The Detached by Maya Angelou

 

Yesterday's poem of the day didn't push after staying in draft mode, so you get two today.

The Detached by Maya Angelou has appeared in a few of her collections. It references Bluebeard although it isn't directly about the tale. But, as always, it is a powerful poem by a wonderful poet and writer. I've had the opportunity to hear her speak during one of her tours and it was a beautiful experience.

Please remember that this is copyrighted. It is actually available all over the web, but to discourage copying and pasting, I am providing an image of it. I am posting this in promotion of her work and books listed above. Maya Angelou: Poems is only $6.99 and a wonderful collection to own. Now here is the poem:

The Tinderbox by Woody Long

The Tinderbox by Anne Anderson

The Tinderbox by Woody Long is today's poem of the day. Woody sent this to me himself after it was recently published on 14x14 and gave permission to reprint it here. Thank you, Woody!

Fairy-tale Logic by A. E. (Alicia) Stallings

Goose Girl at the Well by Elenore Abbott

Today's poem is Fairy-tale Logic by A. E. (Alicia) Stallings. It was published on Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, a program and site created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Casting News and More on ABC's Once Upon a Time

From Casting News and More on ABC's Once Upon a Time:

A good bit of casting news for ABC's upcoming "Once Upon a Time" from "Lost" executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz has come in over the past several days so we thought we'd just condense everything into one easy-to-find location.

Heading up the prospective new series, which is set in the small town of Storybrook, where the magic and mystery of fairy tales may be real, is Jennifer Morrison ("House M.D.") as Anna, “a child of two fairy tale characters who is fated to save everyone from [a] curse.” As Morrison explained it to TVLine, “Basically, it’s as if every fairy tale character ever written is real and actually exists, but they’ve been cursed and they don’t know their true identities.” (For example, Ginnifer Goodwin ("Big Love") plays Snow White, while Lana Parrilla ("Swingtown") is the Evil Queen.) “They are living in our reality not knowing who they truly are. And because [of that], they’re never going to have their happy ending.”

Previously Deadline revealed three other cast members: 10-year-old Jared Gilmore, who has recurred as Bobby Draper on "Mad Men", will play the pivotal role of Henry, Anna's biological son and the only resident of Storybrook who is not under the spell of Parrilla's Evil Queen and tracks down his mom to enlist her help. Josh Dallas (The Descent: Part 2) will play Prince Charming, and Jamie Dornan (Marie Antoinette) will play the handsome and authoritative sheriff of Storybrooke.

I liked Jennifer Morrison on House, so I hope this is a good fit for her. And the show gets more and more intriguing...

Quote About Fairy Tales and Film, A Good One

From The Dark Side of The Fairy Tale by Alexandra Ferguson:

The fairy tale structure is the foundation of storytelling. Most fairy tales are a glimpse into the history of a culture, with each one carrying a hidden moral or message for its reader, or more often, its listener. Fairy tales tell stories of triumph, struggle, love and loss – the now building blocks of modern cinema screenwriting. However, what is even more intriguing is the fairy tale’s love affair with fear and death. Some of the best loved stories which, for example, are now reincarnated as some of the best loved Disney animations, have much darker roots.

The article goes on to to the usual discussion of fairy tale influenced films already out there, nothing much new although the list focuses on the grittier for those who like those. But I really liked this description of fairy tales so I thought I would share...

Therefore it makes sense that there is evidence of contemporary re-imaginings of the fairy tale in many different film stories.

Richard E Grant unravels origins of The Arabian Nights

  

In conjunction with the airing of Secrets of The Arabian Nights on BBC Four, BBC News has an article about the Arabian Nights, Richard E Grant unravels origins of The Arabian Nights. It's a great overview article and here's an excerpt of some of the highlights:

The tales have their roots in oral storytelling thousands of years ago including folk tales from India and mystical stories from Persia

They were carried and spread by traders travelling on the great trade routes of the East where they began to take shape

The oral stories were collected and written down in the great cities of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo

In the 10th Century, an Arab historian recorded the tales and called them A Thousand Nights

The earliest manuscript of the tales is in Arabic and was written in Syria in the 14th Century

French traveller and scholar Antoine Galland translated it from Arabic in to French in the 1600s

He began with Sinbad the Sailor, which was an immediate sensation in Parisian high society

After fans stood outside his house and demanded more, he is believed to have written more stories and embellished others, such as Ali Baba and Aladdin

In 1706 an anonymous translation of Galland's book called The Arabian Nights arrived in Britain

Records show the first theatrical performance of Aladdin was held in 1788 in London's Covent Garden

There is also a short 2 minute video preview on the article page but it doesn't have an embedding option, so I can't share it here, but it wasn't blocked for North American viewers.

Secrets of The Arabian Nights on BBC Four

If you are in the UK, Secrets of The Arabian Nights is on BBC Four 21 April 2100 BST. Here's the description:

The Arabian Nights first arrived in the West 300 years ago, and ever since then its stories have entranced generations of children and seduced adults with a vision of an exotic, magical Middle East. Actor and director Richard E Grant wants to know why the book he loved as a child still has such a hold on our imagination.

He travels to Paris to discover how the stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin were first brought to the West by the pioneering Arabist Antoine Galland in the early 18th century. The Nights quickly became an overnight literary sensation and were quickly translated into all the major European languages. Richard then travels to Cairo to explore the medieval Islamic world which first created them.

He quickly finds that some of the stories can still be deeply controversial, because of their sexually-explicit content. Richard meets the Egyptian writer and publisher Gamal al Ghitani, who received death threats when he published a new edition of the book.

He also finds that the ribald and riotous stories in the Nights represent a very different view of Islam than fundamentalism. Can the Nights still enrich and change the West's distorted image of the Arab world?

Now I only hope this will be available in some format in the U.S. sometime in the near future...

Zhou Long Wins Music Pulitzer For Fairy Tale Opera

From Zhou Long Wins Music Pulitzer For Fairy Tale Opera by Tom Huizenga:

Chinese-America composer Zhou Long has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his opera Madame White Snake. The work received its world premiere in a production at Opera Boston Feb. 26, 2010, conducted by Gil Rose.

Pulitzer officials described Zhou's piece as "a deeply expressive opera that draws on a Chinese folk tale to blend the musical traditions of the East and the West."

The story of Madame White Snake — a traditional transformation myth, not unlike the Western Little Mermaid — is something that Zhou says every Chinese would know.

"It's very popular not only in China but in Asia. They've adapted it into movies and television series," Zhou said in a telephone conversation earlier today. "But this is the first modern, Western opera form sung in English."

Isn't it nice to know that the Pulitzer rules don't automatically disqualify music inspired or drawing from fairy tales for inspiration? Remember that The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2008 so this isn't a fluke.


Yes, I am looking at you National Book Foundation.
Congrats to Zhou Long!
 
And if you are interested, here is a book copy of the story in English to read, Madam White Snake (English-Chinese). I haven't seen a recording of Madame White Snake available yet.

New Issue of Faerie Magazine

The newest issue of Faerie Magazine is hitting newsstands and mailboxes soon and this is a great issue. Of course, I am slightly prejudiced since my latest column is included, this time it's an article about the Grimms' tale, The Three Spinners. Bet you didn't expect that one, did you? I didn't but when editor Kim Cross requested a tale about spinning, this was the perfect choice, especially considering I've already written about Rumpelstiltskin in a previous issue. I struggled with finding material and learned a little myself since I hadn't studied this one much previous to writing this article for readers like you.

Here's the brief description for the issue:

Faerie Magazine Issue #22 includes an in depth interview with writer Charles de Lint, the life of Edmund Dulac (fairy illustrator of the Victorian era), Dancing in the Green: Robin Hood and the Faeries by John Matthews, The Three Spinners by Heidi Heiner of Surlalune, and much much more! Enjoy!

I just received my author copies today and it is very full of wonderful imagery--very expected with Edmund Dulac featured--and many more articles not listed here such as one about the aforementioned spinning as well as one about The Mabinogion by Claire Matthews and even one about mushrooms in Victorian paintings which is much more interesting than you might think at first thought.

Hansel and Gretel Article on Faerie Magazine Site

Another one of my articles is featured on The Faerie Magazine site this week, this time my article about Hansel and Gretel from the Winter 2008 issue. This will only be available through the weekend so if you want to read it, do so soon!

Here are the first few lines:

“Hansel and Gretel” is one of the best known fairy tales. It is also one of the most horrific, offering up several nightmare-inducing elements in just a few pages. Child abandonment. Evil witches. Cannibalism. Murder, albeit in self-defense. Perfect bedtime reading! Yet somehow it remains one of the most popular fairy tales in children’s picture books with new versions published each year.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel: Poems by Janet Charman

Rapunzel, Rapunzel: Poems by Janet Charman is a collection I haven't fully read, but the poems I have read are intriguing. This collection, obviously, pulls from Rapunzel for inspiration.

From the publisher:

As a feminist poet chronicling life in the suburbs in all its banal and joyous detail, Janet Charman has no equal. She writes with wit, irony and sometimes anger about being a mother, being a wife, being a daughter. But she also shows enormous compassion for ordinary people and their voices fill this book.

Rapunzel Rapunzel, focuses on separation. Separation felt as a natural process, or as a traumatic dislocation, depending on the circumstances; as catastrophic or as the means to a proper life. It looks at the ways we read the landmark events that befall us. And how we choose to reframe those events. This work was completed with the support of a 1997 literary fellowship funded by Creative New Zealand (http://www.creativenz.govt.nz) and the University of Auckland.

And now for two poems from the collection. These are copyrighted and should not be copied. They are offered here as book preview and promotion and I have displayed them as images instead of text to discourage copying and pasting. A few other poems are also available for reading on the publisher's website.

New Book: My Unfair Godmother by Janette Rallison

 

My Unfair Godmother by Janette Rallison was released last week and is a sequel to last year's My Fair Godmother.

From the publisher:

Tansy Miller has always felt that her divorced father has never had enough time for her. But mistakenly getting caught on the wrong side of the law wasn' texactly how she wanted to get his attention. Enter Chrysanthemum "Chrissy" Everstar, Tansy's fairy in shining, er, high heels. Chrissy is only a fair godmother, of course, so Tansy's three wishes don't exactly go according to plan. And if bringing Robin Hood to the twenty-first century isn't bad enough for Tansy, being transported back to the Middle Ages to deal with Rumpelstiltskin certainly is. She'll need the help of her blended family, her wits, and especially the cute police chief 's son to stop the gold-spinning story from spinning wildly out of control. Janette Rallison pulls out all the stops in this fresh, fun-filled follow-up to the popular My Fair Godmother.

Okay, I haven't seen or read this one and have only been aware of it as a portal keeper to fairy tale related books, but a book that uses Rumpelstiltskin and Robin Hood does interest me. I'll probably have to read this one sooner rather than later. After the next releases for SurLaLune Press are ready, that is....

Story Hour by Sara Henderson Hay

Story Hour by Sara Henderson Hay is one fairy tale poetry collection still in print! And it's a wonderful one.

From the publisher:

Originally published by Doubleday (1963) and in 1982 by the University of Arkansas Press, Story Hour takes many well-known fairy tales -- Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood -- and turns them on end. In this collection of poems, Sara Henderson Hay asks us to feel compassion for "the murdered Giant"; to believe that the grandmother might even invite the wolf in and offer him "a warm bed, and a bone or two"; and to walk along dark streets with a young man who has escaped the hard life inside the shoe but not his mother's reach. Hay's deft and efficient voice makes these familiar stories at times funny, always ironic, and, as Miller Williams writes in the foreword to this new version, "even scarier than they were."Hay manages the unexpected points of view in these poems through the sonnet. Using the turn, the shift in rhetoric on which the sonnet relies, she establishes and subtly undermines our notions of the fairy tales before giving us a completely new sense ofthem, sometimes more compassionate than they once were. Beauty, married to the new Prince, "thought of the good Beast, who used to walk / Beside her in the garden, and who had / Such gentle eyes, and such a loving arm / To shield her from the briers, and keep her warm." Whether these poems bring to the surface a joke we hadn't darkness only hinted at before, they always invite imagined, or quicken our memory to the us to go back into what Miller Williams calls "these old houses we thought we knew so well."

This is one book that can't be previewed on Amazon, but it may be previewed on the publisher's site at Story Hour. Many of the poems and illustrations are viewable there.

And now to share one of the poems, captured from the preview. This is copyrighted so please don't copy--that's why it is an image and not typed text--so enjoy and consider buying the book....

Sonakshi Sinha Launches Provogue New Store

Sonakshi Sinha launches the new store of Provogue at A S Rao Nagar, Hyderabad. The leading fashion brand Provogue launched its new store at A S Rao Nagar, Hyderabad with Style Icon & Trend Setter, Sonakshi Sinha. The Dabang girl who was recently roped in by Provogue as the face for their latest Summer/Spring collection and "LIVE MAD" campaign for the Women's Wear was spotted at her fashionable best. The actress was delighted to be a part of this magnum-opus store by Provogue and even shared her views regarding the revolution the brand has brought in the fashion fraternity. LIVE MAD defines a state of mind, which represents the spirit of New India. It embraces the concepts of to Care more than others, think wise; Risk more than others, think safe; Dream more than others, think practical; Expect more than others, think possible; Live more than others, Live Mad. LIVE MAD says that there's no success without a touch of madness. 12 more images after the break...

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Jennifer Lopez Photoshoot in Los ANgeles

Jennifer Lopez – Photoshoot Candids in Los Angeles, 11 more images after the break...

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Mosque of Djenne

It seems that time has stopped here. These were the homes in Djenne, probably, five centuries ago. So they stayed and now - entirely built of clay, in full accordance with the local traditional style. The most famous building in clay, carefully preserved here more than a century - Mosque, the largest such mosque in the Islamic world. 08 more images after the break...

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Ritemail Picdump — 56 Pics

Rite Picdump 55 more images after the break...

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Riddle of the day — Can You see the cat ?

Riddle of the day. Can you see the cat in this picture, 04 more images after the break...

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The Pleasures of Imagination by Mark Akenside

 

This is most likely the oldest poem I will be sharing this month as it is from the 18th century. The last several lines are of the most interest--and easiest to parse if your brain is tired. I bolded them for you to make it easier. These lines are also quoted in the Margaret Hunt translation of Grimms as a testimony to the value of fairy tales.

Excerpt from The Pleasures of Imagination
by Mark Akenside

Call now to mind what high capacious powers
Lie folded up in man; how far beyond
The praise of mortals, may the eternal growth
Of nature to perfection half divine,
Expand the blooming soul? What pity then
Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to earth
Her tender blossom; choak the streams of life,
And blast her spring! Far otherwise design'd
Almighty wisdom; nature's happy cares
The obedient heart far otherwise incline.
Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown
Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active power
To brisker measures: witness the neglect
Of all familiar prospects, though beheld
With transport once; the fond attentive gaze
Of young astonishment; the sober zeal
Of age, commenting on prodigious things.
For such the bounteous providence of heaven,
In every breast implanting this desire 
Of objects new and strange, to urge us on
With unremitted labour to pursue
Those sacred stores that wait the ripening soul,
In Truth's exhaustless bosom. What need words
To paint its power? For this the daring youth
Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms,
In foreign climes to rove: the pensive sage,
Heedless of sleep, or midnight's harmful damp,
Hangs o'er the sickly taper; and untir'd
The virgin follows, with inchanted step,
The mazes of some wild and wondrous tale,
From morn to eve; unmindful of her form,
Unmindful of the happy dress that stole
The wishes of the youth, when every maid
With envy pin'd. Hence, finally, by night
The village-matron, round the blazing hearth,
Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
Breathing astonishment! of witching rhimes,
And evil spirits; of the death-bed call
Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls
Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life conceal'd; of shapes that walk
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave
The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
At every solemn pause the croud recoil
Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
With shivering sighs: till eager for the event,
Around the beldame all arrect they hang,
Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd.

Akenside, Mark (1720-1771). The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem. In Three Books. [from The Poems Of Mark Akenside]. London: W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1772.

Reprint Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Full-Text Database: Cambridge, 1992.

Trail of Stones by Gwen Strauss

Trail of Stones by Gwen Strauss and illustrated by Anthony Browne was first published in 1990 and is now out of print. These are some of the types of books I am eager to see turned into ebooks. This would be a gem to pick up for a few dollars and once again generate a small income for the poet.

Book description:

As they enter the dark wood, familiar fairy tale characters confront the issues of fear of love, shame, grief, jealousy, loneliness, and joy in this illustrated collection of poems.

Here is Strauss's take on Hansel and Gretel from the father's perspective, always the most problematic character in that tale. This poem is copyrighted and was captured from Gwen Strauss's website where it is presented to promote the book as I am promoting it here. I used an image of the poem once again to discourage copying and pasting.