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April 28, 2016

Poetry Friday--Heading to the Mass Poetry Festival!

From the 2012 festival--some of the poets whose work appears in Villanelles edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali ("Everyman's Library Pocket Poems," Alfred A. Knopf, 2012).

Okay, you are going to be soooo envious! Here's a partial list of who will be speaking or reading at this year's Mass Poetry Festival being held today through Sunday in Salem, MA: Martha Collins, Mark Doty, Edward Hirsch, Marie Howe, Gregory Pardlo, and Charles Simic.

I'll be staying in a B & B for two nights and I'm expecting to thoroughly enjoy my immersion in poetry! Before I head out, though, let me share a poem by one of the attending poets not listed above, Ada Limón. Limón's Bright Dead Things: Poems, was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award.
Roadside Attractions with the Dogs of America

It’s a day when all the dogs of all
the borrowed houses are angel footing
down the hard hardwood of middle-America’s
newly loaned-up renovated kitchen floors,
and the world’s nicest pie I know
is somewhere waiting for the right
time to offer itself to the wayward
and the word-weary. How come the road
goes coast to coast and never just
dumps us in the water, clean and
come clean, like a fish slipped out
of the national net of "longing for joy."
How come it doesn’t? Once, on a road trip
through the country, a waitress walked
in the train’s diner car and swished
her non-aproned end and said,
"Hot stuff and food too." My family
still says it, when the food is hot,
and the mood is good inside the open windows.

Read the rest here and you'll learn what role the dogs play!

Buffy's Blog is where this week's Round-Up is taking place. Drop by and stay a while!

22 comments:

  1. I always love when you go because then you'll share what you "hear", Diane. This is quite a poem, but there are some lines I really loved, like " the mood is good inside the open windows.", can imagine how that is, and my windows were open last week, spring is here sometimes! Have a wonderful trip.

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    1. Thanks, Linda. I'll be heading out soon. With any luck I'll take readable notes!

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  2. Love the poem - so many images to digest. Enjoy the festival - great line up.

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    1. I love the way she says things a wee bit differently, for example, "and swished/her non-aproned end".

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  3. This poem is NOT from 1976 --Ada Limon was born in 1976! Which explains some of my off-balance as I began to read, but not all of it, because some of it is just because of the loose precise dogginess of Limon's language, bow-wow!
    "angel footing
    down the hard hardwood of middle-America’s
    newly loaned-up renovated kitchen floors"
    you just hear the toenails!

    Thank you for this wonderful poem, and I hope you have the best time and share it all with us!

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    1. Oops! Do you know, I didn't even question the date...that does not bode well for my future as a librarian!

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  4. I hadn't read this poem before. Thank you for sharing it. Have a great time!

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    1. I'm going to make sure I get to one of Limón sessions, maybe I'll share more in the future.

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  5. I love the exuberance of those last lines...happy festival, Diane!

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  6. Delightful poem, whatever its date, and have fun!! Why is everything the same weekend?

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    1. Really, not only is it the Mass Poetry Festival, it is also the Newburyport Literary Festival, and the Monadnock Pastoral Poets & Writers retreat. It's just not fair to find everything together on the same weekend and then have to go months before something else relatively local is scheduled!

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    2. Oh, and the NE-SCBWI conference! I mostly write, now, for the child in me, rather than for children, so I wouldn't have attended this one, but still...

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  7. Yes, you're making us jealous with that line-up! Enjoy the festival and thanks for sharing this fine new-to-me poem!

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  8. Sounds like a wonderful festival--enjoy! And yes, delightful poem even if it was written by a spring-chicken...

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  9. Thanks for sharing this rich poem, Diane. I haven't read Limón's work before, but will be on the lookout for more. Have a great time at the festival!

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  10. What a great poem! Enjoy hanging your head out the window (metaphorically speaking) and feeling the rush of wonderful poetry this weekend, Diane!

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  11. Have fun at the festival! Happy Poetry Weekend to you!

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  12. Diane, after reading all the comments, I am with Michelle. The line about the dogs holding their heads our the car windows is a great visual that I have seen often. Now, I get why the dogs are loving the windows wide open. I enjoyed that poem but you will enjoy your poetry-filled live weekend better.

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  13. Sounds like a terrific, nourishing trip, Diane! "Hot stuff and food too"!

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