April Is the Cruellest Month

Posted 4 April, 2008 in Poetry |

And looking out my office window at the persistent rain drizzling morosely down from the monochromatic sky, it’s not hard to comprehend what ol’ Thomas Stearns was on about.

April is, however, National Poetry Month, when all us literary types are urged to turn our attention to that oft-neglected, chronically underappreciated form of literary discourse.

The foregoing sentences should give you some indication of why your humble correspondent has mostly avoided writing about poetry here; any attempt to wax poetic or to engage with poetic texts inevitably comes off sounding like some fifth-rate hack with minimal rhythmic sense and unfettered access to a thesaurus given free rein to regurgitate overheated, overwritten, anti-euphonic doggerel across the computer screen. Which is to say, I don’t tend to write about poetry cause I kinda suck at it.

But, Canadian author Kate Sutherland has, in a somewhat intemperate moment, issued a challenge to all us litbloggers to take the opportunity of National Poetry Month to bang out some few words of critical discourse about poetry or poets between now and April 30. I haven’t decided whether to take her up on this, or whether discretion will indeed prove to be the better part of valour; regardless, the comments section of Sutherland’s post indicates that there is a broad spectrum of writers out there willing to take up the gauntlet, some of whom may be familiar to readers of this site. I heartily encourage you to check out some of this writing, and, who knows, if your humble correspondent finds himself in a state of adequate recklessness or inebriation, you might even find a poetry-themed post or two here at TSR.

Meantime, you can read Zach Wells, one of the country’s best, and most prolific, critics of poetry, over at his blog, Career Limiting Moves. And, if you’re in Toronto on Thursday, April 17, you can attend the Anansi Poetry Bash, which is always one of the great literary fêtes of the spring. Details are as follows:

Anansi Poetry Bash
Thursday April 17 - 6 p.m.
Celebrate the release of these excellent collections:
Revolver by Kevin Connolly
The Sentinel by A.F. Moritz
Chameleon Hours by Elise Partridge

Levack Block
88 Ossington Ave., Toronto, ON

So, go on: celebrate some poetry this month. Even the usually poetry-averse USA Today is getting into the game. Check out the photo of the universally renowned poet they’ve chosen to accompany their article. Who knew?

1 comment to “April Is the Cruellest Month”

Zachariah Wells, April 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm:

• In a recent conversation, friends and I were bemoaning the butchery that usually characterizes actors’ reading of poetry. I can’t remember ever hearing an actor do a better job with a poem than a poet with a modicum of oratorical endowment (of course, the latter creature is something of a rara avis). I think the problem stems from approaching a lyric as tho it were a dramatic monologue. I’m cringing at the mere thought of Sarandon reading “Stopping by Woods.”

  I’m trying my best to pretend that NPM doesn’t exist. That said I am doing a reading on the 25th and the release of my anthology of Canadian sonnets is imminent. Rather than read my blog, why not buy yourself a copy:

  http://www.amazon.ca/Jailbreaks-Re-creations-99-Canadian-Sonnets/dp/189723144X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204705990&sr=1-2

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