I should get a virus more often! On my laptop that is.

Monday morning I downloaded a virus and took my laptop to the doctor that night. So I've been without a laptop for two days. I got a lot of work done.

Since I didn't have e-mail to distract me I was able to work on the desktop computer in my living room and actually updated a couple of web pages plus added three more. It's been a good week! And it hasn't been too bad for Stephen Crane, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Tim Burton either. Keep reading to find out what these three men have in common.

Table of Contents

1. Poetry Video Of The Week - Tim Burton's Vincent
2. New World Class Poetry Pages
3. Updated World Class Poetry Pages
4. American Life in Poetry by Ted Kooser
5. New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
6. Poetry Book Of The Week
7. Are You Subscribed?
8. World Class Poetry Networking

Poetry Video Of The Week

Here's a classic Tim Burton animated poem titled Vincent. It definitely has the signature of the man who brought us Batman and Edward Scissorhands. I think you'll like it. As always, if you can't watch it in this format then click here.

New World Class Poetry Pages

What do Ralph Waldo Emerson, Stephen Crane, and Tim Burton have in common? They're all new additions to the World Class Poetry Hall of Fame and they each have a page at World Class Poetry now. Click on the name of the poet and visit his room in the Hall.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Stephen Crane
• Tim Burton

And as an added bonus, here's a video of Tim Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy:

Can't watch the video? Catch it here.

Updated World Class Poetry Pages

This week's updated poetry pages include the WCP Hall of Fame and Alexander Pope. Seriously, you've got to check out that hall of fame page. It has really been tweaked!

American Life in Poetry: Column 173

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

Poets are especially good at investing objects with meaning, or in drawing meaning from the things of this world. Here Patrick Phillips of Brooklyn, New York, does a masterful job of comparing a wrecked piano to his feelings.

Piano

Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.
And you might think by this I mean I'm broken
or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don't
know exactly what I am, any more
than the wreckage in the alley knows
it's a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.
Maybe I'm all that's left of what I was.
But touching me, I know, you are the good
breeze blowing across its rusted strings.
What would you call that feeling when the wood,
even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?

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. Copyright 2008 by Patrick Phillips. Reprinted from his most recent book of poetry, "Boy," University of Georgia Press, 2008, by permission of Patrick Phillips. 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. gress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

• Poet Laureate Interviews Blogger Allen Taylor
• Using I As Persona
• Why Rhyme Is Back In
• Poetry As Entertainment: What's The Point?

Poetry Book Of The Week

There are all sorts of books we could have selected for this week's poetry book of the week. Stephen Crane's Red Badge Of Courage, Ralph Waldo Emerson's transcendental B.S., or any number of other wild and wicked reads. But I thought we'd honor the contemporary madman Tim Burton, whose movies I adore. It's nice to know that he's also written a little poetry, even if somewhat bazaar. This week's poetry book of the week is Tim Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories.

Are You Subscribed?

World Class Poetry Networking

my 'read' shelf:

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