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About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2015)
A4 V IEWPOINT Hood River News, Saturday, January 3, 2015 ABOUT LETTERS JOE PETSHOW Publisher/President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. Hood River News reminds letter to the editor writers that shorter is better. Concise letters are not only better-read, they are more likely to be published because limited space is available. Almost any point can be made in 350 words or fewer, so this is set as an upper level for length. Thank-you letters are no longer accepted, neither are unsigned let- ters, letters signed with fictitious signatures and copies of letters sent to public officials. We limit letters on a subject when we feel it has been thorough- ly aired, to the point of letters be- coming repetitive. Also rejected are letters that are libelous, in bad taste or personal attacks on individuals or private businesses. Writers must include addresses and telephone numbers. These are for identification pur- poses only, and will not be pub- lished. TOM LANCTOT Past President, Eagle Newspapers, Inc. CHELSEA MARR General Manager KIRBY NEUMANN-REA Editor JODY THOMPSON Advertising Manager TONY METHVIN Columbia Gorge Press Manager DICK NAFSINGER Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011) DAVID MARVIN Production Manager Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area. NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Printed on recycled paper. Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News, P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796 Member of the Associated Press Got News? How to get your item into the newspaper It’s easy to submit your news item to the Hood River News. ■ Engagements, anniversaries, and weddings: hrnews@hoodrivernews.com; attach jpg photos with credit where applicable. Births can be submitted to the same address. ■ Happenings: Non-profit groups can send their information about events to Trisha Walker at twalker@hoodrivernews.com. ■ Church news can be sent to hrnews@hoodrivernews.com. ■ Entertainment: Non-profits are encouraged to send us their information on concerts, speakers or other events, to hrnews@hoodrivernews.com or Jim Drake at jdrake@hoodrivernews.com. ■ Classtime: hrnews @hoodrivernews.com. ■ Sports items: Adam Lapierre at alapierre@hoodrivernews.com. ■ Obituaries: Contact Esther Smith, esmith@hoodrivernews.com; the News charges $30 per obituary, no length limit, photos included. ■ Letters – word limit 350, include your name and home town. Letters to the editor of a “thank you” nature are generally not published on the Viewpoint page, but these can be sent for use in Neighbors, to hrnews@hoodrivernews.com. ■ Letters, and any other item, may be mailed, emailed, or hand-delivered. For all inquiries about submitting an item, call the newsroom at 541-386-1234. Hood River News is located at 409 State St. A YEAR OF POEMS Trembling on the edge of maybe, with the priests of the invisible By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA News editor In 2014 I read a poem each day. One poem, sometimes more, and I would always re-read it, either back to back, or return to it later in the day. In one of the craziest year-end lists you’ll ever see, I’ve recorded all those po- ets’ names, below. (See hoodrivernews.com for a longer version of this column.) ■ It was a daily ritual that, like others I have done, gave my day structure. No mat- ter what happened, I knew I had a poem to read or return to. In years past I have written a letter or a postcard each day, and in 2013 I listened to no music but classical. In 2015 I will listen to one record album each day all the way through our collec- tion. That’s VINYL — and yes, we do own about 365 or so grooved such platters. (Any requests? Send them to kneuman- nrea@hoodrivernews.com. It will be inter- esting to see where collections overlap – but remember I am talking LPs only.) And having enjoyed a daily poem so much, I will probably continue that as well. It was cleansing, uplifting, challeng- ing. Most days it reminded me what real writing is all about. I read usually in the morning, or before bed, for the poems created tent poles for my shaky days. Some poems I did not like, nor under- stand, but nearly always felt challenged, or moved, and I kept a list of all 365 poems. I read some poets multiple times — Yeats for example. I read mostly men, but I made a point of reading Emily Dickenson, Charlotte Bronte, Naomi Shabab Nye, Christina Rossetti and others. In 2014 I re- turned repeatedly to William Stafford, Robert Lowell, W.S. Merwin, Rainer Maria Rilke, and William Blake, and to Yeats. I combed books we have at home (my wife’s Norton Anthology of Literature from college was a particular trove), chose some intentionally and randomly at the li- brary, took them from newspapers and magazines. “Circles” by Carl Sandburg was used in my high school yearbook — never read the poem before — and another was framed on a friend’s wall. And no, not once this year did I WRITE a poem; why would you bring PB and J to a smorgasbord? ■ Below is the list, in order, of each poet I read in 2014: a total of 267 writers, with other powerful lines that grabbed me: William Stafford Yusuf Komunyakaa: “there’s a ghost poised between free will and the gig” David Spicer, Diane Dickinson: “I am half alive the rest is anticipation ...” Christina Rosetti: “... and what do we see glancing back?” Stephen Dunn: “now might be the right time to cultivate disbelief ” Michael McGriff, Glyn Maxwell, Rebec- ca Hoogs, Robert Pinsky, Hannah Stephen- son, David Ferry, Rustin Larson, Robert William Service, Donald Hall, Peter Mish- ler Gary Snyder: “lay down these words/before your mind like rocks” Robert Duncan: “Neither our vices nor our virtues further the poem. They came up and died just like they do every year on the rocks” Richard Wilbur, Lia Perpuera, Galway Kinnell, Matthew Dickman, Gerald Green, Chuck Klosterman, Suzanne Cleary, Eileen G’Sell, WS Merwin, Robert Frost Theodore Roethke: “all finite things re- veal infinitude” Ruth Padel, Bronwyn Lea, Don Pater- son, Billy Collins, Yves Bonnefoy, Mar- garet Levine, Lisa Ampleman, Ronald Ko- ertge, Robert Browning, Andrew Frisardi, Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Blake, Jane Satterfield, e.e. cummings, Edward Arlington Robinson, Wallace Stevens, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Chana Bloch, Nick Norwood, Patrick Ban- don, Chris Morrison, Benny Anderson, Stephen Ackerman, Daisy Fried Rusty Morrison, Dan Peterson, Edgar Allen Poe, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Duncan, W.B. Yeats, Elton Glaser, Katha Pollitt, Robin Becker, Padraic Colum, Thomas More, A.R. Ammons, C. Dale Young, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chad Davidson, Robinson Jeffers, Billy Collins John Keats, Maureen N. McLean, Mitchell Gonzalez Pablo Neruda: “Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because — because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.” Dylan Thomas, John Skoyles, AJM Smith, Edwin Brock, Judith Jedamus Archibald MacLeish: “a poem should be motionless in time ... A poem should not mean but be ...” Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Carl Dennis, John Hodgen, John Boyle O’Reilly, Wys- tawa Szymborska, Lisa Williams Walter Malone: “... each night I burn the records of the day; At sunrise every soul is born again ...” Alan Feldman, Sarah Lindsey, Lord Byron, H.N. Fifer, Jeffrey Harrison, Anonymous, “My Life is but a Weaving” Henry Rago, R.T. Smith, Tom Wayman, Percy Byshhe Shelley Karen Knapp Johnson: “my withness, my here” Mary Oliver, Ruth L. Schwartz, A.E. Housman, Paul Blackburn, Stephen Berg, Steve Kowit, Bob Hicok, Vijay Seshardi, Julie Lechevsky, Doug Dorph, Dana Gioia, Margaret Levine, Jon Agee, Kim Stafford, Martin Espada Rumi: “this being human is a guest Chelsea Marr General Manager CMarr@hoodrivernews.com Founded in 1905 419 State Street Hood River, OR 97031 P.O. Box 390 Phone: (541) 386-1234 Fax: (541) 386-6796 Operations: Joe Petshow Publisher President, Eagle Newspapers (541) 386-1234 JPetshow@hoodrivernews.com Chris Stenberg Bookkeeper CStenberg@hoodrivernews.com Front Office/ Classified Advertising: Stacey Methvin Classifieds/Receptionist HRNClass@hoodrivernews.com SMethvin@hoodrivernews.com Circulation: Esther K. Smith Circulation Manager (541) 386-1234 Ext. 205 ESmith@hoodrivernews.com News: Kirby Neumann-Rea Editor HRNews@hoodrivernews.com house/every morning a new arrival ...” that some fusion of force and form will Martha Solano: “The Poet Is The Priest save me.” of the Invisible” Charlotte Bronte, Verne Bright, Conrad Jane Mead, Elton Glaser, Ryokan Hilberry, Amit Majmudar, Robert Hayden, Ted Loder: “Move Ada Limon, David Whyte, Thomas Moore with us now/in Lucie Brock-Broido, “Moon River”: our time of be- “What exactly do you mean when you ginnings,/when call me your ‘huckleber- the air is rain ry friend’?” and snow- Kofi Awoonor, washed/and James Mangan, the world HC Wallace, Alice seems fresh Firman, Florence and full of Fogelin, Amy possibili- MacLennan, ties,/and we Robert Lunday, feel ready Sara Wallace, Jack and full/We Prelusky, Gwen- tremble on dolyn Brooks the edge of Elizabeth Bishop: a maybe...” “lose something William every day/Accept the Carlos fluster of lost door Williams, keys, the hour badly Maya An- spent/The art of los- gelou, ing isn’t hard to mas- David ter.” Orr, Ju- Robert Duncan, liana Harold Schweizer, Au- Waters, thor unknown, CS Ted Lewis, Carol Frost Kooser, Bill Coyle: “lost conti- Don nents and present discon- Rea, tents” 1982 ‘Do g River R Elise Elinor Wylie: “poets eview’ Paschen, Julie make pets of pretty, docile Lechowsky, Denise Levertov, words; ... I like words Yves Bonnefoy, Eaven Boylan, David opalescent, cool, and Lehman, Michael Chilwood, Major Jack- pearly... Gilded and sticky, with a little son, A.E. Housman, Charles Simic, Carol sting.” Snow, Howard Nemerov, William Edna St. Vincent Millay Matthews, Kay Ryan, Connie Wanek, Archibald MacLeish: “A poem should Harold Johnson, AJM Smith, Albert Gold- not mean but be.“ barth, Mary Oliver Ezra Pound, Mercedes Lawry, Galway Stanley Kunitz: “oh, I have made myself Kinnell, Debra Kang Dean, Billy Collins, a tribe of my true affections ...” Lawson Inada, Floyd Skloot: “first the Franz Wright, Tom Wayman, Dorianne sheen, then the shock of all we have seen Laux, Phillis Levin, Robert Francis, Liesl comes clear.” Mueller, Denver Butson, Alexander Mac- Frannie Lindsay, Helen Hunt Jackson Donald, John Milton, Robinson Jeffers, Jean Pedrick: “just keep walking and Irish author unknown, Giolla Brighde I’ll presently be where you are.” MacCommidhe, Tony Wallace, Robert Bly, Marge Piercy, Harold Notice, Vern Rut- Daniel Hoffman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, sala, John Woods Herman Melville: “audacity — rever- Wendell Berry: “for a time I rest in the ence. These must mate.” grace of the world, and am free.” Randall Jarrell, William Cowper, James Matthew Sweeney, Naomi Shibab Nye, Thomson, Thomas Parnell, Ted James, Mark Strand, Susan Ludvigson, Claudia Eugenio Montale, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Emerson, John Ashbery, William Shake- Aaron Balance speare, Wilfred Owen, James Lasdun, Edgar Lee Masters: “Deities!/Inexorable Julie Sheehan, Mary Tall Mountain, revealers,/Give me strength to endure/The Richard Wilbur, Wallace Stevens, B.H. gifts of the Muse …” Fairchild, Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Al- Fanny Howe, Richard Robbins, Ella ison Fell, Wilfred Noyce, Susan Mitchell, Wheeler Wilcox, Robert Burns, Jennifer Jack Gilbert, Seamus Heaney, Carl Sand- Rondeau, Steve Langhorst, Thomas James, burg, Peter Meinke, Robert Watson, Olav Stuart Dybek, Aaron Fagan, Robert Ser- Hauge, Alberto Rios, William Wordsworth, vice, Herman Hesse, Jonathon Cupp, John Ron Padgett, Charles Wright, Richard Dryden, Michael Bruce, Rainer Maria Wilbur, Sandra Lim, Mark Halliday Rilke, Allen Ginsburg, Rabindrath Tagore, Christian Wiman: “I have no illusion T.S. Eliot, Roger Weaver. Trisha Walker News/Features TWalker@hoodrivernews.com Production: David Marvin Production Manager Adam Lapierre Ailene Hibbard Archivist DMarvin@hoodrivernews.com News/Features Advertising: Jim Drake ALapierre@hoodrivernews.com Jody Thompson Advertising Manager JThompson@hoodrivernews.com Production/Commercial Printing Liana Stegall Advertising Sales LStegall@hoodrivernews.com Production/Commercial Printing Ben Mitchell News/Features BenMitchell@hoodrivernews.com Jim Drake Entertainment JDrake@hoodrivernews.com Kirsten Lane Advertising Sales KLane@hoodrivernews.com JDrake@hoodrivernews.com Andy Taylor ATaylor@columbiagorgepress.com Allen Diers Commercial Printing ADiers@hoodrivernews.com 419 State Street Hood River, OR 97031 P.O. 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