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Survivor Poet Discussion:
“why you voted a poet off our Island, your comments on the poems we choose for you to read each week...”
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“Which book would you take to a desert island?” is so last year! This year, you get stuck on a deserted island with... SURVIVOR POET!
That’s right. You choose. Who will survive?
- Anna “Saint Voice” Akhmatova, the walking history of Russian history, antihistory... the woman whose voice cuts specific and sideblades gender. Sexy, political, and pure.
- Charles “Bad Boy” Baudelaire, mad druggie of 19th century Paris, the discoverer of Poe... Who else would write Flowers of Evil?
- Geoffrey “Jolly Forth” Chaucer... yup, he started it: English, of the oldye variety. Canterbury Tales crosses geography, sociology and literary genres -- and bawdy?! Read Wife of Bath!
- Emily “The Virgin” Dickinson, or as Susan Howe says, “My Emily Dickinson.” As Edward Hirsch pointed out, she bound the poems into fascicles... even as a private silence she was a book person.
- Li “Wiseguy” Po, out of the T’ang Dynasty, the maestro himself. Author of 100,000 poems, all of them better than anything you’ll ever write, he died jumping into the moon (late, drunk, in canoe, caught sight of the moon’s refection, plop).
- Edgar “Nevermore” Allan Poe, was not yet three when his mother died. He was in the room, with his little brother, when she died. He spent over two days with the corpse before someone else showed up, had an intimate relationship with death throughout his life. Catch Dr. John reading the little-known story, “Bereneice,” on Hal Willner’s unsung genius Closed on Account of Rabies: Poems & Tales of EAPoe CD.
- Ezra “The Genius” Pound, genius, anti-Semite, author of Cantos, Translations, Personae and “Jefferson & Mussolini.” He single-handedly forced Modernism into vaudeville USA, spun language on ear, cut words to bone, edited T.S. Eliot till he said “Truth.”
- Phillis “I’m Talking Now” Wheatley, African slave, first African (American) to be published in the USA. “A parlor trick,” thought many, till they heard her speak, heard her poems: the original voice of the Other on US shores.
We've posted thumbnail bios & chosen a poem from each poet in the tribe for the pages linked to their names above -- so you can treat this as a slam if you like. Read the poems, put them up against each other, & vote to eliminate the poets whose work you don't want to read more of -- because we'll choose another poem from each of the surviving poets at the end of the week for your reading pleasure.
Each week you’ll be able to vote two of this tribe off the Island, using the voting form below. (Don't check more than two boxes, or your vote will be thrown out. It's okay, though, if you can't bring yourself to vote against more than one; we will count single votes.) We'll take your votes on these original eight until 6 pm Pacific time this Friday, April 20, at which time the votes will be tallied, two poets will say bye bye, & we'll be back with new poems from the surviving six.
Bob Holman & Margy Snyder
1st ROUND SURVIVOR POET VOTING CLOSED
4.20.2001, 6 pm Pacific time
Survivor Poet! Round 2
Next page > Anna Akhmatova > page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
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