Dipping my feet back into the scene this month, I am very sad to see we've lost a three-some of poets recently:

  • Amiri Baraka died on January 9 as reported by CNN – I saw him read once in the mid-to-late 1990s at one of the Dodge Poetry Festivals I attended in New Jersey with a gang from Sarah Lawrence College. Baraka was even mentioned in the snarky piece my fiction-writing friend Julie and I wrote for our zine, Ape Culture, called "How To Tell If You Are At Ozzfest Or Dodge Poetry Fest."
  • Wanda Coleman died late last year on November 2013 as reported in the Los Angeles Times. I saw Los Angeles poet Wanda Coleman speak many, many times at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the poetry panels where she was a staple panelist every year. She was outspoken and thoughtful and I always thought I would be seeing her again at the next bookfest I attended. Truly sorry she is gone.
  • Argentine poet Juan Gelman died on January 14 as reported in the Los Angeles Times.

In other news, former US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan is recovering after a crash with a car while riding her bike.