Ruke Blog
The Power of Suicide: Muriel Rukeyser’s Poetic Responses to Sylvia Plath
When it comes to Sylvia Plath and her death, the creative response from fellow poets is so very different. Ted Hughes, her estranged husband, wrote an entire book of poems in regards to her (Birthday Letters). Meanwhile, her friend/rival, Anne … Continue reading
Posted in Essays, Ruke Blog
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Discovering Muriel Rukeyser as a Young Writer
On her 16th birthday, my best friend Jess received a copy of Out of Silence: Selected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser from her mother. Jess and I didn’t live in the same state, so we were avid letter writers; after that … Continue reading
Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers
In just a few days, I will have the pleasure of chairing a panel at the American Literature Association’s annual conference at Washington, DC. The panel, organised by Elisabeth Däumer (herself a force of intellectual connectivity of the sort Rukeyser … Continue reading
Posted in Ruke Blog, Writings
Tagged Houdini, Muriel Rukeyser, Savage Coach, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot
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On the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth: the lives of a poet
This post, in celebration of the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth (15.12.13), is a more personal one than my last. I want to evoke, as far as I can, a feeling as well as an understanding of the enormous influence … Continue reading
Posted in Ruke Blog
Tagged Clive Bush, david adams, laura manuelidis, Lives, Marian Evans, sarah lawrence
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‘Islands’: Dragging Our Heads Back
The latest draft of the Throat of These Hours radio play, now with a rigorous reader, was hard and slow. I had to reduce – drop storylines, drop characters, drop themes, drop dialogue – and distill. Reduce and distill again. … Continue reading
Posted in Ruke Blog, Throat of These Hours (play)
Tagged Annie McMullen, Bill Rukeyser, Chris Black, Christine White, Hinemoana Baker, Islands, Jane Campion, Jason White, John Cage, John Psathas, Laurie Anderson, Merce Cunningham, Muriel Rukeyser, negative capability, New Zealand, Pirouette, Scott Walker, Speed of Darkness, Steven Price, Tape Art New Zealand, Then, Throat of These Hours, Tim Bray Productions, William Packard
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From the Shaky Isles
ISLANDS O for God’s sake they are connected underneath They look at each other across the glittering sea some keep a low profile Some are cliffs The bathers think islands are separate like them I feel so fortunate. I’ve heard gifted … Continue reading
Throat Of These Hours: Muriel Rukeyser, Verifiable & Unverifiable
THEN When I am dead, even then, I will still love you, I will wait in these poems, When I am dead, even then I am still listening to you. I will be still making poems for you out of … Continue reading
Throat of These Hours
from The Speed of Darkness 13 My night awake staring at the broad rough jewel the copper roof across the way thinking of the poet yet unborn in this dark who will be the throat of these hours. No. … Continue reading
Posted in Ruke Blog
Tagged Christine White, Lorae Parry, Madeline McNamara, Marian Evans, motherhood, Muriel Rukeyser, Throat of These Hours
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Waterlily Fire
Elisabeth Däumer’s post Context for Waterlily Fire rightly points out the theme of interrelatedness that runs through the Living Archive’s featured poem this month. When I first read “Waterlily Fire,” I was struck even more by the idea of impermanence … Continue reading