I plan to try the Sealey Challenge in August, which you can read about here. Basically it’s a dare to read a book of poetry a day during the month. Chapbooks and re-reads are fine.
I wanted to have to buy as few books as possible but ended up buying about 10. If I were in America I would use the library. I have some German-language poetry in my stack, but I read poetry in German much more slowly. That said I dipped into one of the Bachmann books and it was kind of great. Still I’m a bit daunted. I’ve included my own book and will make up the difference with chapbooks I have at home to make the challenge less demanding.
Have I talked myself out of it now? No, I’m no perfectionist. If I don’t read 31 books I won’t consider myself a failure. At the moment, nevertheless, I’ve gotten a headstart on “East Window,” a book of Asian poems translated by W.S. Merwin. It’s more than 300 pages long. It’s wonderful but days into it I am only halfway through.
I have examined my motives for joining this challenge. I wondered, do I just want to socialize online? Do I just want to post photographs of books and find affirmation? Do I want to look cool? Honestly I just want to read poetry again and especially poetry I haven’t read before. But I confess I love photographs of stacks of books, photographs of single books and photographs of books artfully arranged in pairs, triplets and quartets.
What’s in my stack, including a few still on the way in the text below:
East Window – W.S. Merwin
Concordance – Susan Howe
Telephone Poems – Jen Bessemer
Die Gestundete Zeit – Ingeborg Bachmann
Silk Poems – Jen Bervin
She Had Some Horses – Joy Harjo
The Truth Is – Avery M. Guess
DMZ Colony – Don Mee Choi
Der ausgewählten Gedichte – Rainer Maria Rilke
Der ausgewählten Gedichte, anderer Teil – Rainer Maria Rilke
Fair Copy – Rebecca Hazelton
The Black Heralds – Cesar Vallejo
The Tender Between – Eve Luckring
Head Off & Split – Nicky Finney
Mendeleev’s Mandala – Jessica Goodfellow
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of The Human Form – Matthea Harvey
The Abridged History of Rainfall – Jay Hopler
Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World – Kathryn Cowles
Liebe: Dunkler Erdteil – Ingeborg Bachmann
Anrufung des Grossen Bären – Ingeborg Bachmann
Hotel Almighty – me
Sharks in the Rivers – Ada Limon
I Remember – Joe Brainard
Thrall – Natasha Trethewey
3 thoughts on “Sealey Challenge”
I like this idea, but here I am a day late and a poetry collection short. Still, as I’m always beating the drum slowly at GR for poetry reading (and really, a lot of readers never — NEVER — read poetry books), this would be a nice fit. Trouble is, I don’t do social media, which seems to be part and parcel of the deal.
(BTW, is it cheating to read one of your own books? If so, I’m covered for the first two days of the month after all!)
Hi Ken, I put my book on my list to help ensure my survival. You can also re-read books. I’m doing that, too. I don’t have access to an English-language library, so I have to buy new books online (used ones, once shipped across the ocean, cost the same and go through customs. No.) I wouldn’t worry about missing a couple days. Pretty sure I will.
But yes, I do think participating in social media helps with motivation.
Comments are closed.