Poetry and About Poetry

You can watch two of my recent poetry readings in full on my YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/dasam97

You can watch two of my recent poetry readings in full on my YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/dasam97

Coverage of my appearance as one of two featured writers at the John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival at Mountain Empire Community College on March 18, 2015: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/germanna-s-sam-to-be-featured-at-literary-festival/article_be2a933e-bafe-11e4-a68e-6370951bc1fb.html?mode=jqm

Coverage of my appearance as one of two featured writers at the John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival at Mountain Empire Community College on March 18, 2015: http://www.fredericksburg.com/news/germanna-s-sam-to-be-featured-at-literary-festival/article_be2a933e-bafe-11e4-a68e-6370951bc1fb.html?mode=jqm

Or, Gone: Poems by Deborah Flanagan My rating: 2 of 5 stars Or, Gone attempts to play with biography and history, language and humor, science and invention. But I find its attempts at ironic wit and playfulness fall short. These mostly prose poems end up prosaic and even silly. Perhaps that was Flanagan’s intent. It did not work for me. The concluding poem “According to Heraclitus” has some merit. This is strictly for lovers of the post-everything minimalist/ironist school of writing. View all my reviews

Or, Gone: Poems by Deborah Flanagan My rating: 2 of 5 stars Or, Gone attempts to play with biography and history, language and humor, science and invention. But I find its attempts at ironic wit and playfulness fall short. These mostly prose poems end up prosaic and even silly. Perhaps that was Flanagan's intent. It did not work for me. The concluding poem "According to Heraclitus" has some merit. This is strictly for lovers of the post-everything minimalist/ironist school of writing. View all my reviews

A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell My rating: 5 of 5 stars I remember as well as one can after 43 years when Galway Kinnell gave a poetry reading at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I was stunned, not just by his reading, but more by the poetry. I went immediately to the Centicore Bookstore and bought what they had available at the time, I think Body Rags. This collection affirms in my mind that he wrote some of the finest verse during the last half of the 20th Century. In “The Bear” he reveals the unity of all being even as he vividly and grimly describes the awfulness of the way of tracking and killing a bear from the inside out. In “Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight” he bares the tender love of a father who sees hope and mortality in the growth of a child. He writes passionate love poems that feel the bones beneath his lover’s face. He weaves himself into nature and nature into his flesh. And his language is real, una...

A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell My rating: 5 of 5 stars I remember as well as one can after 43 years when Galway Kinnell gave a poetry reading at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I was stunned, not just by his reading, but more by the poetry. I went immediately to the Centicore Bookstore and bought what they had available at the time, I think Body Rags. This collection affirms in my mind that he wrote some of the finest verse during the last half of the 20th Century. In "The Bear" he reveals the unity of all being even as he vividly and grimly describes the awfulness of the way of tracking and killing a bear from the inside out. In "Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight" he bares the tender love of a father who sees hope and mortality in the growth of a child. He writes passionate love poems that feel the bones beneath his lover's face. He weaves himself into nature and nature into his flesh. And his language is real, unadorne...

My friend and fellow poet, Allan Peterson, and I have an ongoing friendly debate. He says he writes to be viewed on a page and read with the eyes. I have no objection to that as far as it goes. But my prejudice is to write also for the voice and the ear. It is, as I say, a friendly debate, only about emphasis. Allan’s poetry often lives well on the tongue. See, for example, “Placemat”: http://www.allanpeterson.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:placemat&catid=34:poetry&Itemid=37 Lance Mannion makes the case for hearing the “poetry” in his playfully serious online article, “Why we need poetry: How William Wordsworth and I saved a marriage”: “You can understand the themes, know the history, be able to put it all in a critical, literary, and biographical context, but if you never really hear it, if you don’t know and love the sound of it, you’ve missed the point. “You’ve missed the poetry....

My friend and fellow poet, Allan Peterson, and I have an ongoing friendly debate. He says he writes to be viewed on a page and read with the eyes. I have no objection to that as far as it goes. But my prejudice is to write also for the voice and the ear. It is, as I say, a friendly debate, only about emphasis. Allan's poetry often lives well on the tongue. See, for example, "Placemat": http://www.allanpeterson.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:placemat&catid=34:poetry&Itemid=37 Lance Mannion makes the case for hearing the "poetry" in his playfully serious online article, "Why we need poetry: How William Wordsworth and I saved a marriage": "You can understand the themes, know the history, be able to put it all in a critical, literary, and biographical context, but if you never really hear it, if you don’t know and love the sound of it, you've missed the point. "You've missed the poetry."...

RELEASE 3441 Mountain Empire Road Big Stone Gap, VA 24219 (276) 523-7466 www.meccfoundation.org MECC Foundation to Host 39th Annual John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival & Lonesome Pine Short-Story and Poetry Contests Big Stone Gap, VA — The MECC Foundation is pleased to announce the 39th annual John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival, featuring guest authors Donald Davis and Dr. David Sam, on Wednesday, March 18th at 10 a.m. in the Goodloe Center of Phillips-Taylor Hall. The festival will feature readings and discussion with the authors. The MECC Foundation will also host the 28th Annual Lonesome Pine Short Story Contest and the 11th Annual Lonesome Pine Poetry Contest, in partnership with Lonesome Pine Arts & Crafts, Inc. Individuals interested in obtaining contest guidelines should contact the MECC Foundation Office at (276) 523-7466. Contest rules are also available on the MECC website (www.mecc.edu) and the MECC Foundation website (www.meccfoundation.org). Short stories and poems i...

RELEASE 3441 Mountain Empire Road Big Stone Gap, VA 24219 (276) 523-7466 www.meccfoundation.org MECC Foundation to Host 39th Annual John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival & Lonesome Pine Short-Story and Poetry Contests Big Stone Gap, VA -- The MECC Foundation is pleased to announce the 39th annual John Fox, Jr. Literary Festival, featuring guest authors Donald Davis and Dr. David Sam, on Wednesday, March 18th at 10 a.m. in the Goodloe Center of Phillips-Taylor Hall. The festival will feature readings and discussion with the authors. The MECC Foundation will also host the 28th Annual Lonesome Pine Short Story Contest and the 11th Annual Lonesome Pine Poetry Contest, in partnership with Lonesome Pine Arts & Crafts, Inc. Individuals interested in obtaining contest guidelines should contact the MECC Foundation Office at (276) 523-7466. Contest rules are also available on the MECC website (www.mecc.edu) and the MECC Foundation website (www.meccfoundation.org). Short stories and p...

Still to Mow by Maxine Kumin My rating: 3 of 5 stars I wanted to give this collection a higher rating than a 3, but the middle section particularly and other politically polemical poems were not of the usual quality I expect of Maxine Kumin. Then again, you have such terribly poignant lines as: “We try to live gracefully and at peace with our imagined deaths but in truth we go forward stumbling, afraid of the dark, of the cold, and of the great overwhelming loneliness of being last.” in describing a long marriage with both elderly and nearing their ends. I recommend reading for the best of the poems. The more topical can be skipped or scanned. View all my reviews

Still to Mow by Maxine Kumin My rating: 3 of 5 stars I wanted to give this collection a higher rating than a 3, but the middle section particularly and other politically polemical poems were not of the usual quality I expect of Maxine Kumin. Then again, you have such terribly poignant lines as: "We try to live gracefully and at peace with our imagined deaths but in truth we go forward stumbling, afraid of the dark, of the cold, and of the great overwhelming loneliness of being last." in describing a long marriage with both elderly and nearing their ends. I recommend reading for the best of the poems. The more topical can be skipped or scanned. View all my reviews