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  Octaves - Poem from a Pulitzer...

  Edward Arlington Robinson

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  Edwin Arlington Robinson was born on the 22nd December 1869 in Tide in Lincoln County, Maine.  
  His childhood was described by him as ‘stark and unhappy’.  His name was drawn out of a hat from a fellow vacationer from Arlington Massachusetts when fellow holiday makers decided that his parents had waited long enough at 6 months to name him.  It was a name he despised and reflects the station to which his parents had placed him; their great hope at his birth were that he was a girl to complement their two sons. 
  His pessimistic mood carried him to adulthood and a doomed encounter with Emma Loehen Shepherd who constantly encouraged his poetry.  Edwin was thought too young to be her companion and so his elder, middle brother, Herman was assigned to her.  It was a great blow to Edwin and during their marriage on February 12th, 1890, he stayed home and wrote ‘Cortege’ 
  In the fall of 1891 Edwin entered Harvard, taking classes in English, French and Shakespeare.  He felt at ease with the Ivy League and made great efforts to be published in one of the Harvard literary journals.  Indeed, the Harvard Advocate published ‘Ballade of a Ship’ but then his career appeared to stall.  His father died and although he returned to Harvard for a second year it was to be his last but also the start of some life-long friendships. 
  In 1893 he returned to Gardiner Maine as the man of the household.  Herman by this time had become an alcoholic, having suffered business failures, and was now to become estranged from Emma. 
  Edwin began farming whilst he wrote and quickly developed a close relationship with Emma who had now moved back to Gardiner after Herman’s death with her children. 
  Although he proposed twice, he was rejected and in consequence moved to New York to start afresh. 
  But it was a salutary experience. Although surrounded by artists he had little money and life was difficult. 
  In 1896 he published his own book, ‘The Torrent and the Night Before’, paying 100 dollars for 500 copies.  Edwin wanted it to be a surprise for his Mother, but days before its arrival she died of diphtheria. 
  His second volume, ‘The Children of the Night’, had a wider circulation.  At the behest of President Roosevelt, whose son was an avid admirer, he was given a job in 1905 at the New York Customs Office although it appears his real job was “to help American letters”. 
  Either way his success began to widen and his influence proper.  During the 1920s he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three separate occasions. In 1922 for ‘Collected Poems’ again in 1925 for ‘The Man Who Died Twice’ and finally in 1928 for ‘Tristram’. 
  During the last twenty years of his life he became a regular summer resident at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where he became the object of fascination by several women.  But he never married. 
  Edwin Arlington Robinson died of cancer on the 6th April 1935 in the New York Hospital in New York. He was 65.

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  Patriotic Grace - What It Is and...

  Anonymous

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  Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column has been must reading for thoughtful liberals and conservatives alike. Now she issues an urgent, heartfelt call for all Americans to support the next President. Because it is not the threats and challenges we face, but how we face them that defines us as a nation. 
  The terrible events of 9/11 brought us together in a way not seen since World War II. But the stresses and divisions of the Bush years have driven us apart to a point that is unhealthy and dangerous. Today, Noonan argues, the national mood has swung the other way and it is well past time for politicians to catch up. We long for leaders who can summon us to greatness and sacrifice, as they did in the long struggles against fascism and communism. 
  In this timely essay, written in the pamphleteering tradition of Tom Paine's Common Sense, Noonan reminds us that we must face our common challenges together—not by rising above partisanship, but by reaffirming what it means to be American.

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  WHERE ELSE - An International...

  Jennifer Wong, Tim Tim Cheng,...

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  Featuring both established and emerging Hong Kong poets across generations and continents, this unique anthology offers a glimpse into an exciting, diverse range of voices that make up the diasporic imagination of the contemporary Hong Kong poetry community. Adopting a diasporic approach, the anthology encompasses both native Hong Kong writers as well as expatriate and mixed-race voices who were born or have lived in the city.
  With a preface from the Hong Kong-born, California-based poet Marilyn Chin and a joint introduction from the co-editors, the anthology sheds light on some poignant, wide-ranging themes such as migration, identity, gender, language, belonging, environment that underpin the city of Hong Kong, a place situated uniquely between the East and the West, in the 21st century. The book also features a selection of artworks from some of Hong Kong's most talented artists, inviting the reader to make connections between the visual images and the text.

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  Places In My Head - Some Poetry

  Paul Ieson

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  Here is a bit of poetry that comes from the best of Paul Ieson's song lyrics that still can be found on the web. 
  All these are from different times in my life and some times they come from a dark place in my life. Enjoy.

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  The Years

  Annie Ernaux

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  'Memory never stops. It pairs the dead with the living, real with imaginary beings, dreams with history.'
  She strikes a pose and the camera shutter clicks: a child playing in the debris of the Second World War. Click. A student discovering parties and men's bodies. Click. An activist fighting for the right to choose. Click. A wife picking out a velvet sofa. Click. A mother taking her eldest to judo. Click. A lover, seducing a younger man. Click. A grandmother presenting her granddaughter to the camera. Click.
  Les Années (The Years) is Annie Ernaux's critically acclaimed 'masterpiece' (Guardian), charting a woman's personal and political life against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe.
  Eline Arbo's inventive stage adaptation was premiered as De Jaren by Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2022, with a cast of five women collectively bringing to life an unapologetic portrait of one woman, and a whole continent. Arbo directed her adaptation at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2024, in an English language version by Stephanie Bain – with reference to translations by Alison L. Strayer and Tanya Leslie. In 2025, The Years transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

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  Anny's

  Alex R Casey

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  This is Anny's story of desertion, heart break, and panic. A single mother and her young son Randy must make their way to what ever lies ahead. This is a story of a mother bonding with her son in adverse conditions; while trying to survive. A drama of morals, ethics, and compassion finds its way though out this book. The single mother's illusion of trust and security is removed when her husband dissolves the marriage and leaves. The mother and her twelve year son are left to fend for themselves. All their earthy belongings fit into a suitcase, and two black garbage bags. In the bleak situation a hidden talent comes forth, which renews her hope, and self worth.

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