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Inspirational Risk Taking
Next time you read a reviewer who says a particular book of poems by an American “takes risks,” remember this: Despite constant dangers, Afghan women’s poetry continues to flourish. One outlet for women’s poetry is Mirman Baheer, Afghanistan’s largest literary society for women. Mirman Baheer operates in Kabul with over 100 members. Its members are generally educated and employed; they are professors, parliamentarians, journalists, and scholars. Approximately 300 of Miram Baheer’s members live in the outlying provinces — Khost, Paktia, Maidan Wardak, Kunduz, Kandahar, Herat, and Farah — where the group functions in secret.Read More
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Cid at PIP
Cid Corman profiled on The PIP (Project of Innovative Poetry) Blog. Thanks to Ed Baker for the heads up! • enuresisby Cid Corman Terror is not – Ed –sitting in one’s piss.I know – I’ve sat there – I’ve slept there and didmost of my childhood.That was warmth – in fact – and comfort – in spiteof the unconcealedunconcealable smell.Read More
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Ed Baker: His Only Interview…
Sarojini Sahoo, writing for the author Web site Red Room a few years back, conducted a brief but revealing interview with poet/artist Ed Baker (whose work I’ve written about here). Here’s a taste: How do the images, thoughts, etc. come into my mind? I just don’t know. Magic? I just watch and wait for something to happen … and something always does. As a fan of watching and waiting myself, I was happy to see that I’m not alone! Read Sahoo’s complete interview with Ed Baker here.Read More
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Adios, Jack Gilbert—UPDATED
Jack Gilbertphoto by Robert Tobey I just heard from a couple of friends that Jack Gilbert passed away today, then I found press confirmation of it here. Just yesterday the LA Times published a wonderful article on this fine poet, and more will certainly follow. It really doesn’t matter where one places Jack Gilbert on the scale of American poets; time will work that out.Read More
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The Baker Express
Pop a check in the mail.Read More
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On Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic
I’ve been struggling—let me admit it—to find a way to write about Ed Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic. It’s a 515-page poetic adventure, the reading of which is like watching sparks thrown off by a fire: the fire’s below the rim of the firepit, so you can’t see it directly, but the climbing sparks, the waves of light and heat under a skyful of stars—this is the sensation Stone Girl produces.Read More
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Hi Lillie, Hi Lillie…
Just wanted to note the receipt of the latest Lilliput Reviews (issues 179 & 180), with a small poem of mine in #180. Thanks to editor extraordinaire Don Wentworth, who placed me in such fine company—including Charlie Mehrhoff, Scott Watson, Ed Baker, and Grant Hackett.Read More
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Against a Long Habit
I don’t post a lot of political material here, but this I couldn’t let pass without a recommendation. It’s by Phil Rockstroh, whom I don’t know, but whose passion and perspective I recognize and admire. I discovered this on John Bloomberg-Rissman’s blog Zeitgeist Spam. John is one of the editors of Leafe Press, which published Ed Baker’s extraordinary Stone Girl E-Pic, which I aim to “review” soon.Read More
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Wherefore Art Thou Ed
Don’t miss this terrific profile of Ed Baker by Geof Huth.Read More
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Memory Theater(s)
Conrad DiDiodato, erstwhile Perpetual Birder, has issued a call for memory theater photos to be posted by poets with Webs sites or blogs or Facebook pages or even old, pitted-cork bulletin boards. I posted one here a few days back, and Conrad has posted one provided to him by the inimitable Ed Baker.Read More