Have A Cigar And Watch Gary Snyder On Video

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Have A Cigar And Watch Gary Snyder On Video
September 25, 2008

Hello Poets and Poetry Lovers

It's been a busy week this week. Three grandchildren can wear your butt out fast. Plus, since winter is coming, I've been out cutting firewood, but I've still managed to get a lot of work done.

You'll be glad to know that I'm just one web page away from completely being done with the website upgrade. Thank you for your patience and your support.

I'm saving my last page for next week because it will be a terrific treat to end the upgrade on. Meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy this week's issue of Hyperbole. To start, I've got a must-see video with Gary Snyder where he talks about ecology and poetry. And, I've added one new page to World Class Poetry this week, updated several other pages (in fact, entire sections of the website), and updated the World Class Poetry Toolbar to include a free gift for everyone who has downloaded it!

I give you Hyperbole, issue No. 46. Enjoy!

Poetry Video Of The Week - Gary Snyder on Ecology and Poetry, Part I
New World Class Poetry Pages
Updated World Class Poetry Pages
American Life in Poetry by Ted Kooser
World Class Poetry Toolbar Updates
New World Class Poetry Blog Posts
LitMixx Pix
Poetry Book Of The Week
Duotrope's Daily Digest
Are You Subscribed?
World Class Poetry Networking

Poetry Video Of The Week - Gary Snyder on Ecology and Poetry, Part I

Gary Snyder has built a big name for himself just by writing great poetry. Here in this video he talks about his influences, poetic and ecological, and shares a few poems. You must see this video!

If you can't view the video then click here to watch it at YouTube.

New World Class Poetry Pages

In July 2004 I was activated for service along with my National Guard unit. I was living in Texas at the time. In December that year I was on the plane and off to spend a year in Iraq. During that year I managed to write quite a few poems (enough to fill a book). One of those poems - "Cigar" - was published in The New Verse News in January 2008. I have republished it on World Class Poetry. To read "Cigar," click here (and be sure to head on over to download the World Class Poetry Toolbar and get your free gift.

Updated World Class Poetry Pages

Along with the addition of "Cigar", I've updated each of the poem pages on the site. If you haven't already read these poems, check 'em out now:

And, the About the Poet page has had some editorial changes made to it as well.

Some day I'll add "Siege" to that list, but for right now you can see a video of me reading "Siege" on the newly updated video poetry page along with some poetry videos by other poets too.

Then, there are the poetry resources page (and by the way, if you know of any additional poetry resources to add to this page then please let me know) and the poetry articles pages, which have been updated this week. I'm not going to link to each article, but feel free to read them and if you'd like to submit a poetry article for publication on World Class Poetry, please do so by submitting it through the article submission form.

American Life in Poetry: Column 182

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

Poetry has often served to remind us to look more closely, to see what may have been at first overlooked. Today's poem is by Kaelum Poulson of Washington state. A middle school student and already accomplished maker of poems, he writes of the thankless toils of an unlikely but entirely necessary member of our community--the crow!

The Crow

So beautiful
but often unseen
a maid of nature
the street cleaner that's everywhere
never thanked
never liked
always ignored
so elegant in a way no one sees
but without it we would
be in trash up to our knees
with the heart of a lion
the mind of a fox
the color of the night sky
a crow
the unpaid workman
that helps in every way
each and every day

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) by Seattle Arts & Lectures. Reprinted from "The Universal Controversial Hive: poems, stories, & memoirs by students," Writers in the Schools, 2006, by permission of the 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.

World Class Poetry Toolbar Updates

And now for the big surprise! I've got a gift for you. But before I announce what it is, I'd like to announce that I've added a new publication to the WCP toolbar. AvantGardeTimes is an online only journal devoted to (you guessed it!) avant garde poetry. I think you'll like it.

Now, my gift. No more suspense.

I alluded to it earlier and if you've guessed it by now then good for you. I have added a new .pdf broadside to the World Class Poetry Toolbar. Broadsides are downloadable .pdf files that showcase an individual poem overlaid on top of a photo or graphic enhancement. In this case, "Cigar" is the new broadside, featuring a laughing Captain Briscoe, an officer who served with me in Iraq, and guess what? He's smoking a cigar! I thought it was the perfect image.

If you haven't downloaded the World Class Toolbar yet, then do that now and gain access to all of my .pdf broadsides, more than 30 blogs, 25 online poetry journals, poetry podcasts and radio stations, and whole lot more. Click here to download.

New World Class Poetry Blog Posts

This week's featured blog posts are:

LitMixx Pix

Literary stories of the week:

Poetry Book Of The Week

Gary Snyder is an American poetry icon. His poetry has defined a generation of late 20th century avant-gardeists and some cross-over mainstream poets as well. Snyder's most recent work is an epic poem titled Mountains and Rivers Without End. This epic poem is World Class Poetry's book of the week.