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Spotlight on Galway Kinnell	[Sep. 17th, 2005\|04:02 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Galway Kinnell was born in 1927, in Providence, Rhode Island. To date, he's published eleven books of poetry, with Selected Poems winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and New Selected Poems a finalist for the National Book Award. He asserts the work of Poe and Dickinson moved him as a youth to his love of poetry.Galway Kinnell moved from his rather homogenous hometown culture to travel extensively in Europe and the Middle East, and even went to Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship. In the end, the Civil Rights Movement in the US drew him back, and on his return he joined CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), where his work got him arrested, an experience he recalls in his novel-length poem The Book of Nightmares. This piece was also influenced by his thoughts on the Vietnam War, against which he was an active protestor.Beyond the social element in his poetry, nature imagery and spiritual reflections mark his work. "The Fundamental Project of Technology" deals with all three of those elements, and Kinnell often uses simple and brutal images in expressing anger at humanity's destructiveness. His despair is best summarised in the line: "Nobody would write poetry if the world seemed perfect." But through the role of animals and children in his later work, beauty and hope make an appearance in turn.Info paraphrased for concision from this Wikipedia article.( Three Poems by Galway Kinnell Collapse )More poems by Galway Kinnell here.More about Galway Kinnell here.
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[Sep. 17th, 2005|04:02 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

Galway Kinnell was born in 1927, in Providence, Rhode Island. To date, he's published eleven books of poetry, with Selected Poems winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and New Selected Poems a finalist for the National Book Award. He asserts the work of Poe and Dickinson moved him as a youth to his love of poetry.Galway Kinnell moved from his rather homogenous hometown culture to travel extensively in Europe and the Middle East, and even went to Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship. In the end, the Civil Rights Movement in the US drew him back, and on his return he joined CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), where his work got him arrested, an experience he recalls in his novel-length poem The Book of Nightmares. This piece was also influenced by his thoughts on the Vietnam War, against which he was an active protestor.Beyond the social element in his poetry, nature imagery and spiritual reflections mark his work. "The Fundamental Project of Technology" deals with all three of those elements, and Kinnell often uses simple and brutal images in expressing anger at humanity's destructiveness. His despair is best summarised in the line: "Nobody would write poetry if the world seemed perfect." But through the role of animals and children in his later work, beauty and hope make an appearance in turn.Info paraphrased for concision from this Wikipedia article.**( Three Poems by Galway Kinnell Collapse )**More poems by Galway Kinnell here.More about Galway Kinnell here.

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new post	[Sep. 4th, 2005\|01:32 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
a work very much still in progress. i'm still playing with the voice and tweaking tweaking tweaking. assist me please."neal cassady unsung"man inhumanfast moving mountainlaced with jazzhis boulders chimecrack in uniform frenzyunder sinew's strainmountain shatters dust and circles,he becomesmad orbit,intoxicating as vertigocareening wildly;taste of manic grace
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Spotlight on Stanley Kunitz	[Jul. 30th, 2005\|10:37 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
I have an aversion to celebrating special events on the day marked for them, so since Stanley Kunitz turned 100 yesterday, I'm posting about it today. Share your favourite poems by him, if you please!Stanley Kunitz has led a rather modest poetic career. Some say his greatest accomplishment was just growing old, but I find that there is a precious lot of beauty to be found in his work, and over the years critics have come to agree. ( Info and Three Poems by Stanley Kunitz Collapse )
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Spotlight on Stanley Kunitz

[Jul. 30th, 2005|10:37 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

I have an aversion to celebrating special events on the day marked for them, so since Stanley Kunitz turned 100 yesterday, I'm posting about it today. Share your favourite poems by him, if you please!Stanley Kunitz has led a rather modest poetic career. Some say his greatest accomplishment was just growing old, but I find that there is a precious lot of beauty to be found in his work, and over the years critics have come to agree. ( Info and Three Poems by Stanley Kunitz Collapse )

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Interpretation Assistance	[Jul. 18th, 2005\|11:11 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Okay, I posted this in greatpoets a bit ago with no results.Long story short, I have a friend who's kind of getting into Dylan Thomas. He found "My World Is Pyramid" and neither of us can make much heads or tails of it. ( Poem Here Collapse )As a more general topic -- how does one go about interpreting dense verse like this? Is this poem dense because of literary allusions neither of us know, or was Dylan just doing a lot of drugs that day? My friend found an annotation that basically said it was a metaphor for a son sucking the life out of his parents, but how do you get from Point A to Point B without relying on a literary critic? Neither of us are English majors or specialists, but I don't really think it should be THAT much of a barrier. Or is it?I've also had other people ask me for tips on interpreting poems -- those poems I was on a bit more solid ground to try and explain, but how do you go about teaching someone to interpret poetry that's not immediately obvious?I hope this is an okay post to make; I figure this sort of stuff is part of the accepted discussion biz here.
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Interpretation Assistance

[Jul. 18th, 2005|11:11 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

Okay, I posted this in

greatpoets a bit ago with no results.Long story short, I have a friend who's kind of getting into Dylan Thomas. He found "My World Is Pyramid" and neither of us can make much heads or tails of it. **( Poem Here Collapse )**As a more general topic -- how does one go about interpreting dense verse like this? Is this poem dense because of literary allusions neither of us know, or was Dylan just doing a lot of drugs that day? My friend found an annotation that basically said it was a metaphor for a son sucking the life out of his parents, but how do you get from Point A to Point B without relying on a literary critic? Neither of us are English majors or specialists, but I don't really think it should be THAT much of a barrier. Or is it?I've also had other people ask me for tips on interpreting poems -- those poems I was on a bit more solid ground to try and explain, but how do you go about teaching someone to interpret poetry that's not immediately obvious?I hope this is an okay post to make; I figure this sort of stuff is part of the accepted discussion biz here.

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First Post	[Jun. 25th, 2005\|04:58 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Well, this is a newer piece. I think my problem with it is it doesn't say anything, does it? I think I'm close to tossing it, but any comments/criticisms would definitely be helpful. Thanks in advance. "orchids"incendiary blue—and the orchids were dressed perfect for the winter. She scratched the fabric from her mouth, a dead flower on her tongue—She tasted the pollen, metallic on her teethin the spaces— In the spaces that capture time between root and petal, petal and pistol.
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First Post

[Jun. 25th, 2005|04:58 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

Well, this is a newer piece. I think my problem with it is it doesn't say anything, does it? I think I'm close to tossing it, but any comments/criticisms would definitely be helpful. Thanks in advance. "orchids"incendiary blue—and the orchids were dressed perfect for the winter. She scratched the fabric from her mouth, a dead flower on her tongue—She tasted the pollen, metallic on her teethin the spaces— In the spaces that capture time between root and petal, petal and pistol.

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Where's Margaret?	[Jun. 17th, 2005\|09:59 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Anyone know what happened to blue_lightning ?EDIT: Apparently she's just taking a break for exams and will be back.
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Spotlight on Wislawa Szymborska	[Jun. 12th, 2005\|03:40 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Wislawa Szymborska should be a rather well known Polish writer, as she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, at the age of seventy-three (she's one of the few women to win said prize). Polish poet and translator, she was born in Bnin, Poland in 1931 and never left her country. She was interested in the theatre as a youth, but after the war studied literature and sociology, and worked as a poetry editor and columnist.'Her early works were born more or less within the straitjacket of the Socialist Realism. Later she has expressed her pessimism about the future of mankind. While skepticism has marked Szymborska's views of the human condition, it has not stopped her from believing in the power of words and the joy arising from imagination. Szymborska often uses ordinary speech and proverbs but gives them a fresh and arresting meaning.As a poet Szymborska made her debut with the poem Szukam slowa which was published in the newspaper Dziennik Polski in 1945. Three years later she finished her fist collection of poems, but the book was not published. The Communist had gained power tightening their cultural policy and Szymborska's work was considered too complex and bourgeois. She returned to the work, made it more political and her first collection DLAGTEGO ZYJEMY, appeared in 1952. Szymborska has also published collections of literary columns, several of which first appeared in Zycie Literacia.Like many Poles, Szymborska became disillusioned with communism. 'I looked back in terror where to step next...' Her later work have been more personal and relatively apolitical, although she has noted "Apolitical poems are political too" in 'Children of This Age'. The 1957 collection of poems, WOLANIE DO YETI (calling out to Yeti), marks her first break with socialist-realist literature. Ten years later she published STO POCIECH, considered Szymborska's first work of her mature period. When Communism claimed it was the final answer to the question about ideal form of society, Szymborska admitted that she has no knowledge of Utopia, but only an ironic view of it as an "island where everything comes clear." Her role in the society she saw as vague: "I am ignorant of the role I perform. / All I know is it's mine, can't be exchanged."'More about Wislawa Szymborska here.( Three Poems by Wislawa Szymborska Collapse )More poetry by Wislawa Szymborska here.
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Spotlight on Wislawa Szymborska

[Jun. 12th, 2005|03:40 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

Wislawa Szymborska should be a rather well known Polish writer, as she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, at the age of seventy-three (she's one of the few women to win said prize). Polish poet and translator, she was born in Bnin, Poland in 1931 and never left her country. She was interested in the theatre as a youth, but after the war studied literature and sociology, and worked as a poetry editor and columnist.'Her early works were born more or less within the straitjacket of the Socialist Realism. Later she has expressed her pessimism about the future of mankind. While skepticism has marked Szymborska's views of the human condition, it has not stopped her from believing in the power of words and the joy arising from imagination. Szymborska often uses ordinary speech and proverbs but gives them a fresh and arresting meaning.As a poet Szymborska made her debut with the poem Szukam slowa which was published in the newspaper Dziennik Polski in 1945. Three years later she finished her fist collection of poems, but the book was not published. The Communist had gained power tightening their cultural policy and Szymborska's work was considered too complex and bourgeois. She returned to the work, made it more political and her first collection DLAGTEGO ZYJEMY, appeared in 1952. Szymborska has also published collections of literary columns, several of which first appeared in Zycie Literacia.Like many Poles, Szymborska became disillusioned with communism. 'I looked back in terror where to step next...' Her later work have been more personal and relatively apolitical, although she has noted "Apolitical poems are political too" in 'Children of This Age'. The 1957 collection of poems, WOLANIE DO YETI (calling out to Yeti), marks her first break with socialist-realist literature. Ten years later she published STO POCIECH, considered Szymborska's first work of her mature period. When Communism claimed it was the final answer to the question about ideal form of society, Szymborska admitted that she has no knowledge of Utopia, but only an ironic view of it as an "island where everything comes clear." Her role in the society she saw as vague: "I am ignorant of the role I perform. / All I know is it's mine, can't be exchanged."'More about Wislawa Szymborska here.**( Three Poems by Wislawa Szymborska Collapse )**More poetry by Wislawa Szymborska here.

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Prompt!	[Jun. 7th, 2005\|03:35 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Impromptu prompting!Quick! Post a published poem, and write a poem, that has to do with speed. Bonus marks if something about the syntax and form of the piece also illustrates this theme.Quickly now! And respond to this post, please!
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Community Update	[Jun. 6th, 2005\|01:36 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
Okay, guys, I know I've been remiss with this place. I've been working on a very long poem, and it's been eating away at my time, but I've also been busy with transitions at write_away, where I've become the new maintainer. This meant rallying troops (i.e. new mods) and creating a whole lot of new prompts.And I've got to say, it's worked very well there. But write_away and projectcultcrit are two very, very different places. We are aiming, I think, for something higher than what write_away offers; where write_away offers a community for members to chart their own progress as writers (instead of comparing themselves to other people), projectcultcrit is trying to offer a means of teaching ourselves, and each other - to share experiences and focus on the importance of reading the works of others, of doing research, and of editing. Very different.So, that said, I want to hear what you guys have been up to in the past few weeks, where YOU want to go with your personal writing, and what YOU want in a writing community to help you get there. Feel free to be critical if you want; let's talk!
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Community Update

[Jun. 6th, 2005|01:36 am]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

Okay, guys, I know I've been remiss with this place. I've been working on a very long poem, and it's been eating away at my time, but I've also been busy with transitions at

write_away, where I've become the new maintainer. This meant rallying troops (i.e. new mods) and creating a whole lot of new prompts.And I've got to say, it's worked very well there. But

write_away and

projectcultcrit are two very, very different places. We are aiming, I think, for something higher than what

write_away offers; where

write_away offers a community for members to chart their own progress as writers (instead of comparing themselves to other people),

projectcultcrit is trying to offer a means of teaching ourselves, and each other - to share experiences and focus on the importance of reading the works of others, of doing research, and of editing. Very different.So, that said, I want to hear what you guys have been up to in the past few weeks, where YOU want to go with your personal writing, and what YOU want in a writing community to help you get there. Feel free to be critical if you want; let's talk!

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Translations: Idea to Image	[May. 16th, 2005\|07:26 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism
We have all heard and probably said the old chestnut "show; don't tell" and criticized poems for being "too abstract" or "lacking imagery." Here is an exercise based on one proposed by poet Carol Muske in the book The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach.( Read more...Collapse ) QUESTION: Do you think it is preferable that participants reply to the prompt as a comment to this post, or do you think we should reply as separate posts, with a subject line that indicates it's a response to the prompt? If the former, would y'all prefer I made these posts "Friends Only" ?
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Translations: Idea to Image

[May. 16th, 2005|07:26 pm]Cultivating Poetry and Poetic Criticism

We have all heard and probably said the old chestnut "show; don't tell" and criticized poems for being "too abstract" or "lacking imagery." Here is an exercise based on one proposed by poet Carol Muske in the book The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach.( Read more...Collapse ) QUESTION: Do you think it is preferable that participants reply to the prompt as a comment to this post, or do you think we should reply as separate posts, with a subject line that indicates it's a response to the prompt? If the former, would y'all prefer I made these posts "Friends Only" ?

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