MN's Louis Jenkins poem read at the Tonys

MN poet Louis Jenkins had a sort of mention at the recent Tony awards.  Mark Rylance won a best actor Tony for "Jerusalem" and for the second time, instead of a speech, he recited a Louis Jenkins poem.  Except he didn't SAY it was a Louis Jenkins poem.  I wonder what Louis Jenkins thinks of that?  I just sent him an email... I'll let you know if he responds back!

Good Luck Envelopes!

This week on Realgoodwords I get the chance to talk with Minnesota poet Sharon Chmielarz again.  Sharon had 2 books of poetry published this year "Calling" and "The Sky is Great The Sky is Blue".  Poet connie Wanek said of "The Sky is Great The Sky is Blue":

"These are astonishing poems.  Like Szymborska's, the poems are spare, often subversive, both dark and hopeful; a conscience is at work in them.  like Dickinson's, they breathe."

In my conversation with Sharon she talked about what it is like to get her poetry out into the world, "When I send off a submission like when you're sending off to magazines, I always wish my envelopes good luck (and the poems too!) because they're traveling over the mail and they're going into this office where I would be very nervous to go by myself - and they face this terrible judgment on the other end.  YES or NO.  Go to the right, or left...."

Sharon is one of the many writers that I get to talk to for Realgoodwords on KAXE.  Also featured this week is the legendary performer Andy Williams who will be part of this year's Judy Garland festival in Grand Rapids.  Andy's memoir is "Moon River and Me".  Where else but KAXE will you get such diverse programming - people getting the chance to tell their stories.  How do we do it, week after week?  We do it because people listen and people support this community radio station.  If you aren't a member, I hope you'll consider it today.  218-326-1234 or 800-662-5799. 

Billy Collins is coming to northern Minnesota!!!

I'm not someone who complains that there isn't enough to do up here in northern Minnesota, but I do miss opportunities. But this one I WILL NOT MISS! Coming up Saturday September 25th Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins will be in Bemidji. A poetry reading? Sounds stuffy! But here's the thing: it's Billy Collins. The farthest thing from stuffy. He's real and funny and smart and has this way of making you forget that what he's doing is reading poetry. The New Yorker wrote "What Collins does best is turn an apparently simple phrase into a numinous moment.... a poet of plenitude,irony and Augustan grace."

You can hear Billy Collins on Saturday September 25th at the Bemidji High School Auditorium at 7:30pm. Tickets are available at the Headwaters School of Music and the Arts 218-444-5606 or at KAXE 218-326-1234.

You can also hear Billy Collins this week on Realgoodwords - Wed. September 8th(6pm) with a rebroadcast on Sunday September 12th (9am). Also on the show this week is Christopher McDougall author of "Born to Run - A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen". McDougall's book has become an international movement - with an idea at the center that the answer to pain free running and endurance is to run barefoot. YES, run barefoot. Stay tuned!

Christopher McDougall will be in Minnesota - in Wayzata at The Bookcase on Wednesday September 15th.

startling words with MN author Maureen Gibbon

Northern Minnesota author Maureen Gibbon is my guest this week. She's written a compelling new novel called "Thief". It's startling even - mainly because it's a book that doesn't shy away from sexuality.

In "Thief" Suzanne is a teacher in her early thirties who has come up north to get away from her life and problems during her summer vacation. She places a personal ad and one of the people who responds is an inmate from Stillwater State Prison. Most people might turn away, but Suzanne is curious. It turns out the inmate is a convicted rapist - and Suzanne, as a survivor of a rape in her teenage years, wants to find out some things. They begin a friendship that leads to more. Gibbon's writing is raw but not gratuitous. Kirkus Reviews wrote, "In an odd way this book is a female, and highly sexual, version of Thoreau's Walden; there are some lovely bits about solitude, nature and solitude-in-nature, but Suzanne is a woman who craves and needs contact, and much of her contemplation is devoted to exploring the tangled roots of that need. Grim but inspiring, this is a flint-tough, plainspoken novel about a flint-tough, plainspoken woman who asks no pity and gives no quarter."

Gibbon also writes with a very strong sense of place. You feel the northwoods of Minnesota in her writing - especially the lakes. Suzanne, her main character, gets comfort from her daily swims in the lake where she can witness the natural world around and be buoyed by the water. When I talked to Maureen Gibbon, she mentioned a poem by Robert Francis called "The Swimmer".

II
Observe how he negotiates his way

With trust and the least violence, making

The stranger friend, the enemy ally.

The depth that could destroy gently supports him.

With water he defends himself from water.

Danger he leans on, rests in. The drowning sea

Is all he has between himself and drowning.

II

What lover ever lay more mutually

With his beloved, his always-reaching arms

Stroking in smooth and powerful caresses?

Some drown in love as in dark water, and some

By love are strongly held as the green sea

Now holds the swimmer. Indolently he turns

To float.--The swimmer floats, the lover sleeps.

We'll also talk about a con man this week on Realgoodwords, named John Drewe. Laney Salisbury has written a book that looks at this extraordinary true life character who created one of the most far-reaching and elaborate cons in the history of art forgery. Salisbury talks about how subjective the world of art is - her book is called "Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art". Oprah magazine wrote "Specatular... a real-life thriller of the fine art of the con."

Memoirs and poetry on Realgoodwords

This week I talk with the author of "Memory of Trees - A Daughter's Story of a Family Farm"- Gayla Marty. It was a great conversation - and I'm afraid I jumped all over the place because there were so many things I wanted to talk with her about. Hers is a memoir - her life growing up on the farm. She's created this in a really unique way. First, she starts the book from her point of view as a young girl - so the language and storytelling changes as she gets older. Also, she's using the idea of her favorite trees on her family farm in Rush City, MN to tell her story. For example:

MAPLE
At the cemetery east of town, a young maple tree grows by the Marty family plot. When I go with Gramma Marty to take care of our plot, she tells me to water the tree too. It's bark is smooth gray and its leaves are yellow-green, like hands with three points, bigger than the pages of the book I use for pressing leaves. Its seeds are attached to a wing like a dragonfly's. There are millions of seeds every spring. page 39 "Memory of Trees" published by University of MN Press

I also talk with Elise Paschen this week about "Poetry Speaks: Who I Am" - a new anthology of written and spoken word poetry for middle to high school age kids. It includes poetry from people like Sherman Alexie, Billy Collins, Joy Harjo, Julia Alvarez and many, many more. One of the poems included is "Mowing" by Midge Goldberg.

You know those chores you always have to do,
like mowing grass: I grumble, go outside—
a lawn this size will take an hour or two
at least—put on my Red Sox hat and ride
around designing circles, lines, a border.
I move from shade to sunshine, deftly steering,
looking purposeful and bringing order
so neat and sure—and sure of disappearing.
With all this sun, I know that what I’m doing
won’t last, won’t keep a week; I ride about
to find the pleasure in the not pursuing,
to learn beyond the shadow of a doubt
the patterns that I long to bring to pass
get mown and overgrown like summer grass.

Poetry inspired by Nature and the phenology show on KAXE

Each week on phenology talkbacks with John Latimer, we get to hear students from around the region call in their phenology sitings. One of the regular contributors is from Ms. Hagelie's class at the Charter School in Emily. This week we got a treat of poetry inspired by white pines. Enjoy! (Thanks to Eli Sagor of My Minnesota Woods.org for the photos)

White Pine
White Pine of beauty,
Sticky sap and big pine cones,
Your beauty is so grand.
Roots that go so far,
Green needles against blue sky,
The king of trees is pine.

Written by:
Zinnia

White Pine Big Tree
It has rough bark,
It is the biggest tree ever.
It has lots of needles,
It also has big branches.
It has no leaves.

Written by:
Dawson

Old White Pine
Tall, thick, round, wide, rough,
Soft, pointy, odd,
Old White Pine

Written by:
Charles

White Pine
The White Pine is mossy,
It is hard.
It has thick branches,
It is tall and wide.
It has many branches,
Its needles fall off.
It has indentations,
Some branches are cut off.

Written by:
Ally

The White Pine
Its bark is rough,
Its rather tough.
Its tall and round,
Weighs more than a pound.
Its full of moss and needles,
Home to birds and beetles.
Its bark is as brown as a penny,
It is loved by many!

Written by:
Justine

Our White Pine
The branches are long.
It has lots of pine needles.
Trunk is really wide.

Written by:
Annie

White Pine
The big White Pine towers over the rest.
It’s a big rough and tough tree.
It’s bark is rough, it’s needles pointy,
It’s one great tree!
The branches twist and turn,
Our tree is a White Pine.

Written by:
Nasha

White Pine
So sweet and fine,
You’re the big White Pine.
You’re the biggest I can see,
You are bigger than those other trees.

Written by:
Riley

First EVER, live Realgoodwords event, TONIGHT!

I'm so excited! Tonight is our first ever LIVE Realgoodwords.

What is it?

Why it's the BEAT CAFE! Join Heidi Holtan and The Krebs for a night of poetry and finger snapping music. There will be a beat, candlelight and lots of black. We're celebrating KAXE - Northern Community Radio - a community radio station that brings you locally produced programming and events. Join us at KAXE (260 NE 2nd Street, Grand Rapids) or on the air from 6-7pm, tonight for Steve Downing, Pat Downing and KC Johnson in a KAXE house concert. Free to all KAXE members - enjoy coffee and treats.

'Tis the Season to Write Poetry!

I received an email today from Todd Boss, who joined me on Realgoodwords recently. (click here for the archive).

******

Please consider this a CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS, and spread the word among the Minnesota and North Dakota poets in your circles!

I have indeed heard from some of you ... forgive this repeat reminder ...

FLURRY--a seasonal online journal of wintry poetry from Minnesota and the Dakotas—will launch for its second season on the solstice, December 21, and publish original wintry poetry through the vernal equinox on March 20.

You can find last year's entire volume here:
http://www.toddbosspoet.com/Flurry/Flurry.html

Right now the site is inaccessible from anywhere but the link above (it's been "taken down"), but it will be accessible during its publication period from my web site.

Any previously unpublished poem is eligible that touches (however lightly) on themes of winter, cold, quiet, dormancy, darkness... (It must "have a mind of winter.") I'm open to all poets, writing in all styles. Submissions (in MS Word) should be accompanied by a cover letter with a short bio for use on the site. Send as e-mail to toddbosspoet@mac.com. I do not pay for poems, but nor does Flurry claim copyrights; rights remain with the poets.

Poems will be accepted throughout the journal's publication run.

it's all in the details

Be obscure clearly. ~E.B. White

I talked with Park Rapids poet LouAnn Shepard Mumm this week about her new book of poetry "Breaking the Glass" published by Loonfeather Press in Bemidji. LouAnn said to me of her poetry, "I strive for what I call deceptive simplicity. On one level very simple and straightforward but ideally there are other levels a reader can go to if they choose to."

Here's her poem "Bird Sanctuary"

I don't know how
word gets out-

whether in song

or in movement

like the bees' waggle-dance,

showing the way to all the best nectar-

but somehow they know

I've learned form girlhood

to keep the feeders filled,

to open my doors

to the broken-winged

and lost.

I have no field guide

to tell by their markings

whether they are vultures,

or eagles,

or wrens,

but I take my own notes

and add more data

with each new check

on my lifetime

list.

In our conversation LouAnn talked about the community of writers in the Park Rapids area including the Jack Pine Writer's Bloc and their publication "The Talking Stick". She also talked about some of the retreats she has gone to including St. Benedict's Retreats in Collegeville and

Arc Ecumenical Retreat in Stanchfield, Minnesota.

If you are interested in a retreat check here for retreat centers around the country. Post here if you've ever been a part of one and tell us what it was like!

Congrats Guido!

Steve Downing is a contributor to KAXE - providing us with arts information on Thursday mornings with Scott Hall and recording essays for Between You and Me on Saturday mornings.

And, it turns out, also a poet of acclaim. Steve's poem from http://www.mnartists.org/ was picked up by the popular blog MinnPost. MinnPost is:

A nonprofit journalism enterprise that publishes MinnPost.com and MinnPost in Print. Our mission is to provide high-quality journalism for news-intense people who care about Minnesota. We intend to focus sharply on that mission, and not get distracted by trying to be all things or serve all people.

Check out Steve's poem, "The Case for Intelligent Design"