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John Ashbery - mtvU's inaugural poet laureate

As reported this morning by the Times, John Ashbery has been selected the first poet laureate for mtvU--a subsidiary of MTV Networks.  The channel, mtvU, runs exclusively on college and university television networks.  From "An 80-Year-Old Poet for the MTV Generation":

Excerpts of his poems will appear in 18 short promotional spots — like commercials for verse — on the channel and its Web site (mtvu.com, which will also feature the full text of the poems). In another first, mtvU will help sponsor a poetry contest for college students. The winner, chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, will have a book published next year by HarperCollins as part of the National Poetry Series.

“We hope that we’ll help discover the next great poet that we’ll be talking about for years to come,” said Stephen K. Friedman, the general manager of mtvU, which broadcasts at 750 campuses nationwide.

PW on Robert Hass

Here's the early word from PW on Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 by Robert Hass:

The first book in 10 years from former U.S. poet laureate Hass may be his best in 30: these new poems show a rare internal variety, even as they reflect his constant concerns.  One is human impact "on the planet at the century's end": a nine-part verse-essay addressed to the ancient Roman poet Lucretius sums up evolution, deplores global warming and says that "the earth needs a dream of restoration in which/ She dances and the birds just keep arriving."  Another concern is biography and memory, not so much Hass's own life as the lives of family and friends.  A poem about his sad father and alcoholic mother avoids self-pity by telling a finely paced story.  Hass also commemorates the late Polish Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz, with whom he collaborated on translations; condemns war in harsh, stripped-down prose poems; explores achievement in visual art from Gerhard Richter to Vermeer; and turns in perfected, understated phrases on Japanese Buddhist models.  Through it all runs a rare skill with long sentences, a light touch, a wish to make claims not just on our ears but on our hearts, and a willingness to wait--few poets wait longer, it seems--for just the right word. (Oct.)

That's one of the most satisfying PW reviews I've ever read.  Here's a poem from the collection:

"Ezra Pound's Proposition"

Beauty is sexual, and sexuality
Is the fertility of the earth and the fertility
Of the earth is economics.  Though he is no recommendation
For poets on the subject of finance,
I thought of him in the thick heat
Of the Bangkok night.  Not more than fourteen, she saunters up to you
Outside the Shangri-la Hotel
And says, in plausible English,
"How about a party, big guy?"

Here is more or less how it works:
The World Bank arranges the credit and the dam
Floods three hundred villages, and the villagers find their way
To the city where their daughters melt into the teeming streets,
And the dam's great turbines, beautifully tooled
In Lund or Dresden or Detroit, financed
By Lazeres Freres in Paris or the Morgan Bank in New York,
Enabled by judicious gifts from Bechtel of San Francisco
Or Halliburton of Houston to the local political elite,
Spun by the force of rushing water,
Have become hives of shimmering silver
And, down river, they throw that bluish throb of light
Across her cheekbones and her lovely skin.

--from Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005

New Poet Laureate - Charles Simic

From the NY Times, "Charles Simic, Surrealist With Dark View, Is Named Poet Laureate":

Charles Simic, a writer who juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor, is to be named the country’s 15th poet laureate by the Librarian of Congress today.

Mr. Simic, 69, was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and immigrated to the United States at 16. He started writing poetry in English only a few years after learning the language and has published more than 20 volumes of poetry, as well as essay collections, translations and a memoir.

A retired professor of American literature and creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, he won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1990 and held a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant from 1984 to 1989...

Samizdat Blog - came across this blog over at the burgeoning MetaxuCafe (where else?) via a post about the new poet laureate, Donald Hall.  Upon visiting, I think you'll quickly discover (if you recall a few of the job-related anecdotes that I sprinkle in here and there) why this site appeals to me (and it's not that playful headshot).  Go forth.

*The photo I was referring to above has since been removed.  That's okay.  It was up at one point, which is more than enough for me.  Even without the picture, the site is definitely worth a visit.