Advice to young poets

[Michael]

I thought the poem on today's Writer's Almanac was definitely worth
sharing.

Advice to Young Poets
by Martin Espada

Never pretend
to be a unicorn
by sticking a plunger on your head

"Advice to Young Poets" by Martín Espada, from The Republic of Poetry.
© W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.

[amy gorin]

Generally good advice to anyone, poet or not!
 

Amy Gorin
A...@gorin.org

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From: Michael <msan...@gmail.com>
To: Poem of the Week <Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 2:49:22 PM
Subject: Advice to young poets

[shirley Lynch Scarlett]

There may be other very good reasons to stick a plunger on one's head - or on another's head.

[Andrea Pitera]

Indeed,

Andrea

[chin...@aol.com]

Michael,

Thanks so much for your continued inspirations!

Please change my email address to:  cecil...@mac.com.

Cecily

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael <msan...@gmail.com>
To: Poem of the Week <Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Jul 21, 2009 1:49 pm
Subject: Advice to young poets

---

An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!

[amy gorin]

 It occurs to me that those of you on Michael's poetry list would find this a great opportunity to support Michael and the Poetry Festival as well as hear Robert Pinsky in an intimate setting. Your bonus is sharing wine and cheese and home baked cookies (is there really anything else?) and meeting new friends~ 

 

Dear Friends,

 

The nutshell:

 

We are thrilled to invite you to a very special evening in our home with Robert Pinsky (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/200), former Poet Laureate of the United States, founder of the Favorite Poem Project, and current Professor of the graduate writing program at Boston University.  

 

Please join us on Thursday, August 6th at 7:30pm for an evening of desserts and poetry which you will long remember. 

 

The whole nut:

 

Norm and I shared a common experience as teenagers: when heartbroken, we would seek out the saddest lyrics of the day and listen to the words over and over again until we rung ourselves dry.  Today, as (seemingly) mature adults, we still turn to the poetic word, the precise and perhaps unexpected pairing of sound or evocative image or extraordinary turn of phrase, when in need of inspiration, solace, clarity, affirmation, illumination, joy, gratitude, or for sheer delight! 

 

Recall the mystical experience of discovering you are not alone and that your innermost thoughts and feelings have been captured, understood and expressed by someone else.  Life is enlarged knowing that we can turn to poetry in those moments when we feel wholly inadequate, when the world does not make sense and the poet’s keen power of observation and understanding helps us right ourselves.  Or when we feel immense joy and lack the vehicle to express such feelings in words. 

 

What poem do you carry in your wallet, heart or memory to serve you when you are in joy or despondence?

 

We live in a fast-moving and complicated world. More than ever we need the arts and the artists to help us understand and make sense of a complex world through social commentary, criticism, cool observation, humor, insight and wonder!

 

With this in mind, it is our pleasure to invite you to join us on Thursday, August 6^th  at 7:30 PM to help us celebrate the world of poetry at a very special evening featuring Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States.  This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to experience a reading of Robert Pinsky's poems, by the poet himself in the intimate setting of our home at 2 Seaver Street in Wellesley, MA

 

This evening is offered as a means to promote and celebrate the second annual Massachusetts Poetry festival, which will be held in Lowell, Massachusetts from Friday, October 16^th to Sunday, October 18^th.  Building on last year's successful introduction, this year's event promises to be a multi-day festival of the arts, celebrating poets, poetry and the literary heritage of a state whose contribution to American poetry is unsurpassed in the nation.

Once upon a time Massachusetts was known as the center of American poetry and literature, in an age when poetry was commonplace, rooted in the everyday lives of the people... At one point Longfellow was one of the most popular figures of his day, read by thousands. John Greenleaf Whittier of Amesbury was a national treasure, his lines memorized by generations of American school children. Emily Dickenson, from Amherst; Ralph Waldo Emerson from Concord; Kerouac from Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, born in Worcester, died in Cambridge; Robert Lowell, ee Cummings, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Stanley Kunitz, Denise Levertov, the list goes on and on.

Today, Massachusetts is home to a staggering array of recognized and brilliant poets, who touch our souls and hearts at the place where reason fails. Among them Robert Pinsky, Louise Gluck, Frank Bidart,  Lucie-Brock Broido, Mary Oliver, Richard Wilbur, Marge Piercy, Gail Mazur, James Tate, Lloyd Shwartz, George Rivard, Marjorie Agosin.....again, the list goes on and on. Of late, it seems that poetry has retreated, growing increasingly distant from the public domain, resting exclusively in the academy. TV, technology, changing culture, all are factors in poetry's retreat.

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival is an innovative and ambitious effort by a diverse group of poets, organizers, readers, educators, and poetry supporters to bring poetry back to center stage and to establish poetry as one of the major strands in the state's creative economy.

Our hope is that the evening will raise awareness and support for this ambitious cultural event.  While donations are appreciated, most of all we value your presence at this gathering of friends, poets, food and wine and look forward to your expression of support as the poetry muse moves you. 

 

So please put on your calendar and RSVP to this email that you will join us on:

Thursday, August 6th
7:30 to 9:30 pm
2 Seaver Street
Wellesley, Massachusetts

And feel free to pass this invitation to inspired friends and family and ask them to let us know they will attend (it helps us figure out how much wine to purchase).

We have attached a favorite poem of ours to this email which we hope you will enjoy. When you RSVP, please send us a favorite poem of yours, and we will share the list that evening.

Warm regards to all,

 

Amy and Norm

 

Amy Gorin
A...@gorin.org

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From: "chin...@aol.com" <chin...@aol.com>
To: Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 12:19:52 PM
Subject: Re: Advice to young poets

Michael,

[Barbara Helfgott Hyett (Poemworks)]

Dear Amy,

Your letter/invite to the Th event with Pinsky, reading at your home, is a marvel of poet-support. Rare enough in any times, perfect in these. I regret that I teach on Th evenings, a poetry workshop in my Brookline home, and so won't be able to be with you and my former BU colleague, Robert.  I amparticipating in the Lowell festival in several ways, including teaching and reading from my work, so I'm already an aficionada.

 

Thanks for including me in celebration of the craft. Keep me on fture guest lists, by all means!

 

Best of an evening, then,

 

Barbara

 

 

Barbara Helfgott Hyett

PoemWorks

www.poemworks.com

[Susan Shaer]

Amy,

Thank you so much for hosting Robert Pinsky.  It was just what I needed to jump start my hot lagging summer daze!

 

While money is not something I have much of right now, I would be delighted to find a way to advertise the poetry festival on the Arlington list, which goes to 4 to 5,000 homes.  I do need an Arlington hook, however, or they don’t usually advertise.  I know Robert Creeley used to live here, but I am wondering if you know of one who might.  I will ask Michael as well.

 

Thanks again for your hospitality, sorry I had to slip out so early.

 

Susan

WAND Executive Director

691 Massachusetts Avenue

Arlington, MA  02476

781 643 6740   work

781 962 2172   cell

www.wand.org

 

WAND's mission is to empower women to act politically to reduce militarism and violence and to redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs.

 

WAND is the only national organization linking local activists to women state legislators and networking them to make change in Congress.

 

Save a tree - do not print this message.

 

 

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From: Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of amy gorin
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2009 12:50 PM
To: Poem-of-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: invitation to poetry group

 

 It occurs to me that those of you on Michael's poetry list would find this a great opportunity to support Michael and the Poetry Festival as well as hear Robert Pinsky in an intimate setting. Your bonus is sharing wine and cheese and home baked cookies (is there really anything else?) and meeting new friends~