RING #3: Columns/Interviews/Reviews

As we mentioned a few week’s ago, occasionally (as in an unknown random pattern) we are going to point out Big Tent Poetry friends and participant’s blog posts that discuss what poetry books or chapbooks they have read.

Carolee read Blameless Mouth by Jessica Fox-Wilson recently as a part of a virtual blog tour and writes about it at her blog, Carolee Sherwood.
James Bush also participated in the same Blameless Mouth tour, but wrote about a different aspect of the collection at Coyote Mercury.
Juliet Wilson, AKA Craft Green Poet, recently reviewed Jackie Kay’s new book Fiere for Brighton Blogger’s Book After Book. She also reviewed Mark Doty’s My Alexandria at her Over Forty Shades blog.
Madeleine Begun Kane says her post and haiku about Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden Of Verses isn’t exactly a review. It’s more of a recollection of a strong childhood memory and influence: A Childhood Shadow.
Deb Scott read a collective book from four New Zealand poets, including one whose blog you may read, Catherine Flichett. Find Deb’s thoughts at Stoney Moss and consider buying Flap: The Chook Book 2. All proceeds go to New Zealand earthquake relief efforts.

Have you posted about a poetry collection you’re reading? It doesn’t have to be a full-fledged or formal review. Email a link to your post to info@bigtentpoetry.org, or leave it in the comments. We’ll gather up your links and every few weeks or so (not on any particular schedule — remember how laid back we are around here?) plop them into a Big Tent post. We think it will be fun to hear your voices not just in your own poems but in how you react to the poetry of others!

It just so happens that your ringmasters — Carolee, Deb and Jill — read quite a bit of poetry. And we bet you to, too.

Since we have a “reviews” heading under the Big Top, why not point you in the direction of recent blog posts from community members about books?

We’ll start it off:

Carolee read  Rough Honey by Melissa Stein recently and has a few words (and some representative lines) at her blog, Carolee Sherwood.
Deb read Blameless Mouth by Jessica Fox-Wilson and is stop number two on a virtual blog tour. She shares bits of poems, links to some found online, and provides a Q&A on the question of personal/persona poetry.

Have you posted about a poetry collection you’re reading? It doesn’t have to be a full-fledged or formal review. Email a link to your post to info@bigtentpoetry.org. We’ll gather up your links and every week or so (not on any particular schedule — remember how laid back we are around here?) plop them into a Big Tent post. We think it will be fun to hear your voices not just in your own poems but in how you react to the poetry of others!

Dave Bonta, Big Tent Poetry Sideshow Barker

Despite the lack of “scruffy poetry bloggers” on the panel of consultants that helped develop the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry, Dave Bonta indicates that, as a first step, he likes most of the conclusions in the document.

He was “especially cheered by the recommendations for epigraphs” but calls the section on remixing (and found poetry) “murky.” He shares with his readers part of the “poetry online” recommendations which “suggests a standard for people who like to blog entire poems from others without explicit permission.” These issues — use of epigraphs, found poetry and quoting poetry — surface fairly regularly here and on other prompt sites, and so we encourage you to read not only Dave’s post but also the standards themselves.

Dave hopes the document at the very least opens a discussion and helps develop a second version of the standards, and a part of him also seems to hope the poetry populus will rise up and define its own standards. He writes,
And nothing prevents a bunch of us hoi polloi from convening ourselves, consulting with some intellectual property experts, and trying to build support for another set of standards via a more open process. Since these initial, suggested community standards are, by the report authors’ own admission, incomplete, maybe that’s indeed what needs to happen next, six months or a year down the road.
Click on the excerpt to read the entire article. Check our About page for a list of Sideshow Barkers, friends of Big Tent Poetry who are generous enough to share with us their columns, interviews and reviews. There is no set schedule for these appearances; willy-nilly is a symptom of creative genius!