Tuesday, December 31, 2013
The Dirty Martini
Labels:
Alan Jankowski,
I Often Wonder,
poem,
poet,
The Dirty Martini
Monday, December 30, 2013
Happy New Year y Gracias to the Writers of Bar None Group for 2013!
We will always have a chair for you, Chuck (1947-2013). 2014 is going to be a ride, hold on tight! |
What an incredible year!
The first moments of 2013 were spent on a cross country trek across Mexico and the early hours of Christmas saw a return to Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico to ring out the year with the Dharma Bums of Barra de Navidad. Along the way we lost the original Dharma Bum of Barra de Navidad, our co-founder, Charles Longstreet. As the last days of the last week draw to a close the Bar None Group extends our deepest gratitude to all of you who have read, contributed, inspired and shared your words, your poetry, within our pages.
Happy New Year to:
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Marmion
Labels:
battle,
Christmas,
Flodden Field,
Marmion,
poem,
Sir Walter Scott
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
First Lines Second Thoughts — Pride and Prejudice
First Lines Second Thoughts is a look at the first lines of well known literary works.
On second thought, do these opening words stand alone as poetry? As we remember Jane Austen's birthday today — December 16, 1775 — we look at the opening lines of her most famous novel. Pride and Prejudice. Published in 1813.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Library Walk: Muriel Rukeyser
It is fitting that New York City's Library Walk has a plaque honoring Muriel Rukeyser. New York City was home to her birth and it is where she breathed her last in 1980. In between, Muriel Rukeyser raised cane poetically against the injustices of war, racism and inequalities affecting humankind.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Muriel Rukeyser's birth — December 15, 1913 — we visit Library Walk and the poem — The Speed of Darkness — that is quoted upon her plaque.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Anonymous
Labels:
anonymous,
Cuba,
espanol,
Nieves Xenes,
poeme,
translation
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
A Walk with Nelson Mandela
Labels:
A Walk with Nelson Mandela,
Apartheid,
elegy,
Mark Butkus,
Nelson Mandela,
poem,
protest
Friday, December 6, 2013
Street Poetry of Chicago: listen
From time to time we come across street poetry. Found poetry. We have found it in Florence, Italy, on the streets of New York City during Occupy Wall Street and, now, in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago.
Labels:
Chicago,
listen,
Pilsen,
poem,
street poetry,
Street Poetry of Chicago: listen
Thursday, December 5, 2013
The Unseen Flower
Labels:
Bar None Group,
poem,
poet,
Russell Rosander,
The Unseen Flower
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
The Road Home
Labels:
Chicago,
Eric Sirota,
New Orleans,
poem,
road,
The Road Home
Nowhere Fast — A Thanksgiving Lament
It is nine in the evening
The day before Thanksgiving
The busiest travel day of the year
There is a fresh pack of smokes on the dash
A six-pack is nestled between the front bucket seats
Road maps of the Northeast are placed in order,
Geographically, from nearest state to furthest on the passenger seat
A man sits behind the wheel of his car and quietly closes the door
He can be at the ocean —
His hometown of York, Maine — by dawn tomorrow
Thanksgiving.
Labels:
A Thanksgiving Lament,
Nowhere Fast,
Thanksgiving
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
W.H. Auden's Elegy for J.F.K.
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President John F. Kennedy gives speech in Fort Worth, Texas November 22, 1963. |
A nation mourned on November 22, 1963.
It's been said that out of great mourning comes great art. W.H Auden's Elegy for J.F.K. is a testament to that. Comprised of four haiku stanzas the elegy was written at the request of the composer Igor Stravinsky in 1964 for his score of the same name.
While Auden's verse is only four stanzas in length, Stravinsky repeated the first stanza at the score's conclusion.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Mary Szybist Wins National Book Award for Poetry
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Szybist's winning "Incardine" depicts the Annunciation in many forms. |
Mary Szybist has won the 2013 National Book Award for Poetry. In a ceremony last night in New York City, Szybist beat out a stellar group of finalists to claim the National Book Award for her brilliantly inventive volume of poetry — Incardine. Nikky Finney who won in 2011, led a panel of five judges and presented Szybist with her award.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
A Revolver
Labels:
A Revolver,
Abraham Lincoln,
Carl Sandburg,
poem
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
The Gettysburg Address
Labels:
1863,
Abraham Lincoln,
Edward Everett,
The Gettysburg Address
Monday, November 18, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The Barra Songbook: The Second Wind of Marc Pettigrew
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For Marc Pettigrew life is good. The best is yet to come. |
Marc Pettigrew has a new album out and no it's not his second album. The album is called Second Wind and could just as easily be called Second Chance.
Last year, Marc underwent a double lung transplant after being hooked up to bottles of oxygen since the late 1990s. The ever present bottle earned him the nickname 'Oxygen Marc' from his friends in Mexico.
When we communicated with Marc for this interview he was putting the finishing touches on the Second Wind disc.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Quaint Sayings of Uncle Jeff: On Sorrow
Labels:
Iva B Core,
Quaint Sayings of Uncle Jeff,
Sorrow,
Uncle Jeff,
Wisconsin
Monday, November 11, 2013
Armistice
Labels:
Armistice,
Armistice Day,
poem,
poet,
Remembrance Day,
Sophie Jewett,
Veteran's Day
Two Years Ago Today
Labels:
Harlem,
poem anniversary,
sunrise,
Teresa Puente,
Two Years Ago Today
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Word Up! The Pilsen Poetry Slam
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Pilsen gets Slammed by Poetry. |
Chicago has a long history of promoting poetry. The Poetry magazine has provided poets from Kilmer to Trethewey with vital exposure for more than a century. The first poetry slams were created at Chicago's Green Mill by the legendary Marc Smith and still thrive there today. Saturday November 9 the tradition continues as the Nitecap Coffee Bar in Pilsen gets slammed with the latest round of the Word Up! poetry slam.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Library Walk: Albert Camus
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Albert Camus: Born 100 years ago today. |
Awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times" the Bar None Group recognizes Albert Camus on the centennial of his birth.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
The Worst Poem Ever?
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Did this picture just give away the worst poem ever? |
A lot like differentiating art from pornography you can tell good poetry from bad poetry when you see it. But more akin to music, the worst song, like the worst poem has to have been very popular at one point in time. And that brings us to Joyce Kilmer.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Domingo
Labels:
Domingo,
espanol,
Oración,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Sábado
Labels:
espanol,
Oración,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
Sábado,
Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation
Friday, November 1, 2013
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Viernes
Labels:
espanol,
Oración,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation,
Viernes
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Lou Reed's Halloween Parade
The Halloween Parade that Lou Reed sings about on his 1989 New York disc had been left for dead. Neither 9/11 nor Hurricane Irene in 2011 could stop the parade. Huricane Sandy in 2012 did bring about its death...or do we speak of the parade's death prematurely? Now risen from the dead through a crowd funding effort, the Greenwich Village mainstay has come back to life. But is it the same Halloween Parade that Lou Reed sang about?
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Jueves
Labels:
espanol,
Jueves,
Oración,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
The Night Before Halloween
Labels:
Halloween,
poem,
Russell Rosander,
The Night Before Halloween
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Martes
Labels:
espanol,
Martes,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation
Monday, October 28, 2013
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte — Lunes
Labels:
espanol,
Lunes,
Oraciones dela Santa Muerte,
Santa Muerte,
semanario,
translation
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Library Walk: Dylan Thomas
Born on this day in 1914, Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) is perhaps more famous in death than he was in life. In life the Welsh poet is best remembered for his A Child's Christmas in Wales. In death he is the "roistering, drunken and doomed poet" who famously drank himself to death in New York City.
As memorialized in his adopted New York, it is the second verse of In My Craft or Sullen Art that is enshrined on Library Walk. The poem first appeared in Deaths and Entrances published in 1946. In My Craft or Sullen Art expertly captures the process and motivation of the poet — or of any creative mind who creates not for material gain but for something more substantial — something from within.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Ghost Light
Labels:
Ghost Light,
poem,
poet,
Renee Matthews-Jackson,
theater
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Monday, October 21, 2013
Tristessa
Labels:
Jack Kerouac,
Mark Butkus,
Mexico,
poem,
Tristessa
Friday, October 18, 2013
Wonderland
Labels:
MJ Duggan,
poem,
poet,
Scenes from the Big Society,
UK,
Wonderland
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