"Pondering what qualifies as poetry," by James J. Kilpatrick from The Buffalo News, is yet another attempt by someone to nail down what poetry is or isn't.

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"Doctor heals with pain and poetry," by Courtney Perkes from ocregister.com, reports on oncologist Frank Meyskens' poetry inspired by his work as a cancer specialist.

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"Poet laureate sees magic in the ordinary," by Ellen Steinbaum from The Boston Globe, profiles Sam Cornish, Boston's new poet laureate.

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I'm not going to get into any political debates on my poetry blog. Y'all can go to the WritersDigest.com forum and start a thread on that. However, I found it interesting that these two stories just happened to pop into my inbox this morning:

"Maya Angelou's poem in praise of Hilary," by Vanessa Thorpe from Guardian Unlimited and The Observer, reports on Angelou's support of Hilary Clinton (and her conversations with Oprah Winfrey, who supports Barack Obama).

"A Poet Laureate for Ron Paul?," from Nolan Chart, attempts to make a case for Marc Scibilia to be the poet laureate for Ron Paul (as well as trying to generate canvassing crews for the Presidential candidate).

While I'm not going to argue that either article is filled with hard hitting news, I do find it interesting that poetry is not completely forgotten in the political process.

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Several poets blog. So thought I'd share some interesting pieces on blogging that some of my co-workers have been throwing online:

"20 Tips for Good Blogging," by Maria Schneider from The Writer's Perspective

"Best Blog Software for Writers," also by Maria

"What is a blog?," by Brian A. Klems from Questions and Quandaries

These articles should be of use to poets, whether you've thought about blogging or want to improve upon what you're already doing.

"Sean O'Brien wins unprecedented poetry double," by Sarah Crown from Guardian Unlimited, reports on O'Brien's winning of the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, making him the first author ever to win the UK's top two poetry awards in the same year. His collection, The Drowned Book, is described as "fierce, funny and deeply melancholy."

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"The Right Poet for Missouri," by John Mark Eberhart from KansasCity.com, approves of Missouri's first poet laureate: Walter Bargen.

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Came across the finalists for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle finalists for poetry titles in the PublishesLunch Deluxe newsletter. As reported in the newsletter, they are:

* Elegy, by Mary Jo Bang (Graywolf)
* Modern Life, by Matthea Harvey (Graywolf)
* Sleeping and Walking, by Michael O'Brien (Flood)
* The Ballad of Jamie Allan, by Tom Pickard (Flood)
* New Poems, by Tadeusz Rozewicz (Archipelago)

So, if you're looking for some new poetry to read, these might fit your needs.

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Also, here are some related links and stories on the finalists:

* "National Book Critics Circle Awards announced at City Lights," by Chronicle Staff Report from the San Francisco Chronicle

* "The 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists," from Critical Mass

* "Joyce Carol Oates leads National Book Critics Circle finalists," by AP from CNN.com

* Review of Elegy by Aaron Belz from STLtoday.com

* Review of Modern Life by Sarah Marine from The Inside Flap

* Review of Sleeping and Walking by Josh Weinstein from Art Voice 

* Review of The Ballad of Jamie Allen by Ange Mlinko from Poetry Foundation

* Review of New Poems by Elizabeth Wadell from The Quarterly Conversation

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Should also be noted that New Poems, by Tadeusz Rozewicz, was translated by Bill Johnston--so kudos should be sent his way as well for doing a fine translation.

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"Charles Simic sets scenes, probes inner realm in new collection 'Sixty Poems,'" by Barbara Berman from the San Francisco Chronicle, reviews the U.S. National Poet Laureate's latest collection of poetry from Harvest Books.

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"Must we admire a poet to honor his work?," by Al Martinez from the Los Angeles Times, covers a dispute over the fate of Charles Bukowski's former East Hollywood home where he wrote much of his work.

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A piece I wrote on Haiku is in the current issue of Writer's Digest at your local magazine rack. My piece, "The Soul of Brevity," is on pages 83 and 84 and includes how-to instruction, haiku history, exercises, resources, and more (all packed into 2 pages--seriously).

Of course, I wouldn't even think to plug myself, but my pals on Facebook have been giving me a hard time about not mentioning it on the blog. So there. Hope everyone's satisfied. It was definitely a great experience.

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Also, since I mentioned Facebook, feel free to befriend me on that social networking site. You can search for me as "Robert Lee Brewer." I'll be the one who looks like that dude up in the top left-hand corner of this page. But be warned: I'm likely to challenge you to a game of online Scrabble (not that there's much to fear in that, since I usually seem to lose).

Have a great weekend,

Robert

"'Everyday Poetry' Honors Dirty War Dead," by Bill Cormier from the Associated Press, discusses Poesia Diaria, edited by Virginia Giannoni, a collection of small notices published in Argentina newspapers called "recordatorios."

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When I'm not reading poetry, I love reading those Taschen art biographies. First, artists paint (hehe) interesting lives. Second, the paintings included in the biographies often work as excellent poetry prompts.

I'm reading about Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico at the moment. De Chirico worked as a surrealist and thought his life was connected to that of Friedrich Nietzche. As he found his voice (or do painters find their vision?), de Chirico grew increasingly fascinated with enigma.

Quick quote: "To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere." -Giorgio de Chirico

There's a lot of truth in this quote by de Chirico. While rules are the foundation of good writing, great writing often bends or breaks the rules slightly. The "imperfection" makes the work memorable and beautiful. It's not always the case, but technically perfect can often be perfectly technical (and boring). So getting back to de Chirico, art must push beyond the logic and common sense of good writing to become great writing.

Anyway, here are two poetry-related de Chirico images:

"The Poet and His Muse"

"The Delights of the Poet"

To get back to one of the reasons I read these art biographies, use these two images to jumpstart your own poem. If you feel so inclined, feel free to share on here.

Happy holidays!

...by Robert.

First off, this is the only time I'm going to accommodate one of these "tags" to do a list (all future requests will be ignored--excepting if my mom were ever to actually get online, create her own blog and then tag me, though the chances of that are pretty thin). Second, I'm only doing this one because I was tagged by Nancy's mom from her Lillian's Cupboard blog, which is a nice blog (and yes, that's the tagging rules I've set up for this blog--only mothers of the Poetic Asides founding bloggers can tag me, and, even then, only once per lifetime).

The rules were: When tagged you must linke to the person who tagged you (which I've done above); Post the rules before your list (doing this moment); List 8 random things about yourself (preparing to do); At the end of the post you must tag and link to 8 other people (which I do not plan on doing); Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog, linking back to your meme (again, "not gonna do it").

Here are 8 random things about me:

(drumroll)

1. I have a scar in the middle of my left eye brow from when I was a wee baby and got in a car accident with my father and little brother David. Apparently, this was back when people regularly tore seatbelts out of their vehicles and did not safely secure baby seats. In addition, baby seats weren't put in the back seat automatically (as they are, nowadays). So the story goes that David's seat got flipped in the car accident and was hanging upside down crying his head off, though without any physical damage. Meanwhile, I smacked my head up against the dashboard and began bleeding all over my face but did not cry (probably more a result of some concussion than any "baby toughness").

2. Around the age of eight, I remember volunteering to let the neighborhood "big kid," who was probably like 12 and hanging out with all these kids between the ages of five and eight, powerdrive me into the ground more than 10 times in a row. For those who don't know, a person who is powerdriven is turned upside down and basically dropped onto his head. (Yes, again with the abuse to my head.) It's amazing I did not become some kind of broken neck statistic back in the day.

3. My favorite movie is It's a Wonderful Life. There's a scene near the end that always makes me tear up--even if I only see that scene completely out of context of the rest of the movie. Of course, there's more to me loving that movie than just one scene. It actually has quite a few okay moments throughout.

4. I'm allergic to peppermint. While I can suck on a candy cane without sneezing, biting into peppermint usually causes an "Aaaaaachoo!"

5. I have two sons, ages four and six. They are absolutely wonderful and amaze me constantly.

6. Our department is having a holiday party this afternoon, which is why I've totally gone crazy with the blog posts this morning, I'm sure. Who's ready for some yummy lunch and dessert--and a white elephant gift exchange? Of course, the answer is me.

7. Which reminds me, I would've totally won my 3rd grade elementary school spelling bee if I would've remembered the "w" in answer. I spelled it A-N-S-E-R, and as a result, I had the wrong answer (hahahahaha, that one never gets old--don't laugh).

8. And these 7 reasons all led to me becoming a poet. Basically, it's unavoidable when you have a lot of early head trauma, mild allergic reactions to candy, two children, an upcoming party, 2nd best spelling skills, and a penchant for sappy black and white movies.

Be warned: It could happen to you. Now, my stomach is rumbling, and I'm gonna head on over to party central. Have a great weekend!