Today, for $1.99, I secured access to 365 poems on my iPhone via Poem Flow. Whether you’re reading a poem by Derek Walcott or H.D., when you beam up the poem, the app will tell you — anonymously — where on the planet and when that poem was last read on Poem Flow. You’ll get the sense that there’s a community of readers out there with you on the same path sometimes in the unlikeliest places. There’s a little voluptuous mixture of surprise and satisfaction there as I call up another poem to enjoy.

Reflecting on this summer’s Hip Hop camp, I recall last year Affrilachian Poet Bianca Spriggs saying that she is passionate about “empowering people, alleviating ignorance through the arts.” A vibrant thought, indeed!

Institute, WV — West Virginia State University Extension Service is hosting its annual 4-H Hip Hop Camp, a weeklong overnight camp for youth ages 12 to 18 that focuses on skill mastery in Hip Hop Arts traditions. The camp will take place at Camp Virgil Tate, July 25-29.

On Tuesday, July 27 at 2 p.m., campers will be on the WVSU campus for a special Hip Hop Summit featuring a panel discussion with renowned poet Nikki Giovanni; Apollo Theater multiple award winner Jessica Care Moore; Affrilachian Poets Crystal Good and Norman Jordan; 98.7 the Beat DJ Leeshia Lee; Dr. Gail Mosby, Chair and Professor of Sociology at WVSU; and other local hip hop artists and commentators. The public is invited to this portion of the camp, which will take place in Room 122 of Wallace Hall.

The 4-H Hip Hop Camp is a program of WVSU Extension Service’s 4-H Youth Development Arts and Leadership Academy and has been held annually since 2004, formerly under the Hip Hop Boot Camp title.

– Crystal Good

Buy the book at http://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Mind-Poems-C…

Today, I’m thinking about Hiroshima in a reading from “Haiku Mind” by Patricia Donegan.

Check it out on my audioboo page:
 http://audioboo.fm/boos/152656-on-july-1…

Tamara Woods and Ted Webb are offering a workshop called “Poet’s Guide to Metaphor and Marketing” on Saturday, August 7, 2010, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Monongalia Arts Center (MAC).

Tamara Woods

Ted Webb

They say they’ll show you how to spiff up your poetry and then they’ll show you how to sell it.

The postmark deadline for early-bird registration is Friday, July 9. Those, who register early receive a $10 discount on fees. The final mail-in registration date is Friday, July 30. To get a registration form, contact: Ted Webb on Facebook and/or at:  tedwebb at care2.com or call: 304-285-8784.

Seats will fill up fast, and the workshop is limited to the first 40 people registered.

“While being involved in the poetry scene in town, we’ve had people ask us about poetry workshops and if there is one available,” said Woods. “The idea is for the workshop to be compact, but filled with useful knowledge to help the poets to take their work to the next level.”

The MAC is located at 107 High Street beside Hotel Morgan.

Following the workshop, the Second Annual Brew Ha-Ha will be held in downtown Morgantown. This one-of-a-kind event brings together comedians, food and beer.

About the authors:

Ted Webb is a co-founding member of Morgantown Poets, a monthly event serving the literary arts community in north-central West Virginia. His poem, “Star Bus” was recently selected for Mountain Line “Poetry on the Move” program. Webb’s writing has been published in Appalachian Sand & Gravel, West Virginia Words, Outstretch, Appalachian Crier and Trillium, among other places.

Tamara Woods is also a co-founding member of Morgantown Poets. She has hosted Tha.Speakeasy, a poetry slam open to the community since 2005. She has written for a number of West Virginia newspapers including the Dominion Post and The Wheeling News-Register. She blogs for Indyposted.com.

From back on May 31, 2010, here’s a post that just about got lost in my recent personal malaise following a streak of bad luck.

Congratulations to Wil Haygood! He’s a wise friend who has always made words dance, written strong sentences that rest as much on poetry as fact.

My wife Nancy and I are so happy for him! So proud he’s an award-winning author and journalist. He covered the release of Mandela, Katrina, the Obama campaign and other big stories. Whether he’s writing about a church anniversary, a butler or his brothers, his grandfather or his niece, or the Mississippi River, he hands in detailed, touching, well-honed stories that make me want to read more, glad I had spent the time to savor each word. Even years ago when he worked on the Gazette copy desk, he had a sense of how words can float or sting to build a powerful story. Today (May 31), Washington Post reporter Wil Haygood receives a star — the first one and the best kind — on the sidewalk in front of the historic Lincoln Theatre in his native Columbus, Ohio.

I expected to attend his honor ceremony until a wounded soul smashed out my car window in a locked garage Friday night. I’m still feeling just terrible about my bad luck, but feeling great about Wil’s good fortune.

A “thank you” goes out to poet Victor Depta, who sends “A poem,” he says, “in an effort to remind ourselves that the accident didn’t end with the weeklong news coverage.”

Montcoal

such an old grief
coming to us in the evening news
as if, across a gulf, an emptiness
in a place called West Virginia
was death again
where no roots are so deep
or mechanical or liable to maiming
as men are
delicately limbed—
that old grief again
predictable almost, in the newscasts
as a comfort of repetition
as ballads are
wherein women weep and wipe their tears
men mumble the inexpressible
and choke and look away
and everyone
old-fashioned as a quatrain
prays
in that old refrain
for men who grime themselves
underground
for a wife or a child
exposed there
in the stony chambers
to the explosion
bruised and burnt beyond breath
in the sudden yellow and orange blast
in Appalachia, in that age-old song
as if it were a ballad
about death

Victor M. Depta
Blair Mountain Press
Frankfort, KY