Poetry Friday: Lost Poems

Well, this is cool. The Library of Congress has put out a web guide to finding lost poems.

While some of the first suggestions are obvious (Google!) and likely to provide instant results, I had fun reading down to the more specialized tactics, such as posting to message boards like Poetry Archives: Lost Poetry Quotations. And I can't wait to see what the British-staffed The Poetry Library has to offer---impeccable service, I hope.

Also, there's a section at the bottom of the web guide as to what to do if you've lost track of a poem submitted and published to a contest anthology. Apparently, contest poems are archived with the International Library of Poetry, and the Library of Congress is tired---wretched weary, if truth be told----of being confused with it.

Don't miss the lost novels section either. Children's literature is specifically addressed.

But back to poetry. I was going to post one of my favorite poems, One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, but I see that our PF hostess today posted about it last month. (What fascinates me about that poem is that it devastates me each time I read it. I know it, I know it, I know it. And yet I read it, again.)

So today, I'm pointing you to Liz's post about lost things instead.

And asking you: have you ever lost a poem? I did once.

Poetry Friday is hosted by Charlotte's Library.

Signs of the (1930s/40s) times

In browsing the Library of Congress site, I found these WPA (Work Projects Administration) 1930s/40s posters. Those two, above, are my favorites. The first one scares the bejeezus out of me, and the second one makes me admire the artist for making the best of a dorky message.

Three more...

And this, where the high-minded and impeccably literate admonishment somehow fails to make me run to my local Health Bureau for baby-rearing advice...

More about the Library of Congress's collection of WPA posters here.

The Future is Better Than You Ever Imagined

Robin Brande just had a big book launch, and she wondered, as it approached, why she was feeling a bit numb. I assured her (with the infinite wisdom of my vast publishing experience) that she would have many moments, not just The One on The Day.

One of those "many moments" for me was discovering that the Library of Congress had a copy of my book. Well, of course it does; they're required to own copies of every copyrighted piece of material in the U.S. But the fun thing is that because of where I live, if you put my zip code and the title of my book into WorldCat's search box, the Library of Congress shows up first!

And guess what else is cool? The Library of Congress has a blog. Well, maybe they're required to do that, too, but I doubt it. And look at what their college interns got to do over the summer---rummage around in the archives. The English majors---gotta love 'em!--- dug into the manuscript collection, and found:

"a 1902 copyright deposit manuscript for a musical titled 'An Extra Session: A Chimerical Satire on the Feasible Possibilities Which Woman May Attain a Hundred Years Hence.' Written by William D. Hall, the musical is set in the White House in the year 2002, with a woman president and her all-female cabinet."

Haven't read it. Can't review it. I just might, though, go see a performance of it if Emma Thompson were playing the Secretary of Defense.

By the way, how does a "chimerical" satire differ from a regular kick-ass one? Is that anything like how a celebrity book* is not, and never will be, the same species as a real one**?

*disclaimer: link does not, in fact, take you to Madonna's book (not in a hundred billion years)

**link will, in fact, take you to Robin's future best-seller: Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature