Carried Alive into the Heart

Poetry is the most philosophic of all writing: it is so: its object is truth, not individual and local, but general, and operative; not standing upon external testimony, but carried alive into the heart by passion; truth which is its own testimony, which give competence and confidence to the tribunal to which it appeals, and receives them from the same tribunal. Poetry is the image of man and nature.

--William Wordsworth

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

What do you believe?

In a recent conversation someone mentioned that they didn't believe that books could make a difference or changes in people's lives. I found this rather shocking, actually, because I feel that books and stories and poems and songs help to shape our views of the world.

I offer up Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry as a way of seeing how if the fairytales of our youth were different, so might be our perspective on the world. I read poems and see ways to live more completely, more responsibly, and more in tune with the world around me. And if you see the world through the perspective of a holy text, how much more are you shaped by what you read?

I heard a few years ago that medical students were being asked to read humanities texts that detail suffering and the experiences of being sick. The hope was that this would make the students more sensitive to their patients' ordeals. I don't know if it works, but it sounds plausible.

How will we know what others know and have known if we don't read? Unlike reality TV, literature has already been proven to pass the test of time.

Touchstones

I recently found out that I'm going to be the Poetry Editor for Touchstones which is the literary magazine here at Kansas State University. We only read work from graduate level writers, and we're taking the 2006 issue to AWP. (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to make it to Austin.)

The official submissions announcement will come out on the 1st of October, but the news is that we're taking electronic submissions for the first time. So, if you're in a graduate program and are interested in guidelines or if you're teaching and know of any eligible writers, *please* send me an email to small_branches (at) hotmail.com and I'll forward the complete guidelines to you as soon as I have them in my in-box.

Whew.

It's been busy around here, but mostly in a good way.

More books on the way

The 'net seems full of announcements about publications these days. Steve Mueske has a book forthcoming from Ghost Road Press: A Mnemonic for Desire. And recently I recieved a flyer from Word Press that David Cazden's Moving Picture has also been released. Congratulations, I believe, are in order.

Cheers!

The Powers of Poetry

The very interesting essay by Bly "What the Image Can Do" lists several "powers of poetry" or traits that make poetry work.

1. the image.
2. Frost's "Sentence Sound"
3. psychic weight
4. sound
5. drumbeat ( or Hall's "goatfoot")
6. the narrative

I am always interested in lists like these as while they seem to capture important elements of poetry writing, they rarely seem complete to me. There are other aspects that seem important that are not on the list. What about the visual / page placement / line breaks /stanza breaks?
Since I spent many years as a musician, I know that the rests are as important as the notes and they need to be heeded for the music to conform to what was composed. I feel that the same goes for poetry. To me the written page works as a score for the aural / oral experience of the poem. What else should be added to the list?

Read some Bly on-line.

Less Hair More Cheekbones

Less hair, More Cheekbones

Looks like I'm taking a light load this fall at school because of my life-interupting event, but on the otherhand, this means more time for Three Candles and more time for my writing and hopefully returning to the submission process. My publications arrived en masse this summer: Broad River Review and Miller's Pond. I really didn't send out much work last year with school's demands. I was especially pleased with Miller's Pond as it featured so many poets that I have worked with on-line over the past five years.

Summer Plans Awry

Needless to say I didn't aim to leave my blog unattended for quite so long, but a situation beyond my control arose. Hopefully I'll be back to regular updates before too long, before the weeds completely take over around here!

Since no one has guessed who the "rhetorical serpent" comment was about, it was aimed at C. K. Williams. I've been reading his work for a project and realized (through critical commentary) that he actually uses a double pentameter line quite often. I've been reading a lot of poets who I always thought of as "free verse" but I see more and more formal elements in their work as I become more aware and more familiar. "No verse is free. . ." as the saying goes.

Hope your summer is less eventful than mine.

Best,
Amy