This National Poetry Month, the Library of Congress has appointed Arthur Sze to serve a second term as the nation’s 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2026-2027! Congratulations Arthur!
Click here for more details.
Showing posts with label National Poetry Month. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Poetry Month. Show all posts
4/14/25
Book of the Week (4/14/2025)
In his dazzling new collection poet Michael Brosnan literally and figuratively deconstructs the "sublime" in every way imaginable.
"This world of us --
it seems only capable of revealing hints of care
in slant rhymes and odd enjambments.
And I'm wondering why we don't cry more,
knowing there's so little we
control."
In this profound volume of experimental poetry, Michael Brosnan exhibits exquisite control as he employs (and invents) tools of verse language (far beyond mere "odd enjambments") to interrogate - and deconstruct, literally - the word sublime, in all of its senses. "Excellence? Grandeur? Beauty? Inspiring unavoidable awe?" No mere exercise in linguistics, however, his enterprise provides the opportunity to consider no less than the entirety of human existence in the face of "the nagging matter of / the coming Sixth Extinction -- hurried along / by superciliousness and / human hunger for what cannot be obtained." "I want to find less in meaninglessness," he declares; "I want to know if knowing can save us from ourselves," and this book is the record of his search for that answer and hope. Many sublime companions (real and imaginary) are along for the ride - Mozart, Coltrane, Jimmy Page, Moby-Dick, Dr. Philosophy - while erasures of Wordworth poems frame and intersperse the work (an act of distillation that serves as a model for the book as a whole); and the titles of a library's worth of books whispering from their shelves attests to his extensive reading. Impossible to describe in brief, it must be read to experience the sweep of Brosnan's vision and venture. As for the payoff: in the end he is after "a small wave of contentment" as expressed in the craft of "Origami" - "Today, I'm seeking new possibilities / in a small illusion with unambiguous lines. // Look, world, look. / Our story is in tatters. // Here's a 'dove' for you to hold. / I give it in peace. Make it fly." In the closing Wordsworth erasure, an old man rises and hoists up his load, a fitting image for the service Brosnan performs for us in undertaking this poetry and philosophical enquiry. --Publisher's blurb
About the author:
Poet, writer, and editor Michael Brosnan was born and raised in Port Washington, New York. He earned a BA from Boston College and an MA from the University of New Hampshire’s writing program. Brosnan is author of the poetry collections EMU BLIS, BUMS LIE, BLUE-ISM (Broadstone Books, 2024), Adrift (Grayson Books, 2023), and The Sovereignty of the Accidental (Harbor Mountain Press, 2017). Brosnan’s poems have been published in many literary magazines. For over two decades, he served as the editor of an award-winning magazine on education and writes often on the topic. He lives in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Join the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, along with Michael Brosnan at Gibson's Bookstore on Wed., May 21, 2025 from 4:30- 6 pm. Michael will be the headliner, followed by an open mic.
4/30/21
Celebrating Granite State Poets
Thanks to all the poets who made recommendations:
- Liz Ahl
- Barbara Bald
- L. R. Berger
- Bill Chatfield
- Robert Crawford
- Amber Rose Crowtree
- Elliot DelSignore
- Patricia Frisella
- Midge Goldberg
- Marie Harris
- Don Kimball
- Rodger Martin
- Jimmy Pappas
- Alexandria Peary
- John Perrault
- Eric Pinder
- Kyle Potvin
- Betsy Snider
- Veronika Sokol
- Dan Szczesny
- Dianalee Velie
4/29/21
NH Poetry: Covid Spring
Barbara Bald recommends Covid Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems edited by Alexandria Peary (Hobblebush Books, 2020).
Covid Spring is an anthology of poems that in a bittersweet way captures just some of the experiences lived during the early stages of the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic. With well-crafted poems, it takes the reader on a roller coaster of emotions from the fear of empty shelves to the joy of having more time to spend with a young daughter. Covid Spring may make the reader cry, laugh or sit in silence to ponder how life has changed.
Barbara Bald is a poet from Alton, NH where she lives with her cat Catcher and some personable goldfish. She loves the outdoors, Native American philosophies and helping others who want to write, hone their craft. Her poetry collections include: Drive-Through Window, Running on Empty and Other Voices Other Lives.
This post is part of our celebration of National Poetry Month 2021 for which I asked New Hampshire poets to recommend books of poetry by Granite State poets. These titles are generally available from local booksellers and may be held in public libraries as well.
4/28/21
NH Poetry: Wooden Nutmegs
Published last National Poetry Month, as the pandemic was locking us down, Wooden Nutmegs offers wise reminders of the “world out there” as well as the worlds within us, in poems that have made for good companions during these dark, strange, existentially trying times. When Rowland’s poems affect me the most deeply, it’s often because of how they invite (force?) me to think about the myriad manifestations of time itself.
Liz Ahl is the author of Beating the Bounds (Hobblebush Books, 2017) and a member of the English Department faculty at Plymouth State University. Although she hails from many elsewheres, she has called New Hampshire home for twenty years, presently living in Holderness.
This post is part of our celebration of National Poetry Month 2021 for which I asked New Hampshire poets to recommend books of poetry by Granite State poets. These titles are generally available from local booksellers and may be held in public libraries as well.
4/27/21
NH Poetry: Loosen
I highly recommend Kyle Potvin’s new first book Loosen recently released by Hobblebush Books. Kyle is a smart, courageous poet. As a cancer-survivor,Don Kimball lives in Concord, NH. He is the former president of the NH Poetry Society and the author of three chapbooks, Tumbling (Finishing Line Press 2016), Journal of a Flatlander (Finishing Line Press 2009) and Skipping Stones (Pudding House Publications 2008). He is a longstanding member of the Powow River Poets.
her poems deal with themes of loss, mortality and resilience, with a solid sense of place. One of my favorite N.H. poets.
This post is part of our celebration of National Poetry Month 2021 for which I asked New Hampshire poets to recommend books of poetry by Granite State poets. These titles are generally available from local booksellers and may be held in public libraries as well.
4/24/21
NH Poetry: Beating the Bounds
I love how Liz's poems examine the little details of life in a small town in New Hampshire and expose some universal truth. We are both "women from away"--she is from a Navy upbringing and I am from Florida--and I find myself nodding along, recognizing all those moments when trying to understand something that's completely normal to a native. And, while her moon poems, including "Dr. Rendezvous Takes Communion on the Moon," are not in this book, they are wonderful--read them if you can!
Midge Goldberg’s upcoming collection, To Be Opened After My Death, is being published by Kelsay Books. She received the Richard Wilbur Poetry Award for her book Snowman's Code, which was awarded the Reader’s Choice Award in the 2016 New Hampshire Literary Awards. She lives in Chester, New Hampshire, with her family, two cats, and an ever-changing number of chickens.
This post is part of our celebration of National Poetry Month 2021 for which I asked New Hampshire poets to recommend books of poetry by Granite State poets. These titles are generally available from local booksellers and may be held in public libraries as well.
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