Flowers for the Poets

Now that I’m back home for a bit, I wondered what a poetry reading would look like on Twitter. How does one give a poetry reading on Twitter? What do we poets do there?

Susan Rich, Kelli Agodon, January O’Neill, D.A. Powell, Collin Kelley, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil agreed to join me (Deborah Ager) in a poetry reading/party online in front of all who care to join. On the basis of their agreement to join me, I can attest to their adventurous natures.

The Twitter Poet Party may be nothing like a reading. You will not be at a college in a comfortable seat or in a bar with a beer. You will not get extra credit for attending. You might be at home in a comfortable seat with a beer. That could be good, right? You don’t have to wear shoes. You don’t have to talk to anyone. To communicate, you will have to type. If you have a sexy voice, it will do you no good. You can lurk and people won’t think you’re weird, because no one has to know you’re lurking. Are you seeing the possibilities?

Please join Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Kelli Agodon, January O’Neill, D.A. Powell, Deborah Ager, Collin Kelley, and Susan Rich for this Twitter Poet Party. Follow the #poetparty hashtag. Ask questions. “Listen” to poems. Sunday, October 24 @ 9 pm ET. As you may know, a hashtag looks like this #poetparty and helps people focus on certain conversations on the constantly moving stream that is Twitter.

Oh! The flowers in the photo? They are for the poets, and they’ll never dry out.

Although August has not ended and we’re still having
90-degree days, it’s felt like September for several weeks
in terms of work load.

Recently, I finished a poetry interview for the Sotto Voce Poetry Festival. Next up, I’ll be packing to head south for the Decatur Book Festival where the wonderful Blue Elephant Books of Decatur, GA will sell books.

Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 11:15 am: Decatur Book Festival
Eddie’s Attic
Decatur, GA
Poetry reading with Sabrina Orah Mark and Ron Egatz

September 10, 2010: NPR interview airs
Baltimore NPR station
On radio and via internet webcast

Friday, September 24, 2010: Stain of Poetry
Goodbye Blue Monday
1087 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11221-3013
Readers: William Joseph Friend, Eric Amling, Sean Singer, Deborah Ager

October 1-3, 2010: Sotto Voce Poetry Festival
Shepherdstown, WV
Panel with Peter Stitt of Gettysburg Review
Poetry Reading

October 7-28, 2010: The Writer’s Center
508 Walsh Street
Bethesda, MD 20815
First Poetry Books Class
In this course, we’ll read and discuss four first poetry books in order to hone our critical eye while discovering what contributes to creating a cohesive poetry collection. We’ll spend one class period discussing each book. Books: Amy Lemmon’s Saint Nobody, Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Miracle
Fruit, Jeannine Hall Gailey’s Becoming the Villainess, and Charles Jensen’s The First Risk.

Online Poetry Class
Take this poetry course from anywhere.
October, 2010

Karen Maezen Miller and Kelli Russell Agodon gave me the idea to give away TWO books in celebration of National Poetry Month.

It’s hard to give away books I like. That’s part of the reason I want to do it.

The Skinny on the Free Book Giveaway

I will pack up the book and send it to you at no charge. There will be two winners — one for each book. Leave your name in the comments. I will pick winners at random.

For the “book by someone else part,” I am giving away Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair translated by W.S. Merwin. This particular edition includes drawings (possibly ink and charcoal) of women every few pages between the poems. The small book will probably make you happy.

Verse collection by Pablo Neruda, published in 1924 as Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada. The book immediately established the author’s reputation and became one of the most widely read collections of poetry written in Spanish. The 20 love poems of the title poignantly describe remembered affairs with two women: a girl from the poet’s native town of Temuco and a classmate at the University of Santiago. The collection begins with intensity, describing sensual passion that slackens into melancholy and detachment in the later verses. The closing poem, “A Song of Despair,” hopelessly dwells upon bitter emotions. — The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

The second book is my own Midnight Voices. I will sign it for you and send it to you for Zero Dollars.

Midnight Voices by Deborah Ager

Remember to leave your name in the comments to enter this contest. I will choose a winner towards the end of April 2010.

I’m writing this to tell you I am taking myself less seriously. Since less is more, I am taking myself more seriously as well.

If you would like to join me, I would like the company. We can take ourselves more or less seriously together or be seriously less or more.

I was back in Iowa. Back to the expanse of white and at the end of 80 days of snow coverage. The deer stood hungry on the hills. The car crept past the muffler factory.

1. There is no balance. Everything comes at once. Stay present to what’s around you.

2. What am I reading? This is the perfect question to wipe my brain clean as a clean chalkboard. I should use this question on myself when I want peace and complete emptiness of mind. I have read The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. He mentions living poets by name in a novel. That seems to break a rule. I don’t know which rule. But good for him. I read Ignore Everybody by a man who doodles on business cards for a living. I read the Drake University student magazine (it’s well designed) and read of Guerilla Gardeners who plant flowers on public property in the middle of the night. Planting a flower on public property without permission is technically a crime. I do not know if these gardeners ever doodle. I read of someone shooting people at the Pentagon. I read Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath. I read about Vitamin D in Nutrition Action Newsletter.

3. I organized my book by instinct. One could say it’s geographically organized. One could say whatever they would like. One could say it’s not organized at all.

4. I go by feel. I learn rules. I forget them. I mess the rules up. The wrong words fire from my brain, and I write anyway. I revise.

Q: Though relatively new to the publishing world, 32 Poems has already become a respected source for talented poets. How do you and your editors select the poems for each issue?

See details below and please come by if you’ll be around.

12:00pm
Poetry of Independent Presses
Thu, September 24, 12pm – 1pm
M&T Bank Tent, Outside the Johnson Center, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030
Poets Deborah Ager and Charles Jensen read from their first books, both published with independent publishers.

List of participants at Fall for the Book.

Wednesday, June 17, 7-8:30 pm: Richard Peabody (Gargoyle, Last of the Red Hot Magnetos), Maria Padhila (Capitol Cougar), Deborah Ager, Dallas Corsair (Z-Spot) and open mic.

I read a poem called “To the Dictator from the Diplomat’s Wife” and the speaker recalls having the dictator to dinner and how she’d really have preferred to serve him a reduction of rodents. When the musician took the stage, he shared a story about his family having a dictator to dinner. See, it does happen.

Should you find yourself near R & 1st Streets or even near 1st and R, NW in Washington, DC, might I recommend the Big Bear Cafe? At lunch, they have sandwiches for $5 and a corner “see-all and see-everyone” view of the neighborhood.

C.A., someone I knew in 7th grade, showed up to the reading thanks to the power of Facebook. I’ll never say Facebook did nothing for me. Another friend wrote to say he planned to surprise me (in from North Carolina!) at the reading but a head cold took him out at the last minute. Then, he had the audacity to pass his head cold onto his wife. Perhaps it’s for the best. I may have been in complete shock at two completely unexpected out-of-town or from-a-long-time-ago folks being in attendance.

The reading was lovely. Breeze blew in from numerous windows. A drunk appreciated us all from the far back, and who doesn’t want appreciation.