There are 399 posts in the back files here. Including this:

Quite possibly there are others that contain poems.

The "I/Y"couplet has been done before, Janice. I seem to recall it's credited to a Siegel? Not sure, but I heard it decades ago. It seems like it could have been thought of independently by Maz, though.

Maryann, that sonnet to darkness is awesome. Utterly brilliant.

PS--

Yes, it is credited to Eli Siegel. See: http://www.aestheticrealism.net/poet...-Question.html . It is said to be the shortest poem in the English language, but I bet Ed Conti has a shorter one.

Peter, you have a private message.

Terribly sad and shocking news.

I thought that some of you may find this particular opinion of Maz's
work interesting:

"Margaret A. Griffith: "Studying Savonarola" will be the "Prufrock" of the 21st Century. Various other Maz works will compete to be "The Waste Land". She may be the only major poet alive today. "
I found it at:
http://www.poets.org/forum/viewtopic...f89 f33076e59

Martin

The forum through whch I met Maz was 'The Pennine Poetry Works' or just 'The Works'. Their archives will have a lot of her work.

I shouldn't post this, since it links to a workshop draft, but I just found it and couldn't resist, heheh.

http://thesonnetboard.yuku.com/topic/4196

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/w...=1&H=0&O=A&T=0

Btw I have around 70 of her poems in my personal archive.

1952? I am shocked! I always figured Margeret was old enough to be my mother. And my misconception was entirely based on the wisdom in her writing. David, I was unable to log in at the site you linked, but I liked Mike Alexander's poem. I had to significantly revise my own:

i.m. Margeret Griffiths

A lady lived in Dorset, thrived in Poole.
She died last month but she would love this tale.
My dad and mom sought Thomas Hardy’s grave,
made pilgrimage. The statue on the green
was Thomas Hardy’s, mayor of the town.
“Wrong Hardy,” said my father with a sneer.

There are some stories never learned at school,
pastures where sheep can look at dogs and quail,
then turn their tails and give the grass a shave.
And there is Dorset, such a placid scene,
where a lone lady in her fitting gown
dies and her death makes all our deaths draw near.

How sad. My sympathies to those who will miss her.

Tim, I thought she was older too. Maybe it's sour grapes on my part, assuming someone is older because they've had all that extra time and experience to become so versatile and accomplished, and if I were their age I'd be as good yada yada yada :)

Petra, there was another poem about her dog's death, for which Paul gave the link earlier:

http://www.shitcreekreview.com/issue1/throwaway.html

It's one of those poems I can only read once because I know everytime I go back to it I'll cry.

Does anyone remember or have access to a poem she wrote about mermaids and drowned sailors? I don't recall the name, but it made a hugh splash on DE, and was utterly enchanting, almost Poe-like, in the beauty of its images and music.

It says so much about her, doesn't it, that after all these years, we remember so many of her poems so vividly?

Apparently, according to her friend and sometime co-editor Christina Fletcher,
Maz was a little older--born in 1947; still, 62 is quite young these days. So the
webpage that I found which listed the birth of "ukgrasshopper" as 1952 must
have referred to someone else.

I wonder if anyone has a copy of her poem "Constanza Carved"? I remember
it being workshopped at the Gazebo, and it was very powerful.

Also, has anyone found a working link to "Studying Savonarola"?

Thanks,

Martin

You know, I always considered her youngish, maybe forty, oolishly based on a really terrific being-in-love poem she posted with exhuberant language. I don't remember the details but wasn't there an egg/ovo. I want there to be tent poles and nipples as well, but I may be confusing this with another poem. Some of the guys didn't appreciate it as much as some of the gals. But it knocked my socks off.

Anyone remember? Anyone got it?

Marion,
you might appreciate this quote
"Those not jealous of Maz have the most reason to be."
from
http://www.poets.org/forum/viewtopic...ht=grasshopper
and
http://www.poets.org/forum/viewtopic...&highlight=maz
(the latter link has the full quote:
... the best online poet by far is Margaret A. Griffith (aka "Maz", "Grasshopper" on PFFA and Eratosphere). I wouldn't say this if "Studying Savonarola" were her only brilliancy. Not for naught do we say "those not jealous of Maz have the most reason to be!"

Martin

- Marion, thanks for the link. The song about the merfolk and sailors -- it might be "Salt" you're thinking of. Mark posted a link to it on p. 4 of this thread.
- Martin, Rose printed out "Studying Savonarola" on p. 2 of the thread.

Yes, Petra--Salt's the one! God, it's gorgeous! Thanks.

Thanks Petra.

I must have seen it and forgot.

Martin

Martin, just checked out that link. Thanks.

Another Maz poem--particularly powerful:

http://gazebo.alsopreview.com/node/869

Martin

I remember that one, Martin. It was based on Emma Bovary.

Yes, it's that Emma Bovary moment alright.
Phew. That's a terrific poem.

It seems very sad that Maz had fallen out of contact with so many ... but I guess she wanted it that way.

Very tragic. She died relatively young.

Actually, Martin, her ezboard profile gives her age as one thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two, which is very Maz.
I checked my own ezboard profile and found my age is given as 14, which frankly speaking is out by at least 10 years.

I can't remember what I told Ezboard but I know I made it up.

Getting a Book Together
 

Step One, it would seem, is gathering all her poems together and getting them into .doc form. This would involve copying/pasting those still findable online and, one would hope, getting a friend or relative to supply whatever Margaret had on file in her home. Will anyone raise a hand to do this?

Step Two would be organizing the material into a logical and flowing manuscript ... and I volunteer for a job I know well, having worked as a book editor.

The outpouring of love and admiration here just buoys my soul, and I hope her soul is somehow relishing it too.

I've already started on a doc and a spreadsheet.

Check your email.

[Ack, Kate and Rose, I got interrupted while writing this and ended up cross-posting with both of you. Anyway, I'd like to help coordinate volunteers to compile Maz's definitive bibliography, as outlined below. I was an academic librarian before I became a homeschooling mom.]


Would anyone like to help form a Bibliography Committee?

Someone should start compiling all those "Her poems have appeared in A, B, and C Journals, among others" references in Maz's contributor bios. These will then provide the starting point for tracking down actual bibliographic citations (and then full texts) of her officially-published stuff, both in print and online.

As for workshop-posted texts or other ephemeral stuff (such as poems that Maz included in private e-mails), we should create bibliographic entries for these sources, too. That way, if there are multiple versions of the same poem, the collection editor will have some basis for deciding which version is the definitive one. Another advantage is that we'll create a "paper trail" for work from online sources that eventually become defunct or, heaven forfend, have data catastrophes like Gazebo did; even if we have the full texts of those, it would be nice to know what appeared where, and when. And we'll also be able to document our good faith in case we make attribution errors (such as innocently assuming that Maz's quotation of another author's work is actually her own, as has already happened).

I would hesitate to officially post the full texts of Maz's works via a website at this point, both because of the legal ambiguity and because doing so might be detrimental to the success of a print compilation. (If I were a print publisher, I'd be nervous about taking on the production and distribution of a book whose entire contents were already available for free in one handy spot online.)

However, Rose's idea to at least archive the full texts is an excellent idea, so that a backup copy of each poem exists in one convenient place for either a print publisher or an eventual website, whichever is deemed the best course of action in the long term.

And it would be VERY helpful to have a website presenting Maz's bibliography, as it gets gradually assembled--containing links to the full texts of poems that Maz herself officially published online; full citations for poems published in print format; and titles only (citations created, but not publicly displayed) for poems Maz never officially published. Such a bibliography would save a lot of duplicated work, because we'd each be able to see what work's been done and what still needs doing. And I'm sure a print publisher would appreciate having this necessary legwork already done, too.

Rose, how does this sound to you? Would you like to be the one to get such a bibliographical website off the ground, fairly soon? If so, I'd be happy to help with the actual creation of the bibliography, and to map out various assignments for volunteers, including to a.) create citations for the poems already identified on this thread, b.) compile and document Maz's contributor's bio statements, c.) contact the editors of all the publications she named to ask for help indexing any works they published by her. Editors' response times being what they are, it might also be good to try d.) asking poets who have back issues of these journals to search for her listings in the tables of contents.

It's a huge task, but many hands make light work! Rose, I'll PM you so we can chat by phone or e-mail. Then we can put out a call for volunteers, once we've agreed on a plan of action.

I'll do anything I can to help any such project.

George Simmers has placed a tribute to Maz on the main page of Snakeskin.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~simmers/

As the putative editor/publisher of a print version of Maz's Colleced Works I would like to make the following announcement.

1) I am prepared to take on the publishing task.

2) the legal requirements of permission from the executor of Margaret's estate MUST be met.

3) Whoever collects the poems must be prepared to send them to me en masse as an RTF file (plain text with italics where indicated by the author)

4) Christina Fletcher has volunteered to design the cover and I know her personally and we can work together in a satisfactory way.

As a newcomer to Eratosphere I don't know you people at all and must trust the competence of whoever does the work in that you wish the best for Margaret's legacy to the world of poetry.

Regards to all

Roger Collett
Editor
Arrowhead Press
http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk

I know that everyone takes a vital interest in Maz's poetry because she meant so much to us all. Quite a bit has been achieved off this thread in the last couple of days. Just so that everybody has full information, here is what has been accomplished at this point:

A group is formed. Christina Fletcher and Helen Beaton, Maz's friends, have been included in it.

Rose is collecting and documenting Maz's poems, and she's prepared to do that task single-handed. Although it's a big job, unless she asks for help with particular parts of it, let's let her do it her own way for the sake of consistency and efficiency.

David Anthony has agreed to be our contact with Maz's solicitors (now that we know who they are) so that we can discuss permissions. We'll be talking next about who's going to pay them.

I hope this helps fill in the information gaps. To me, this thread is most valuable in its outpouring of affection and in its pointers to Maz's poems, every one a fresh reminder of the huge talent we've lost.

This is looking excellent.
Many thanks, Roger, for your hand on the helm, and to Rose for undertaking the collation. All great.

BTW, Margaret wrote a couple of delightful and hilarious science fiction poems in 04/05. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't filch them. Does anyone recall these? One was about a spoof intergalactic superhero - it mentioned "half-human girls" as I recall.

Adam, one of my favorites by Maz is a sci-fi one about someone collecting scrap and junk out in space. If I remember right the scrap was a lot of funny, inventive things and not just mere "scrap". The whole poem was so imaginative and inventive. I remember I started my critique by saying, "This rocks!" I don't think I've ever said that to anyone before. Yesterday I was trying to find that poem, because I think she posted it not only at the Gazebo but also at the non-Met at Erato. I searched the term "Riga", because that was in the original version (until she changed it to something else), but I couldn't find it. You know, I'm thinking now she might have posted it at Sonnet Central as well. Maybe a search over there through all their archives could bring it up. I would like to read it again.

And adding to my comment above...
I don't have time to search for specifics just now, but I did a brief search at Sonnet Central and ended up in Archive 7, where I could see that Maz has about 25 poems, maybe more. Those poems are from 2004.
I can't get the Sonnet Central search engine working effectively, but if you google...
"the sonnet board" + "archive 7"
you'll get to the start of the archive. This means you can also google "archive 8" "9", etc to check for more poems. I think Maz's first poems were in archive 4, 2002 or so.

Please, all the searchers who are more effective than me, try to
track down "Costanza Carved", about Bernini and famous bust of and
notorious attack on Costanza Bonarelli. It was workshopped at the Gazebo
in early September 2007, but the only trace that I have of it are peoples'
comments. It was a very powerful poem.

Martin

I'm desperately sorry to hear the news. Maz was up there with the best, and deserves the recognition you are seeking for her. Along with her marvellous poetry, I always valued her incisive critique, and missed her during her occasional extended absences from the boards we frequented together, back when.
I wondered about her disappearance from the boards, and her failure to return to the poets.org forum that featured her as guest poet seemed somehow ominous.

This is something I posted on SC in 2004, during one of those absences. Not so much a tribute, I guess, as a recognition of her standing as a staple, among others, of the community at that time, and of her trademark disdain of archaics:

Where Are They?

Where are they? roguish Rosa, feisty Maz,
the journeyjills of jollity and joust?
It seems they've pulled up stakes and gone, as has
that mod whose episodic subtle jest
enshrined in sonnet form might Will incense,
(oops, sorry Maz) but always earn a grin
from hordes of deferent Anthonians
(unless he labelled it Blomquistian).

Where have they gone? It's true we still have Mike,
an erudite and perspicacious host;
the Meter Maid is hovering; I like
the newbies; but my rage for ripe riposte,
my appetite for waspish wit is such,
(though sans ad hom, of course) I'd welcome Dutch.

oOOo

Now she has truly gone. An immeasurably sad loss to the world of poets and poetry.

Peter

Just a quick clarification: I'm just putting together some documentation that can be used as a starting point, and I want to get that done quickly, without a lot of committee meetings. Once that's done, anyone who wants to help (hi Julie) will have something to work with.

Of course this may all be for nought, but revisiting Maz's work is a pleasure.

Ah, Maz.

To see the whirled in a grain of sand ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo4pPQZ-0vM&NR=1

Thanks for the updates, Maryann, Rose, and Roger Collett--I know and appreciate that there's a tremendous amount of work going on behind the scenes. Good to know things are in such good and caring hands!

I've spent this evening trawling the SC archives 4 - 7. I came across this:

A conversation with the dark

So tired of it, you bastard, tired of waiting,
tired of halt-breath time, anticipating
your cloven footfalls on my ribs--so blast
your eyes and ears--it's in my hands at last.
You sit like dust again behind the door.
I yank it wide to seize your hair, and roar,
I have you now! And slighter than I knew.
It was your shadow I had feared, not you.

I grasp you, grip you in my termite jaws,
you pissant prick. I seize you in my claws
and squeeze, you rat-turd, arse-wipe, moldwarp, minge.
The stalker stuck, laddo, too late to whinge.
I've grabbed you, gagged you, so don't try to beg.
Shut your throat and listen: Chicken. Egg.

Alan

I have it Martin; it was also workshopped on TDE in 9/2007.

I can message it to you if you like; I'm hesitant to keep posting full poems here b/c of what's been said about potential publication, though Maz herself didn't care about previous publication when considering Worm submissions. I believe she simply wanted folks to read and enjoy...