Memorial Day Poetry

Memorial Day brings to mind poems of war, soldiers and remembrance. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War, and May 31 is also Walt Whitman’s birthday.

Bob Holman and Margery Snyder on the About.com poetry pages chose his poem “The Artilleryman’s Vision” as the newest addition to their collection of poems for Memorial Day.

It's a day we are supposed to reflect on those who gave their lives in the many wars fought in human history, but we are reminded that the world is ever yet in a state of war.

Shiloh: A Requiem (April 1862) is by Herman Melville

Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
The forest-field of Shiloh —
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
Through the pause of night
That followed the Sunday fight
Around the church of Shiloh —
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
And natural prayer
Of dying foemen mingled there —
Foemen at morn, but friends at eve —
Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
And all is hushed at Shiloh.

Whitman: Poetry and Prose


Selected Poems Of Herman Melville

Submit Your Poetry This Summer

Is summer a time that you have more time for your writing - and to mail off poems for publication?

Poet Diane Lockward has again posted on her blog a useful, updated list (in 3 parts) of print journals that read during the summer and some that read only during the summer.

Journals
A - F
G - P
Q - Z 

Unfortunately, there aren't links to the journal sites or addresses, so you'll have to do some of the work for yourself!

Submit Poems of War and Remembrance

The anthology of classic war poems collected on the About.com poetry pages are in remembrance of those who gave their lives in the many wars fought in human history.

This year with Memorial Day near, they ask you to add some new poems to their war and remembrance collection. You are invited to submit your own poems or suggest your favorite classics.


NOTE: the text box on the submission page doesn’t convey your format accurately when you type a poem into it (a problem that we find on Poets Online with emailed poems) - so use slashes (“/”) to indicate line breaks and double slashes (“//”) to indicate stanzas.

Poetry - the film

Poetry is a character study of a film (available on DVD) that examines many of the same big topics that poetry on paper has always addressed - like beauty, truth and mortality.

It comes from Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong poetry poetry.  His script won the best screenplay prize at Cannes last year. His previous directing effort, 2008's "Secret Sunshine," won the festival's best actress award for Jeon Do-yeon and some say that the new film's star, Yun Jung-hee, should have won best actress as well.

In the film, Mija is attempting to live life fully. Part of that attempt is focused on trying to write one good poem.

Her teacher tells her that her difficultly is not writing the poem but finding the heart to write it.

As with many foreign films for Americans, the pace of the film will comparatively slow, but, then again, that's part of the film's story.


The Lee Chang Dong DVD Collection: Green Fish (1997) / Peppermint Candy (1999) / Oasis (2002)

    


    

William Carlos Williams Society Conference

The Fourth Biennial Conference of the William Carlos Williams Society will be held at William Paterson University in New Jersey on June 16-18, 2011.

The theme of the conference is "Life along the Passaic River", after William Carlos Williams' 1938 volume of short stories of the same name.

For those interested in Williams, there is no charge for attending the conference sessions. There is also the option, for a modest charge, to take a Saturday tour of places from Williams' writing - including the Great Falls, Garret Mountain, and Rutherford.



Conference Website www.wpunj.edu/william-carlos-williams

Amazon.com Books for William Carlos Williams

In the Museum of Your Last Day

In the Museum of Your Last Day


there is a coat on a coat hook in a hall. Work-gloves
in the pockets, pliers and bent nails.

There is a case of Quaker State for the Ford.
Two cans of spray paint in a crisp brown bag.

A mug on a book by the hi-fi.
A disk that starts on its own: Boccherini.

There is a dent in the soap the shape of your thumb.
A swirl in the glass when it fogs.

And a gray hair that twines
through the tines of a little black comb.

There is a watch laid smooth on a wallet.
And pairs of your shoes everywhere.

A phone no one answers. A note that says Friday.
Your voice on the tape talking softly.


"In the Museum of Your Last Day" by Patrick Phillips
from The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor: