Marilyn Kallet's Blog
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Mar.18.2009
I've got six talented, funny, wise poets signed up for the poetry workshop in Auvillar, June 12-18th. I know five of them, and they are talented and kind. Working with them will be a great joy and will raise the bar on all of our work.
I woke up this morning thinking about the creperie in town...
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Mar.17.2009
Some of us on Red Room have held dialogue about whether or not literary work posted on our blogs will count as "previously published" material by literary magazines.
This topic is under debate now in many forums. I posted the question on WOM-PO, a terrific reputable site for women poets...
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8 comments
Mar.16.2009
I've got two new shows coming up--one at my friend Flossie's bookstore, Carpe Librum, this Saturday at 2; and the other on April 2nd, 7 p.m., at the Laurel Theatre in Knoxville.
The book launch in February was such a high for me--jam-packed, and I had memorized at least 30 minutes of the show. I...
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2 comments
Mar.15.2009
Why is the tagline "poetry" the kiss of death for a blog entry? Are people afraid to comment? Afraid the form is hermetic, or that they are not experts in the genre?
Middle schools teachers have often spoiled poetry by tapping out the iambs on the desk with a shoe. But William Carlos...
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34 comments
Mar.13.2009
This morning I tried to scrape the ice and snow off of my car with a plastic knife. It was slow going, and my knuckles were cold! A man jumped out of his truck, came over to my car with a very large scraper and brush, and in less than 5 minutes had my car cleaned off. He said he was from...
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Mar.12.2009
Once again, I'm driving the Honda del Sol in a snowstorm. Or not, since I had to pull over, and stopped for the night at a Days Inn somewhere north of Berea. The car has been outside for an hour, and it's covered with snow. I don't even have a scraper for the ice on the windshield!
What I do...
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Mar.10.2009
Laurel Smith and I are happily writing away in our cottage in New Harmony, Indiana. She's at the dining room table and I'm in the window seat of the kitchen (best light in the house). We're companionable but not intrusive.
We each have our own bedrooms. In the morning I go for a run and she...
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4 comments
Mar.09.2009
Just heard from Ron Nesler who lives here in New Harmony. He transfused some reality into my thinking about the town. Says its arty facade is built on the backs of the working people who don't particularly want the touristy stuff. He has a great website for discussion about local issues, and...
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4 comments
Mar.08.2009
That's right, this idyllic community, founded in the mid 1800's, New Harmony, Indiana, has wi-fi. I'm in ecstacy. The town is a little jewel of a village, replicas of old houses crafted by hand from brick or logs, art everywhere--even pear trees sculpted to look like dancers. Tomorrow I'll start...
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Mar.06.2009
My friend Laurel Smith, who is also a poet, has been able to secure the use of a cottage in New Harmony, Indiana, for the two of us to write poetry for 5 days. The cottage is free, and we will each have our own room. Laurel is an Indiana writer, and she has used this cottage before.
I've just...
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4 comments
Mar.01.2009
Dante, Back Door
If not highway, I
was his
rural route to god.
He was a back door man,
in mind,
you understand,
he wrote and wrote until
I was sore.
Sorely tried.
I need someone
younger
he said.
I'm twelve, I said.
I dont have women friends,
he swore...
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Feb.28.2009
Lullaby for Charles
(Charles Albion Anderson, born and died, June 10, 1880, Norwood Church Road, Virginia)
Tiny one, your stone
torn,
your name rests on the hollow
of a stricken tree.
Mama and Father
nowhere in evidence.
Maybe their plot is wide...
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2 comments
Feb.25.2009
Charlotte Pence wrote a gorgeous review of Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, for Public Republic, the eclectic, dynamic online arts journal edited by Katerina Klemer. The review shows up today, 2/25: http://www.public-republic.net/
I want my publisher to see it, and my sister, and my husband...
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2 comments
Feb.24.2009
Poor Mary
(Norwood, Virginia)
Poor Mary Mickle, "Forever
with the Lord,"
in dirt
by Norwood Road Church,
the railroad moved her
20 feet due west,
with four children
buried in 1850.
Poets offer daffodil buds
in February.
We want backstory,
...
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2 comments
Feb.24.2009
At the little church in Norwood, babies from the 1800's are scattered in the graveyard. The railroad transplanted some.
I didn't understood Emily Dickinson's line until now: "Her face was in a bed of hair..." We laughed in poetry class about that line, thinking it was very sexual. ...
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4 comments
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time."”
—William Blake
About Marilyn
Marilyn Kallet was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and grew up in New York. She is the author of 16 books, including The Love That Moves Me (poetry); Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, Black Widow Press; Circe, After Hours, poetry from BkMk Press; The...
Connections
Causes Marilyn Kallet Supports
Southern Poverty Law Center, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, ACLU, Amnesty International, Save Darfur.