Learning about Christmas Poems

You think you everything there is know about Christmas poems, and then you find out you don’t.

Until fairly recently, it was believed that the most famous Christmas poem of all – A Visit from St. Nicholas – was written by poet Clement Clark Moore (1779-1863). Later scholarship has suggested the real author to be Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828), a farmer, surveyor and justice of the peace in New York who joined the Revolutionary Army in 1775.

What we do know for certain is that Moore read the poem to his children for Christmas in 1822, and it was published anonymously in 1823 in the Troy (NY) Sentinel. The Sentinel editor did not know who the author was, only that it had been sent anonymously to him in the mail. And we know this poem, more than any other account, fixed forever many of the characteristics attributed to Santa Claus. The poem was published in many publications (copyright laws being what they were), until a bound and illustrated version appeared in 1848.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Artwork by John A. Hows from Christmas In Art And Song. New York: The Arundel Printing and Publishing Company, 1879.

Twitter Party: The Poetry Home Repair Manual 2

At our recent Twitter party, things took a decided turn toward the planet Saturn, silver ribbons down the back stairs, or perhaps the front stairs, and lemon custard (don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player). A digression into dirty dishes (likely latent guilt for tweeting poetic lines while filled sinks remained, well, filled) was soon left behind.

The prompts were taken from The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets by Ted Kooser, the former U.S. poet laureate. I’m not sure if he ever imagined his book would be pressed into service for a poetry jam on Twitter, but something tells me he would likely be pleased.

What’s rather fascinating for an editor of poetic tweets is to see how the thoughts and inspirations flow and play off each other. It’s hard to follow that when you’re in the thick of rapid-fire tweeting, but once the tweets are brought together and, in a sense, stop moving, the underlying inspiration can be seen.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Twitter Party: The Poetry Home Repair Manual

I have a theory about poets and poetry, and it is this: there are only four poets in the United States who make a living by writing poetry. One of them is Billy Collins. I’m not sure who the other three are. But I know they must be out there. Somewhere.

At our recent poetry jam on Twitter, the very first prompt spoke to my theory: “You’ll never be able to make a living writing poems.” It’s a line from The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets by Ted Kooser, former U.S. Poet Laureate and author of some wonderful collections of poetry. (And if you wonder if he is one of the other three poets making a living from writing poems, you should know he retired from an insurance company in Nebraska, where he spent most of his adult working life.)

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Photograph by Peter Griffin via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

Poetry at Work: Ted Kooser, Insurance Underwriter (and Poet Laureate)

Ted Kooser began his working career as a high school English teacher in 1962; he’s currently the Presidential Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he’s taught since 2000. He has won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry, and was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2004.

Between 1963 and 1999, Kooser wrote and published poetry – but he was also something else: Ted Kooser, insurance company executive.

To continue reading, please see my post today at TweetSpeak Poetry.

Photograph of Ted Kooser by UNL Publications and Photography.