The Waste Land by TS Eliot

100 Years Ago

Recently we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Waste Land. It is one of the most famous and influential poems of the 20th century. The literary journal The Criterion published the poem in October of 2022. The Dial in the United States published it a month later.

Some of its subject matter needs to be looked at through a 100 year old lens and it is a sometimes difficult poem using many voices. The poem, written at the end of World War I, between 1918 and 1921,  provides images of the death and destruction – and upheaval, – caused by war. The “heap of broken images’ suggest the collapse of Western Civilization. The voices bring in individuals from different cultures and the reader must understand the cultures the voices speak from. That makes the poem perfect for a multi person performance. Read More

Puddin’head Newsletter:

Here is our latest newsletter: May 25th, 2020 Newsletter

Older Newsletters:

May 12th, 2020 Newsletter

April 28th, 2020 Newsletter

Ap;ril 22nd, 2020 Newsletter

By David Gecic

David Buddha-Hargarten has just announced the return of the Poetry Bomb! Since 2007 the Poetry Bomb has been terrorizing the streets of Chicago. The brainchild of two weirdos, David Buddha-Hartgarten and Esteban Colon. Esteban’s original concept was to blanket Chicago in poetry. He wanted to have a poet on every corner so you couldn’t escape it. David molded it into the event is is now.

It takes place on Sunday, April 26th at 3:30 PM. The concept of the bomb is to show people that poetry and poets are all around them. Show people that you are a poet or poetry fan and raise your voice at 3:30 on the last day of poetry month.

This year it’s a social media event. Post a poem on-line. Do a poetry live-stream. Post a recording of a poem. Do a Facebook live. Tweet, Facetime, LinkedIn, Instagram, just – everywhere anyone may look. We still have an audience. At 3:30 let’s fill up the internet with poetry.

Read More