<p>I'm thinking of applying and am very involved in the poetry scene--wondering about slams and readings at Harvard, how good they are, how the publications are and how many there are, etc. If you are personally involved, great. I'd love to hear from ye.</p>
<p>The most prominent creative publication at Harvard is the Advocate, <a href="http://www.theharvardadvocate.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.theharvardadvocate.com/</a>. Former undergraduate contributors include e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, Norman Mailer, James Agee, and Wallace Stevens.</p>
<p>Erotic poetry is often published in the H Bomb magazine: <a href="http://www.h-bomb.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.h-bomb.org/</a></p>
<p>Humorous and parody poetry can be found in the Lampoon, Demon, and other publications. <a href="http://www.harvardlampoon.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.harvardlampoon.com/</a> <a href="http://hcs.harvard.edu/%7Edemon/%5B/url%5D">http://hcs.harvard.edu/~demon/</a>.</p>
<p>I've been to a number of readings and slams, both at on-campus "coffeehouse" nights and at local venues like Cafe Passim in Harvard Square, <a href="http://www.clubpassim.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.clubpassim.org/</a>. I'm not a great judge of poetry, but it seemed like a good mix of future T.S. Eliots and experimenting amateurs.</p>
<p>the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls</p>
<pre><code> the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
are unbeautiful and have comfortable minds
(also, with the church's protestant blessings
daughters,unscented shapeless spirited)
they believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead,
are invariably interested in so many things--
at the present writing one still finds
delighted fingers knitting for the is it Poles?
perhaps. While permanent faces coyly bandy
scandal of Mrs. N and Professor D
.... the Cambridge ladies do not care, above
Cambridge if sometimes in its box of
sky lavender and cornerless,the
moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy
</code></pre>
<p>Check this Gazette article on Jorrie Graham, professor of poetry at Harvard.</p>
<p>There's the Spoken Word Society too, also the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations has done a writers workshop and spoken word slam for the past 2 yrs now...basically if you are interested in any kind of writing, you can do it, from satire to conservative news to liberal news to Latin American, South Asian, African, etc journals that publish various types of work from poetry to nonfiction, etc.</p>
<p>As for being personally involved, I'm not except I've done 3 spoken word events which I can tell you more about if you want.</p>
<p>Welcome back Marite! And here I thought you were a better woman than I am :)</p>
<p>Seamus Heaney was teaching poetry at Harvard, don't know if he's still there, but you can't get much better than that. If it's written poetry that interests you, and not just Spoken Word, what I'd suggest is checking the work of the poets who are there, but also finding out how difficult it is to get into writing workshops.</p>
<br>
<p>Seamus Heaney was teaching poetry at Harvard</p>
<br>
<p>And living in Adams House, too, which must have been one heck of an experience for the undergrads sharing a dorm floor and dinner table with a Nobelist!</p>
<p>Just steps away from the Harvard Campus is the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, which (as its name suggests) is devoted entirely to poetry: </p>