Bela Tarr's Feathered Nest

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Bela Tarr's Feathered Nest
May 29, 2008

Hello Poets and Poetry Lovers

Great stuff this week. I've added three new pages, including a book review. And you're going to love the poetry video, a great production of Ulalume, Edgar Allan Poe's famous poem by that name.

This week:

Poetry Video Of The Week - Ulalume
World Class Poetry Toolbar Updates (More To Come)
New World Class Poetry Pages
American Life in Poetry
New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
Poetry Book Of The Week
Are You Subscribed?
World Class Poetry Networking

Poetry Video Of The Week - Ulalume

Edgar Allan Poe has always been a big favorite of mine. Enjoy this fabulous production of his poem Ulalume. Do you think it's eerie?

If you can't click the link or watch the video, you can find it here.

World Class Poetry Toolbar Updates

I hope you're enjoying the toolbar. We've had some new users and we'll soon be adding new amenities to the toolbar as well. Look for these future developments:

More blogs
More poetry podcasts
Access to online literary journals
Additional Coffee Shop features
And a whole lot more!

My commitment to make the World Class Poetry Toolbar the best tool for working poets anywhere in the world is unmatched. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the toolbar, please download it and send me a message through the toolbar's messaging feature or send your suggestion to me through the World Class Poetry Contact Box.

If you haven't already, download the World Class Poetry Toolbar now.

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New World Class Poetry Pages

We've got two new articles and a book review this week. Be sure to check out our two guest articles:

Also, be sure to read the new book review on Bela Tarr Has Feathered His Nest

American Life in Poetry: Column 165

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

In "The Moose," a poem much too long to print here, the late Elizabeth Bishop was able to show a community being created from a group of strangers on a bus who come in contact with a moose on the highway. They watch it together and become one. Here Robert Bly of Minnesota assembles a similar community, around an eclipse. Notice how the experience happens to "we," the group, not just to "me," the poet.

Seeing the Eclipse in Maine

It started about noon. On top of Mount Batte,
We were all exclaiming. Someone had a cardboard
And a pin, and we all cried out when the sun
Appeared in tiny form on the notebook cover.
It was hard to believe. The high school teacher
We'd met called it a pinhole camera,
People in the Renaissance loved to do that.
And when the moon had passed partly through
We saw on a rock underneath a fir tree,
Dozens of crescents--made the same way--
Thousands! Even our straw hats produced
A few as we moved them over the bare granite.
We shared chocolate, and one man from Maine
Told a joke. Suns were everywhere--at our feet.

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 (c) 1997 by Robert Bly, whose most recent book of poetry is "My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy," Harper Perennial, 2006. Poem reprinted from "Music, Pictures, and Stories," Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2002, by permission of the writer. 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.

Poetry Book Of The Week

This week's poetry book of the week is Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.

This is one of my favorite books. I remember when I first read it, some 20 years ago. I was a young poet then. Not so young now.

But I remember the impression it had on me as a young poet and I recall that Rilke's profound instructions to his penpal were so striking in their wisdom that all advice from contemporary poets pale in comparison. This book will never go out of style. As relevant today as it ever was, you'd do well to picture yourself receiving these letters from the hand of Rilke himself and taking his sage advice to heart. Buy the book at the World Class Poetry Bookstore.