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Anne Waldman
Have you wondered about different tyoes of poetry? You've proabably thought about light verse or contemporary. But, you may not know about beat poetry. Beat poetry is type of poetry that when you say your poems you speak them fast. This is a unique type of poetry. Anne Waldman is a beat poet. She came to be a beat poet during the beat movement. The movement began in the 1950's. It ended in the 1960's. The beat movement began because the poets wanted to be different, and they didn't want to conform to the normal style of poetry("Beat movement"). She and Allen Ginsburg wrote poems together and were beat poets together along with Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Philip Whalen, and Gary Snyder("Beat movement"). Anne Waldman was born on April 2, 1945. She was born in Millville, New Jersey to John and Frances LeFerve Waldman. They lived on Macdougal Street in Greenwhich village in New York after the end of World War II(#|Charters). Her father went to college on the GI Bill and he studied #|literature, writing and journalism. He began to speedread and taught Anne this technique at a young age.She thought that no one could read poetry this way(Charters). Her mother was a self educated woman who loved poetry. She knew modern Greek, and could translate Greek poetry(Charters). Her father taught journalism at Pace college and he wrote magazine articles. Anne attended New York City public elementary #|schools. When she was 15, while attending Friends Seminary High School, she first became interested in beat poets by reading Donald M. Allen's anthology //The New #|American Poetry: 1945-1960//(#|Charters). She was led to books by the authors Denise Levertov, O'Hara, Ashbury, and Koch(Charters). Anne went to #|Bennington College, even though she was reluctant to leave New York City.She studied with Howard Nemerov, Bernard Malamud, Stanley #|Edgar Hyman. She wrote her thesis on poetry and submitted it to get her #|Bachelor of #|Arts degree, and she followed all of the requirements(Charters). In 1965 she went to Berkeley, California to a poetry conference. She is a very well known poet.

Anne Waldman was influenced by by her mother to write poetry. Anne Waldman also worked with Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac(Oakes). Together, along with other poets, they started the beat movement. Anne Waldman often writes about her son, society, and her family. Anne Waldman has produced over 30 books and many voice recordings(Oakes). She also had done many films, and videos. She was influenced by her mother to take art #|classes, at the #|Museum of Modern Art. Her teacher Mr. Hourwich influenced her too. After school she would get together with other students like her(Oakes). She submitted some poems she wrote to the //New Yorker// and other magazines. After college she studied with Howard Nemerov, and she tried to decide her poetic voice in a mainly male society. After graduationg, she moved into an appartment on Saint Mark's Place. She was hired as an assitant to Joel Oppenheimer, a director of poetry at St. Mark's Church(Oakes). After two years, Waldman became the director of the poetry project. She held this position until 1978(Oakes). Many beat poets performed here, and she began to read her work during this time. Anne often writes about her family, her life, and society. In her poem //Number Song// she wrote about her son. She said he came from her, and he was art. In her poem //Marriage in a Sentence// she wrote about marriage and how it can be good and bad. In her poem //Scallop Song,// she talks about how women should shake off pity, and men should give up tumult(Oakes).



My poet has done a lot of work. She has published many books, and her reputation was established in //Fast Speaking Woman//. According to Michael Strickland, watching her poems is like watching a shamanic ritual. Her most ambitous work is //Iovis//, wheich he describes as a long elegy. Iovis incorporates many forms including prose, escperts from letters, news reports, and native summaries(Strickalnd). In theis poem, Waldman explores the male personae. She pushes the peom beyond it's limit, but onlu in it's fomr, ttaking the tradtioniol nature of elegy to the extreme but also at some level of utterence. Wadlmsan invites her audience to jion in the energy if ooems during her performance(Straickland). She invites the silent readers to watch as she struggles with comopsisiotn. She quesitons the modle of the elegy in this poem. According to Sonya Ralph, Anne Waldman is an explorer of poetry. She has written 40 books and pamphlets. Anne Walmdan takes the writing of poetry to be a way of refining mind. Anne Waldman's newlt released book, //Vow to Poetry// includes essays on poetics, Buddhism, and activism(Ralph). Poetry is a radical presence in Anne Waldman's life. Anne says that poetry has saved her life. You can find all of her poems, and essays in //Vow to Poetry//. You can also find how Buddhism has helped Anne Walsman. In this book, you can really see Anne Waldman's struggle with poetry, becoming a poet, and her life(Ralph).

From what i have learned, Anne Waldman is a very strong person. She has strong beleifs, which are evident ni her poems. You can seee anne strugling through her life in some of her poems. Then yuo see happiness in her poems. Inone of her poems she talks about hiw art is a lie. Anne says art is a lie, a sepration of you plus me, and what we make. She talks about how people paint picutres of lightbulbs or the sunrise. I thnik she wants people to be different and to have different sytles because a lot of people paint these things. Then, she talks about how actors and actresses are real and passionate. I think to her art is a lie because of what it has become today. In her poem //Philosophia Perrenis,// Anne talks about how she looks at the stars in the sky and how she cried about the language saving a woman. I think in this poem she is referring to society. She taks about hiw a picture changes, and promisies a herione nighttime and medidtaion are mirage. I think she is taliing to herself about being Buddhist. She says language is reversible. In her poem //Number Song//, she talks about her son. She said that she multiplied in two, he's a part of me. He came out of me, he took me apart. I think she also toalks about her struggle with haveing her son. The, she says, he sin't seperate, he's art. She sings ti her son. She is a really good mother, and loves her son very much. Anne Waldman and Philip Whalen []

Anne Waldman was a very notable poet. She accomplished many things, like being a woman poet in a society where there were mostly males. She has published over 40 books, and has gone to many poetry conferences. If it wasn't for her mother, and Gary Corso of Jack Kerouac, she wouldn't be where she is. She would not be a beat poet, and there would not have been a beat movement. She is a famous poet because of her style. She is a very significant literary figure. She has struggled through many things, and has looked to Buddhism for help. She meditates, and is Jack Kerouac's guru. Anne Waldman is someone I can look up to because she seems like a genuine person, and I like that. She has dared people to be different. I hope to follow in her footsteps and do the same.

Works Cited:**"Beat Movement."** //Encylopedia Britannaica. #|Encyclopedia Britannica Online.// Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 26 Apr 2011. .

Charters, Ann. "Anne (Lesley) Waldman." //The Beats//: //Literary Bohemians in Postwar America//. Ed. Ann Charters. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 16. //Literature Resource Center//. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. .

Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Waldman, Anne." //American Writers//, American Biographies. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004. //Bloom's Literary Reference Online//. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 2 May 2011. < http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= AW238&SingleRecord=True>.

Strickland, Michael. "Waldman, Anne." In Kimmelman, Burt, and Temple Cone, eds. //The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry//, vol. 2. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. //Bloom's Literary Reference Online//. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 2 May 2011. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CAP470&SingleRecord=True

 Ralph, Sonya Lea. "Radical Presence: An Interview with Poet & Activist Anne Waldman." //<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Tricycle //. Spring 2002: 70+. //<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">SIRS Renaissance. // Web. 02 May 2011.