Powell's Books

Who made the cut? (Definitely not our sanity, that’s for sure.) Poetry Madness continues. Find out which poets are in the Final Four: http://powells.us/12LnH0C

ROUND THREE RECAP

No one would say that Round Three of Poetry Madness was easy. Yeats showed the invisible scars of battle when he surveyed the damage done in his quest for Round Four and cried out: “I sing what was lost and dread what was won.”

Showing none of Yeats’s turmoil, the indefatigable Emily Dickinson pushed a damp lock of hair behind her ear and — without even glancing at Sylvia Plath, who lay weeping in the corner — strode briskly into her spot in the Elite Eight, calling out to her trembling new opponent:

How many bullets bearest?
The royal scar hast thou?
Angels, write ‘Promoted’
On this soldier’s brow!

In the Living, Mary Oliver proved that she would fight A Thousand Mornings if it meant making it to the Championship round, thrashing Anne Carson in the process. Rita Dove bested Li-Young Lee, ensuring that, at least tonight, Lee would be Eating Alone.

On our home turf, Roethke informed fellow Pacific Northwest poet Mary Szybist that “death of the self in a long, tearless night” would be the only thing stopping him from facing off against Tess Gallagher in the next bout. Baudelaire voiced his desire to “always be drunk” once the bracket ended, but not before securing his place ahead of Anna Akhmatova. And Rilke… poor Rilke. After losing out to Neruda, he turned to the jeering crowds that filled the aisles of Powells.com and whispered to himself “Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”

Who will be left standing in the Final Four? Only your votes can save these poets (and us) from descending any deeper into Poetry Madness.

The Poetry Madness Elite Eight, as chosen by you: http://powells.us/12CSDAh

From the Rare Book Room…

Anne Rice’s personal library included this book of poems by John Keats. Inside, she annotated the book with notes about her own writing and characters; the poem “Hither, hither, love—” is marked by her as “a poem for Mary Anne to whisper in the dark.” More: http://powells.us/12CtSE9

Today is national Poem in Your Pocket Day — a day to carry a poem with you and share it with others.

(More Emily Dickinson here: http://powells.us/115LhSK)

The results are in! The Powell’s Poetry Madness Sweet Sixteen, as chosen by you: http://powells.us/113k4Aa

coffeeslut:

Oliver vs. Laux… ahhh! As if Rilke vs. Neruda wasn’t hard enough on my heart…. Powell’s you are killing me here. 

(Go here for your own bracket)

update: WAIT. Are we voting in terms of whose writing wins, or WHO would actually win in a physical challenge between poets? Because if it’s the latter I might have to rethink a few things. 

Fill in your own bracket or vote with the rest of the Powells.com community here: http://powells.us/10Rq66T