Poetry – Page 30 – the coffee philosopher

A history of werewolves.

Is he back… or did he never really leave?

Posted on November 10, 2013November 8, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

The Sunday Paper – Poetry, Please

Yes, young people should read more poetry. And write it and talk about it. And I love how this article emphasizes poetry as a political act, quoting from openly (and less openly) political poems. Occupy Wall Street famously had a library. The movement forward must have a library and there must be plenty of poetry in that library.

Grief for the dead as poetry.

The New York Review of Books turned fifty last week.

Posted on November 8, 2013November 5, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Weekend Reading – What Use Are You?

The slow death of the humanities in the university.

I see nothing wrong with conflating coffee and sex. In fact, I’m also going to start using the word ‘coffee’ when I mean ‘sex.’ However, I will still continue to use ‘coffee’ to mean ‘coffee.’ I apologize in advance for any confusion this may cause.

Some suggested careers for me.

You have been reading it wrong this whole time. Unless you’ve never read Beowulf, in which case… well, really, the question becomes, why haven’t you? It’s a foundational work of western literature and it’s widely available. The late, Nobel prize winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney, wrote a wonderful and, I might add, readable translation of the Old English poem. I know that the article this links specifically name drops Heaney as one of the translators who got that first line wrong, but even assuming this fellow is right, you can just redo those first lines in your head as you read it.

Posted on November 6, 2013November 5, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

‘Orphan Hours’ By Stanley Plumly (New Year’s Resolution, Book Thirty-Seven)

Once again folks, I’m tired, sick, and probably overworked. Stressed out, is what I’m saying, with a variety of physical, mental, and spiritual implications.

But I still made it to the poetry reading at the Folger Shakespeare Library last Monday. But I’m not going to write as much or as well, thoroughly or coherently as normal. Suck it up, readers (or, more realistically, ‘reader,’ because, let’s face, a irregularly updated blog about poetry doesn’t get many readers, so to my one reader, I just said, ‘suck it,’ so maybe now I have no readers at all).

Plumly read with C.K. Williams. Plumly is local and a former Maryland poet laureate, but I’d read a lot more about Williams (though I’d never read either’s poetry).

When I slipped over to a bookstore to check out their work and pre-buy a book to be signed, I expected to walk away with something by Williams, but found that Plumly is much more to my taste. On the page, to be honest, I wasn’t very interested in what I saw of Williams’ poetry. Plumly was more my type.

At the reading itself, Williams was enjoyable. He has a fast and enjoyable reading style. His work reads quickly on the page.

Plumly is a slower poet. He reads his poetry more slowly and his poems read more slowly on the page. I think that’s one of the reasons I preferred his work.

I will say this, Plumly is very good, very talented, but maybe not very distinguishing, by which I mean, his poems do not strongly distinguish themselves from other, similarly style poets. If you’re looking for a comparison, I’d say he most reminds me of the the late, great Adrienne Rich.

Posted on November 1, 2013October 29, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

Weekend Reading – Birth Of The Book

Mallarme and the book. (P.S. – I love Mallarme. I got very offended when, listening to a performance of Debussy’s score for Mallarme’s L’apre midi d’un faun, one of the musicians, a guitarist, the piece having been arranged for guitar and flute, said no one cared about the poem anymore. Then, we saw an exhibit of materials from the Ballet Russe at the National Gallery of Art. Of course, one of their famous pieces, staying none other than Ninjinsky, was that same Debussy piece. So Mallarme is awesome. Read his poetry.)

Proust’s simple plots.

Scholar, theorist, deconstructionist, conman. But that last one doesn’t actually have much to do with the validity of the first three. Even if it does make him icky.

Sixty years, man. Sixty years. Rock on, Dissent!

Posted on October 31, 2013October 30, 2013 by the coffee philosopher

‘Pierre Reverdy’ By Pierre Reverdy (New Year’s Resolution, Book Thirty-Six)

I actually finished this a while back and it deserves a lot more time than I’m about to put into this post, but I’m tired, stressed at work, and I think I have a sinus infection, so kiss my behind.

Short version, I’ve been wanting to read this poet for a while, but he’s been out of print, so kudos to the New York Review of Books for publishing a new collection of his poems. They assembled a crackerjack list of translations, some more recent than others (Kenneth Rexroth has been dead for a while, so I’m guessing his translations aren’t new). Initially, I tried to look for correspondences between the translators and the individual poems, but that kind of fell apart. At first, it seemed that Rexroth, who himself always wrote left justified lines, usually of medium to long length was picking similar poems and usually he was… until he wasn’t.

Similarly, Ashberry did a lot of poems that were ‘blocky’ with some occasionally jagged enjambments, but really, I think my premise doesn’t hold up so well.

I wish I knew whether the poems were in chronological order. I think they are, but I wish I knew.

Anyway, he’s very good. If you like Rene Char, you’ll love Reverdy.

Posted on August 30, 2013 by the coffee philosopher · 2 Comments

Seamus Heaney Died

He was just seventy-four. He was due to read at the Folger Shakespeare Library in the spring and I was very much looking forward to it.

Not so long ago, I had some book money burning a hole in my pocket and I had some thoughts about what I might buy, but when I saw Heaney’s Field Work, that was what I knew I had to get. And when I lived in Atlanta, Chapter 11 books sold me a beautiful copy of his translation of Beowulf.

He wore the mantle of Yeats well. I’m not saying he was Yeats’ equal, because… who is? But as a mythologizer, elegist, and obliquely political poet, he carried on some of Yeats’ mission.

Anyway. This is just sad. Really sad.