Poem Share and Other Good Finds Sunday/Monday

The poem I've selected for this week is Francisco X. Alarcón's "To Those Who Have Lost Everything" and I'm pairing it with the article below.

"Artists React to Mexico's Drug War With Music and Poetry" by Betty Arcos in NPR. Growing up and now again living in a border city, I feel the issues discussed in this article touch upon a familiar reality: violence on the border remains a mute point in today's media. I'm with Lili Downs in hoping "No evil can last a hundred years."

I posted Perpetual Follies' 2012 Pushcart Prize Rankings last week. Here is an article in Luna Park from Travis Kurowski that offers a different perspective: "Is Something Missing from the Pushcart Prize?" What are your thoughts?

Diane Lockward guides us in deciphering when a poem is ready to send out into the world. When do you feel your writing is ready to submit?

If you read anything this week, please read this touching story about stories "passing back through the heart" by Natalia Sylvester on her blog: "The Difference Between Recording and Remembering."

Come across any good reading this past week? What's on your desk for this week?

Wishing you a week full of wonder, Andrea

Poem Share and Other Good Finds Sunday

I love mail! New reading material...

The poem for this week is "Changing Genres" and comes from a book I am about to start reading, Dean Young's Fall Higher. I thought the mail would never arrive! There are other poems from his book included at this link. Which one is your favorite?


The Washington Post brimmed with great stuff this week. "Is poetry dead? Or, in the age of the Internet, does it offer us what nothing else can?" The photo gallery heading this post is a must-see. What does poetry bring to your life?

Clifford Garstang's 2012 Pushcart Prize Rankings for Poetry are out. He also compiles rankings on fiction and non-fiction.

An eloquent essay on poetry and its shifts of focus in life is Roya Hakakian's "A Revolution On The Page: Finding Identity in Poetry" and includes "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke.

There is a new eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women's Poetry out. Read about Fire on Her Tongue  on Diane Lockward's blog.

And last but not least, give yourself two minutes of joy by watching this video: The Joy of Books. What book would you want to see dancing along the shelves in this video?

Oh, and one last thing, the Winter issue of Rose & Thorn Journal came out this morning! I'm humbled to have two poems "Affair" and "Flying Ant" in their line up along with my friend Jill Klein's wonderful pair of poems "Migraine" and "Midnight Music."


Wishing you happiness in your week, Andrea