Tag Archives: poetry

Lee Slonimsky Walks Woodstock To Write Poems

(When Lee Slonimsky told me that commutes from his home across the Hudson River to Woodstock simply to walk our roads and write poems, I wanted to know more. He has written a guest blog. He recently published a thriller … Continue reading

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The Woodstock Poems: Mikhail Horowitz

Since 1986 Mikhail Horowitz has been the speaking half–and, boy, does he speak–of a comedic duo with Gilles Malkine that brings the Marx Brothers spirit to the Norton Anthology. A later-day Beat, Mik once served as the Cultural Czar of … Continue reading

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The Woodstock Poems: Enjoy Woodstock

A friend had suggested writing abecedarian poems as an exercise. Print the alphabet down the side of the page as the first letter for each line, then quickly fill in the rest with spontaneity be your guide. By the time … Continue reading

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Woodstock History: Poets Duel in the Mud

(This piece first appeared in the Woodstock Times.) Who, besides poets, likes the local poetry scene? Years ago, Mikhail Horowitz warned me, “The smaller the pie, the sharper the knives.” Oh, I’ve gotten compliments, but the slights are what I … Continue reading

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Do Copycats Make Better Art?

Years ago at an artists’ retreat in the Adirondacks I met a young painter who found his source material in crowd photographs from magazines. Tracing the heads and shoulders gave him patterns for abstract paintings that retained the ghostly suggestion … Continue reading

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Orpheus and Eurydice: The Way to the Underworld, by Janet Hamill

[On Sunday, August 26th, I’ll participate in the “Spoken Aggregate” poetry festival at the Widow Jane Mine in Rosendale from 1 to 4 pm. Three of us–Chris Wheeling, Janet Hamill, and myself–will present works inspired by the Underworld. Here, Janet … Continue reading

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The Hudson As You Haven’t Seen It Before

Thomas Wolfe wrote big rhapsodic novels such as Look Homeward, Angel that I read as a teen. After his early death in 1938, an enthusiast named John S. Barnes went through Wolfe’s prose to convert passages into poems with line … Continue reading

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“Buy This” by Michael Perkins

(First published in the March 30, 2000 Woodstock Times.) The poet Howard Nemerov asserts that “Poetry is a spiritual exercise having for its chief object the discovery or invention of one’s character.” Extend “poetry” in this quotation to represent all … 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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Further Thoughts on Memoir in Poetry

(Michel Perkins has told me that every single “I” in his book, Carpe Diem: New and Selected Poems, is a different person. Yet readers, myself included, would assume that Michael is offering his own wisdom under his “I.” He is, … Continue reading

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