Confession Tuesday


Just sliding in here with my confessions tonight.


Confession Tuesday—


1) When I look at the Poetry Daily News, my first thought is usually, “Where are all the women?”

I've copied today's news (1/22/08) from Poetry Daily to make my point. The women are in RED. The men are in PURPLE


Deciphering Frost: Transcriptions in Robert Faggen's The Notebooks of Robert Frost challenged. (New York Times)

A "complete saturation of the actual":Christian Wiman's Ambition and Survival: Becoming a Poet reviewed by Frank Wilson. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The importance of being earnest:Tom Paulin's The Secret Life of Poems: A Poetry Primer reviewed by Mark Ford. (Financial Times)

Frieda Hughes introduces a poem by William Wordsworth. (The Times)

"Because he is pure and direct."Andrew O'Hagan on why Robert Burns still matters. (The Times)

Chill...Advice for the poetryphobe. (The Times)

"We all must catch the train that takes us home."Erika Wurth's Indian Trains reviewed by Sheryl Luna. (El Paso Times)

"Everybody must be falling in love..."David Biespiel introduces a poem by John Donne. (The Oregonian)

Call to consciousness: Karl Kirchwey reviews Time and Materials, by Robert Hass. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Casual eloquence: John Repp reviews Li-Young Lee's Behind My Eyes. (The Plain Dealer)

"to make something really hard really good": Dan Chiasson reviews The Poem of a Life, A Biography of Louis Zukofsky by Mark Scroggins. (New York Times)

Gold in the gloom: William Logan reviews Geoffrey Hill's A Treatise of Civil Power. (New York Times)

Poet's Choice: Robert Pinsky introduces a poem by Charles Wright. (The Washington Post)

Before Burns Night: Andrew O'Hagan appreciates the Scottish bard. (Guardian Unlimited)

Ways of translation: Fiona Sampson considers newly published translations of Pierre Jean Jouve (by David Gascoyne) and Arthur Rimbaud (by Alan Jenkins). (Guardian Unlimited)

American Life in Poetry: Ted Kooser introduces a poem by William Kloefkorn. (American Life in Poetry)

Purple reign, purple reign....I only want to see you baby in the purple reign.


Jilly recently blogged about this as well.

It’s not that I don’t love men, I do. But sometimes I just wonder WTF? (And this doesn't stand for World Taekwondo Federation - it stands for “Where’re the females?” I’m sure of it.)


2) In 2000, I inadvertently helped continue a rumor that Stanley Kunitz had died. (One day I’ll have to write the whole embarrassing story here—it’s truly awful, and if I never have a poem on Poetry Daily in my lifetime, I know why.)


3) I’m not watching the TV news and I’ve stopped listening to NPR (or as I call it “Radio to Slit Your Wrists To”) ten hours a day because honestly, it was just bringing me down. Strangely, I still seem to be just as informed, but with a little less neurosis.


4) I love to play Scrabble and do crossword puzzles, but if I had to choose only one I would play Scrabble because I am ridiculously competitive with such things. If the crossword puzzle was designed for two people to compete, I’d prefer it.


5) Someone recently described me as “shy” and I didn’t understand it. A friend told me that I am not shy in person but I am online shy—I have a habit of deleting blogs or not wanting to be “seen.” (I do keep two blogs, one that you can google, one that you can’t…did you know that?) I realize I would make a terrible celebrity or more likely, I’d be a great celebrity but would find myself constantly hiding under my giant umbrella.


6) I am 39 and have only had three different addresses my entire life. Because of that, I constantly fantasize about living in different places. Whenever I go on vacation, I find myself saying, “I could live here.” If I’m feeling stressed, I go to John L. Scott real estate online and look at houses and condos, but only with views.


7) I have P.E. –Postal Envy to anyone who has their mail delivered to their house and doesn’t have to walk to a mailbox.


8) Every year I on Martin Luther King Jr day, we listen to MLK's "I have a dream" speech either on the radio or internet. We were traveling yesterday and I missed it and it makes me terribly sad to have not heard it.


9) I want to create something to highlight women poets or I want more women writing critical essays or reviews--something to equal out confession number 1. I want to see more women poets in the news.

I know Gandhi says "Be the change you wish to see in the world," so I think I have to start with myself, but I hope some of you writing women out there will join me.

Comments

  1. i can feel the passion in your life. not just for women in writing but in everything you encounter. this was wonderful to read!

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  2. Hi K,

    I use to publish an e-zine and we did a women's issue every year entitled "More Than A Bone." I now with a group of young women, we're Color Online. We will publish sometime this year. In the meantime, I'm currently planning our second National Women's History celebration for March. We feature women visual artists, writers, poets, activists and women speakers who overcame crisis in their lives.

    I say this to say, you can- one woman do this. How do you want to celebrate us? Let me know and I'm in. When there is an opportunity to celebrate who we are, I want to be there. How about publishing a smalll journal online annually celebrating our voices?

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  3. I swear I need an edit button!

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  4. C-- (aka PDwitch)-- Thank you! That was nice to hear.

    Susan,

    That's fantastic what you do.

    Today I was brainstorming a few ideas and I have some ideas I'm tossing around. I'll definitely let you know what comes about.

    Thx for the note,
    Kelli

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  5. Kelli--Go to my blog and under Events, click Girl Talk: A Women's Poetry Reading. This has been fun to organize and might be something you could try at your end of the world.

    You said, "I want more women writing critical essays or reviews." Okay, yes, but sadly many of us want that writing to be done by OTHER women. If we want it to happen, we have to do it ourselves.

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  6. Hi D--

    I agree about stepping up and writing the papers we want written. It's been a goal of mine this year to start submitting such articles and papers. I'll let you know how it goes.

    I'll check out your blog under Girl Talk.

    thanks for the note.

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  7. Can't believe it's taken me a whole week to get to your confessions!

    I'm going to AWP this week, so I make take an informal poll as to how many women are being published by journals and reviews. The system has to change from the inside out. Just like the Ghandi quote, we need to make things happen if we want to see change.

    Great post.

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