1. The Beat Poetry Happy Hour will take place at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City this Thursday, April 17 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, featuring Tao Lin, Zachary German, Clarissa Beyah Taylor, Larissa Shmailo, Joy Leftow and, of all people, me playing bongo drums. How, you may wonder, did I end up playing bongo drums? Well, it has something to do with a recent Bowery Poetry Club Beat Poetry Happy Hour I attended.

Poet Laureate Ted Kooser highlights a poem each week in his American Life in Poetry series. Kooser often chooses poems from lesser known poets who focus on simple everyday topics. From time to time we'll post the reprinted columns here and give you a chance to share your thoughts. This week's selection by Don Welch delicately describes a life's work that might easily be overlooked.

American Life in Poetry: Column 056

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

In the beginning it was 5-7-5, then U2, then Sudoku ... now a whole different numerical sequence is sweeping the globe: the Fibonacci sequence, that is. After a call for poems based on everyone's favorite mathematical progression, Gregory Pincus' GottaBook Blog soon became "Fib" central, attracting hundreds of Fib writers from all walks of life.

As if all the fame, fast cars and free gin in poetry weren't enough, just look at all of these fabulous prizes!

That's right, pardners -- in case you didn't know, it's officially Cowboy Poetry Week. While everyone's in a tizzy about Ginsberg and Bishop, the very popular and very active Cowboy Poetry movement is just moseying along, doing its thing during National Poetry Month as well. Celebrating the history, culture and character of the Old West and cowboy lifestyle (insert tired Brokeback Mountain joke here), the genre's following is surprisingly dedicated and widespread.

A few recent poetry newsbites...

-- The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice review of Book of Sketches by Kerouac.

One

The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.
How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!
A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination.

-- Mary Oliver

Ask a group of poets for their advice on how to read or write poetry and you'll likely get as many answers as there are poets. When these differences are distilled into poems, we end up with a rich array of work. Here are two poets on poetry just in time for the weekend.

In a recent online discussion of how to teach students haiku, someone pointed out this gem of a recording: Ginsberg on "writing slogans", haiku and more...

Each week Poet Laureate Ted Kooser offers a selected poem along with a few words that celebrate poetry's impact on everyday life events. From time to time we like to share the reprinted columns here, and provide you a chance to add your comments. The latest pick in the American Life in Poetry series examines the sometimes overlooked story of what you don't see.

American Life in Poetry: Column 055

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

There really is something for everyone -- that is definitely true in the world of poetry. Of course there are all kinds of styles, forms, schools and subjects that many of us are already familiar with. But what about when you're hankering for something a little off the beaten path? Sure, experimental poetry is nice, and cut-ups are sometimes cool, too ... like reading tea leaves and seeing your Uncle Lester.