It's been a marathon week. I finished all the Google AdSense updates, which means next week we can move on to other things (bigger and better, of course!). But for this week, we've got some great things in store, including Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry column, an ekphrastic poem contest, and a poetry blog critique (you will not want to miss this!). You'll want to read every word, that's why I'm leading with the blog post that has sparked some heated debate instead of leaving it for the blog section as I'd usually do.

Table of Contents

1. Blog Critique: Poetry By Stacey
2. American Life in Poetry
3. World Class Poetry Updates
4. New World Class Poetry Pages
5. New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
6. World Class Poetry Networking
7. Call For Submissions!

Blog Critique: Poetry By Stacey

I received the following comment this morning from a reader and thought I’d oblige the request:

I hope that you dont mind me asking,BUT, would you mind viewing my poetry blog and let me know your opinion on my poems (good or not so good). I have never set up a blog before so any advice on how to prehaps get a bit more recognition etc would be very helpful. Thanks and hope you enjoy reading them as much as i enjoyed writing them.

Finish Reading The Rest Of This Poetry Blog Critique

American Life in Poetry: Column 150

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

There's a world of great interest and significance right under our feet, but most of us don't think to look down. We spend most of our time peering off into the future, speculating on how we will deal with whatever is coming our way. Or dwelling on the past. Here Ed Ochester stops in the middle of life to look down.

What the Frost Casts Up

A crown of handmade nails, as though
there were a house here once, burned,
where we've gardened for fifteen years;
the ceramic top of an ancient fuse;
this spring the tiny head of a plastic doll--
not much compared to what they find
in England, where every now and then
a coin of the Roman emperors, Severus
or Constantius, works its way up, but
something, as though nothing we've
ever touched wants to stay in the earth,
the patient artifacts waiting, having been lost
or cast away, as though they couldn't bear
the parting, or because they are the only
messengers from lives that were important once,
waiting for the power of the frost
to move them to the mercy of our hands.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2001 by Ed Ochester. Reprinted from "Unreconstructed: Poems Selected and New" by Ed Ochester, Autumn House Press, 2007, by permission of the author and publisher. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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World Class Poetry Updates

It's been a banner week and I'm glad we got this little project finished. Of course, I'm much more interested in producing great content and I plan to stay focused on that task. But, just in case you're curious, check out these World Class Poetry updates (just a few I made for this week):

• Kyrielle: The Kyrie Reformed
• Maya Angelou Tells 'Why The Caged Bird Sings'
• Amiri Baraka: Radical African-American Marxist Poet Who Defied All Traditions
• Alexander Pope: The 18th Century Prodigy
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Ars Poetica: The Art of Poetry
• An Essay On Criticism, an excerpt and notes
• Edgar Allan Poe: Master Of Mystery And Macabre

New World Class Poetry Pages

Be on the lookout for these future pages:

• Robert Frost
• Robert Browning
• Sir Thomas Wyatt

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New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

Instead of listing every blog post from the past week as I've done in previous weeks, I'm including just a few of the highlights from this past week. I hope you'll read all the posts while you are there. Enjoy!

• On Yevtushenko, Shepherd, and Allen Ginsberg
• Ekphrastic Poem Contest And Litmags
• Blog Critique: Poetry By Stacey
• Classic Literature On YouTube, A Fellowship, Religion, And Politics

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World Class Poetry Networking

my 'read' shelf:

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Call For Submissions!

Send me your original poetry. If it meets my strict standards then I'll publish it in Hyperbole and on the World Class Poetry Blog. Previously published poems are OK as long as you own the copyright. Use the WCP contact form.

Submit your criticism and reviews to Hyperbole. Interviews of published poets welcome. Prose about poetry - send it. Our only bias: High quality.

And when all else fails, write a poem.