OHIO POETS SURVEY

Last week, in preparing for the Ohio Poetry Association presentation on "Ohio Voice: A Poetic History" for World Poetry Day, I sent out a survey on poets' favorite poets, asking:

1. Your three favorite Ohio poets no longer living. (We call them "The Historic")
2. Your three favorite contemporary Ohio poets
3. What poem by an Ohio should be read for "World Poetry Day"

The bad news is that I could only give responders two days, and many could not get back by then. Also, my address book being who it is, my survey isn't representative of the state. (I really missed getting enough NW Ohio responders.) Still, I got 60 responses. 

The good news is that no one stuck to three (how could they?) The other good news is that many were named, and loved. 

Here are the very skewed but nevertheless heartening results:

FAVORITE HISTORICAL OHIO POETS 
(in alphabetical order, most mentions):

Russell Atkins, Hart Crane, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Robert Lawry, d.a. levy, Vachel Lindsay, William Matthews, Mary Oliver, Kenneth Patchen, Terry Provost, Maj Ragain, Daniel Thompson, Alberta Turner, James Wright, David Young

(in alphabetical order, also mentioned):

Angel, Boisseau, Cary Sisters (Alice & Phoebe),Coleman, Eckman, Friebert, Koch, Lang, Morrison, Polite, Xavier

FAVORITE CONTEMPORARY OHIO POETS
(in alphabetical order, most mentions)

Abdurraqib, Ali, Baker, Bentley, Biddinger, Bilgere, Borsenik, Burroughs, Donoghue, Dove, Essinger, Glaser, Grimm, Gundy, Iris, Jacobson (Bonnie), *Kendig, Lucas, Majmudar, Martin (Herb), McDonough, Metres, Nezhukumatahil, Powell , Salmons, Smith (Maggie), Vidrick, Weldon, Wiegl--

(*disqualified due to suspected power of suggestion) 

(in alphabetical order, also mentioned):

Andrle, Awad, Bellamy (Gail), Bree, Bryner, Bush, Chati, Daly, Demaree, Denton, Feen, Fix, Foster, Freeman, Franke, Gale, Garrison, Gay, Hague, Hassler, Jakobsons (Clarissa), Kamara (Yalie Saweda), King, Kolchinsky, LaCharity, Landis, Lime, Matsuura-Ayers, McIntire, Minar, Moss, Orr, Phillips, Rich, Robinson, Rojas, Sanchez, Schaer, Schubert, Seymour, Smith (Stephen), Smith (Rose),  Sparks, Stickney, Stone, Townsend, Turle, Turzillo, Wilson, Wing, Woods, Zamora

FAVORITE POEMS

Nineteen poems were suggested, but for the presentation, we let the seven readers choose the poems they wanted. List available on request.

 

  

READ + WRITE: 30 DAYS OF POETRY in the can--er, the books--er, in the queue

Eleven days ago, I sent this year's "Read + Write: 30 Days of Poetry" document to the Cuyahoga County Public Library staff to check and recheck and blogify and eventually send out to its many readers, a screen a day through the month of National Poetry Month, which is April.

I started in November with a list of 97 poet names I'd been gathering all year, which is the easy part because Northeast Ohio has many many (over 97) excellent poets we haven't published in our 13 years (30 poets a year: about 390 so far). We try to publish a poet only once, and with two mistakes and a lost year, we haven't repeated poets.

But the hard part, for me, is finding them. A lot of poets keep their writing out there but keep their contact information on the downlow, and I depend on John Burroughs of Crisis Chronicles, Literary Cleveland, and Facebook friends to ask poets for poems. Because we don't take submissions. We ask for the poem we want. This is sort of the opposite of the way most journals and presses work for submissions. It means more work for me at one end, but it also means I don't have to reject poems that "are just not for us at this time."

Once I contact a poet, the rest is getting bio and citation information, cutting, pasting, ordering. Oh, and I create a prompt for each day.

Recently, reading old copies of  Best American Poetry,  I came to the 2014 anthology, edited by Terrance Hayes, who decided to write some centos from his collection, based on themes he found among the 75 poems he had curated. Despite the fact I only had 30 poems, I thought I might be able to write a cento (it turns out two) because we are a bit focused on Northeast Ohio, from whence sprang these:

NE OHIO CENTO: ENVIRO

 

Perhaps destruction is how it always begins.

A warped Dalí garden:

An octopus tentacle, a kitten’s whisker, a spider’s leg.

The moon’s backside takes potshots for earth.

 

All the world’s trees…that somehow

Never sprouted stone leaves

Silver blue roots gripping the soil, grounded,

The thrum of a life well bruised.

 

This time, there were brighter warning signs

Lake Erie Monster Water

The air still and stifling for the middle of May

Every birdsong a dirge.

Third time in line today:

The numbers of the gas pump

Roll like a combination lock

This is how we make most of our money

The slow swell of days into weeks into years.

 

 

 

 

NE OHIO CENTO: REPAIR

History is funny. Braggarts of loss.

The meaning of the term anosognosia.

It’s hunting season again,

We don’t even try to turn away,

Just hit the iceberg head on.

How  hard a thing.

Music blasts from a teen’s earbuds.

Tan and tough as old goat meat

Fists sprout spikes. Fingers of night.

Where’s my guardrail?

In the tire swing that hangs from the cherry tree.

A luau of fixing in Cleveland:

Orisons of flute choirs, a vibrato of organs.