Kay Ryan, Next Poet Laureate

PHOTO:Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
The New York Times has an interesting article about Kay Ryan, who has been chosen to be the country's 16th poet laureate by the Librarian of Congress. She succeeds Charles Simic. Ryan is skillful, accomplished, and more than deserving of this honor, but I don't much care for her poetry, which tends to be simple, spare, and playful. Just a matter of taste, really. Simic is a hard act to follow and is a personal favorite. I'm happy to see a woman have the honor again after so long a string of men, but I had hoped to see Jorie Graham named. Like Billy Collins and Ted Kooser, Kay Ryan writes poetry that is very accessible. Even a caveman could read it. Sometimes that simplicity appeals to people who don't read more complex or surreal poetry, so perhaps Ryan will draw a wider audience. And that will surely be a good thing for poetry.

3 Poems in Eclectica

Three of my poems ("The Last Days," "The Rainy Season," and "Target Practice") appear in this month's issue of Eclectica. In an ongoing series, the editors, former contributors, and readers of Eclectica were invited to write a poem containing four pre-chosen words. The words for this issue were celery, cistern, target, agate.

If you would like to participate in the next special poetry assignment, the new words are delve, audible, demand, undone. Guidelines are availale on the website.

It isn't the blue time--John Vick

John Vick, a dear poet and friend, features videos and voice recordings of poets reading their work on his site, The Adroitly Placed Word. Here, John reads one of his poems, "It isn't the blue time."

Bloggers on TOMATO GIRL

Many thanks to these bloggers who enjoyed TOMATO GIRL:

NIGHTBIRD BOOKS

RABBITREADER

LUNASEA

Kate Clanchy's Workshop

Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1965, Kate Clanchy is the author of two prize-winning collections of poetry, Slattern (1995), which won the Forward poetry prize (best first collection) and a Somerset Maugham award, and Samarkand (1999), which was shortlisted for the Forward poetry prize (best poetry collection of the year) and won a Scottish Arts Council book award. Her latest collection is Newborn, a collection of poems covering pregnancy, birth and caring for a new baby.


In this exercise, you're going to write a letter to someone you have lost....Read the rest of the exercise in THE GUARDIAN.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Washington, D.C. - 4Th of July
I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman


I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

THE ALGONKIAN

My essay, "The Tapestry of Place" appears in the new issue of THE ALGONKIAN. This is "a small periodical about books, authors, and publishing, prepared from time to time for friends of Algonquin and any others who might take joy in it."

I enjoy reading these essays, not only to find out about the new books forthcoming from Algonquin, but to read perspectives from each author on how their stories came to be, or what influenced them in the approach they took to their particular story.