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Where the Pickle Confuses, Celebrating Shel Silverstein
I have been rearranging the living room, and in the process of organizing the shelves discovered that I seem to be missing a few books by birthday boy, Shel Silverstein. Hopefully, they are at my boys’ house. You may not be aware that Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back, was his first children’s story, published…
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Stevie Smith’s Birthday Bog
That’s not a typo. I did say “bog.” You’ll understand soon enough. Happy birthday to poet Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith. Had she lived she would be 114 years old today, though I’m sure she’d be annoyed about it. As it was she lived only 69 years, and while you may know nothing about…
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William Stafford Weekend, Part 2
It was in September of 1987 that William Stafford’s little book, An Oregon Message was first published. So with the authority not even vested in me, I have proclaimed this William Stafford Weekend, and it shall be evermore known as thus. Well, if you promise not to forget. Check out Saturday’s post to follow all…
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William Stafford Weekend
Okay, so he was born in January. That actually might explain a lot about the icy, cold beauty in some of his poems, like his famous “Traveling through the Dark,” and “Ask Me,” which begins with those delicious words, “Sometime when the river is ice . . . ” But I was born in September,…
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Saturday Songs with Vampires
Lots going on these last few weeks here in my world, including work on a new chapbook, and preparation for a live reading with the River Poets at the Bloomsburg Public Library this Thursday, September 1st. I also went on a bit of a William Stafford reverie and recorded several lesser-known poems from his 1987 collection,…
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A Ritual to Read to Each Other, by William Stafford
Poems for Stuart, Part 3 I mentioned in the previous two parts of this series that my dear friend Stuart came to America this summer to visit with his son. What a blessing to me that on the way to Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Falling Water,” they took the time to divert slightly north and meet…
