Home is Heaven Gets Top Reviews

It's exciting to learn how people are re-animating Ogden Nash's poetry so that new generations can enjoy his works. The Pontine Theater in Portsmouth, NH just wrapped up a 3 day staging of "Home is Heaven: 32 Poems By Ogden Nash". A stone's throw from Nash's summer spot in Little Boar's Head, from all accounts it sounded like an amazing show.:

New Hampshire's Foster Daily Democrat published two separate full length features on the show's genesis in a chance meeting the producers had with those who knew the poet and how the show progressed to a full scale production.

Tamara Le's article calls Home Is Heaven: " National Endowment for the Arts-caliber entertainment" and focuses on the show itself.

Larry Clow's article details the story behind the show's concept and traces it's progress to the final staging.

The Portsmouth Herald's Tim Robinson raves that 'Home is Heavenly' and if you only see one show this year, make it this one.

The Portsmouth Herald's Jeanne McCartin offers local biographical insights from Nash's time on the NH seacoast and walks through the acts of the play and the background of the performers and it's first production five years ago.

I'm sorry that I missed this one!!

Unpublished Ogden Nash Poem

Detailed below is a moving autobiographical poem Nash wrote towards the end of his life. I think it's beautiful yet grave, celestial yet down to earth, acquiescent yet inspiring, Shakespearian yet Nashesquian and passionately appreciate of life yet begrudgingly accepting of death. Obviously, Nash was a brilliant essential observer of the human condition . In this poem he clearly understands the characters and stage of his own body as well.

Untitled

Enter, breath;
Breath, slip out;
Blood, be channeled,
And wind about.
O, blessed breath and blood which strive
To keep this body of mine alive!
O gallant breath and blood
Which choose
To wage the battle
They must lose.

~ Ogden Nash

This poem was sent to the publisher of aenet.org by Nash's granddaughter Frances Rider Smith

Atilla the Pun Mentors the Next Generation

In the Berkshires Mountain town of North Adams, MA veteran poet and humorist Seth Brown is offering a four-week 'doggerel' course beginning Tuesday, Feb. 5.

"The class will cover basic doggerel theory, limericks, Ogden Nash and how to create personalized light verse for special events, such as birthdays, weddings, toasts, etc.

Brown is a contributing editor to the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form, writes weekly limericks for BBSpot.com, and previously held a rhyming column in the Providence Journal. His current column for the North Adams Transcript, "The Pun Also Rises," won second place in the New England Press Association's 2006 humor column awards. He is the author of three books, most recently "Rhode Island Curiosities" (Globe Pequot Press, 2007). He is fluent in pig Latin, which is his favorite language because everything
rhymes. His Web site is RisingPun.com."

New Theater Production of Custard the Dragon

First produced at the Kennedy Center for Performing arts, New York City's Algonquin Theater Productions is reprising through their youth division a limited New York run of Ogden Nash's The Tales of Custard the Dragon: A Family Musical based on the popular books of acclaimed author Ogden Nash for four Saturdays only. February 16 - March 8, 2008.

This Week's Joy of Nash

In this day and age of mega-hyper- digital entertainment its always refreshing to learn of people across the blogosphere who are very satisfied to simply spend some quality time with Ogden Nash's works. 'She' from Delhi, India relished her Nash time here

And Nash's 'Winter Morning' was environmentally apropos as a caption for this photographer
as well as on this Jackson Hole, WY PBS TV broadcast where it was read by Lena Horn.

TIME's Cup of Praise Runneth Over

It's admittedly difficult to not burst out into emulative verse when you are writing about Nash. No doubt many Ogden Nash fans are genetically predisposed to rhyming from birth in any case. Not to mention that it's fun to do. Here is an excerpt of light verse about Ogden Nash from a 2002 TIME magazine post:

Let us grant an indulgence, plenary or perennial,
To Ogden Nash on his centenary, or centennial.
He trod 'mongst giants like Eliot and cummings and Thomas and Kazantzakis and Frost and Yevtushenko and Neruda and Schwartz (now all dead)
In a day when poets were not only renowned but read.
True, Nash did not quite roost in the exalted company of these Everest nest-dwellers,
But he published more than 20 volumes of extremely popular light verse, and if he dwelt in cellars, they were best-cellars.

The expansive version by Richard Corliss can be found by clicking here

Santa Claus May Not be Real

Santa Claus, as most people know him, may not be real. The virtual St. Nicholas Center out of Holland, MI is dedicated to discovering the truth. In presenting both sides of the case they rely partially on the Ogden Nash poem " Will The Real St. Nicholas Please Stand Up? —And Indeed He Did"