The business of poetry (or “po’ biz”) is a well-established but much-bemoaned part of sustaining a career in poetry, including self-promotion and business networking. But its converse–the idea that there is actually a poetry to business–is something I suspect few professionals outside the arts have paused to consider. Running a career in IT and management …
“I have become comfortably numb.” -Pink Floyd When I commute into the city centre, I often take a book of poems. I read them eagerly on the way in to work. But after a long day wrestling with technical, logistical, and managerial issues, on the return journey I will invariably whip out my phone and …
“Not wrong, just different.” –Valerie‘s mantra for overcoming culture shock Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of my arrival in London. This afternoon I attended a reading at Keats House in Hampstead. Four volunteers read poems and excerpts from his letters dealing with the concept of Negative Capability. This ability to remain “in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, …
First Year in London: Lessons in Negative Capability Read More »
“A poem is a provisional darning across that [psychic] tear.” -Jane Hirshfield Behind Jane Hirshfield, drizzle smeared the windows framing London’s icons to make an impressionist painting. She read generously from new work and old standards, and even revealed some personal detail when asked about the significance of a particular poem in the Q&A. Though …
“Then what are we fighting for?” -Attributed to Winston Churchill, in response to a suggestion that arts education be cut to fund the war effort. There has been a furor over recent cuts in humanities education at the university level in America. Most of the counter-arguments for keeping the humanities alive play out the “transferable …
“To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech, then ask two questions: 1) How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and 2) How important is that objective? Question one rates the poem’s perfection; question two rates its importance. And once these questions have …
