Reiter's BlockReiter's BlockWeblog of Jendi Reiter, poet, editor, Christian convert, ex-lawyer, ex-New Yorker, and professional curmudgeon. Articles
Rediscovering the Trinity (Part Three)
2008-04-17 18:16:00 Highlights of the final day of last week's "Rediscovering the Trinity " conference at Wheaton College (you knew there were going to be three posts in this series, didn't you?):Philip Butin, president of San Francisco Theological Seminary, was an engaging speaker who proposed that preaching could be a continuation of the divine speech that we find in the Bible . He cited the views of Calvin and other 16th-century Reformers that preaching didn't just expound God's word, it could be God's word under certain circumstances. Since the written text of Scripture is derived from a prior oral tradition, we can't say that God only works through written language. Proper preaching is not speech about God but speech by God, declaring what Jesus has said and done, and what He will do through the Spirit. To preach Christ means to allow the Spirit to speak through you. However, this is not automatic; the preacher has to unblock the channel for divine communication by staying ... More About: Part , The Trinity
Rediscovering the Trinity (Part Two)
2008-04-17 15:21:00 More highlights from last week's Wheaton College conference on "Rediscovering the Trinity ":Jonathan R. Wilson (Carey Theological College) and Steven M. Studebaker (McMaster Divinity College) gave presentations on the Trinity and the created world. Wilson summarized the thought of several theologians concerning the role played by each Person of the Trinity in creating and sustaining the cosmos. The late Colin Gunton, for example, elaborated on Irenaeus' metaphor that the Son and the Spirit are the two hands of God in the world. Gunton suggested that the Son is the unifying power of creation, reconciling all things and holding them together by his atonement, while the Spirit is the particularizing power of creation, guiding each part to reach that perfection appropriate to its nature. Through them, the Father both prevents creation from slipping back into chaos and restores its teleology. Meanwhile, according to Wilson, theologian Robert Jenson observed that the Trinitaria... More About: Bible , Part , The Trinity
Literary E-Zine Highlights: Ginosko, The Rose & Thorn
2008-04-16 13:40:00 Two favorite literary e-zines, Ginosko and The Rose & Thorn, have just released new issues. Some poems and stories that held my attention: Penny-Anne Beaudoin, "The Morning Routine"(The Rose & Thorn, Spring 2008)I can feel her cool blue eyes on my face as I struggle to pull her pressure stockings over her clawed feet, her shriveled calves.?You?re not very pretty, are you?? she says.I should have seen that coming, but I hesitate before replying.?No,? I say. ?I?m not.?...Read the rest here. ****Peter McGuire, "After 'The Emperor's New Clothes'" (The Rose & Thorn, Spring 2008)I love listening to bad poetryEspecially yoursThe way you enunciateLike a bus with cut brake linesVeering for the bay... Read the rest here. **** Dane Myers, "Sleeping With God"(Ginosko, Issue #6)Cynthia lifted her head from Dubliners and stared at the pale north wall, opposite their bed. Albuquerque?s April evenings were growing long and the fading light created a shadow that made the ironwood cros... More About: Highlights , Literary , E-Zine
Anointed by Art
2008-04-16 13:40:00 I had to share this quote from the latest Image Journal e-newsletter, summarizing an article in their print edition about artist Makoto Fujimura:Fujimura makes a powerful argument for art by citing the passage in the Gospels when Mary anoints the head of Christ with expensive perfume. He sees this as a warrant for art: something apparently luxurious and useless which somehow becomes an essential gesture of our humanity. The only earthly possession Christ wore on the Cross was the very aroma of the perfume Mary poured upon him. Visit the website for Fujimura's new book River Grace here.More good stuff from Image: Read poet Franz Wright's "Language as Sacrament in the New Testament" here. A sample:Sin first results from all our attempts to escape or briefly elude the horrors of our physical condition here (which are part of free will?s gift, that is, an inevitable side effect and accompaniment to the gift of life, of sentience, just as pain and illness are an inevitable accompanimen...
Rediscovering the Trinity at Wheaton (Part One)
2008-04-15 13:25:00 The annual theology conference at Wheaton College in Illinois is one of the spiritual high points of my year. Wheaton is the evangelicals' Harvard, a small school located on an idyllic and superhumanly neat campus in the Chicago suburbs. This year's topic was "Rediscovering the Trinity : Classic Doctrine and Contemporary Ministry". The Trinity is wonderful because, as Calvin College professor John Witvliet noted, its dynamic reconciliation of opposites (divine/human, unity/plurality, spiritual/physical) counteracts our perpetual tendency to reify particular concepts and then dismiss all aspects of life that fall outside our favorite abstract scheme. Nietzsche wrote that in every ascetic morality, man adores one aspect of himself as god and demonizes the rest. An incarnational, Trinitarian faith is anti-ascetic, frustrating our legalistic binary oppositions and the scapegoating that occurs when we inevitably project the disfavored trait onto some social group (as in, ... More About: Bible , Part
Depersonalizing Rejection
2008-04-08 16:26:00 On the website of the literary fiction journal Glimmer Train, prolific novelist Catherine Ryan Hyde shares some helpful thoughts about not reading too much into those inevitable rejection slips. Hyde writes, "I think the most damaging misconception about rejection is that your work has been judged as 'bad.' You feel insulted. You feel you've been told you're not good enough for that publication. But in reality, you don't know how it was received. You were not present behind the scenes to know." Taste is subjective, she cautions, and in publications with limited space, the difference between acceptance and rejection may come down to an editor's quirky personal connection with the piece, or whether it diversifies the mix of already-accepted work for that issue. "It's hard to quantify why we fall in love with a piece of writing. I do know this: If we dated someone who didn't fall in love with us, most of us would not conclude we were unlovable. We'd assume others might feel di... More About: Rejection
M. Lee Alexander: Poems from "Observatory"
2008-04-01 17:16:00 I've recently finished M. Lee Alexander 's poetry chapbook Observatory, published last year by Finishing Line Press, and found it to be an insightful and enjoyable book. Clear-sighted, modest and wise, the narrator of these poems takes us to London, China, Japan, and post-Katrina New Orleans, always with an eye for the moments of common humanity that open up intimacy between strangers. Below are two of my favorite poems from this collection, reprinted by permission.Dress RehearsalTheatre in the RoundMy father dyedhis hair red for the Claudius Play(or so I called it, wanting himto be the star--till mom told mehe was a bad guy--then I criedand called it Hamlet). He wouldcome home from rehearsalorange-headed, my father and yet notmy father, almost like a clown I watchedhim practice falling. We went to seethe make-up place before the play wheremom said, It's OK, the knives aren't real,but my father reaching for his rust-stained ;combdropped the stagep... More About: Poems , Book Reviews
Walter Brueggemann: "Infallibility" Versus Faithful Imagination
2008-03-30 17:28:00 Image #55 (Fall 2007) ran an interview with the notable Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann that led off with some questions on the role of the imagination in Biblical faith. His remarks, excerpted below, could serve as my own manifesto for how I read the Bible as an artist and a Christian. (The full article is not available online, so buy the issue and read their symposium on "Why Believe in God?" with Wim Wenders, B.H. Fairchild, Doris Betts and others.) ...[W]hat we always do with the biblical text, if we want it to be pertinent or compelling or contemporary, is commit mostly unrecognized acts of imagination by which we stretch and pull and extend the implications of the text far beyond its words.I have come to the rather simplistic notion that imagination is the capacity to image a world beyond what is obviously given. That's the work of poets and novelists and artists--and that's what biblical writers mostly do. I think that's why people show up at church. They wan... More About: Imagination , Versus , Faithful
Speak Up for Gay Rights at the United Methodist General Conference
2008-03-26 15:43:00 Soulforce, an interfaith organization that advocates for GLBT rights through nonviolent resistance, will be sending volunteers to witness at the United Methodist General Conference, which will be held in Fort Worth, TX on April 23-May 2. The United Methodists are the second-largest US Protestant denomination. According to Soulforce's newsletter, under current UM policy: Local UM pastors have the power to deny membership to gay and lesbian Christians. UM pastors are barred from performing marriage or commitment ceremonies for same-gender couples. Openly gay and lesbian people are banned from the ministry. Transgender people face potential exclusion from the ministry. Gay and lesbian youth are taught that being true to themselves is "incompatible with Christian teaching." To sign up to join Soulforce's nonviolent demonstration on April 25-27, click here. To read more about the debate within the Methodist church, visit the website of Affirmation: United Methodists... More About: Site News , Rights , Gay Rights
Kyle McDonald's "The Rose of Ilium" Now on AudioBookRadio
2008-03-26 15:21:00 Canadian actor and writer Kyle McDonald won our most recent Winning Writers War Poetry Contest last year with his masterful epic poem "The Rose of Ilium", a stirring account of a battle between Greeks and Amazons in the Trojan War. His multimedia presentation of his poem is being broadcast this week on the UK's AudioBookRadio.net (playing time: 23 minutes). You can also watch the video and read the entire poem on our website. Here's an excerpt:...Th'alarums sound with direful clarionAnd forward races the bright Danąän,Whose coursers, both bread of immortal stock,Cause all the lesser steeds therewith to baulk;Nor Amazon nor Dardan faced the youth,Fearing an execution too uncouth;Yet, this did not forestall their bloody fate,As he with spear sought foes to extirpate:One caught his javelin beneath the arm;Another from his blade took mortal harm,As head from neck was rashly severčd;His spear recovered, to the fray he sped,His ruby chariot thundering as he went.A surly Amazon from lif... More About: Site News
Alleluia, Alleluia!
2008-03-23 17:28:00 Alleluia, alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise:Sing to God a hymn of gladness, sing to God a hymn of praise.He, who on the cross a Victim, for the world's salvation bled,Jesus Christ, in holiness and glory, now is risen from the dead.Christ is risen, Christ, the first fruits of the holy harvest field,Which will all its full abundance at Christ's second coming yield:Then the golden ears of harvest will their heads before Christ wave,Ripened by Christ's glorious sunshine from the furrows of the grave.Christ is risen, we are risen! Shed upon us heavenly grace,Rain and dew and gleams of glory from the brightness of God's face;That we, with our hearts in heaven, here on earth may fruitful be,And by angel hands be gathered, and be ever, God, with you.Alleluia, alleluia! Glory be to God on high;Alleluia! to the Savior who has gained the victory;Alleluia! to the Spirit, fount of love and sanctity:Alleluia, alleluia! to the Triune Majesty.Words: Christopher Wordsworth (19thC)Music... More About: Episcopal
Thousand Kites Launches National Criminal Justice Project
2008-03-20 10:13:00 Thousand Kites is a community-based multimedia project that advocates reforms to the US criminal justice system, using live performances, film screenings, radio broadcasts and the Internet. This month they hope to arrange a hundred screenings of the documentary "Up the Ridge", a film about one community's experience using prisons as economic development and the resulting human rights violations. "Up the Ridge" takes you inside the super-maximum-security Wallens Ridge prison in Virginia, and looks at the personal devastation and racial conflicts that resulted when hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority prisoners were transferred to this rural facility, far from their families and neighborhoods. Click here to order the film, which comes with a guide to setting up a community screening, and other bonus tracks. This outreach effort supports the American Friends Service Committee's STOPMAX Campaign to abolish torture and solitary confinement in US prisons. Read prisoner... More About: National , Justice , Project , Thousand , Criminal
Uncertainty and Christian Writing
2008-03-18 17:21:00 The new literary journal Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression continues a trend begun by Image and Rock & Sling, providing a home for creative writing that takes Christian faith seriously without sacrificing literary and moral complexity. My novel excerpt "Bride of Christ", about a young woman torn between loyalty to her gay brother and her evangelical family, will be published in Relief later this year. In this interview on their website, guest editor Jill Noel Kandel shares some perceptive advice about what separates Christian literature from doctrinal or inspirational writing: Relief: A number of our nonfiction submissions are more like articles or even sermons and not what we at Relief think of as creative nonfiction. How can writers be sure their work is appropriate for Relief before they submit?Jill: Christian writing has many avenues. Doctrinal, devotional, and magazine article writing seem to be prominent. I would say that Relief wants to publish fiction, n... More About: Site News , Writing
Holy Week in the Blogosphere
2008-03-17 18:51:00 Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and this weekend, unbelievable as it seems to us in the Northeast who still see snow instead of crocuses on our lawns, will be Easter. Lent is my favorite season of the Christian year, a time when I can get serious about some spiritual problem or slackness of will. Since it's only forty days (and it seemed shorter this year, somehow), I'm not daunted by the prospect of an open-ended vow, the promise to "never do that again" which undermines itself from the start by its very implausibility. It's like Anne Lamott's cure for writer's block: rather than sit down to the monumental task of "writing your novel", she suggests that you resolve every day to write as much as will fit within a one-inch picture frame. Well, I didn't do that, but I did more or less keep my Lenten resolution to stop talking to my novel characters instead of Jesus. What I discovered, when I no longer had my imaginary friend telling me "Girl, you look fabulous, and I love y... More About: Bible , Blogosphere , Week , Episcopal , Holy
Jendi Reiter's Chapbook "Hound of Heaven" Forthcoming from Southern Hum Pre
2008-03-08 20:49:00 My poetry chapbook Hound of Heaven was a runner-up for the inaugural Women of Words Award from Southern Hum Press and will be published this fall. Thanks, Southern Hum! I'll include a purchasing link on this site when the book is out. Below, a sample:Hound of Heaven ; for FranIt had been raining days when the voiceasked me to pull over by the river.Not a voice to be heard but simply a must:the arm moves with the thought, no word says Move.The branches cocked like muskets, spearing the sky,were soaked black, clouds wind-whipped dogscringing like cavemen placatingthe weather of doom they thought was God.Is that all I am, that bared animal neck?I had let the pearls roll from my hands like water,thinking anything precious could save itself.I was silently wed to the clever,dazzled by small explanations.Still I turned the car, slowed, stood under the fallof cold silver needles like a sick child prayingbe good and i... More About: Site News , Poems
Sara Miles on the Idolatry of the Family
2008-03-07 17:08:00 Poet and journalist Sara Miles , whose conversion memoir Take This Bread has just been released in paperback, preached this sermon last summer at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church (San Francisco) about an all-too-common misunderstanding of Christian "family values". Just as in Jesus' day, "family" is not merely a sentimental tableau; it is a circle of power that defines who possesses status and purity, and who does not. Jesus says, I?ve come to bring fire to the earth and destroy your family. Do you think I?ve come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. What?s burning up here isn?t just money, as it was in the Gospel last week. It isn?t just religion, as it was two weeks ago when poor Peter tried to make a shrine to the ancestors to protect him from the blazing fire of the transfiguration. What Jesus is burning up in this reading is the past, and the future of the world as we see it in human terms. He?s replacing it with the fire of the perpetual pres... More About: Family , Bible
Jesus the Oyster-Man
2008-03-03 11:57:00 Today in the Anglican cycle of prayer we commemorate the brothers John and Charles Wesley, whose revival movement within the Anglican Church gave rise to the Methodist denomination. James Kiefer at The Daily Office tells this story of one Wesleyan preacher's creative misreading of the Bible : [A]lthough Wesley found it natural to approach the Gospel with habits of thought formed by a classical education, he was quick to recognize the value of other approaches. The early Methodist meetings were often led by lay preachers with very limited education. On one occasion, such a preacher took as his text Luke 19:21, "Lord, I feared thee, because thou art an austere man." Not knowing the word "austere," he thought that the text spoke of "an oyster man." He spoke about the work of those who retrieve oysters from the sea-bed. The diver plunges down from the surface, cut off from his natural environment, into bone-chilling water. He gropes in the dark, cutting his hands on the sharp ... More About: Jesus , Episcopal
Poet Steve Fellner on the Joys of Insignificance; Pat Strachan on When Not
2008-02-28 17:54:00 Poet Kate Greenstreet blogs at Every Other Day, where she's compiled an archive of over 100 interviews with contemporary poets about the road to first-book publication and how it changed their life (or not). I especially treasure these tongue-in-cheek words of wisdom from Steve Fellner, whose book Blind Date with Cavafy won the 2006 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize: I had been sending my book out for many years, and I was crazy determined to get a book of poetry published. I got an MFA and PhD in creative writing. During all this time, I was sending out various incarnations of the book. No one wanted it. It was (and still is) an uneven book, but there were a lot of worse books out there, and I liked sending things out in the mail. Even when you get a rejection in the mail (and I got a zillion of them), it's always fun to have opened the envelope. It's like watching the Oscars. Even if the actor you love loses, you at least enjoy the spectacle.I knew my book would never be accep... More About: Book Reviews , Poet
Poem: "The Common Question"
2008-02-27 12:12:00 My poem "The Common Question " appears in Issue #11 of The Other Journal, an online review of Christianity and culture. The Other Journal features scholarly essays, creative writing, and artwork; themes change with each issue. Currently they are accepting submissions on Education.Also worth noting in Issue #11, "The Atheism Issue," are Randal Rauser's essay on the proper roles of apologetics and personal testimony in making Christianity seem plausible to a skeptical audience, and Somanjana C. Bhattacharya's article on how activists are pressuring Craigslist to stop running "erotic services" ads that sell trafficked women and children. The Common Question "Wh at does Charlie want?" ? John Greenleaf Whittier Oh, the unfairness of being myself. There ought to be a rule. So many days as a little boy, so many days as a deer, a centipede, a Masai warrior, a wealthy old lady with too many rings, on an ocean liner. And as a blacksnake, a woma... More About: Poems , Poem
George Herbert: "The Flower"
2008-02-27 12:00:00 Today in the Anglican calendar we commemorate George Herbert , one of the great 17th-century metaphysical poets (1593-1633). According to the thumbnail bio at The Daily Office, he spent most of his short life as an humble and well-loved parish priest in a village near Salisbury, England. His reputation rests on a single book of poems, The Temple, that was published after his death by his friend Nicholas Ferrar. Below, his poem "The Flower " testifies to the dizzying emotional highs and lows of the spiritual life and how God's constancy alone brings peace. I find it comforting that even a great Christian poet like Herbert had the same struggle for equanimity as the rest of us.The Flower How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! even as the flowers in spring; To which, besides their own demean, The late-past frosts tributes of pleasures bring. ; Grief melts away ... More About: Episcopal
Charles Wesley: "Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown"
2008-02-26 14:52:00 An ongoing paradox of my spiritual life is the interplay of willpower and surrender. I am flung back most heavily upon God when I reach the limits of my moral or intellectual abilities to solve some problem. At such times I must learn to quit thrashing around and trust that God will reveal the way forward in His own good time. I have an aversion to inactivity, which always feels to me like edging close to the precipice of depression. Yet, as anyone who's practiced meditation can testify, rest is not the same as passivity or inaction. Stillness is hard work! That's where the willpower comes in. Not to batter my way bull-headedly through my problems on my own, but to cling with all my might to the promises of God, and refuse to be distracted by subtle doubts and speculations. "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Cor 2:2) Richard F. Lovelace recently sent me a link to this classic hymn by Charles Wesley , a presentat... More About: Bible , Unknown
Painted Prayerbook Sketches Journey of Faith
2008-02-23 18:39:00 Artist Jan Richardson, whom I discovered through the Image Journal e-newsletter, blogs about faith and the creative process at The Painted Prayerbook. Her meditations on Bible readings from the Episcopal lectionary are accompanied by simple yet rich abstract paintings and collages that express her intuitive response to the text. Recent posts that resonated with me include The Red Circle, about setting aside the ego in order to discern when your work is complete; and Transfiguration Sunday: Mum's the Word (Maybe), where Richardson asks how the artist knows when, and in what medium, to tell a story that is important to her:...In the absence of being able to build physical dwellings, the disciples would have wanted, I suspect, to construct a story about their mountaintop experience: a container of words, at least, that would help them hold and convey what had happened to Jesus and to themselves. Perhaps anticipating this, Jesus enjoins them not to tell what has transpir... More About: Faith , Journey , Sketches
New Poems from "Conway": "City Limits" and "Streets"
2008-02-21 17:21:00 My prison pen pal "Conway" returns with new poems that move deeper into surreal territory. I like how he's moved away from his reliance on Gothic-horror imagery to more subtle and original metaphors. I sent him poems by John Milton, Carl Phillips and Ariana Reines this month, so look for even stranger poems in the weeks ahead. We're currently seeking a publisher for a chapbook of his work. If you have a lead, please comment below. Meanwhile, some selections: City Limits Exploring her every nook & cranny:This neon-lit City of Angelscarefully, I pried opena glass eyed time-piecesand slithering arteries of Gritbecame avenues of dead starsmixed among flotsam and jetsam once againA globe-lit recalcitrant flameLamp-light of our dark-voided spacesucked into a whirlpoolsiphoned througha pocket-knife sliced Garden hoseFuel, for a stolen car's joyrideSo lonely for comfort; Yet so alive... ******** Streets Delay this intrepid LIFE (left behind)hand-washed away, by years of ... More About: Poems
Support Soulforce "Right to Marry" Campaign in New York
2008-02-14 20:06:00 Roses fade and chocolates disappear (especially around my house), but certain Valentine's Day gifts can make a lasting impact. This month, young adult volunteers from the progressive interfaith organization Soulforce will return to New York State to ask business and community leaders to support full marriage equality for same-sex couples. Last year, Gov. Eliot Spitzer introduced a gay-marriage bill that was passed by the state Assembly in June, but the Republican-controlled Senate did not let it come to a vote. To donate to the Soulforce Right to Marry Campaign , click here. Also, because we love Hugo and chinchillas are cute, click here. More About: Site News , Support
Carl Phillips: "Parable"
2008-02-13 16:05:00 There was a saint once,he had but to ring acrosswater a small bell, allmanner of fishrose, as answer, he wasthat holy, persuasive,both, or the fishperhaps merelyhungry, their bodiesa-shimmer withthat hope especially thathunger brings, whateverthe reason, the fishcoming unassigned, inschools cominginto the saint's hand and,instead of getting,becoming food.I have thought, since, ofyour body ? as I first cameto know it, how it stillcan be, with mine,sometimes. I think onthat immediate and last gestureof the fish leaving waterfor flesh, for guaranteethey will die, and I cannotrest on what to call it.Not generosity, ora blindness, trust, brutestupidity. Not the souldistracted from its naturalprayer, which is attention,for in the story they arepaying attention. Theylose themselves eyes open.Read more poems from Phillips ' collection Pastoral (Graywolf Press, 2002) here. More About: Carl , Parable
PEN Prison Writing Contest Winners Posted
2008-02-12 20:37:00 The PEN American Center, a writers' association that defends freedom of expression and other human rights, offers an extensive Prison Writing Program that mentors incarcerated writers and promotes their work through readings and publications. The winners of their 2007 writing contest are currently online. I was especially impressed with J.E. Wantz's first-prize essay "Feeling(s) Cheated". Part memoir, part political analysis, this piece describes the author's treatment with the antidepressant Paxil. Wantz asks tough questions about what the individual, and society, gains or loses by medicating the symptoms rather than addressing the causes of sorrow, anger, and shame. When does medication become a crutch, as well a cheaper alternative to rehabilitating the prisoner? What is the true self, and at what cost are we willing to experience its emotional highs and lows? Wantz recounts a traumatic encounter with a volunteer preacher who denounced antidepressants ... More About: Contest , Winners
Jesus Won't Make Me a Supermodel
2008-02-10 18:46:00 As research for my novel (what a good excuse that is), I've begun watching the fashion-industry reality shows on Bravo. I'm sporadically following "Project Runway", since I haven't warmed up to this year's contestants, but my real addiction is the ultimate bitch-fest "Make Me a Supermodel ". I could do without the manufactured interpersonal drama, especially this week when they all ganged up on Katy because she was eating carbs. Honestly, I'm just interested in the clothes. (I was pulling for Holly a couple of weeks ago because her Christian principles made her uncomfortable doing a soft-core photo shoot, but since then, she's been just as catty as everyone else.) For maximum cognitive dissonance, I'm currently reading Gregory Boyd's Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgment to the Love of God. Boyd argues that Christians should be characterized by nonjudgmental love, rather than by willingness to make moral pronouncements. Only an omniscient God c... More About: Jesus , Book Reviews
Jill Alexander Essbaum: "Wednesday, Ash"
2008-02-06 19:37:00 Nothing of me will survive.This body that I wear will dieand my mouth--nevermind its loveliness--is set to shut itself into a sorrow the sizeof restlessness and lack.The lips go too. They slackat the corners crying no, no but still they go. They do not talk back.And then for every finger I have counted on--so many times--there is a going, and a gone.They leave to rest in pieces with once sad and pretty hands of griefwaiting for an Easter dawn(which no one hears approaching when they're buri ed underneath the ground).And my feet cannot quit thinking quickstep, swing, the soundof toe taps or a waltz. Hush. No dancing for the dead. The ball is done. The slipper? Nowhere to be found. And my belly, full or no is quiet.Then it will feast as a ghost feasts--on nothing, a dietof sediment, sleep, a lily or two.I shall not fuss, I shall not make riotor rivalry any, any more. The eyes are vacant, tenantless,for they hav... More About: Book Reviews , Jill , Alexander , Episcopal , Wednesday
Back from AWP: Preliminary Report
2008-02-04 22:23:00 My husband and I returned yesterday from three action-packed days at the AWP literary conference in New York City, the largest annual event for poetry publishers, literary journals and university presses. We handed out hundreds - maybe thousands! - of Winning Writers contest flyers, hung around with editors from our favorite magazines, and picked up numerous books that I'll be blogging about over the next few weeks. (Especially if I give up computer solitaire for Lent.) Some highlights: Rebecca Wolff from the experimental poetry publisher Fence Books plied us with fortune cookies containing fabulous prizes (I won a free subscription to their journal), but their handsomely designed books needed nothing to sweeten the deal. After picking up Ariana Reines' The Cow, winner of their 2006 Alberta Prize, I went back to Rebecca the next day and said, "I just want to stand here and tell everyone to buy this book, it redefines what poetry should do!"... More About: Site News , Book Reviews , Report , Back
Mark Doty: "At the Gym"
More articles from this author:2008-01-28 14:06:00 This salt-stain spotmarks the place where menlay down their heads,back to the bench,and hoist nothingthat need be liftedbut some burden they've chosenthis time: more reps,more weight, the upward shoveof it leaving, collectively,this sign of where we've been:shroud-stain, negativeflashed onto the vinylwhere we push somethingunyielding skyward,gaining some powerat least over flesh,which goads with desire,and terrifies with frailty.Who could say who'sadded his heat to the nimbusof our intent, here wherewe make ourselves:something difficultlifted, pressed or curled,Power over beauty,power over power!Though there's something moretender, beneath our vanity,our will to become objectsof desire: we sweat the markof our presence onto the cloth.Here is some halothe living made together.Read more poems and essays by prizewinning author Mark Doty on the Academy of American Poets website. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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