Earth Day 2010

Today is Earth Day!

Here are some things I'll be doing: Drink one less water bottle (or none at all!). Take shorter showers. Walk or bike instead of driving. Bring your travel mug for coffee instead of using a paper cup. Turn off the lights and use candles.


Visit the NCC Eco-Justice blogpost on this Earth Day, too.

2010 AWP in Denver

Things To Do In Denver When You’re Braindead: An AWP Retrospective - The Rumpus.net

I've not attended AWP since my days at UNCW. Though I miss the thrill of being so close to authors whose books I love, I know it is not a scene for me, with hundreds of writers experienced and new surging the hallways looking to (re)connect. So, I just look on from afar and pieces like this article (to which I've linked) by Steve Almond.

Eleanor Ross Taylor Awarded 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

Eleanor Ross Taylor Awarded 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize : The Poetry Foundation

A listing of the previous winners of the Lilly Prize can be found here.

Thought-Bombs! Rae Armantrout 2010 Poetry Pulitzer

The Pulitzer Prizes | Citation

Imagine your poems being described as thought-bombs... and that's a good thing! How exciting!

2010 Orchid Show

Somewhere, some time ago, in a conversation to a colleague and friend, Walter Brueggeman suggested that we human beings are too often enraged with one another and then run to God for consolation, when we should, instead, be enraged at God and go to each other for comfort. Hearing this second-hand, third-hand even, I believe there is great wisdom in his suggestion. Why can't we be like the prophets of old, raging and railing against God, asking, nay demanding God for mercy, justice, grace. There is nothing wrong with that expression of indignation and hope, that bargaining anger which God had so often seen, experienced, and eventually heard then responded to (or not)? And why shouldn't we turn to one another for comfort? In each other's company and companionship, we would at least find tangible, concrete, and immediate consolation -- and perhaps that might appease our anger enough to realize that God had placed us here for each other's comfort.