February 9, 2012 • 3:07 pm Comments Off
I have a fascination with art by writers, especially the writers that I already like. Maybe that why I like this wonderful post about the wonderful poet, Mary Ruefle. The piece is by Douglas Glover on his web magazine Numero Cinq. In the post Doug shares postcards and stories about the poet. Here’s my favorite.
November 18, 2011 • 10:30 am Comments Off
A number of people have said nice things about my AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) campaign statement, so I decided to make it public. If you are an individual member of AWP, you are eligible to vote in the election. The deadline is November 22nd.
I am honored to be nominated to the AWP Board of Directors. I began attending the annual AWP conference a dozen years ago. For me, the yearly meeting represents a convergence of the various parts of my life. Each year I reconnect with classmates and professors from my undergraduate, MFA, and PhD programs. I catch up with colleagues and former students from schools and programs where I’ve taught. I meet new people each go-round and enjoy conversations with amazing authors, editors, and educators. These intersecting relationships will serve me well on the AWP Board.
Creating community is what I do every day as Executive Director of Writers in the Schools (WITS). I am proud to have been involved with WITS for the last 20 years and to have witnessed in person the long-term transformational work that we do. I have seen the effects of our program on thousands and thousands of children, many of whom are now adults who truly understand the pleasure and power of reading and writing. I have a deep connection with and investment in WITS, and I believe that my 2 decades of work have helped the organization to stay true to its original mission, but also evolve to face new challenges. This is the energy and vision that I will bring to AWP.
WITS is my job, my career, and my passion. I am proud of what we have accomplished. WITS is ranked the #1 literary arts organization in Texas. We’ve been named the best summer camp for kids in Houston. But, we never lose sight of what matters. 1523 West Main is not just an office where we run a business; it’s a house where we grow and plan and dream. We have a backyard where we plant rosemary, a calico cat that sleeps on our porch, and a kitchen where we drink coffee and read our horoscopes. These things make a difference. They remind us that we are a community and that WITS is all about people. AWP is about people, too. It’s not just panels, keynote addresses, and plenaries. Our connections and creativity run deeper.
My hope is that in the midst of what many are calling a “creativity crisis,” AWP will become a beacon. One of the best ways to do this is to continue our mission of reaching out to diverse writers and engaging in work together that we cannot accomplish alone. This past year I had the pleasure of helping to start a movement to bring poetry to new audiences. Public Poetry was recently named the best reading series in Houston. I believe that the value of poetry is for everyone. I’m proud to be a member of AWP because it enables writers to be artists, educators, professionals, and activists in a way that makes sense.
In addition to my work at WITS in Houston, I also lead the WITS Alliance, a group of 22 similar organizations with the same mission of literary education. Through this project, I assist writers as they create their own programs for young people, sharing my expertise in fundraising, teaching, budgeting, and entrepreneurship. The vision of the WITS Alliance is that one day every child will get the chance to work with a practicing writer in their own school or community.
As you know, Walt Whitman was a traveler at heart, and he never tired of meeting new people. With each new person, he listened carefully, and in listening, he heard amazing stories. As an AWP Board member, I will position myself as a listener in order to help AWP better meet the needs of writers and writing programs. The role of the AWP board is to provide leadership—in a volunteer capacity–to one of the largest literary communities. If elected to this position, I will be ready to serve.
Biographical Information:
Robin Reagler is the Executive Director of Writers in the Schools (WITS) in Houston, TX. Each year WITS serves 20,000 students in grades K-12 with long-term literary programs. Robin not only leads WITS in its Houston endeavors; she also heads the WITS Alliance, a national consortium of over 20 literary arts education groups. Through the alliance, she consults with writers starting new programs in the U.S. and Canada. Robin earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and a PhD from the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. Her poems have been published in Ploughshares, North American Review, American Letters & Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, and VOLT. Her chapbook, Dear Red Airplane, was published this year by Seven Kitchens Press.
Filed under: Poetry, Writers, AWP, houston, Iowa Writers Workshop, Master of Fine Arts, Robin Reagler, Walt Whitman
August 26, 2011 • 9:02 am Comments Off
The Listening Room by Rene Magritte
I was ready for a new experience.
All the old ones had burned out.
They lay in little ashy heaps along the roadside
And blew in drifts across the fairgrounds and fields.
From a distance some appeared to be smoldering
But when I approached with my hat in my hands
They let out small puffs of smoke and expired.
Through the windows of houses I saw lives lit up
With the otherworldly glow of TV
And these were smoking a little bit too.
I flew to Rome. I flew to Greece.
I sat on a rock in the shade of the Acropolis
And conjured dusky columns in the clouds.
I watched waves lap the crumbling coast.
I heard wind strip the woods.
I saw the last living snow leopard
Pacing in the dirt. Experience taught me
That nothing worth doing is worth doing
For the sake of experience alone.
I bit into an apple that tasted sweetly of time.
The sun came out. It was the old sun
With only a few billion years left to shine.
by Suzanne Buffam, “The New Experience” from The Irrationalist
The New Experience by Suzanne Buffam : The Poetry Foundation
Filed under: Art, Poetry, Writers, Suzanne Buffam
July 22, 2011 • 8:54 am Comments Off
My chapbook “Dear Red Airplane” arrived in today’s mail. It is published by Seven Kitchens Press. I suppose it’s both good news and bad news that it is already sold out. Seven Kitchens is a micro-press and they specialize in artful booklets in small print runs. If you’d like to request a second run, you can do so here.
Filed under: Books, Poetry, Writers, Dear Red Airplane, Robin Reagler, Seven Kitchens Press
April 1, 2011 • 12:12 pm 1
Filed under: Blogs, Current Events, Poetry, Writers, Writing Exercise, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month
June 7, 2010 • 12:20 pm Comments Off
Check out the latest in poet/artist/composer collaboration at Born Magazine. I always find something to love.
Artists in this issue:
Layne Braunstein, New York, New York
Martin Brolin, Stockholm, Sweden
Meredith Dittmar, Portland, Oregon
Dave Selden, Portland, Oregon
Writers in this issue:
Dan Albergotti, Conway, South Carolina
April Kopp, Chicago, Illinois
Zachary Schomburg, Portland, Oregon
Filed under: Art, Design, Music, Poetry, Web, Writers, born magazine
April 28, 2010 • 11:25 am Comments Off
I remember loving this series back in the 80s. Still ringing, I think.
Filed under: Art, Poetry, Writers, comics, humor, life in hell, matt groening, poet, sensitive poet
April 4, 2010 • 7:13 pm Comments Off
AWP 2010
Dusie Pussipo Stonecoast Femiganza
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Location: at Packing House Center for the Arts, 835 E. 50th Ave. Denver, CO 80216 map
Time: 7:00PM-10:00PM
Cost: FREE! Everybody welcome!
Website: http://controlgroupproductions.org/
Featuring: Bronwen Tate, Ann Bogle, Jennifer Karmin, Marthe Reed, Annie Finch, Amy King, Cara Benson, Mackenzie Carignan, Danielle Pafunda, Deborah Poe, Ana Božičević, Teresa Carmody, Kate Durbin, Megan Volpert, Sarah Rosenthal, Krystal Languell, K. Lorraine Graham, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Robin Reagler, Cheryl Pallant, Shanna Compton, Lara Glenum, Deb Marquart, Elizabeth Searle, and Mel Nichols.
Filed under: Current Events, Poetry, Writers, AWP 2010, AWP DEnver
February 26, 2010 • 7:52 am Comments Off
drawn on the burden of light
the pottery throw
in bleat turning
ballast makes fingers twitch
shutters close
“going to pour”
wet to root and pavement
tent sagging like an oyster
“the city has another soul”
gnat passes someone swallows
“another soul”
figurines
“the city also”
stole the bench and echoes
blight and shuttered bleat
soul chews a wilted corner
by Barbara Guest
from The Collected Poems of Barbara Guest (Wesleyan Poetry)
photo by artbychrysti via flickr
Filed under: Poetry, Writers, Barbara Guest
January 12, 2010 • 6:06 pm 1
slow fields blink past orchard in fall the stream moves clear
slow moves in fields blink past stream fall the clear orchard
slow fall moves fields blink clear past stream in the orchard
orchard slow fall past moves in blink clear fields the stream
fall moves clear past slow stream in fields the orchard blink
the slow blink past stream clear in fall fields orchard moves
past moves slow blink in fields orchard fall the clear stream
blink slow past moves fall stream clear fields the orchard in
orchard in stream clear fall blink past moves slow the fields
in slow past blink orchard fields stream the clear fall moves
in fall slow blink the past moves clear orchard stream fields
slow stream moves past fields clear in fall orchard the blink
blink the orchard fields in slow stream past clear fall moves
the past moves blink orchard slow in stream fields clear fall
clear moves the stream fall in orchard past blink fields slow
by Nate Pritts
published in Dear Sir
as well as in his new chapbook, Descriptive Sketches
the photo was originally uploaded to flickr by amy allcock.
Filed under: Books, Current Events, Photography, Poetry, Writers, nate pritts
January 10, 2010 • 9:45 am Comments Off
She sang beyond the genius of the sea. The water never formed to mind or voice, Like a body wholly body, fluttering Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry, That was not ours although we understood, Inhuman, of the veritable ocean. The sea was not a mask. No more was she. The song and water were not medleyed sound Even if what she sang was what she heard. Since what she sang was uttered word by word. It may be that in all her phrases stirred The grinding water and the gasping wind; But it was she and not the sea we heard. For she was the maker of the song she sang. The ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea Was merely a place by which she walked to sing. Whose spirit is this? we said, because we knew It was the spirit that we sought and knew That we should ask this often as she sang. If it was only the dark voice of the sea That rose, or even colored by many waves; If it was only the outer voice of sky And cloud, of the sunken coral water-walled, However clear, it would have been deep air, The heaving speech of air, a summer sound Repeated in a summer without end And sound alone. But it was more than that, More even than her voice, and ours, among The meaningless plungings of water and the wind, Theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped On high horizons, mountainous atmospheres Of sky and sea. It was her voice that made The sky acutest at its vanishing. She measured to the hour its solitude. She was the single artificer of the world In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea, Whatever self it had, became the self That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we, As we beheld her striding there alone, Knew that there never was a world for her Except the one she sang and, singing, made. Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know, Why, when the singing ended and we turned Toward the town, tell why the glassy lights, The lights in the fishing boats at anchor there, As night descended, tilting in the air, Mastered the night and portioned out the sea, Fixing emblazoned zones and fiery poles, Arranging, deepening, enchanting night. Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon, The maker's rage to order words of the sea, Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred, And of ourselves and of our origins, In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.
by Wallace Stevens
January 5, 2010 • 8:17 pm 3
This week I “met” Marta Pelrine-Bacon on a blog that I read regularly called Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. I’m totally gaga over her work. Wow!
Rabbit Looks Up
Her Sister Was Always Listening
January 5, 2010 • 5:40 pm Comments Off
Ancient , originally uploaded to flickr by Aligator2512.
Anyone going to the Key West Literary Seminar? If so, see you there!
Filed under: Art, Photography, Travel, Writers, key west literary seminars
January 3, 2010 • 7:26 pm Comments Off
Once again Delirious Hem brought us a marvel a day with their annual advent calendar. It is alive with pleasures. One of my very favorites is “New Year Second” by Kaia Sand. It was hard to make a choice; the whole project is a marvel.
Filed under: Current Events, Poetry, Web, Writers, poetry advent
December 3, 2009 • 5:04 pm Comments Off
I found this videopoem through my friend Laura Mullen, who posted it on facebook. The video is inspired by the poem “Going West” by Maurice Gee. The video is sponsored by the New Zealand Book Council. Fasten your reader’s seat belt.
Credits: Film for NZ Book Council
Produced by Colenso BBDO and
Animated by Andersen M Studio
Filed under: Books, Video, Writers, going west, marice gee, new zealand, reading books
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