote in her most recent post, “Unexpected Rewards,” at One Autism Mom’s Notes, Alex frequently seems to exhibit delight in his daily encounters, an attitude that sometimes also appears “to make others feel the joy he finds in everyday experiences.” Consequently, he regularly encourages me to see the world around us through his eyes or with an enhanced appreciation and fascination I might not otherwise hold. “January Light” represents one more example of just such an incident.

In addition, as I mentioned at the beginning of this month, I am pleased that a portion of this poetry series in progress was released March 1 as Dark Refuge, an audio chapbook by Whale Sound. The dozen poems in this chapbook represent a narrative designed as a poetic sequence, part of this overall project of poetry I have been composing about particular observations or impressions concerning the characteristics and consequences associated with autism through a poetic chronicling of personal experiences with Alex.

Dark Refuge is available for readers to experience in differing formats: as online audio, online text, free downloadable mp3, pdf, e-book, print edition, and cd. Therefore, I also urge readers to visit the main page for Dark Refuge.

Poem in BEASTLY: "Having a Coke with You" by Frank O'Hara

I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world . . .
Frank O’Hara, “Having a Coke with You”

Occasionally, references to poems or poets infiltrate the more popular media of television and film, creating a brief surge in interest among the general population, including many who would not normally turn to poetry as their regular reading genre. For most, the temporary increased interest in the work or literary figure spotlighted on screen does not translate into a continuing devotion to poetry. However, any greater awareness of poetry established in some movie viewers only serves to assist in an overall addition of appreciation for poetry.

In many cases, a traditional poem might be featured in a film, perhaps a sonnet by William Shakespeare or an elegy by W.H. Auden. But book sales and reputations of more modern poets sometimes benefit from placement of their poetry as an element in a movie. Obviously, biographical films about poets—John Keats, Sylvia Plath, or Allen Ginsberg, for example—command more attention and engender new readership. Nevertheless, even a single recitation of a poem or mention of a collection of poems within a plot can initiate interest.

Recently, poetry by Frank O’Hara has been the recipient of such publicity in popular media. His book of poems, Meditations in an Emergency, appeared prominently in the second season of a hit television series, Mad Men, and in Beastly—a new film offering a contemporary version of Beauty and the Beast and premiering this past weekend—O’Hara’s poem, “Having a Coke With You,” plays a central role.

As reported when first introducing this poem at One Poets Note’s in 2008, critic and poet David Lehman regards the presence of O’Hara’s poetry, as exemplified in “Having a Coke with You,” to be “so dazzling, with taste so fine and sensibility so rare and appealing, that it comes as a surprise to investigate and realize that there are depths of meaning in his offhanded poems that seem as disarmingly immediate and perishable as telephone calls.”

Readers are invited to revisit the text of “Having a Coke with You,” accompanied by a 1966 video of Frank O’Hara reading his poem.

Spring Break Book Suggestions

Periodically, I like to remind readers that Valparaiso Poetry Review includes a list of “Recently Received and Recommended Books” in each of its issues. Information on the page is intended to suggest current volumes of poetry or poetics that might otherwise be overlooked. Since a number of visitors to this blog are students or faculty at universities, who might be seeking new material to read during spring break, I offer the list as it stands in the current issue of VPR:

Ai: No Surrender, W.W. Norton
Alter, Robert (Tr.): The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, W.W. Norton
Azzouni, Jody: Hereafter Landscapes, Poet’s Press
Bakaitis, Vyt: Deliberate Proof, Lunar Chandelier
Baker, Devreaux: Red Willow People, Wild Ocean Press
Balbo, Ned: The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, Story Line Press
Barresi, Dorothy: American Fanatics, University of Pittsburgh Press
Basalyga, Annette: Lifer, Music of Note
Bateman, Claire: Coronology, Etruscan Press
Behrendt, Lynn: Petals, Emblems, Lunar Chandelier
Bradley, John: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Brown, Lily: Rust or Go Missing, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Byrne, Edward (Ed.): Poetry from Paradise Valley, Pecan Grove Press
Cassian, Nina: Continuum, W.W. Norton
Cherry, Kelly: The Retreats of Thought, Louisiana State University Press
Daniels, Jim: Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry, Carnegie Mellon Univerity Press
Delanty, Greg and Michael Motto (Eds.): The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, W.W. Norton
DeNiord, Chard: The Double Truth, University of Pittsburgh Press
Deulen, Danielle Cadena: Lovely Asunder, University of Arkansas Press
Doallas, Maureen E.: Neruda's Memoir, T.S. Poetry Press
Dunham, Rebecca: The Flight Cage, Tupelo Press
Dunn, Stephen: What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009, W.W. Norton
Ekiss, Keith: Pima Road Notebook, New Issues Press
Elliot, Joe: Homework, Lunar Chandelier
Fenton, Elyse: Clamor, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Fitzgerald, Mark: By Way of Dust and Rain, Cinammon Press
Flynn, Rachel Contreni: Tongue, Red Hen Press
Frey, Emily Kendal: The Grief Performance, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Friedman, Jeff: Working in Flour, Carnegie Mellon University Press
Friedrich, Paul: A Goldfinch Instant, Virtual Artists Collective
Gay, Ross: Bringing the Shovel Down, University of Pittsburgh Press
Gibson, Stephen: Paradise, University of Arkansas Press
Glazer, Michelle: On Tact, & the Made Up World, University of Iowa Press
Goldberg, Beckian Fritz: Reliquary Fever: New and Selected Poems, New Issues Press
Goodrich, Charles: Going to Seed: Dispatches from the Garden, Silverfish Review Press
Gorrick, Anne: I-Formation (Book 1), Shearsman Books
Greene, Elizabeth: Moving, Inanna Publications
Hanson, Julie: Unbeknownst, University of Iowa Press
Herrle, David: Abyssinia, Jill Rush, Time Being Books
Hodgen, John: Heaven & Earth Holding Company, University of Pittsburgh Press
Jackson, Major: Holding Company, W.W. Norton
Kameen, Paul: Re-Reading Poets: The Life of the Author, University of Pittsburgh Press
Kaufman, Debra: The Next Moment, Jacar Press
Keane, Erin: Death-Defying Acts, WordFarm
Kelleher, Rose: Bundle o’ Tinder, Waywiser Press
Kinsella, John: Divine Comedy: Journeys Through a Regional Geography: Three New Works, W.W. Norton
Kistulentz, Steve: The Luckless Age, Red Hen Press
Klatt, L.S.: Cloud of Ink, University of Iowa Press
Laird, Nick: On Purpose, W.W. Norton
Laux, Dorianne: The Book of Men, W.W. Norton
Lewis, Lisa: Vivisect, New Issues Press
Lipszye, Carol: Singing Me Home, Inanna Publications
Lockward, Diane: Temptation by Water, Wind Publications
Longenbach, James: The Iron Key, W.W. Norton
Lynch, Thomas: Walking Papers, W.W. Norton
Malech, Dora: Say So, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Malone, Eileen: I Should Have Given Them Water, Ragged Sky Press
Marbrook, Djelloul: Brushstrokes and Glances, Deerbrook Editions
Mathews, Harry: The New Tourism, Sand Paper Press
McCrae, Shane: Mule, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
McCullough, Laura: Panic, Alice James Books
McCullough, Laura: Speech Acts, Black Lawrence Press
McKenzie, Carter: Out of Refusal, Airlie Press
Ostriker, Alicia Suskin: The Book of Seventy, University of Pittsburgh Press
Pastan, Linda: Traveling Light, W.W. Norton
Paul, Bradley: The Animals All Are Gathering, University of Pittsburgh Press
Phillips, Louis: R.I.P.: A Poetic Sequence, Livingston Press
Pietrzykowski, Marc: Following Ghosts Upriver, Main Street Rag Publishing Company
Pratt, Charles W.: From the Box Marked Some Are Missing: New and Selected Poems, Hobblebush Books
Pursley, John: If You Have Ghosts, Zone 3 Press
Rich, Adrienne: Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010, W.W. Norton
Rimbaud, Arthur[John Ashbery (Tr.)]: Illuminations, W.W. Norton
Rogers, Bobby C.: Paper Anniversary, University of Pittsburgh Press
Rozewicz, Tadeusz [Joanna Trzeciak (Tr.)]: Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Rozewicz, W.W. Norton
Sakellariou, Becky D.: Earth Listening, Hobblebush Books
Savich, Zach: The Firestorm, Cleveland State University Poetry Center
Schmidt, Elizabeth Hun (Ed.): The Poets Laureate Anthology, W.W. Norton
Seuss, Diane: Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open, University of Massachusetts Press
Sheeler, Jackie: Earthquake Came to Harlem, NYQ Books
Shepherd, Reginald: Red Clay Weather, University of Pittsburgh Press
Stern, Gerald: Early Collected Poems 1965-1992, W.W. Norton
Stock, Norman: Pickled Dreams Naked, NYQ Books
Sullivan, Anita: Garden of Beasts, Airlie Press
Thomas, Larry D.: A Murder of Crows, Virtual Artists Collective
Tobin, Daniel: Belated Heavens, Four Way Books
Volgelsang, Arthur: Expedition: New & Selected Poems, Ashland Poetry Press
Wheeler, Lesley: Heterotopia, Barrow Street Press
Wohlfeld, Valerie: Woman with Wing Removed, Truman State University Press
Wojahn, David: World Tree, University of Pittsburgh Press
Wong, Pui Ying: Yellow Plum Season, NYQ Books
Wood, Susan: The Book of Ten, University of Pittsburgh Press
Zimmer, Paul: The Importance of Being Zimmer, Settlement House

Authors and Publishers are encouraged to send review copies of new poetry collections or volumes on poetics to the address below:

Valparaiso Poetry Review
Edward Byrne, Editor
Department of English
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, IN 46383

DARK REFUGE: Process and Publication

I am delighted to report that my new sequence of poems, Dark Refuge, was released yesterday (March 1) as an audio chapbook by Whale Sound, edited by Nic Sebastian, who also provided the impressive reading of my poetry. From the original concept through the entire process leading to publication, every aspect of this project has been a pleasure for me. The dozen poems in this chapbook represent a sampling from an ongoing program of poetry I have been composing. The works address particular observations or impressions concerning the characteristics and consequences associated with autism, delivered through a poetic chronicling of personal experiences with my son Alex.

I began this endeavor with a certain amount of curiosity about how well the poems would work together in a manuscript. Knowing that this chapbook would be a collaborative effort with Nic Sebastian, as editor and reader of the poetry, I was also interested in seeing how our perceptions of the works would mesh. However, during our e-mail discussions—as Nic acutely suggested a couple of minor revisions to one of the poems, recommended some of the pieces that might work best in the chapbook, and commented upon a possible order of presentation—I was thrilled to discover she is a careful and penetrating editor, whose views of the poems and thoughtfulness about the significance of the subject matter paralleled mine in so many ways.

We even immediately agreed, after deciding separately, upon the title for the chapbook. Additionally, we both believed the cover artwork I had recommended conveyed a sense of the poems’ content without being too obvious. Nic’s keen assistance as an editor proved very helpful, and her desire to highlight certain components, especially the lyricism and implied narrative movement of the poetic sequence, seemed right in line with my own thinking.

Since the poems would be offered in an audio format, I was particularly intrigued by the sound my poetry would have when read in a woman’s voice with an accent distinctly different from my own. Frequently, when working with students in my poetry-writing classes, we engage in conversations about the separate nature of the written word in a text and the spoken voice heard aloud.

My students are often asked to consider how the substance and style of their compositions are reflected when they read them to their classmates. Indeed, a primary requirement in my poetry-writing course involves a formal public reading open to the university community at the end of the semester, an activity serving as a capstone event that confirms a connection between written and spoken word at the conclusion of the course.

However, in class we further take into account the ways others might read our poems. When I give public readings of my poetry, I know the places I want to pause and the syllables I need to stress, as well as the lines I try to emphasize. But such opportunities are rare. After all, most encounters with poetry occur individually as each reader provides his or her voice for the words witnessed on the page.

Therefore, my students are urged to fashion lines of poetry that invite the kind of cadence and tone they expect everyone to gather from the language. If a work is successful, the word choice, sentence structure, and lyricism—through rhyme, assonance, consonance, alliteration, etc.—will compel a reading fairly consistent with that intended by the poet.

When I received the first drafts of the audio for Dark Refuge from Nic, I must confess that I was amazed by the results. I had heard her read others’ poems in the past, and I knew she would do a fine job; yet, I felt her presentations of my poems were even more magnificent than I had anticipated. As I had hoped might occur, her voice perfectly complemented the tone and atmosphere I desired to be created by the sequence.

Indeed, I usually think of the lyricism in my poetry as one of my strengths; however, Nic’s exquisite sense of rhythm, exact enunciation, and emphasis of syllables bring out even more the numerous examples of alliteration, assonance, consonance, and internal rhyme I wish readers to hear. It has been exciting and rewarding for me as I listen to my work rendered so elegantly by someone who obviously cares about the content and the context of the material, as well as its musicality.

An additional aspect of the publication at Whale Sound that I greatly appreciate involves the variety of platforms available for readers to enjoy Dark Refuge. Occasionally, I have shared opinions in the pages of One Poet’s Notes about the advantages of technical advancements for publication and distribution of poetry in electronic formats to widespread audiences. I have also considered the blending of media in online publications—text, graphics, audio, video, etc.—as something yet to be fully explored and exploited.

On the other hand, I have a fondness for the tradition and tactile contact of paper associated with a conventional print chapbook. Consequently, I am thankful to Nic Sebastian for her good work as an editor promoting poetry and allowing Dark Refuge to be available for readers to experience in differing manners: as online audio, online text, downloadable mp3, pdf manuscript, e-book, cd, and in a print edition.

Most importantly, as I write in the acknowledgments for Dark Refuge, I am also grateful to Alex, whose inspiration leads the way for me in daily living and in these poems. My poetry in this chapbook is meant as a testament to how much he has enriched my life as well as an expression of admiration for the enduring spirit he displays every day, even when confronted by obstacles that could be so discouraging and when challenged by frustrations that ought to be disheartening.

I commend Alex for his courage as he repeatedly faces unfamiliar or overwhelming situations fraught with anxiety or frightening to him. I know the level of his emotional agitation and the degree of his physical apprehension about the sometimes disconcerting elements in the world around him are frequently difficult for me to imagine, but the poems in Dark Refuge represent an attempt at understanding.

I invite readers to visit the main page for the poetry in Dark Refuge, and I encourage all to browse through the many wonderful works by other poets at Whale Sound.

Poem of the Week: “The Price You Pay, My Beautiful Wife” by Bernardine Evaristo

The VPR Poem of the Week is Bernardine Evaristo’s “The Price You Pay, My Beautiful Wife,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2003 issue (Volume IV, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This poem is an excerpt from The Emperor’s Babe, a novella in verse. It also has been published in Poetry from Paradise Valley, an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR, recently released by Pecan Grove Press.

Bernardine Evaristo is the author of a poetry collection, The Island of Abraham, two novels in verse, Lara and The Emperor’s Babe, a novel and a novella. Lara won the EMMA Award for Best Novel, and The Emperor’s Babe received a Writers’ Award. Evaristo’s writings have been widely published in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. In addition, she has written for theater and radio. She has been the Poetry Society’s Poet-in-Residence at the Museum of London, as well as a Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia and at Barnard College. Her various honors include being elected a fellow to both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.