Poetry Goes to the Movies

If you’re interested in the intersection of poetry and film, drop in on Adam O. Davis and Colin Waters as their new podcast series, “Poetry Goes to the Movies,” examines films made by poets, films about poets, and how some of their favorite films address traditional poetic concerns. Three of the podcasts are now available on the Poetry Goes to the Movies website and all your favorite podcast sources.

chapbook launch

Floating Bridge Press invites you to join Judith Skillman and Margot Kahn for an online reading of their brand-new Floating Bridge chapbooks, “Oscar the Misanthropist” and “A Quiet Day with the West on Fire,” respectively.

The Zoom reading will be held this Sunday, December 5, 2021, at 4:00pm Pacific. The event is free but registration is required.

book launch

In celebration of this month’s publication of the Jim Harrison: Complete Poems, Copper Canyon Press will present an online book launch and reading on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 5:00pm Pacific. The thousand-page definitive collection

contains every poem Harrison published over his fifty-year career and displays his wide range of poetic styles and forms. Here are the nature-based lyrics of his early work, the high-velocity ghazals, a harrowing prose-poem “correspondence” with a Russian suicide, the riverine suites, fearless meditations inspired by the Zen monk Crazy Cloud, and a joyous conversation in haiku-like gems with friend and fellow poet Ted Kooser.

When Jim Harrison died in 2016, Copper Canyon became the steward of his poetic legacy. This milestone reading will feature Amy Hundley, Peter Lewis, John Freeman, and Joseph Bednarik. Learn more, watch a short introductory video, donate, register, and don’t miss The Heart’s Work: Jim Harrison’s Poetic Legacy.

Best-of season 2021-1

It’s here! As the year winds down, journals, pundits, and publishers trot out lists of their favorite books of the year. Some books make it onto several lists, but if you’re looking for poetry to read or give, this is a great place to begin. Here’s the first of the 2021 best-of lists:

• Biblioasis – Best Canadian Poetry 2021
• Entropy – Best of 2020-2021: Poetry Books & Poetry Collections
• Financial Times – Best books of 2021: Poetry
• The Irish Times – Best poetry books of 2021: A subversion of Wordsworth to a pandemic personified
• LitBowl – Best Poetry Books 2021
• The New York Times – 100 Notable Books of 2021 (includes two poetry titles)
• Reader’s Digest – 21 Best Poetry Books of All Time
• School Library Journal – Best Poetry 2021
• The Telegraph – The 10 best poetry books of 2021 so far

outdoors in Brooklyn

Molly Gross and Drew Pisarra, two conceptual artists otherwise known as Saint Flashlight (previously mentioned here), put poetry in unexpected places — on telephone poles, coffee sleeves, movie marquees, and, currently, on lighted screens and window monitors at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

For The Will of the City, Saint Flashlight invited playwrights and poets to pen sonnets inspired by the plays of Shakespeare. The words of more than a dozen poets are now being displayed in rotation at the theater and are also being distributed as printed postcards in the theater lobby. Participating poets include Anya Banerjee, Carol Triffle, Diane Mehta, Emmy Potter, Jeffrey Sweet, Malcolm Tariq, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Mónica de la Torre, Regie Cabico, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Urayoán Noel, Twinkle Burke, Will Eno, Kate Lutzner, and Steven Gaultney. The Will of the City continues through the end of the year.

See more of this and other Saint Flashlight activations on Facebook and on Instagram @saintflashlight.

world peace, one postcard at a time

World Peace Poets again invite you to participate in World Peace Poetry Postcard Month, sending one peace poem on a postcard each day of February 2022. Founded and managed by Carla Shafer and C.J. Prince, the annual event draws participants from around the world.

To participate, send an e-mail to worldpeacepoets AT gmail.com with your name and complete mailing address. You will receive instructions along with a list of 28 people for your peace poetry exchange. DEADLINE for signups is Saturday, January 22, 2022.

plaques on view

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to visit the newly (and wonderfully) remodeled downtown Bellingham Public Library, it’s here: the plaques of the 2021 Walk Award winners in the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest are now in place and will remain on view until the 2022 plaques are installed.

Along with the ten Walk poems, a plaque features a poem by the contest’s namesake, Sue C. Boynton, and another acknowledges this year’s generous donors: C S Downing, Solon & Sharon Boynton III, Louis & Janet Nelson, Evan Friedman, Jan Pierson, Luther Allen, and George Drake and the Drake Family Fund at Whatcom Community Foundation. Special thanks to the Bellingham Public Library and to the Birchwood Garden Club, which maintains the planters that are home to the plaques.

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pictured: “I Got Lost in my Book” by Peyton Eberhardt

robo-po

As if it’s not challenging enough to write a poem, humans are continually searching for ways that machines can do it better. Call it source code poetry, call it posthuman poetry, call it bot poetry, the efforts blend human and mechanical resources with results that seem ever more convincingly poetic.

Meet Ai-Da. Ai-Da is a robot, an artist, and now a poet. The creation of Aidan Meller, who is the director of the Aidan Meller art dealership in Oxford, England, Ai-Da has cameras in her eyes, mechanical arms, and a lot of human input. She has made drawings, paintings, and sculpture, and this week made her debut as a poet at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, where she offered her own poetry gleaned from the complete text of Dante’s The Divine Comedy. See video, and read more, including Carol Rumens’s comments on the poet’s efforts, in The Guardian.

today

cast your vote

The Choice Awards Opening Round Nominees for Best Poetry 2021 (and all the other literary categories) are now posted on Goodreads. The opening round continues through November 28, 2021; the final round runs November 30 through December 5; the winners will be announced on Thursday, December 9, 2021. Cast your votes for the books you love.