The Pulse: February 2024
"And still I get nostalgic about the colours of those days"
You’re reading The Pulse, a round-up of poetry alive and well in the world that surrounds us. It’s another packed issue today.
Today’s post title comes from “Driving to York Prison In A Thunderbird” by Cynthia Dewi Oka, found in Fire Is Not A Country.
The U.S. lands on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
And it hasn’t been smooth. I find it fascinating just how extremely difficult a moon mission still is, despite all the technological progress we’ve made since 1972. More on the moon: the Paris Review has a column by Nina McLaughlin called The Moon In Full and
did a beautiful roundup of poetry and the moon.Vice will shutter Vice.com and lay off hundreds of people to focus on social channels.
In 2017, Vice Media was valued at $5.7 billion. Last year, it filed for bankruptcy. And now, it’s pivoting to a new business model focusing on social and video content. Vice published some of the best mainstream deep dive pieces on poetry, so here are some before they disappear:
Finding the Words To Love While Living With HIV, a poem by Timothy Duwhite.
This Poet Never Went to School, so She Invented Her Own Alphabet to Write Poetry
I Faked My Way as an Instagram Poet, and It Went Bizarrely Well
Also: rapper and producer Big Rube on the link between music and poetry, a profile on poet and comedian
, poets critique Sean Penn’s #metoo poem (“his misogyny lacks imagination”), witchy poems, etc etc etc.
Dune: Part Two is here and it’s epic.
Once every 25 years or so, audiences are treated to an epic world building film experience and Dune is officially this generation’s. In my post-watch high and between clips of Zendaya’s press tour fits (sci-fi eats red carpets), I came across this quote from the original book by Frank Herbert: The mystery of life is not a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. Let that be your daily reminder. Enlist the help of poetry when you need another.
Also in Dune x poetry world: Josh Brolin, who plays a warrior-mentor figure, has apparently been a poet for years and recently went viral for a poem he wrote describing co-star Timothée Chalamet’s cheekbones and “lips of a certain poetry” (full poem here), found in the coffee table book, Dune: Exposures, which also contains a smattering of other poems about his costars and filming Dune. Buzzfeed shares the internet’s reactions. Josh Brolin explains here.
MORE POETRY NEWS + LINKS + READS
*= paywalled
Poets react to Taylor Swift’s announcement of her next album, The Tortured Poets Department.*
Deborah Landau shares thoughts on how to write a love poem over on Oprah.com.
A found poem is a poem made with lines taken from other sources. “My memories are being erased” is a found poem by Claire Cameron that uses phrases from over 40 news stories on the Gaza crisis.
Redditors react to Minecraft’s updated end poem that displays after the credits of the game.
Apparently, it sucked to paint the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo wrote a poem about it. (Even the greats suffer from imposter syndrome: the last line reads “I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.”)
From
: A fascinating look into how Eminem writes lyrics including images of his actual notes.Poetry and productivity are rarely uttered together. In
: A Poet’s Take on Atomic Habits.Artist and poet
’s poetic posts on Valentine’s day, the colour pink, and constructing a sense of self with scent.A bookshop in Colorado opens up a reader-in-residence position, where you show up and get a stipend to read ($50 per month for books, another $50 per month for coffee). Why? To try to break the cycle of constant production. More on bookstores: Bring back the big, comfortable reading chair!
[featured image] Abbotsford, who would’ve thunk? Real Housewife and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel is small town Canada’s newest hype-woman (even making a comparison to Tulum) based on a recent series of TikToks she filmed sharing her favourite spots and finds. Also in Abbotsford: this Poetry & Posy workshop with Abbotsford’s artist-in-residence Alexandra Richards, where participants made a posy (small bouquet of flowers) and wrote a short poem.
FEBRUARY POETRY RELEASES
Wrong Norma by Anne Carson
Medium by Johanna Skibsrud (March 5)
Thick With Trouble by Amber McBride
Spectral Evidence by Gregory Pardlo
Survived By: An Atlas of Disappearance by Stephanie niu
Exploding Head by Cynthia Marie Hoffman
RESOURCES + LEARNING
POETRY:
Poetry Book Club: I tried starting a Poetry Book Club that didn’t take off but if this is what you’re looking for, The Rumpus has one you can join for $30/month where you receive a new poetry book in the mail plus access to a discussion with the author.
Same Faces Collective: An online free-to-read literary publication that’s beautifully designed and feels like walking through a gallery, complete with Spotify playlists to set the mood.
THE BUSINESS OF POETRY:
The Selling and Self-Regulation of Contemporary Poetry: I haven’t read this yet but if you’re a poet, creative, or marketer, could be worth a read.
Want to make and sell art? Start a TikTok: Writers, artists, musicians, and people making things, this is for you. Vox reports on the state of self-promotion.
COURSES:
When Barbie Met Falkor: 1 Session Film Lover Seminar: On March 17, join Lauren Veloski in exploring the link between the Barbie movie and The Neverending Story, “a beautiful parable for the artist’s promise (/potential failure), as well as a trial on the nature of imagination itself”.
FAVOURITES OF THE MONTH
Book: The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich, a short collection of essays documenting life in the landscape of Wyoming. An early contender for one of my favourite books of 2024.
TikTok: Is telling people they read too much or too fast rooted in white patriarchy? (@citybookspgh), Burberry’s going meta on meta by sharing a printer printing images of their Winter 2024 collection (@burberry), a look at restaurant menu trends (@nytimes), a physical artist statement (@brittanyvwilder).
Poem: So many! Especially from Fire Is Not A Country by Cynthia Dewi Oka. But since it was February, here’s an excerpt from “A fairy keeps track of February” by Sam Moe:
A group of foxes is called a star, a cluster of stars is called a banquet, stacks of dishes at a banquet are called desires, there is a bucket under my bed for my tears but now it is filled with leaves, and at the bottom of the bucket is your necklace, discarded at a party, I remember I helped you with the clasp, I remember I apologized when I became overwhelmed by your hair, which smelled like lilacs.
Cover: Lucifer at the Starlife by Kim Addonizo.
