Leaves of Bark

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.

 

Maria Zajkowski : Award-winning library poet from Melbourne

Maria Zajkowski is a Customer Service Library Officer with the Melbourne Library Services and she has won two very presigious poetry prizes. I was quite moved by her work. Check it out! 

2012 Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize
First Prize ($20,000) ‘S.O.S’ by Maria Zajkowski, Victoria.
The Judges said: ‘These fine poems are open, they prod but don't preach, they're full of the unexpected, they carry a sense of human vulnerability, they come from the heart or better the whole self and not just the intellect or the level of cleverness... They have mystery – perhaps something of Paul Celan in them – which is extremely unusual in Australian poetry... They are willing to take risks in order to stay true to how life is experienced and would rather tread this tightrope than sit comfortably on a pedestal... This writing has that kind of imaginative rightness that tells us something essential about ourselves and at the same time is in no way a cliché, [it] reads like something no one has ever said before.’

Posted at Greendoor Publishing:

The elements of one

In all the world, under the rain, through drafty passes and over ice floes once a
sea I have only one body to travel in and only one language. Wanting to see in the
mirror that I had the traveller's nous I looked for trails under my eyes, beaches
on my lips. I searched in my bones for artefacts, proof of my journey and that I
existed in more than just the mirror. It is true I was lost on the frozen wave of
a mountain, turning black, disintegrating. Had it not been the wind or gravity
that made me leave, nothing would. I was alone, existing in a lake of ice, tapping
at the world to see which of us was real.

Rostislav Blecha : Kladno, Czech Republic

Rostislav Blecha is a library-poet working at The Central Bohemian Research Library in Kladno, Czech Republic. She published a book of poetry in 2007 called Pìtadvacet (Twenty-five). Below is an example from the manuscript she sent. (Sorry, no translation yet.)

POJĎ SE MNOU ZA NADĚJÍ

Zas nekonečnou bílou plání
vede má dlouhá pouť,
den za dnem za snem kráčím,
za hvězdou, co září v tmách.
S radostí v srdci
jdu za nadějí,
za novým krásným životem.

Snad andělů zpěv mi do uší zní,
snad rolniček cinkotání,
snad je to můj hlas,
který prosí:
Pojď se mnou v dlani dlaň
v ten krásný čas za nadějí,
za hvězdou, co září v tmách,
s radostí v srdci
se mnou zpívej:
Ave Maria...

Jeanette M. Clough : Poet & Librarian

Jeanette M. Clough is a Senior Reference Librarian at the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute, in Los Angeles, CA.

She is also an accomplished poet. A list of her titles can be seen here, including four books of poetry, one book edited, and two artist books. A picture and bibliographic description of one of the lovely artist books, Stone, is here.

She tell us she has also written numerous journal articles.

Nancy Kuhl : Curator of Poetry for the Yale Collection of American Literature

Nancy Kuhl has my kind of dream job: Curator of Poetry for the Yale Collection of American Literature. 

There is more about her poetry and work at the Phylum Press website, where she is co-founder and co-editor.

Online Projects:

Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities:
http://brblroom26.wordpress.com/

Poetry at Beinecke Library:
http://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com/

African American Studies at Beinecke Library:
http://beineckejwj.wordpress.com/

Colin Will: Science Librarian & Living Scottish Poet

Thanks goes out to Janice McFarlane for sending this link, at the amazing Scottish Poetry Library, to Scottish poet-librarian, Colin Will.  McFarlane, the Head of Partnerships & Professional Adviser at the National Library of Scotland, tells us that Mr. Will was formerly the librarian of the Royal Botanic Gardens, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

From his website Mr. Will writes:

My library career started with West Lothian Libraries in 1963. I got my ALA in 1967, then did an Open University degree in Maths and Science (with a Distinction in Geology and Geochemistry), before moving to the British Geological Survey Library in 1973. I moved to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1988. I received a PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 1991, for research on the communication process in science. I served two terms on the Scottish Library and Information Council, and in 2000 I was President of the Scottish Library Association (now CILIPS).

He also "is" Calder Wood Press, which publishes books, chapbooks, poetry cards.

You can read his old and new poetry at his website. On the Scottish Poetry Library he reveals his "Old Favourite":

'The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, edited by Donald M Allen (Grove Press, 1960). I bought my copy of this book in 1961 from Edinburgh 's Paperback bookshop, the one run by Jim Haynes, arts activist and co-founder of the Traverse Theatre. The shop had a stuffed rhinoceros head mounted above the door, and I loved it. At that time I was just starting to write, and it was a bit of a lightning bolt to discover, after the earnestness and, I'd have to say, stuffiness, of conventional British poetry, people like Gary Snyder, Edward Dorn, Brother Antoninus (William Everson), Robert Creeley, Gregory Corso, the Beats, and many others.

They communicated with me, and since then the poem as an act of communication has been the cornerstone of my own writing. It's why I love Norman MacCaig's poetry too, although I also have a personal connection with him, as he taught at my old primary school (Craiglockhart), and I can hear his voice as I read his work. It's also why I dislike poetry which deliberately sets out to obscure meaning and hide emotion. Poetry should wear its heart on its sleeve.'

Bravo, Mr Will, the esteemed Poet-Librarian of Scotland!

Bark as a Medium

Of course Bark was the first known medium used to publish what we now call books.

Charles Lummis was a Library-Poet who published books of poetry on bark, as has been documented here.

On my trip to the graves of America's poets I collected a box full of lovely bark that had been shed from a huge tree over the grave of Carl Sandburg. My intention is to publish a book of poetry on the bark...but I have no experience as to how to actually do this!

I intend to get a calligrapher do write the verses out on the bark, but what ink to use, how thin should it be, and what to treat the bark with are some questions I have.

Any advice or links to information would be greatly appreciated!

Bon Voyage with Leaves of Bark!

Welcome to Leaves of Bark, where we document the nexus between poetry  (the spoken and written word) and librarianship (the keepers of libers, of books, of bark). Both poet and librarian are essentially scribblers on bark (even if our bark is now comprised of electronitc bits and bytes)

Throughout history some of our greatest poets have been librarians, and some of our best librarians have been poets. Such creators have found inspiration in the brilliant catacombs of library stacks...and maybe you are one?

We have a page for famous Dead Poet Librarians of the Past, and a growing list for both US and International Living Library Poets.