Comments on: poetry book club: cass dalglish’s ‘humming the blues’

By: Read Write Poem

Read Write Poem — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:39:33 +0000

What an insightful way to say that, rosalind.

We’re glad you found us and hope you and your companion come by again.

Deb for RWP

By: rosalind

rosalind — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:17:52 +0000

i just happened upon this lovely site.What a plesant hour I have had. I am new to this area. At 68 years of age I find the computer to be still an enemy slowly evolving in to a companion.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:17:45 +0000

Thanks, that’s s asite I hadn’t discovered before – it looks like it would be a good one to explore.
The availability of books works both ways. I’d love to share more New Zealand poets on my blog, but it wold be hard for my readers to get the books, and I can’t find many links on line to NZ poets either (athough that is changing, gradually)

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:27:35 +0000

Catherine, you bring this good point up once again. We have a world-wide constituency with varying degrees of ability to access written word, live events, etc. — it would be a good idea to include readily accessible work, too in our reviews and book club events.

Here’s one location that has some of Doty’s work (as well as others!): Representative Poetry Online.

I haven’t gotten the book yet, which is a collection of new and previously published work. Go to HarperCollins link on Doty and you can read some of the book online. It may be some of the previously material — we’d have to Google it to find it — is available online, too.

Small consolation, but perhaps it will give you a taste of his work.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:59:24 +0000

“Why don’t you get it from the library or your local independent bookstore….?”
Because they won’t have it. To get newly released American poetry here, I would have to order it from the publisher, or from Amazon. What with the huge international shipping costs, and the fact that our dollar has plummeted against the US dollar, that would be enormously expensive. Several hours wages per book, which is money we need to eat.
I do like to read about poets who are unfamiliar to me, but usually I seek their work on the net. For instance, the Poetry Foundation, or the Beloit Poetry Journal both have wonderful websites with extensive archives of poems.

By: Philip Thrift

Philip Thrift — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:54:50 +0000

Puns and words with double-meanings — as such as they were used in older poetry — must be the most difficult to deal with in translations.

By: rob kistner

rob kistner — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:01:54 +0000

Enjoyed your post here Jessica. Very engaging!

It puts me in mind of Coleman Barks, and his translation of thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Jallaludin Rumi. Coleman’s translations now fill 16 books, and are hugely popular.

Rumi’s words, voiced by Barks, are honest and exhilarating — capturing the ecstatic essence of Rumi’s works in a way that captivates the modern reader.

Rumi and Barks, one is essential to the other in these times — a beautiful relationship.