Sherry Chandler

Stuff

From Boing-Boing. Link complements of Donna Rhae Marder.

“You Should Write a Poem About That!” Anybody ever say that to you? They’ve said it to me and, like Robert Peake, I often find I want to say, “No, you should write that poem.”

Owing to its frequency, it gets old. But apart from that, the response also intrigues me. It is different than the response comedians complain about, where, upon learning of their peculiar profession, new acquaintances will fold their arms and scowl, “Oh yeah? Then say something funny.” Instead, the “you should write…” remark is approving, a kind of conspiratorial wink-and-nudge. It is as if, through our conversation, they have stumbled momentarily in to the head-space where I, as a poet, must constantly reside—a land tinkling with musical profundity and linguistic charm. Alas, that ain’t always where I’m at.

Good news: Dodge Foundation Reverses Decision to Cancel Poetry Festival

Watermark asks “Been to an emergency room lately?”

I asked: Why? Why are you seeing so many more patients?

Because, I was told, so many more people are without insurance, and have nowhere else to go.

Do you think health care reform is irrelevant to your life?

Twitter Poetry on the Plinth in London

The connectivity of the Twitter poetry is sort of the opposite of the solitude celebrated at Windows Toward the World with a quote from Thomas Merton:

All I know is that here I am, and the valley is very quiet, the sun is going down, there is no human being around, and as darkness falls I could easily be a completely forgotten person, as if I did not exist for the world at all. (Though there is one who remembers and whom I remember.) The day could easily come when I would be just as invisible as if I never existed, and still be living up here on this hill. . . .And I know that I would be perfectly content to be so.