Join us in the BCAC conference space for a public reading and book talk by Martin Bidney. The focus of this reading is Bidney’s A Hundred Artisanal Tonal Poems: Slimmed-down Fourteeners, Four-beat Lines, and Tight, sweet Harmonies.
“I want this book to be life-giving. I’ve called my poems “fourteeners” because the traditional name of “sonnets” might perhaps remind too many people of high school Shakespeare and boredom brain-death. (In fact, the bard’s fourteeners are a bisexual diary that could easily be a TV series—look at my Shakespair dialogues with him.) “Artisanal” suggests the care that craft-beer brewers take in choosing and preparing authentic ingredients. In my 100 poems, the components are chiefly “tonal” because I’m offering a musical entertainment. The poems are “slimmed down” to four-beat lines to give them the beauty we admire in a slender shape. And should the phrasing “tight, sweet harmonies” convey a sexual mood, that’s because poetry is passion. Every fourteener is provided with its own conversational intro—a “blog.” The topics range throughout my life and interests, and they include novelists, composers, philosophers, psychologists, mythic and religious traditions – an index of names at the back will direct you to these and the rest.” – Martin Bidney
Martin Bidney is an experienced Professor Emeritus at Binghamton University with a demonstrated thirty-five year history of working in higher education and since “retirement” a founder-editor of Dialogic Poetry Press and publisher of 23 books of poetry original and/or translated from Polish, Russian, and German (three of these titles with State University of New York Press). Skilled in verse translation and writing with a strong emphasis on faithfulness to rhythmic pattern and alliterative-assonantal word harmony. Strong education professional graduated with BA Indiana U, MA Harvard U, Ph.D. Indiana U.
Martin Bidney is an experienced Professor Emeritus at Binghamton University with a demonstrated thirty-five year history of working in higher education and since “retirement” a founder-editor of Dialogic Poetry Press and publisher of 17 books of poetry original and/or translated from Polish, Russian, and German (three of these titles with State University of New York Press). Skilled in verse translation and writing with a strong emphasis on faithfulness to rhythmic pattern and alliterative-assonantal word harmony. Strong education professional graduated with BA Indiana U, MA Harvard U, PhD Indiana U.
