Afghan Women's Writing Project

Next time you think you have writer's block, go browse The Afghan Women's Writing Project, http://www.awwproject.org/.  Then sit down and be glad for the luxury of being able to write, and ... just do it.

Lehman Brothers - poetry even in the dark corners...

Musing over the recent financial meltdown and its trail of soggy breadcrumbs, I found an article in the NY Times about Lehman Brothers, and was struck by the odd intimacy of coffee spills and smears on the 'found' memo in question.  Could there be art in even this unlikely (unsavory) spot?  Here are some of the marks and blobs, fashioned into a verse of sorts...

Loosely Identified reads at Duff's again! May 17

Don't forget to come hear us!  Monday night.... Readers will include Helen Eisen, Rebecca Ellis, Martha Ficklen, Gaye Gambell-Peterson, Mary Ann deGrandpre Kelly, Colleen McKee, Karen Smead Mondale, Niki Nymark, Marilyn Probe, Catherine Rankovic, Myra South, Jennifer Tappenden, and LaVelle Wilkins-Chinn. The mistress of ceremonies will be Mary Ruth Donnelly.

Mothers Day: Mothers in hard places - Patty Prewitt

News in from a local poet who sends information about "a prisoner (get ready - there's a lot of alliteration here), named Patty Prewitt. Who is a poet. She's around 55 or 60 year old woman who's been in prison 20 years for the murder of her husband. She's maintained that she's innocent and seems to have had an unfair trial process. Her poems are interesting and paint a vivid picture of the person she is and her experience in prison. I wonder what you think of them and if you have recommendations on how they might reach a wider audience. They are not necessarily technically polished, but her gut instincts are good and she's also clearly read a lot of poetry too."

And Patty Prewitt's poems are worth a read, here on Mother's Day.  You can hear her reading two of them on this web site -- go to section 3B for a video/audio.  (Turn your volume way up; the audio is very soft.)  http://www.commutepatty.blogspot.com/

92nd Street Y

As the New York 92nd Street Y has just announced, "In a renewed effort to share with a wider contemporary audience some of the great literary moments which the Poetry Center has presented across the decades, this page (to be regularly updated) features archival recordings by some of the best writers of our time." 

If you can tear yourself away from the lovely spring weather, their website is a nice place to bowse for wonderful poetry, and much more.