
10 Great Quotes About Poets, Poetry, and Writing by Richard Wilbur

Dear Readers,
I must apologize for the eternity it has taken, but here is finally the link to the latest edition of The International Imaginarium for Word & Verse featuring the incredibly talented poet Padmaja Battani posted last Wednesday night on our Imaginarium website for you to hopefully peruse and enjoy at your leisure:.
I want to thank my fellow bloggers Angela Wilson (AKA poetisatinta), and (Gypsie) Ami Offenbacher-Ferris for graciously accepting my invitation to participate which I previously posted on this blog. Like previous times, I have decided not to repost the entire Imaginarium here on this blog as I have often done with the editions of the Virtual Poetorium because I feel that it is probably too long a read and thus far too overwhelming for most of my readers (as a result, some really excellent poetry might be skipped, and that would be a real shame). So instead, I will just post this month’s Imaginarium group poem (which is probably one of my favorite segments of both the Poetorium and the Imaginarium). You might recall we have often rewrote the classic Wallace Steven poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” as our group poem in the past, but substituting other things for the blackbirds such as umbrellas and dandelions This month, we once again used that classic poem as a template, but this time we used manhole covers as our subject. The way it worked was all our participants sent us one to eight lines containing either the phrase “manhole cover” or “manhole covers”, and then all contributions were numbered and compiled into a poem entitled “Seven Different Ways of Looking at a Manhole Cover”. I want to thank Robert Eugene Perry, Howard J Kogan, Angela (aka Poetisatinta), Tim McCarthy, and the others who wish to remain anonymous for contributing and making the preceding poem possible (Angela’s contribution can be found published as an individual poem on her website Let’s Write…)…
I.
Among the busy city streets
The only things not moving
Were the manhole covers.
II.
My mind was split thricely
Like manholes
On three divided streets
III.
From below the manhole cover
Appears to be the gate of the overworld,
From above, the underworld.
Are heaven and hell separated
By the steel disc of a manhole cover
Or are they connected?
IV.
Among the concrete slabs
The only circle I see
Is that of the manhole cover
It holds back gravity
Concealing a black hole
Squeezed into this space
Beneath a manhole cover.
V.
He rode over a manhole cover
In an old car
He dreamed of manhole covers for weeks.
VI.
I have often mistaken manhole covers
For subway tokens of the Gods
Or Superman’s rusty Frisbee.
VII.
There once was a missing manhole cover.
At which a curious fellow would hover
He fell into the murky mucky dark hole
As he lost all control,
“Mercy me” he cried to discover his lover.
—The International Imaginarium Group Poem for May 3rd, 2023
Dear Readers,
I have some bad news and good news concerning our first edition of The International Imaginarium For Word & Verse for 2023 (featuring Padmaja Battani) previously scheduled to be posted on the Imaginarium website this evening. The bad news is that I tested positive for COVID this Thursday, and consequentially am not in shape to finish the Imaginarium in time for tonight and will have to postpone it until I am feeling better (currently, I’m suffering from both low energy and brain fog which makes the task nearly impossible). I am not exactly sure when that will be, but I hope to have this edition of the Imaginarium out sometime by mid-April. The good news is that if you wanted to participate but could not make the deadline, you now can. I am now once again accepting contributions until Saturday, April 8th. Thank you so much for understanding and hope you will take advantage of this extended opportunity to contribute to our latest edition of the Imaginarium…
Dear Readers,
I’m happy to announce that The International Imaginarium For Word & Verse is finally back from its five-month hiatus this month and would like to invite all of you to participate in our fourth edition (our very first one for this year) with Padmaja Battani, a very talented poet, and writer living in Connecticut, as our featured poet to be posted on our Imaginarium website on the evening of Tuesday, March 28th, 2023.
To be part of our Imaginarium open mic this month, please send us one to three of your own original poems or stories (under 2000 words altogether please) either in a Word document file or pasted in the body of an email along with your name, any opening remarks you care to make, and where your poem has appeared if it was previously published to poetorium@mail.com by Friday, March, March 24th. Also if you like, you can send us a photo of yourself to be posted above your poem, but that is totally optional.
We also need contributions to this month’s Imaginarium Group poem. This month, we are going back to something we previously tried twice before with the Poetorium group poem, and use the classic Wallace Steven poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” as our poem’s template, but this time substituting the phrase “manhole cover” for “blackbird”. So to participate, please send us one to eight lines containing either the phrase “manhole cover” or “manhole covers”. Your contributions (which like always will remain anonymous unless otherwise requested) will then be numbered and compiled into this month’s group poem which will be tentatively entitled “Different Ways of Looking at a Manhole Cover” Once again, the deadline to contribute will be Friday, March 24th.
If you have any questions about submitting to the virtual open mic, the group Imaginarium poem, or anything else about the International Imaginarium For Word & Verse itself, please leave them in the comments of this post, and I will try to answer them right away.
Thank you so very much for reading, folks! As always, I really appreciate everyone’s continued support of this blog, and hope to hear from you soon with your contributions to our fourth edition of the International Imaginarium!
Dear Readers,
Here is the link to the very last edition of The International Imaginarium for Word & Verse for the year 2022 featuring the incredible 2021 Stanley Kunitz Medal-winning poet Eve Rifkah posted last Tuesday night on our new Imaginarium website for you to hopefully peruse and enjoy at your leisure.
I want to thank my fellow bloggers John Ormsby, Angela Wilson (AKA poetisatinta), and (Gypsie) Ami Offenbacher-Ferris for graciously accepting my invitation to participate which I previously posted on this blog. Like last time, I have decided not to repost the entire Imaginarium here on this blog as I have often done with previous editions of the Virtual Poetorium because I feel that it is probably too long a read and thus far too overwhelming for most of my readers (as a result, some really excellent poetry might be skipped, and that would be a real shame). So instead, I will just post this month’s Imaginarium group poem (which is probably one of my favorite segments of both the Poetorium and the Imaginarium). Since this was our last group poem of the year, the theme is fittingly the year 2022. Contributors were asked to send us one to a dozen lines beginning with either “This was the year of…” or “This was the year that…”. All contributions we received were then compiled and included in this month’s Imaginarium Group Poem. I want to thank Howard J Kogan, Karen Durlach, and Angela Wilson (AKA Poetisatinta) for participating and making the following poem possible (Angela’s contribution can be found published as an individual poem on her website Let’s Write…)…
This was the year the threatened
Red Tide happily died at sea.
This was the year we stopped
mentioning his name,
people even gave up Bridge.
This was the year of discovery and recovery
but for some, a year of death and misery
a year of hypocrisy, invasion, and migration
of numerous variants and vast inflation
while we observed the effects of climate alteration
and now there’s controversy with the World Cup situation.
In the UK we had a glut of Prime Ministers
and the cost of electricity is bleeding us dry
there was joy in June celebrating the jubilee
but tears within months when we had to say goodbye
as a nation we joined together in the mourning
but now we have hope with the rise of a king.
This was the year of 8 billion
8 billion sets of hopes and dreams
8 billion sets of needs and wants and hungers.
Gaia tipped over, spilled tears of blood,
of flood, dry tears of drought,
melting ice, enflamed with fires, war.
8 billion thinking themselves autonomous,
each filled with billions more microbes,
bacterias, viruses, fungi, living in symbiosis,
more resilient than the vessels,
poised to evolve again.
—The International Imaginarium Group Poem for November 29th, 2022
Dear Readers,
I’d like to invite you all to participate in what will be our very last International Imaginarium For Word & Verse of 2022 featuring the 2021 Stanley Kunitz Medal-winning poet, Eve Rifkah (I’d love to have a Christmas-themed Imaginarium this December like we did with the Virtual Ho-Ho-Etorium last year and the year before, but unfortunately I don’t think I‘ll have the time during this hectic holiday season) that I will be posting on the Imaginarium website on the evening of Tuesday, November 29th. To be part of our Imaginarium open mic, please send up to three of your own original poems or stories (they can be Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year-themed or no particular theme at all, whatever you like to share) either in a Word document file or pasted in the body of an email along with your name, any opening remarks you care to make, and where your poem has appeared if it was previously published to poetorium@mail.com by Sunday, November 27th. Also if you like, you can send us a photo of yourself to be posted above your poem or story, but that is totally optional.
Like always, we also need contributions to this month’s Imaginarium group poem. Since this will be our last group poem of the year, the theme will fittingly be the year 2022, so please send us one to a dozen lines beginning with either “This was the year of…” or “This was the year that…”. All contributions (which will remain anonymous unless otherwise requested) will be compiled and included in this month’s Imaginarium Group Poem to be tentatively titled “2022″. Once again, the deadline for submissions is the night of Sunday, November 27th, 2022.
If you have any questions about submitting to the virtual open mic, the group Imaginarium poem, or anything else about the International Imaginarium For Word & Verse itself, please leave them in the comments of this post, and I will try to answer them right away.
If you’ve been meaning to participate in the Imaginarium, but have been putting it off, please keep in mind this will be your last chance this year. As always, I appreciate everyone’s continued support of this blog. I hope to hear from you soon with your contributions to the last edition of the International Imaginarium of 2022! Thank you so much for reading, and have a fabulous Thanksgiving, folks!