Poet Spotlight: W.S. Merwin

"It is possible for a poet to assume his gift of articulation
as a responsibility not only to the fates but to his neighbors, and to feel himself obligated to try to speak for those who are in circumstances resembling his own, but who are less capable of bearing witness to them." --W.S. Merwin

W.S. Merwin grew up not more than 10 miles from Newark, in Union City, NJ. There, at the intersection of New York Ave. and 4th Street, you'll find "W.S. Merwin Way". Merwin was born in New York City in 1927 and later attended college at Princeton University. While going to school there Merwin studied under such poets as John Berryman and R. P. Blackmur. He is the author of more than 15 books of poetry and nearly 20 books of translation, including Dante's Purgatorio. Merwin traveled extensively throughout France, Spain and England. The Lost Upland is the title of Merwin's memoir of his life in the south of France. He now lives on a hillside in Hawaii.
Merwin's poetry ranges from motifs of nature to poems focusing on the seemingly minute daily interactions humans encounter in life. He often writes about people from his life, modified through the haze of memory. The following is a poem from Merwin, entitled "Just Now"

Just Now

In the morning as the storm begins to blow away
the clear sky appears for a moment and it seems to me
that there has been something simpler than I could ever
believe
simpler than I could have begun to find words for
not patient not even waiting no more hidden
than the air itself that became part of me for a while
with every breath and remained with me unnoticed
something that was here unnamed unknown in the days
and the nights not separate from them
not separate from them as they came and were gone
it must have been here neither early nor late then
by what name can I address it now holding out my thanks



W.S. Merwin Links
Modern American Poetry - W.S. Merwin
Poets.Org (From the American Academy of Poets) - W.S. Merwin

New Books at Benedict's!!

Check out the new additions to Radel Library as of Fall 2006:

Graphic Novels

A Right to Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury / McGruder, Aaron

Trailers / Kneece, Mark

Night Fisher / Johnson, R. Kikuo

Auschwitz / Croci, Pascal

The Broken Coda (Bleach v7) / Kubo, Tito

Fourteen Days for Conspiracy (Bleach v9) / Kubo, Tito

Tattoo on the Sky (Bleach v10) / Kubo, Tito

A Star and a Stray Dog (Bleach v11) / Kubo, Tito

Flower on a Precipice (Bleach v12) / Kubo, Tito

The Undead (Bleach v13) / Kubo, Tito

White Tower Rocks (Bleach v14) / Kubo, Tito

Beginning of the Death of Tomorrow (Bleach v15) / Kubo, Tito

Night of Wijnruit (Bleach v16) / Kubo, Tito

Sandman (v2) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v4) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v5) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v6) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v7) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v8) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v9) / Gaiman, Neil

Sandman (v10) / Gaiman, Neil

Naruto (v1) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v2) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v3) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v4) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v5) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v6) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v7) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v8) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v9) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v10) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v11) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Naruto (v12) / Kishimoto, Masashi

Asterix and the Banquet / Goscinny, Rene

Asterix in Corsica / Goscinny, Rene

Asterix and the Normans / Goscinny, Rene

By The Sword Volume 2 (By the Sword) / Matoh, Sanami

By The Sword Volume 1 (By the Sword) / Matoh, Sanami

Poetry

Poet slave of Cuba / Engle, Margarita

I just hope it's lethal / Rosenberg, Liz (Ed.)

180 More : Extraordinary Poems for Every Day / Collins, Billy (Ed.)

100 Essential Modern Poems / Parisi, Joseph (Ed.)

Paint Me Like I Am : Teen Poems from WritersCorps / Aquado, Bill (Ed.)

Revenge and Forgiveness / Vecchione, Patrice (Ed.)

Good Poems for Hard Times / Keillor, Garrison (Ed.)

Talking Drums : A Selection of Poems from Africa south of the Sahara / Tadjo, Veronique (Ed.)

The Sweet Breath of Life : A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family / Shange, Ntozake

Collected Poems / Achebe, Chinua

Essential Rumi / Barks, Coleman

100 American poems of the twentieth century / Perrine, Laurance ; Reid, James M. (Eds.)

Science

A Primate's Memoir / Sapolsky, Robert M.

The Fossil Trail / Tattersall, Ian

African Exodus / Stringer, Chris

Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution / Dawkins, Richard

The Human Odyssey / Tattersall, Ian

Rainforest / Marent, Thomas

A Briefer History of Time / Hawking, Stephen

Food Chain : Encounters Between Mates, Predators and Prey / Sand, Michael

Weather: A Visual Guide (Visual Guides) / Bruce; Hopkins

The Great Brain Book : An Inside Look At The Inside Of Your Head / Newquist, HP

Space: A History Of Space Exploration In Photographs / Chaikin, Andrew

A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition / Bryson, Bill

The Physics of Superheroes / Kakalios, James

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers / Roach, Mary

History / Social Sciences

Illegal Immigration / Haerens, Margaret (ed.)

Immigration / Williams, Mary (ed.)

Inhuman Bondage / Davis, David Brion

Rough Crossings / Schama, Simon

Bodies in Motion and at Rest / Lynch, Thomas

In the Name of the Father / Furstenberg, Francois

Booking Passage / Lynch, Thomas

The Undertaking / Lynch, Thomas

Under and alone / Queen, William

I wish I'd been there / Hollinshead, Byron

Fiasco / Ricks, Thomas E.

Violence over the land / Blackhawk, Ned

Thomas Paine / Nelson, Craig

God's war / Tyerman, Christopher

The king's three faces / McConville, Brendan

To the ends of the earth / Hunter, Frances

The 9/11 Report / Jacobson, Sid ; Colon, Ernie

Postwar / Judt, Tony

German conception of history / Iggers, Georg G.

Tutankhamun's Tomb / Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dissent in America / Young, Ralph

Watching the world change/ Friend, David

The Crusades / Murray, Alan

The mummey who would be king (DVD) / NOVA

American civil war / Wagner, Margaret E.

Food in the ancient world / Alcock, Joan P.

Ancient Egyptian world / Cline, Eric H.

Handbook to life in renaissance Europe / Sider, Sandra

World in ancient times / Mellor, Ronald

Historical maps on file / Facts on File

Rome (DVD set) / HBO Series

Eyes on the prize (VHS) / Hampton, Henry

Lincoln and Lee at Antietam (DVD) / Child, Robert

Savage Inequalities / Kozol, Jonathan

Latino Visions / Cockcroft, James D.

This Our Dark Country: The American Settlers of Liberia / Reef, Catherine

Beasts of No Nation / Iweala, Uzodinma

Why New Orleans Matters / Piazza, Tom

Where'd You Get Those?: New York City's Sneaker Culture, 1960-1987 / Garcia, Bobbito

First Crossing : Stories About Teen Immigrants / Gallo, Donald R.

10,000 Days of Thunder : A History of the Vietnam War / Caputo, Philip

The Good Fight : How World War II Was Won / Ambrose, Stephen E.

Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History / Goulart, Ron

The Real Revolution : The Global Story of American Independence / Aronson, Marc

Garbage Land : On the Secret Trail of Trash / Royte, Elizabeth

Biography

Great Hispanic-Americans / Kanellos, Nicolas

This I believe / Allison, Jay (ed.)

In the line of fire / Musharraf, Pervez

Walking with the wind / Lewis, John D'orso, Michael

Under and alone / Queen, William

When I knew / Trachtenberg, Robert

Running with Scissors / Burroughs, Augusten

America Through the Lens : Photographers Who Changed the Nation / Sandler, Martin W.

Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop / Greenberg, Jan

Autograf: New York City's Graffiti Writers / Sutherland, Peter

The New New Journalism : Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft / Boynton, Robert

Vincent Van Gogh : Portrait of an Artist / Greenberg, Jan

Sleepaway School : A Memoir / Stringer, Lee

The Gift of Valor : A War Story / Phillips, Michael M.

The Shooting: A Memoir / Powers, Kemp

All I Did Was Ask : Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists / Gross, Terry

My Depression: A Picture Book / Swados, Elizabeth

Thru My Eyes: Thoughts on Tupac Shakur in Pictures and Words / Gobi

Voices of Rape / Bode, Janet

Every Man for Himself: Ten Original Stories About Being a Guy / Mercado, Nancy

Big City Cool: Short Stories About Urban Youth / Weiss, M. Jerry

Be the Dream: Prep for Prep Graduates Share Their Stories

The Burn Journals / Runyon, Brent

True Blue / Sutton, Randy

Strong at the Heart : How It Feels to Heal from Sexual Abuse / Lehman, Carolyn

Fiction / Literature

The Brief History of the Dead / Brockmeier, Kevin

The Witch's boy / Gruber, Michael

Macbeth (Spanish)

Macbeth / Raffel, Burton (ed.)

Hoops / Myers, Walter Dean

Macbeth. Hamlet (in Spanish) / Shakespeare, William

Book of Samson / Maine, David

For one more day / Albom, Mitch

The Underwood See / Lawrence, Michael

Devil's Tango / Jubert, Herve

Eldest / Paolini, Christopher

Black and white / Volponi, Paul

The lost colony / Colfer, Eoin

Hell phone / Sleator, William

La linea / Jaramillo, Ann

A crack in the line / Lawrence, Michael

Cirque du freak(set 1) / Shan, Darren

Time's memory / Lester, Julius

Lucas / Brooks, Kevin

Small eternities / Lawrence, Michael

Opal deception / Colfer, Eoin

Candy / Brooks, Kevin

Eragon / Paolini, Christopher

After / Prose, Francine

It's kind of a funny story / Vizzini, Ned

Fat kid rules the world / Going, K.L.

Cirque du freak(#8) / Shan, Darren

Artic incident / Colfer, Eoin

Ball don't lie / de la Pena, David

Artemis fowl / Colfer, Eoin

Blue bloods / de la Cruz, Melissa

New boy / Houston, Julian

Eternity code / Colfer, Eoin

Road of the dead / Brooks, Kevin

Last universe / Sleator, William

Kissing the rain / Brooks, Kevin

Dance of the assassins / Jubert, Herve

Demon Thief / Shan, Darren

10 Things to Do Before I Die / Ehrenhaft, Daniel

The Third Brother / McDonell, Nick

Lord Loss / Shan, Darren

Ptolemy's Gate / Stroud, Jonathan

Time Dancers (Meq, The) / Cash, Steve

The Meq (Meq, The) / Cash, Steve

The First Part Last / Johnson, Angela

Flux / Goobie, Beth

Naughts & Crosses / Blackman, Malorie

Valiant : A Modern Tale of Faerie / Black, Holly

By These Ten Bones / Dunkle, Clare B.

Code Orange / Clooney, Caroline B.

Raven's Gate (The Gatekeepers) / Horowitz, Anthony

Not the End of the World / MaCaughrean, Geraldine

The Boy Who Couldn't Die / Sleator, William

Death and the Arrow / Priestly, Chris

The Conch Bearer / Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee

Vamped / Sosnowski, David

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / Lubar, David

24 Girls in 7 Days / Bradley, Alex

Identity Crisis / Meltzer, Brad

Autobiography of My Dead Brother / Myers, Walter Dean

The Hoopster / Sitomer, Alan Lawrence

If You Want Me to Stay / Parker, Michael

Mississippi Trial, 1955 / Crowe, Chris

Purple Hibiscus / Adichie, Chimamanda

The Painted Drum / Erdrich, Louise

Dark Sons / Grimes, Nikki

Catch / Leitch, Will

Sunshine / McKinley, Robin

Behind You / Woodson, Jacqueline

Totally Joe / Howe, James

Soldier X / Wulffson, Don L.

Bang! / Flake, Sharon G.

Black Juice / Lanagan, Margo

Reference

It's Your World--If You Don't Like It, Change It : Activism for Teenagers

The How Rude! Handbook Of School Manners For Teens: Civility In The Hallowed Halls / Packer, Alex J.

Oh, Yuck: The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty / Masoff, Joy

101 Questions about Sex and Sexuality...With Answers for the Curious, Cautious / Brynie, Faith Hickman

New artist's manual / Jennings, Simon

GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens / Huegel, Kelly

Moviemaking course / Patmore, Chris

ESPN Pro Football encyclopedia, 1st ed. / Smith, Michael

Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball Clubs (2vol.) / Riess, Steven

Making comics / McCloud, Scott

Journalism/Writing

The New New Journalism : Conversations with America's Best Nonfiction Writers on Their Craft / Boynton, Robert

Where We Are, What We See / Levithan, David

The Writer's Mentor : Secrets of Success from the World's Great Writers / Jackman, Ian

Writer's reference / Hacker, Diana

Writer's Inc. / Sebranek, Patrick, et al.

Elements of style(4th ed.) / Strunk Jr., William, et al.

The Blog of War / Burden, Matthew Currier

Language

Japanese, the spoken language / Jorden, Eleanor Harz

Beginning Japanese / Jorden, Eleanor Harz

Religion/Theology/Spirituality/Philosophy

Seven levels of intimacy / Kelly, Matthew

Islam for the Western mind / Drummond, Richard Henry

This I believe / Allison, Jay (ed.)

Best Buddhist writing 2006 / Mcleod, Melvin (Ed.)

Rise of modern philosophy / Kenny, Anthony

If you have a book you'd like to recommend feel free to leave a comment or contact the school librarian, Mr. Bancks, at nbancks@sbp.org

Welcome to the Hive!

This is the official blog of Radel Library, the library of St. Benedict's Preparatory School (SBP), located in Newark, New Jersey. Radel Library was built in 1991. The structure houses two libraries: the monastic and prep libraries. The prep collection contains over 14,000 books and 425 audio-visual materials for use by the SBP community.

We also currently provide access to six research databases (LexisNexis, EbscoHost, Literature Resource Center, Oxford Reference Suite, Facts on File and Encyclopedia Britannica Online). Students are able to access these resources through the library webpage found within the school's website at: http://www.sbp.org/Academics/radel.asp.


Here's a little history about St. Benedict's:
"Benedictine monks came to Newark in 1857 to serve the German community of Saint Mary's parish. Seeing the need for a school to serve the growing working-class Catholic population in Newark, the monks opened Saint Benedict's College in 1868. The school at first combined a college-level curriculum with a preparatory curriculum. By 1917, the majority of students were coming for the college prep curriculum, and so the college curriculum was dropped, and the name of the school changed to "Saint Benedict's Preparatory School." Over the years, the school educated many of New Jersey's professional and religious leaders and became a powerhouse in high school sports. As each new immigrant group entered the city, they found a welcome at St. Benedict's, and the school continued to educate the sons and grandsons of alumni. By 1972, however, most of the school's alumni had moved away from Newark, and the school found itself surrounded by a mostly African-American population. These were not sons and grandsons of alumni, nor were they predominantly Catholic. As fewer alumni sent their sons to the Hive, the student population dwindled, and Saint Benedict's suspended operations in 1972. What followed was a year of reflection. Many of the monks followed the alumni to the suburbs. Those monks who remained recommitted themselves to the education of the city youth, and Saint Benedict's re-opened its doors in 1973. Today, the student population reflects the racial makeup of the city."
--From SBP's school website

In the days and months to come, visitors will be able to find what is currently happening at and with the SBP community. Numerous links to other sources and portals of information, covering a diverse selection of topics, will be posted on this blog. We welcome your comments and hope you enjoy!