Blogs

I did a radio interview with KMSU's "Weekly Reader" yesterday. Here's a link to the podcast: http://kmsuweeklyreader.libsyn.com/webpage/aaron-poochigian . The show will air tomorrow. I love that the interviewer asked me to read a number my poems for him. "The Cosmic Purr" is rockin' the airwaves--resonance with resonance.

Here are some upcoming readings:

Wednesday, June 6th, for the West Chester Poetry Conference (West Chester, PA)
Friday, June 29th, 7pm at the KGB Bar (NY, NY)
 

I took no offense that this British author and blogger claims Poochigian sounds “like a superhero poodle.” And I was proud that someone who is “not normally a poetry guy” would write: “it’s nice to find some poetry I actually quite enjoy. Like I said, we’ve lost a lot of Sappho, and if what we’ve got left of her is any indication, it’s a pretty tragic loss.”
 
Here's a link to the post I include below: http://iansbookpile.wordpress.com/tag/sappho/
 

A very pleasant acquaintance, Madge McKeithen, a poet (and prof at the New School), sums up our conversation about Philip Larkin in her on-going Best American Poetry blog (http://www.madgemckeithen.com/new-york/on-going/):
 

I received a letter today from Richard Wilbur, the greatest living poet in the English language. I was flattered straight off because he took the time to send one (when I am 93, will I respond to mail?  Will I be alive to respond to mail?).  I was even more flattered that he found my beloved "The Cosmic Purr" "classy and full of life" and took "a non-proprietary delight in the stanzas of 'Kudzu,'" which is, among many things, an homage to his "Thyme flowering among rocks."
 
Here, my friends, is
 
Kudzu: An Immigrant's Tale:
 

Ms. Paulette Tobin asked me great questions about my Aratus and my work in general:
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/233023/group/homepage/
Published March 25, 2012, 11:22 PM 
Grand Forks native, Writers Conference author writes poetry, translates from ancient Greek and Latin

Here is an interview with Aaron Poochigian about "The Cosmic Purr" and his upcoming reading at the UND Writers Conference: http://hpr1.com/feature/article/a_conversation_with_aaron_poochigian/

Justine Picardie: http://justine-picardie.blogspot.com/2010/06/of-roses-and-feasts.html
 

The venerable New England Poetry Club offers an annual award "for an unpublished poem (not a translation) worthy of Daniel Varoujan, a poet killed by the Turks in the genocide which destroyed three-fourths of the Armenian population."
 
Here is a link: http://www.nepoetryclub.org/contests2011.htm
 
I am honored to be a 2011 winner of this award for my poem "The Parlor" (aka "Ottoman") in the book "The Cosmic Purr":
 
Nothing was an heirloom. We had none,

Well, here we are. "The Cosmic Purr" is out at last, and I have been glad to hear that my free-verse poet friends have enjoyed it as much as the formalists.
 
It is available through Able Muse Press:
 
http://www.ablemusepress.com/aaron-poochigian-cosmic-purr#book_order_info
 
Amazon:
 

I was delighted to discover that my 34 syllable homage to a late mentor (a very difficult man) has traveled so widely beyond its original journal appearance:
 
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/183127
 
http://jpicforum.info/forum/lo-fi/t-6996.html
 
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue11/TheVigil.html