Thoughts on national poetry days

We have been asked why we didn't have a suitably commemorative or stimulating post for National Poetry Day on whenever it was earlier this month. Strange to say p&g was writing.

There are a few answers we could give to this question: e.g.

• sometimes we do if there are cool events
• we are techies
• we just do stuff when we want
• autumn
• this is a national day not a world religion
• what would Elizabeth Bishop have done?

Being at our most Australian on these kind of issues, I can only add that it seems a shame if poetry pays the price of becoming more popular* by expecting total conformity.

Anyway if you like poetry days here is some information http://www.un.org/en/events/poetryday/

Is poetry more popular btw? when did that get decided?

Poetry International 23 - 26 July 2015 London, England

'A poem is a sword. It's our form of resistance.' (Sahera Sharif).

Poetry from around the world illuminating "poetry's enduring ability to anticipate and envision change and transcend barriers of censorship, prejudice and conflict". Poets include Imtiaz Dharker, Jo Shapcott, Aamir Iqbal and Kei Miller.

Lots of good and challenging content but out of many options, a nice way to spend Sunday afternoon (26th July) is Sex in the Afternoon with Kei Miller, Malika Booker, Warsan Shire, plus Rachel Mars as they share "poetry and prose exploring sex in all its pain and glory". Plus a Q&A session with historian of sexuality Dr Jana Funke.

Find out more here http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/poetry-international

Bare Hands Poetry Issue 19

The rather beautiful issue 19 of Bare Hands Poetry is out now. (and a big shout from p&g)

Bare Hands is an online monthly international journal of contemporary poetry and photography. They publish ten poems and five photographs every month for free.

They are looking for stuff for Issue 20 and you can contact them here http://barehandspoetry.tumblr.com/post/10993445898.

The World Record: International Voices

Forgot to say you can read all the poems away from the Poetry Parnassus map in a book edited by Neil Astley and Anna Selby, published by Bloodaxe Books and Southbank Centre.

You can find out more about the book here http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852249382.

Babelgeek

As a global blog, we try to post in the original language of, for example, our poet or event's home country plus a translation.

We've recently been asked about this again. So here goes...

Don't worry. Not everyone speaks all languages. If you don't speak the language featured, here are some tips:

1. Start learning - as poets we should be learning new words and improving our language skills all the time, nothing helps this process as much as learning a new language. Also you can start to read and translate other poet's work in different languages. (Machine code counts btw - see, you are already a linguist.)
2. Copy the text and take it to a free translator like http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/ or http://translate.google.com/. They are not perfect but they'll give you the gist and get you started. You may need to refine the tricky bits (e.g. of a poem) by using an online dictionary such as http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page.
3. Go with the flow; you may not understand everything but I bet you can understand a bit (the rhythm?) and that bit may be enough to open a door...

Enjoy! And look forward to seeing your translations.