Monthly Archives: January 2012

A Short History of Poetry in Woodstock, 1873-2008

(Published in the Woodstock Times, April 17, 2008) By Michael Perkins Part II While much of the general population may prefer undergoing root canal work to attending a poetry reading, fortunately for local poets there are people who freely chose … Continue reading

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A Short History of Poetry in Woodstock, 1873—2008

(Published in the Woodstock Times, April 10, 2008) By Michael Perkins Part I The first bard to sing or chant in the shadow of Overlook Mountain was probably a son of the Leni Lenape, the small, gentle people who had … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Matthew Lippman

Thataboy I got fat. I don’t know how it happened. I opened my pants one day and a whole mess of stuff fell out. One day my jowls were zeppelins and my hands floated to the ceiling. I have enjoyed … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Jo Pitkin

Frozen Pantoum What never happens happens one long span of winter, the channel of open water crusts, folds in, scars over. One long span of winter, the river is bone-colored thread: it crusts, folds in, scars over despite salt and … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Simmons B. Buntin

Arc If there is an art to scaling desert boulders in bare feet it is this: my daughter, eleven, tosses her sandals to prickly pear and mesquite, pries knees into crevice, and presses onto the sun- drunk surface like a … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Donald Lev

Angels The Holy Place was built well. The best architects were engaged. The best materials were hauled from the valleys up to the mountaintop for the sacred construction. I myself sat in a parked car down in the valley gazing … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Enid Dame

Brighton Beach This is the end of Brooklyn, defiant and salty. Houses are cracking, and pavement, and people’s faces. Old man play chess on park benches. Gulls stalk the boardwalk. In the backsteets, roses hang scattering petals and perfume impartially … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Barbara Louise Ungar

Ultrasonics The way fisherman find shoals of deep-sea fish and navies track submarines, the way bats net moths, barnstorming the darkness, or dolphins and whales echolocate their worlds, bouncing high- pitched sounds from melon-foreheads and back through their receiving jaws, … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Maurice Manning

Eight Analytical Questions Who decides the shape of rocks, the curl of cedar branches, the ripples wrinkled down a bedrock stream? Why do I dream of crows winking like black eyes across the sky? Who discovered salt? What is the … Continue reading

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January Poetry Blitz: Roberta Allen

Stars In the White Desert where our inventive Egyptian guide spoke about a deadly snake that could leap thirty feet in the air, where the novice leader from California told us to sleep anywhere we wanted, where I, the only … Continue reading

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