Tran|script, by Mike Caulfield (Free subscription) | 12/05/2009
I just stole food out of the mouths of Kenneth Fearing’s heirs — I pulled down his The Big Clock today from my new favorite book-sharing site instead of forking over the money for it to my local chain bookstore. I think his heirs will survive, but the $26 I would have had to pay [...]
Nothing to Say & Saying It (Free subscription) | 10/16/2009
Well, I’ve not made it very far at all into my pile of books, and yikes, in comes another huge batch. Here’s the second batch below. One more batch, I think, to go, and then I’m going to go back to not having any money for books for a long, long time. For this one moment in time, though, I can pretend to be well-read. As you can see, I’m trying to plug some holes that go back...
Nothing to Say & Saying It (Free subscription) | 10/13/2009
Kenneth Fearing Continuous Performance The place seems strange, more strange than ever, and the times are still more out of joint; Perhaps there has been some slight mistake? It is like arriving at the movies late, as usual, just as the story ends: There is a carnival on the screen. It is a village in springtime, that much is clear. But why has the heroine suddenly slapped his face? And what does it...
Woody Haut's Blog (Free subscription) | 08/17/2009
Poets who wrote crime or detective novels: Kenneth Fearing Dorothy B. Hughes Jack Spicer Richard Hugo R.V. Cassill D.K Markham C. Day Lewis David Markson Without a doubt, Fearing and Hughes were adept at both poetry and crime fiction. Spicer and Hugo's detective novels weren't bad, but more like pastiche, and hardly up to the quality of their poety. On the other hand, Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler...
After Long Busyness: A Poetry Blog (Free subscription) | 08/06/2009
The hard-boiled, Great Depression-era poetry of Kenneth Fearing. By Jason Boog Poetry Media Services During the darkest days of the Great Depression, artist Alice Neel painted a surreal portrait of her friend, the poet Kenneth Fearing. In it, the gaunt 33-year-old stares out through owl-rimmed glasses, eye sockets hollow from exhaustion and hunger, a gaping hole in his [...]
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 06/26/2009
[O’Connell Bridge; Jack B. Yeats, 1927] Sky, be blue, and more than blue; wind, be flesh and ........ blood; flesh and blood, be deathless; .... walls, streets, be home; .... desire of millions, become more real than warmth ........ and breath and strength and bread; .... clock, point to the decisive hour and, hour without ........ name when stacked and waiting murder fades, ........ dissolves,...
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 06/24/2009
The primary way people are introduced to poetry is through major anthologies and classrooms, or at least that's the way it has been for the past couple generations. But the internet can change all that as it presents new ways and opportunities to expose people to poetry. Maybe poetry doesn't have to be so arcane afterall, and this is especially valuable considering the number of poets with top quality...
Five Branch Tree (Free subscription) | 06/23/2009
Kenneth Fearing is known as the chief poet of the American Depression as he lived and wrote during the 1930’s and his subject matter focused upon urban disillusionment resulting from the ills of commercial capitalism. Predatory social behaviors, false expectations, emotional isolation, the commodification of the physical body, empty materialism, anxieties on top of anxieties, and, of course,...
Poetry Hut Blog (Free subscription) | 06/17/2009
— Dharma Poetry: Stephen Dunn — *** — Robert Polito on Kenneth Fearing’s media-saturated poetry as vernacular collage [mp3] — *** — The Annual Return of Sunny the Turtle — *** — Barn Owl Review 3 Call for Submissions — *** — Artists Find Inspiration In Genetic Research — *** — People with a family history of genetic disease are...
MediaBistro.com (Free subscription) | 06/08/2009
Until June 20th, the New York City gallery Zwirner & Wirth has an art show collecting a series of nudes painted by Alice Neel during the Great Depression. One GalleyCat editor put together this short video about Neel, the Work Projects Administration (WPA), and New York writers in the 1930s--using actual WPA footage shot during the period. IMPORTANT NOTE: All three images in the video are copyright...
The Rap Sheet (Free subscription) | 11/14/2008
Even though The Rap Sheet isn’t participating today in Patti Abbott’s distinguished “forgotten books” series (this being only the second week we have not), there are a number of other recommendations being made elsewhere in the blogosphere. Among the candidates: The Big Clock, by Kenneth Fearing; Climb a Broken Ladder, by Robert Novak; Jitter Joint, by Howard Swindle; Death...
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