The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets by Willis Barnstone

By Willis Barnstone

Barnstone is exclusive Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana college and a pupil, translator and poet who has written greater than forty books. Suggesting right here that formalistic poems "dance in chains" they struggle to slide, he exams sonnet buildings as he makes use of them. ideas are closed mid-line, strange end-rhymes happen and a few of those 501 choices look strong brief poems instead of natural sonnets. prepared in 5 teams (History I-V), the poems represent a "public background and personal biography," as Barnstone notes within the introductory fabric. the non-public poems are between its top: of dad and brother, suicides; mom, daughter; locations he's lived. His variety of information informs robust social, spiritual and political remark as he writes approximately philosophers, poets (especially yet now not completely Hispanic and Chinese), loss of life from AIDS, Tibet, a Stone Age mummy present in a glacier and, after all, himself ("Do I damage? No. I'll be/ a will-less barn stone cool and on my own"). This prodigous attempt deals rewards to grazers and people who learn the sonnets so as.

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Gary Glazner, the inspired promoter of this first intercity slam greeted the Chicago poets and the San Francisco audience with the verve of a hot dog vendor barking the relish they were about to devour. Lois Weisburg, the Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, was instrumental in making this premiere NPS happen. Under her suggestion, and with the city’s financial help, Chicago sent a team of four poets (Patricia Smith, Cin Salach, Dean Hacker, and me) to challenge teams from San Francisco and New York City.

Willie Used to Say” Behind the Slam Curtain Breaking Down the Color (and Collar) Barriers The Culture of Democracy If you remember anything, remember… 2 Soaking in the Spirit of Slam Stumble into any bar or coffee shop during a poetry slam, and you’ll witness poets slinging words Out Loud! to win the adulation of an audience and/ or the high scores of judges. You might think that’s all there is to it, but if you stick around and listen, you’ll discover that a poetry slam isn’t just high-volume reading or a heated head-on competition.

Like most sporting events, everybody has an opinion about what should have happened and who should have done what when. That’s what keeps them involved up until the last syllable is uttered. 33 A Familiar Format Skeleton masks, wolf masks, unicorn masks, android masks, False eyelashes like cilia, burnished wigs like gorgon’s hair, Masks with mirrors into which one looked to see himself reflected back. It was the kind of party where Dionysos would be welcome. –from “Dionysia” by Mary Shen Barnidge But the audience raged against the imbalance of awarding Mary the $10 prize for a single winning poem when Al had won the first eight.

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