Live Nude Poems

I am reading these books, in no particular order. I leave them at the bedside, by my laptop, in the library, in both bathrooms, and on the shelf of cookbooks in the kitchen, so's I always have something to read when I have time away from the kids. Yes, bathroom time is included in that. Daddy's by Lindsay Hunter: This book will scalp you and make you like it. I just got it today and dipped in here and there . Go get it now. Talking in Tranquility: Interviews with Ted Berrigan : Pretty much what it says it is. These interviews deal significantly with the Sonnets--even at the end of his life the first thing interviews talk about are the Sonnets--and I can't imagine that was pleasing for him, though he handles the questions every time without showing how many times he's been asked about them. That's a good skill to have. Paterson , by William Carlos Williams: I got tired of not knowing Paterson , so I'm reading it. Jury's still out on quality assessment,...

I mentioned this book a couple weeks back and just now saw this interview with Berrigan's close friend Ron Padgett on Harriet , originally published in PW . Poet Ted Berrigan's close friend Ron Padgett co-edited  Dear Sandy , a collection of letters the young Ted wrote his wife when she was institutionalized by her parents for marrying him. What was your relationship with Ted while he was writing these letters? We were both living in New York on the Upper West Side, but I was keeping my distance from him. Although we saw each other and there was no overt hostility, I was feeling a bit cool toward him during that period. How do you think all Ted's interests in writers and artists come together in these letters? They combined in several ways. First, in a general way, that is, as an affirmation that art and literature really do matter in one's life. Ted was encouraged by all the great art he was seeing in New York and all the books he was reading. In a more literary se...

I yanked this info from the Poetry Foundation blog, Harriet . It's a starred review, too, so I'm very much looking forward to reading it. I love poet's letters, but I wonder if any contemporary poets are archiving their emails for posterity. I doubt it, and that's too bad. The interwebs have shortened not only our attention span but our capacity for those long conversations letter-to-letter and closer to the heart than the short coldness of email. Dear Sandy, Hello: Letters from Ted to Sandy Berrigan, Ted  Berrigan, edited by Sandy Berrigan and Ron Padgett, Coffee House (Consortium, dist.), $19.95 paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-56689-249-0   In 1962, poet Ted Berrigan (The Sonnets) was an unknown New York writer. While visiting New Orleans, he eloped with 19-year-old Sandy Alper. Suspecting Ted of drug use, Sandy’s parents “became frightened and irrational” and had her involuntarily committed to a mental ward, although after a few months, Sandy managed to flee with Ted. By...