Dead Poets Society of America

Poe The Action Hero

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Iconic Frost Farm Hosts Dead Poets Celebration

The beautiful and historic Robert Frost Farm has joined with the Dead Poets Society of America to host the first New Hampshire Dead Poets Remembrance Day. The grand celebration will take place in the famous Frost barn at 3 PM, on Sunday, October 10th.

Come hear a dozen of New Hampshire's best poets read the poetry of Jane Kenyon, Odgen Nash, Robert Lowell, Celia Thaxter, Robert Frost, Scott Mowrer, May Sarton, Richard Eberhart, Phillip Booth, and more, in this National Historic Landmark.

All are welcome to attend the reading. There is a fee of $4 (NH resident) or $5 (non NH resident) to enter to Farm, which is truly one of the best-kept literary sites in the country.

Many thanks to S. Stephanie, poet and wife of NH Poet Laureate, Walter Butts, and Bill Gleed, manager of the Frost Farm and co-founder of the Hyla Brook Poets, for putting this event together.

Historic Grand Tour Report Now Online

The initial report of the historic Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 is now online.

It chronicles all the places visited and the names of the poets read. From the Report: 

"We started on Shakespeare’s birthday, in Portland, Maine, the 23^rd of April, and we ended with a bang 6,500 miles later at the first Boston Poetry Marathon, May 25th. During those 34 days, and with the cooperation of 13 current and former State Poets Laureate, we held a Dead Poets Bash in 19 different States and visited 43 cemeteries!

The Grand Tour map can be accessed at the top left corner of the Dead Poets Society of America blog:  http://deadpoets.typepad.com/dpsablog/  

The other readings and interviews we held at poets’ graves and houses were really great as well, including the Lorine Niedecker home, the Carl Sandburg home, the E.L. Masters home, the Sidney Lanier house, The Virginia Military Institute, The Poe Museum, the Longfellow House and the Woodberry Poetry Room, at Harvard.

All totaled we visited the graves of 75 American poets, and heard the amazing poetry of over 100 American poets read. Dedgar and the crew kept up a pace of just over 191.18 miles per day and 2 poets’ graves per day!

Ending with a Bang; not a Whimper

Staring in 1 hour, at sunrise, the Dead Poets Grand Tour will end on a great Big Bang! The Great Boston Poetry Marathon is about to begin.

See the updated schedule at the link above. This will be so MINT.  Forty-Three Poets' Graves in 1 Day

NC Dead Poets Bash Tonight

Tonight the Grand Tour arrives in Fountain, North Carolina, where some local bards, bartenders, and blues singers have lined up a great Bash to remember NC poets. A nice announcement appeared in the Wilson Times:

Pembroke Magazine editor and poet Shelby Stephenson will read poems by Sam Ragan and Paul Green. Wilson-based poet Jim Clark will perform poems by Byron Herbert Reece set to original music composed by Clark. Lightnin' Wells will read poems by George Moses Horton and perform songs by Piedmont blues poets Blind Boy Fuller and the Rev. Gary Davis.

Others have committed to read poems by A. R. Ammons, Jonathan Williams, Randall Jarrell, and Rocky Mount's William Boyd.

"Anyone who's interested in poetry is welcome to bring along a favorite poem by a dead Tar Heel poet to read," said Albright. "Who knows? You might wind up in the documentary."

Tuesday's event is the only North Carolina stop on the Dead Poets Bash tour, which concludes later this month in Massachusetts with a 24-hour marathon visit to 48 dead poets' graves.

Read more: http://dailyme.com/story/2010051400004152/dead-poets-bash-stops-fountain.html#ixzz0oHw0iUWk

Announcing The Great Boston Poetry Marathon!

On Monday, May 24, get ready for the biggest poets BASH of the new century!

Starting at sunrise, in Provincetown, at the grave of Stanley Kunitz, and ending at sunrise Tuesday, in Gloucester, we'll take a caravan to the graves of over Forty-Eight Poets in 1 DAY! That is 2 Poets Graves per hour, which will smash the previous literary land speed record.

Along the way we'll have someone reading poetry at each grave. Details will be coming soon, but mark your calenders NOW.

PS (not everyone has to start in Provincetown, you can meet up with the caravan in Chinatown, for breakfast, near where Phyllis Wheatley arrived as a slave child, before becoming the poetic wonder of Boston)

Check out the map: We'll be going to Mt. Auburn,  Poets Ridge in Concord, Jack Kerouac, Harriet Stowe, Charles Olson, John Whittier, Anne Sexton, E E. Cummings, John O'Reilly, Charles Sprague, Michael Wigglesworth, Jones Very, Richard Henry Dana.

On Monday, May 24, get ready for the biggest poets BASH of the new century!

Starting at sunrise, in Provincetown, at the grave of Stanley Kunitz, and ending at sunrise Tuesday, in Gloucester, we'll take a caravan to the graves of over Forty-Eight Poets in 1 DAY! That is 2 Poets Graves per hour, which will smash the previous literary land speed record.

Along the way we'll have someone reading poetry at each grave. Details will be coming soon, but mark your calenders NOW.

PS (not everyone has to start in Provincetown, you can meet up with the caravan in Chinatown, for breakfast, near where Phyllis Wheatley arrived as a slave child, before becoming the poetic wonder of Boston)

Check out the map: We'll be going to Mt. Auburn,  Poets Ridge in Concord, Jack Kerouac, Harriet Stowe, Charles Olson, John Whittier, Anne Sexton, E E. Cummings, John O'Reilly, Charles Sprague, Michael Wigglesworth, Jones Very, Richard Henry Dana.

Reading At Abram Ryan's Grave

The first Dead Poets Bash of Alabama was a great success, as about 20 people gathered at the grave of the poet-priest of the Confederacy, Rev. Abram Ryan. Some incredibly beautiful poetry from Alabama poets was read.  The rain held off and the Words rained down!

We were hosted by Sue Walker, the Poet Laureate of Alabama. What a gal! She recruited a slew of poets to come to the historic Catholic cemetery in Mobile to read.

1st Wisconsin Dead Poets Bash

Today's 1st Dead Poets Bash of Wisconsin was a happy event indeed, held in the Union Cemetery, near Ft. Atkinson, where Lorine Niedecker lived so many years.

At the Wisconsin Dead Poets Bash we had the distinct pleasure of hearing local poet, Maggs. Our small gathering was treated to a Sandburg poem as well as her own "An Ode to Converse," which you can read on her blog, linked below.

Hayden & Randall : at the graves of giants

Thursday the Poemobile travelled to Detroit and Chicago for two outstanding readings at the graves of poets who were giants in the world of African-American literature.

First we were joined by poet and Dudley Randall biographer, Dr. Melba Boyd, and Detroit laureate, Naomi Long Madgett. They led a round of readings in the historic and very lovely Elmwood Cemetery. Several board members showed up, and we had a small feast of poetry.

Then we raced to Ann Arbor to read at the grave of Robert Hayden, and his wife, Erma.

On the Road with Jack Kerouac

The Grand Tour rolled in Lowell, MA for a visit to the grave of famous beat writer, and poet, Jack Kerouac. His simple grave is like a canvas that his fans paint with relics: prayers, joints, origami, and whiskey bottles.

Due to rain we did not get to stop at the grave of Allen Ginsberg and we are now about to enter Baltimore....DEDGAR, The Poemobile, is very happy, because he is visiting the memorial of his namesake..E.A.Poe. Will have a video tomorrow.