Leaves of Bark

Amiri Baraka: Poet & US Air Force Base Librarian

Another world-famous poet-librarian has entered the eternal stacks underground.

The American poet and activist, Amiri Baraka (born LeRoy Jones, in Newark, NJ) was for a short time a base librarian for the US Air Force. He ran into trouble when he began to stock books that were deemed pro-Soviet, or supportive of Marxist principles, so it seems he was removed from that position.

(From NYTimes OBit): To stave off loneliness and misery, he read widely and deeply, stocking the library on his base in Puerto Rico with books — philosophy, literary fiction, left-wing history — the likes of which it had almost certainly never seen.

After three years, he was dishonorably discharged: Some of his reading material had made the Air Force suspect that he was a Communist. The irony, he later said, was that he did become a Communist, but not until long afterward. As he relayed in an interview:

So I joined the Air Force, which was a very, very stupid move. But the other hand, the dialectic of that that is very funny because, like I said, I became the night librarian down in Puerto Rico, which gave me the opportunity to order books from all over the world, order records from all over the world, and so complete my education, so to speak. 

Also, several obituaries include that he remembered being forbidden to enter a segregated library when he was a boy.

Amiri Baraka was a book, not just in black and white, / but filled with living color and anger/ whom many people refused to read / while others fed on the poet's dreams. (WS)

 

Timo Lappalainen : Living Finnish Librarian-Poet

Timo Lappalainen writes us with the following information. He has so far had three volumes of poetry published:

..

"Kaikki tapahtuu oikeastaan talvella" ("Everything happens really in winter"). University of Art and Design, Helsinki 1995

"Poetic Licence". Like, Helsinki 2001

"Kultainen noutaja" ("Golden retriever"). Like, Helsinki 2005

He write: "I also have collaborations in about half dozen anthologies, in Finland and Estonia. I am a member of The Union of Finnish Writers. I was born 1959 in Taivalkoski, Northern Finland. Now I live in Helsinki and work at The Vantaa City Library. Here's a link:

http://www.kirjasampo.fi/fi/kulsa/kauno%253Aperson_123175973844629"

Anas Alaili, Palestinian Library Poet (in Lyons, France)

Welcome Anas!

Anas works in the Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Lyon, in France. He writes in Arabic, and informs us that "Some of my poems where translated to english : in « Rattapallax Magazine », n. 7, New York, 2002. And in « Banipal magazine », n. 15-16. Londres. 2002."

Anas Alaili est né en Palestine. Il a publié son premier recueil en arabe en 2006, à Amman, traduit en français sous le titre « Avec une petite différence » en 2009, et préfacé par Bernard Noel. Ce recueil, aux éditions Polder, arrive à sa troisième édition. Anas Alaili a publié également dans plusieurs revues en France, dont Décharge, N4728, Mercure Liquide, Lieu d’être, etc. Certains de ses poèmes sont traduits en anglais dans les revues Rattapallax Magazine (New York) ou Banipal (Londres), en espagnol dans El ultimo rugido en literatura et en hébreu dans Mita’am. Il fait de nombreuses lectures publiques de ses textes, souvent avec des acteurs ou des musiciens.
 
Extrait de la préface de Bernard Noel :
[...]
Le poème est un lieu de métamorphose et de révélation, du moins tout poème se promet de l’être. Cette affirmation discutable s’impose dans ce livre  tandis que grandit l’étonnement d’en constater la justesse poème après poème. A force de naturel et de simplicité, la réalité -  toujours là comme base de la situation  -  se transforme en un clin d’œil fabuleux empreint de tendresse et d’humour. Rien de « poétique » (heureusement) mais le brusque et surprenant passage d’un détail quotidien à ce qui prend le tour d’une fable à contre temps du vécu ordinaire.
[...]
Le lecteur a le sentiment de rencontrer les poèmes d’Anas Alaili dans le halo d’un sourire. L’humour et la douceur servent mieux la résistance que les déclarations violentes parce qu’ils font échec à l’inhumain.

Publications :
Ma’ Fariq Basit, éditions Fada’at, Amman, Jordanie, 2006.
Avec une petite différence, traduction Mohammad El-Amraoui, préface Bernard Noel,  polder 142, 2009.
Anthologie de jeunes poètes palestiniens Les Hôtes éternels du feu, publié par la Maison de la Poésie et l’Union des Ecrivains, Ramallah, 1999.

3 More Great Danes!

Per Gammelgaard writes from Denmark to tell us that he is a poet, and he has kindly shared the names of two other poet/librarians from Denmark

Frank Jæger and Per Højholt

In the Danish Wikipedia we discover that he is also a novelist: Per Gammelgaard debuterede i 1972 med digtsamlingen Min mormor og John Coltrane. Flere digtsamlinger fulgte, og i 1982 debuterede han som romanforfatter med "Er du hjemme Johanne?".

5 Library-Poets from Luxembourg

Berger, Anne	30.01.1951	Bad Mondorf	Â	Â
Colling, Walter	22.12.1864	Hamm (damals Gemeinde Sandweiler)	15.01.1927	Luxemburg-Hamm
Jacobs, Jean-Paul	23.01.1941	Esch/Alzette	Â	Â
Koltz, Anise	12.06.1928	Luxemburg-Eich	Â	Â
Roller, Pierre	03.10.1935	Etterbeek (BEL)	08.07.2010	Luxemburg

 

 

 

 

2 Poets from Turku (Finland)

Markku Into is a poet/librarian who is retired from the Turku City Library (he was in an earlier post, but is together here with a colleague),

 

 

and Tapani Kinnunen is a poet who currently works at the Turku Library.

 

 

 

 

Thank you Merja Marjamäki, of the Turku City Library, for sharing these two names to our list of esteemed colleauges.

A Creed For Library Poets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, the allusion to William Carlos Williams is from the AMAZING poem Asphodel

...the end of which is appended here.

 

 

Kilpi, Volter (1874 - 1939)

Who says library-poets don't rock the world?

Read what the National Biography of Finland says in the opening of the long, informative biographical essay of Volter Kilpi:

On Independence Day 1992, Volter Kilpi's Alastalon salissa ('In Alasto's Parlour') was voted the best work of Finnish literature to have appeared since Finland gained independence. A classic writer long pushed out of public awareness had finally earned his place at the summit of Finnish literature...

(It continues) One of his very first publications, however, was an article on the organisation of the popular library movement that appeared in 1898. And in the same year, Volter Kilpi began his library career at the University of Helsinki Library. During his more than twenty years there, his work included cataloguing the Nordenskiöld Collection of books and maps. In addition, Kilpi served from 1906 to 1911 as the librarian of the Student Union's library and from 1912 to 1918 as assistant librarian at the Helsinki City Library. He thus had a wide range of experience with libraries when he moved to Turku early in 1919 as a librarian at that city's municipal library. But his greatest work in the library field was achieved after he was appointed the first librarian of Turku's Finnish-language university in November 1920, later becoming its head librarian.

A Poem From Jussi Hyvärinen

Despite being Swedish-American, I do not speak Finnish. Hence, I am not sure this is an entire poem, but I found it on a page for Jussi Hyvärinen:

Puhelin lipsahtaa hikisistä sormista/
ja räsähtää porraskiveen./
Nyt satelliitti sulkee silmänsä/
ja sinua katsoo sokea tähti/
miljoonan vuoden takaa./

Löydät viikatteen ja hiot,/
lähdet niitylle. Navetan ikkunassa/
vilahtaa viikatemies./
Ei se ole kuolema. Ei se ole symboli./
Sinä vain kannat viikatetta,/
onnellinen./

(Teoksesta Kurkistan kaivoon, Tammi 2006)

More Finns! Hyvärinen (alive) & Kilpi (1874-1939)

Have Finnish Library-Poets been taking over the world, while we, their comrades, have been slowly asleep at the wheel??

Eeva-Riitta Peltonen, with the Tampere City Library informs us of another living Finnish poet, Jussi Hyvärinen, and another from the past, Volter Kilpi.

kiiltomato.net has:

Jussi Hyvärinen (s. 1973) on joensuulainen runoilija, kirjastonhoitaja ja teologian kandidaatti. Hän on syntynyt Pohjois-Karjalassa ja opiskellut venäjän kieltä, kirjallisuutta sekä teologiaa Helsingin yliopistossa.  Hän voitti ensimmäisen palkinnon J. H. Erkon kirjoituskilpailussa 2003. Hyvärisen esikoiskokoelma Kurkistan kaivoon ilmestyi 2006. Hänen runojaan on julkaistu Parnassossa ja Tuli&Savussa.

Ludmila Silnova : Belarus

We are informed by Dr. Lydia Prokulevich, of the International Relations Department of the National Library of Belarus, that Ludmila Silnova works at the National Library of Belarus and she is a poet.

ELENA MARTÍN VIVALDI (1907 - 1997) Granada

Entre ti, soledad, me busco y muero,
en ti, mi soledad, mi vida sigo,
vencida por tus brazos voy contigo
y allí te aguardo donde ya no quiero.

See: Biografia of Elena Martín Vivaldi.

From Wikipedia:

Elena Martín Vivaldi, fue poeta. En tanto que mujer que escribía poesía, prefería la palabra ‘poeta’ para referirse a ella. Es difícil, dejó escrito, decir qué se escribe y cómo; sus técnicas, motivos, temas, etc.

"Pues habría, para exponer todo el proceso de creación, que detenerse y explicar cada uno de los poemas. Ya que cada poema es un mundo distinto y requiere una manera y una técnica diferentes. Además, todo poema depende, con frecuencia, del estado de ánimo, de cómo ve el poeta, en un determinado momento, el paisaje, íntimo o exterior, de cada una de sus vivencias."

6 More Brazilian Library Poets!

6 More Brazilian Librarians! 4 of them among the living poets, 2 of them members of the International Dead Poets Society.

Manuel Bastos Tigre (1882-1957), librarian and poet

Zila da Costa Mamede (1928-1985), librarian and poet

Antonio Miranda (1940- ), poet and Director of the Biblioteca Nacional de Brasilia http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B4nio_Miranda

Fany Aktinol, (Rio de Janeiro, 1953- ). https://www.7letras.com.br/autor?id=349

Domingo Gonzalez Cruz, librarian and poet, and Director of the Biblioteca Infanto-Juvenil da Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

João Mesquita Valença, librarian and poet, author of “O estranho”, published in 1956, Biblioteca Municipal  de Marilia, São Paulo, Brazil

Philippe de Tarrazi (1865-1956): Founder of National Library of Lebanon

Many thanks to Hala Bizri, a Lebanese librarian, for sharing these two Lebanese Librarian-poets: Philippe de Tarrazi, and the next post, for Hector KHLAT ((1888-1977) 

- Philippe de TARRAZI (1865-1956), mainly a librarian, founder of the National library of Lebanon, was also a poet.

"Diwan korrat el-aïn", ou Recueil de poésies du vicomte Philippe de Tarrazi, was published in 1946.

 

Of the Lebanese National Library, wikipedia has: "The library was established in 1921, with a donation from Viscount Philippe de Tarazi of twenty thousand books, many rare manuscripts, and the first issues of national newspapers. De Tarazi's instructions were that his donation should form "the core of what should become the Great Library of Beyrouth." It was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education in 1922. It moved to the Lebanese Parliament building in 1937^."

The Lebanese National Library Foundation for has a wonderful history page detailing the troubled history of the library, which is in need of friends and funds to rebuild.

Helene Cadou : French Poet/Libarian

Helene Cadou, is a French poet and was librarian in the City Library of Orleans (Loiret, France).

She was born in 1922 and is also the wife of the late poet Rene-Guy Cadou. There is a lovely website dedicated to the two of them, where we read about Helene:

Hélène CADOU a publié son œuvre poétique à partit de 1956. Son écriture poétique, brève et intense, ne doit rien à celle de René Guy CADOU, qu’elle rencontra en 1943, même si elle a consacré toute sa vie à la diffusion de l’œuvre de celui qui fut son mari. Reconnue par tous comme une des grandes œuvres poétiques contemporaines, la poésie d’Hélène Cadou a été couronnée par le Prix Verlaine en 1990. Son 23ème et dernier recueil, « Le Prince des lisières » a été publié en 2007 chez Rougerie.

Ulrich Goerdten : German Librarian/Poet

There is an information page about Ulrich Goerdten at wikipedia, which shows an extensive bibliography, and this is his own homepage.

(From wikipedia page): 1983–1985 war er Vorsitzender der Neuen Gesellschaft für Literatur in Berlin. 1991 gründete er in Bargfeld bei Celle den Kleinverlag Luttertaler Händedruck, in dem insbesondere literarhistorische Texteditionen erschienen. In dem kleinen Heidedorf Bargfeld hatte einst auch der Schriftsteller Arno Schmidt, mit dem sich Goerdten häufiger thematisch beschäftigte, gelebt. 1998 ist Goerdten aus dem aktiven Bibliotheksdienst ausgeschieden, er betreut aber weiterhin die germanistische Linksammlung der Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität. Goerdten ist zum dritten Mal verheiratet und hat fünf Kinder.

Dr. Kenan Erzurum Library/Poet from Turkey

Dr. Kenan Erzurum is the library director at the Bahcesehir University Library in Turkey. He has published numerous books of poetry (in Turkish). Here is one of his covers:

 

Leona Carpetner (a.k.a. Leone Esther Medlin) UK

Leona Carpenter is the founter/editor of Mulfran Press, (check it out: very interesting projects) and she formerly worked at the British Library and UKOLN, which has a list of her library-related publications.

Her staff bio at UKOLN said:

My interests outside the profession are wide-ranging, including: poetry and other imaginative literature; performing arts; 17th Century culture and history; philosophy; natural history, country and urban walking. As Leona Esther Medlin, I write and publish (primarily) poems; and am a founder member of The Poetry Workshop. which obtained A4E Lottery-funding for the prototype hypertextPoetryWorkshop project. I am a member of the London Natural History Society.

You can read several of her poems at the Poetry Workshop, a fascinating online poetry community. Screen is one of them, as is Poetics.

 

Malamine Diouf : Senegal

Malamine Diouf is the Directeur de la Bibliothèque centrale chez université Gaston Berger

I wonder if Callimachus now wishes he had a Twitter account

Cérémonie de présentation-dédicace de recueil de poèmes

• La bibliothèque Centrale de l'Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar abrite ce 2 mai 2012, une cérémonie de présentation-dédicace du recueil de poèmes "Sinig" de Monsieur Malamine Diouf, Directeur de la Bibliothèque Centrale de l'Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis

Bo Carpelan (1926-2011) : Prolific Finnish Poet & Librarian

Fom a tremendous amount of good information about Bo Carpelan here:

Prolific Finnish poet, novelist, dramatist, literary critic, and translator, whose career spanned over six decades. Bo Carpelan wrote in Swedish. He won the prestigious Finlandia Prize twice – in 1993 for Urwind (Alkutuuli), about the memories and mysterious visions of an antiquarian bookseller, and in 2005 for the novel Berg (Kesän varjot). However, Carpelan always considered poetry to be his "true homeland"...

...In 1960 Carpelan finished his doctoral dissertation, Studier i Gunnar Björlings diktning 1922-1933. From 1946 to 1980 Carpelan worked at the Helsinki City Library, eventually becoming the assistant chief librarian. Between 1949 and 1964 Carpelan was a reviewer for the leading Finland-Swedish language newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet. In 1980 he was appointed professor artium by President Urho Kekkonen.

Carpelan made his literary debut with Som en dunkel värme (1946), a collection of poems, which was dominated by images of darkness, sorrow and stillness. Carpelan's early works showed the influence of Swedish modernism, French existentialism, and such writers as Björling, Paul Éluard and Georg Trakl. Some of his images recall the dream landscapes of Ingmar Bergman films. In his later collections, such as Marginalia till grekisk och romersk diktning (1984) and Gramina: marginalia till Horatius, Vergilius och Dante (2010) Carpelan had drawn great inspiration and motivation from the classics of Greece and Rome. Carpelan himself said that he first achieved his own personal poetic voice in Den svala dagen (1961). It begins with his most famous poems, the melancholic 'Höstvandring' (Autumn Walk), in which a direct, laconic observation of the external world opens doors to an experience of existence and human fate in general: "A man walks through the wood / one day of shifting light. / Encounters few people, / stops, considers the autumn sky. / He is making for the graveyard / and no one is following him." In spite of the death motif, the poem can be also read as an enlightened walk in the landscape of poetry, where trees are trees and graveyards are graveyards.

It is not time that alters us,
it is space: the forest that was low as a dark ribbon
round the evening when we were children.
And the water that came up to our feet.
(from In Dark, in Light Rooms, 1976, trans. by Keith Bosley)

Dr. Susmita Chakraborty : Bengali Library Poet

Dr. Susmita Chakraborty, PhD, M Lib Sc (Gold Medalist), is the Assistant Librarian at the Bengal Engineering and Science University. Most of her poems are in Bengali and she has recited them widely. Some of her poems are in English as well.

Maya Bejerano : a leading Israeli poet

The author's bio at the prestigious BOA Press says:

Maya Bejerano, a leading Israeli poet, is considered by many poetry readers as a national treasure. She was born in Israel in 1949, and holds a B.A. in Literature and Philosophy from Bar-Ilan University, and an M.A. in Library Sciences from Hebrew University. She has published ten volumes of poetry, and her collected poems, Frequencies, appeared in 2005. She has also published a children’s book, a book of essays, and two short stories collections. Her poems have been set to music, and her work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. She has participated in numerous international poetry festivals, and is the recipient of several poetry awards, including the Prime Minister Award, the Bernstein Award, and the Bialik Award.

Hear some of her work in Hebrew and see her entry in the Hebrew On-line Literature Lexicon.  See the Hebrew wikipedia and English entries.

Of her book, The Hymns of Job and Other Poems, NYU Professor, Yael Feldman says :

“Bejerano crosses boundaries as a matter of fact, giving voice to the first female Job (perhaps not only in Hebrew, but the world over) as if this were the most natural expressive venue for a single mother in Tel Aviv of the 1990s.”

Glauco Mattoso : Modernist Poet from Brasil

It seems he studied towards a degree in library science but did not continue it. From wikipedia:

Glauco Mattoso, pseudônimo de Pedro José Ferreira da Silva, (São Paulo, 29 de junho de 1951) é um escritor brasileiro.

o poeta Glauco Mattoso

Seu nome artístico é um trocadilho com glaucomatoso, termo usado para os que sofrem de glaucoma, doença que o fez perder progressivamente a visão, até a cegueira total em 1995. É também uma alusão a Gregório de Matos, de quem se considera herdeiro na sátira política e na crítica de costumes ^[1].

Héctor Yánover (1929-2003) : Argentina

Héctor Yánover (1929-2003) - Director of the Biblioteca Nacional Argentina (1994-1997)
He was an argentinian poet and a bookseller (he founded the bookstore "Norte" in Buenos Aires). But he also worked as a director in municipal libraries (1989-1990) and more importantly he was the director of the National Library from 1994 to 1997. He died in 2003 and his wake was hold in the National Library.

Paper articles: La Nación y Clarín

Thank you for sending this in, Luana Cantore Pasero

Dr. Eric Ormsby : USA/UK Islamic Scholar & Poet

Dr. Ormsby has a long history of academic librarianship, Islamic scholarship, and poetry publications. From Institute of Ismaili Studies website:

Deputy Head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Professor Eric Ormsby has held positions with several university libraries and collections in North America including: Director of Libraries at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. from 1983-86; Director of Libraries at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Associate Professor in McGill's Institute of Islamic Studies from 1983-86; and from 1996 to 2005, full Professor and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University.

He has been a prolific book reviewer as well.

HUGE Thank You to All Who Are Sending Names

When I posted my short note to the IFLA list little did I know that I would receive such wonderful and widespread feedback from all over the globe. Our common knowledge of both living and past library poets has been greatly enriched by all your assistance.

I have not been able to do justice to all new entries, and hope to add links to poems and further bibliographic information as it is sent to me. Also, I have not had time to update the lists of Living International Library Poets  and Living US Library Poets, but hope to in the days ahead. Thank you!

Bobana Badisang : Botswana

From Jabulani Sithole comes this addition to our list:

Bobana Badisang, an active poet and prominent librarian in Botswana.

In a May 2011 literary obituary of Albert G.T.K Malikongwa, a well-known writer in Botswana, she included one of his poems:

THE GLORY OF ARTISTIC MINDS
 Though poets are by death
Removed from the plains of earth
Yet do their literary arts and creations
Their sensibilities that gush from the joys
Of the heart, upwelling from Eternity
Triumph and defy mortality
For their honest zeal and poetic duty
Do compel with great force, wits,
Persuasiveness, gamuts of thematic creations
A permanence of poetic arts
That holds and preserves forever
The glory of artistic minds.

In an article about the 30th Anniversary of the The Writers Association of Botswana (WABO) , she was quoted:

Long time member and WABO archivist, Bobana Badisang said she is often disappointed by the general public’s ignorance of Botswana writing, thus she reiterated the importance of writers’ organisations such as WABO, and the need for WABO to collaborate with other organisations that have similar mandates.

“For Botswana writing to mutate into global writing, writers need to be organised. Organised writers get things done,” she said.

I Love the Itinerant Poetry Library

Thank you Adrian Pohl for reminding me of Sara Wingate-Gray and the Itinerant Poetry Library. When I made a 3-month trip to the graves of 150 American poets, her example was an inspiration to me.

Some links:  Saras Homepage : Sara's writing : Some poems by Sara: 

The Itinerant Poetry Library : Video Interview with Sara: 

Another Interview in Nodalities Magazine

Erhart Kästner (1904-1974) Germany

Thank you Katharina Talkner for letting us know about yet another German librarian-poet:

Erhart Kastner entry in Sächsische Biografie

José Maria de Heredia (1842 - 1905) : Cuba/France

Thank you Raphaële Mouren for: José Maria de Heredia, poet and director of the bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris.

José-Maria de Heredia (22 November 1842 - 3 October 1905) was a Cuban-born French poet. He was the fifteenth member elected for seat 4 of the Académie française during 1894.