In other good news, I'll be moderating a panel at the 2008 AWP in New York, "Breaking Lines on the Battlefield: Poetry of Wartime." Featured poets include Doug Anderson (author of The Moon Reflected Fire) and Brian Turner (author of Here, Bullet). If we're scheduled for a Thursday or Saturday morning--which, given my newcomer status, seems likely--ours will be the panel serving mimosas and bagels. I'm not above bribing my audience.
I enjoyed Michael Dumanis's "Travel Advisory," on Poetry Daily today:
Travel Advisory
Do not endeavor
to snapshot the locals.
Do not trust anything
that could snap shut.
Try to pass quickly
through slipshod locales.
Do not give alms.
Make no eye contact.
Do not confuse
yourself with your reflection,
this span of ruins with a system,
this inn with a place to come back to.
Rein in the impulse to build
a new city from these scattered twigs.
Do not poke around in the abandoned
houses of the damaged village.
Do not get curious
about shiny metal in the grass.
Do not plant kisses
on the blind accordionist.
Leave the mermaid alone,
it is not meant to be...
[Click here to continue reading.]
The poem is from his new book, which won the 2006 Juniper Prize and will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press. Lovely cover, too.
That was indeed a good one, Dumanis's poem. And his book has a great title.
ReplyDeleteGood to see those NaPoWriMo poems find a good home. Congrats.
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! This makes eight NaPoWriMo poems that have since been accepted for publication.
ReplyDelete***That's fabulous! Congrats!
Kel