Happy New Year from World Class Poetry!

I hope you all had a happy, snappy holiday. I was able to get a little extra reading done and now have three new book reviews on the site. Didn't do as much new tinkering with the site as I'd have liked to have done, but I was glad to get the reading done. And even added a few new blog posts.

I've got some great things planned this year for WCP. Among them include:

• The introduction of a chapbook series (be on the lookout!)
• Revenue sharing plan for WCP contributors (working out the details as we speak)
• Beginning poetry e-courses - yes, coming this year
• More social features
• Additional content throughout the site, including content for more advanced poets (keep an eye out!)
• More awesome toolbar features

In essence, I'm in growth mode. I can't do it alone any more. I need help and I'll be calling on you, my faithful and loyal readers, to step in and lend a hand, and I'll be able to reward you for your efforts. Details coming soon!

Meanwhile, check out what I've got for you as 2009 kicks off a great poetic year:

Table of Contents

1. New Poetry Book Reviews
2. New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
3. American Life In Poetry
4. Are You Subscribed?
5. World Class Poetry Networking

New Poetry Book Reviews

The Poets Don't Write Sonnets Anymore

There are few poetry books where the poetry is sub-par that I'd recommend reading, but The Poets Don't Write Sonnets Anymore is one of them. This is such a fabulous read that to say the poetry is sub-par isn't really fair, but the verse is a far cry from genius.

Read the entire review

Confessions Of A Latter Day Cynic

Paul J. Bean needs to quit teasing the daisies and go completely avant-garde or jump ship and learn to eat shark meat.

Confessions of a Latter Day Cynic makes promises it doesn't keep. I saw very little cynicism and a bit too much confession. Even when he manages to slice out a decent poem, or even a halfway marvelous line, Bean ruins it with an archaic syntax or the use of a word one would find only in a movie script (He shows his actor's face with the overuse of the word "exeunt".)

Read the entire review

The Trinity: poetry and art

Ezra Pound would be proud of David e. Patton. His voice is unique and not easily cloned. If there is a contemporary poet with a knack for making it new, David e. Patton is the one and his latest chapbook, The Trinity: poetry and art, proves it.

Read the entire review

For more great poetry book and chapbook reviews, click here.

New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

If you haven't been keeping up with the World Class Poetry Blog over the holidays then I'd encourage you to check out my latest posts. Here are a few I think are among the best:

• Bookflaps: Inspiration Comes From Odd Places
• Webster’s Word Of The Year - Overshare - There's a great discussion going on here; why not join in?
• The Time Value Of Literature: Can We Bank On It?
• Supply Side Literature: Do You Write For The Market?

American Life In Poetry: Column 198

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

This column has had the privilege of publishing a number of poems by young people, but this is the first we've published by a young person who is also a political refugee. The poet, Zozan Hawez, is from Iraq, and goes to Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington. Seattle Arts & Lectures sponsors a Writers in the Schools program, and Zozan's poem was encouraged by that initiative.

Self-Portrait

Born in a safe family
But a dangerous area, Iraq,
I heard guns at a young age, so young
They made a decision to raise us safe
So packed our things
And went far away.
Now, in the city of rain,
I try to forget my past,
But memories never fade.
This is my life,
It happened for a reason,
I happened for a reason.

Are You Subscribed?

World Class Poetry Networking

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