Poetry & Poets in Rags of May 21 Options

[rus bowden]

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

We have several themes running through this week's poetry in the news. One is the cultural disrespect of poets, for instance in our fifth article in News at Eleven about Yone Noguchi, and in one of Luisetta Mudie's articles in our Great Regulars section, about poet Zhu Yufu who is in prison. The latter is a case of censorship, which shows up in our fourth article about Howl not being allowed in a school system.

We have poets addressing other cultural and political aspects, such as with our eighth link, to a poem by Obediah Michael Smith, the poetry of E. Ethelbert Miller another of our Great Regulars, and our Back Page story about the verse being written by "Raymond Maxwell--one of the four State Department officials disciplined over security lapses that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi." We can also include our link to Luisetta Mudie's "China's Seven Taboos of Higher Education."

Among the many more, we have a general religious theme, such as with our third story on Christian Wiman's latest book, Great Regular Adam Kirch's "Who Can Follow These Rules", the poem Great Regular Guenica brings us called Blasphemy by Matt Sumpter, and our lead article this week from Zeek, "The Bitter & the Sweet: Reflections on Motherhood" by poet Rabbi Rachel Barenblat.

Congratulations are in order for three IBPC poets and the poetry boards where they workshop online, and thanks to our esteemed springtime judge Linda Sue Grimes. Here are the winners:

First place: A Trail of Bodies, by Billy Howell-Sinnard, of The Writers Block
Second place: For the men, by Judy Kaber, of The Waters Poetry Workshop
Third place: The Atheist’s Demise, by Fred Longworth, of Muse Motel

Thanks for clicking in

Yours,
Rus

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