Best American Poetry- On Kenneth Koch, "Dr. Fun" [by Melanie Rehak]"May I tell you how much I love your poems?" Frank O'Hara crowed in the first stanza of a tribute to his friend Kenneth Koch in 1953. "It's as if a great pipeline had been illicitly tapped/along which all personal characteristics/are making a hasty departure. Tuba? Gin?/...O Kenneth Koch!" Koch's memories of his writing met […]
- Said Disraeli to Gladstone. . .At a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease." Disraeli replied, "That all depends, Sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress." Related StoriesPerils of the Poetry Reading [by Katha Pollitt]
- Flying Into the Unpredictable: Publishing During a Pandemic [by J. Chester Johnson](ed note: We checked in with J. Chester Johnson to find out how he's fared over the course of the last 18 plus months with the publication of his timely Damaged Heritage. Here's his update. sdl) My latest nonfiction book, Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation (publisher: Pegasus; distributed by Simon & Schuste […]
- Greg McBride: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]__________________________________________________________ Sizes My sister found our father’s ring, turquoise faded, sullied silver-plate. It stopped my breath. Thirty years ago I took it from his cold hand. A big man, he never took it off, not when he dug or swung or swam, or smeared on huckleberry jam, or held a cribbage peg […]
- On Kenneth Koch, "Dr. Fun" [by Melanie Rehak]
- World Literature Today
- Lost and Found in Translation: Storytelling and the Untranslatable, by Michał RusinekEssay Photo by Eileen Pan / Unsplash “Instead of a totalizing interpretation,” writes the author, translators should seek a dialogical one. “We have to leave space,” he writes, “for a story, an anecdote, a metaphorical footnote.” We all spend a lot of time at airports. After having some coffee and browsing in shops that used to be duty-free, I always like to […]
- Two Poems from Dear Specimen, by W. J. HerbertPoetry Illustration © Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation Fragile Eagle The La Brea Tar Pits’ Page Museum displays fossils of extinct & extant species. Eyes, glistening hollows. Blackened claws. Breast bone sunk between scrawny haunches as if you’re squatting by a campfire, though your tailbone’s a comb for a countess, tines shining w […]
- River, by Du YaPoetry Photo by Wayne S. Grazio / Flickr In spring of the year I turned twenty I looked for a river river calm and wide that I believed to be my past incarnation. Since childhood, I’ve seen it many times in the blink of an eye, in dreams but I could only glimpse it in flashes before it faded back into nothing. River flowing alone across the earth – what moon […]
- The World (Is a Book) According to Peter LaSalle, by Ellie SimonBook Reviews Photo by andy lapham / Flickr Whether he is recounting his nighttime drive with a late colleague and poet around the beltway of the pulsing and vibrant São Paulo—a city so full of people and culture that it seems to have its own gravitational pull—in the form of a mournful elegy, characterized by piercing prose and sorrowful nostalgia about thei […]
- Lost and Found in Translation: Storytelling and the Untranslatable, by Michał Rusinek
Monthly Archives: April 2010
Black Books
Don’t usually promote TV sitcoms, but the British comedy “Black Books” is very funny and very accessible. It is sort of a mix of “Slings and Arrows” and “Fawlty Towers”. Check it out on Netflix. Many of the episodes take … Continue reading
Posted in Musings
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Poet Is on a 50 State Tour
Poet and teacher Laura Shovan is currently on a 50 state tour meeting state poets laureate. Her blog, Author Amok, can be seen from this blog. Find the link in my blog list. The work on the site is amazing.
Posted in Musings
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Hailstorm Hits Strasburg with No Alarm Sounded?
It was almost magical to stand on the front porch last night watching and listening to the mammoth thunder/hail storm that pummeled Strasburg. Within minutes streets were flooded and sidewalks were covered with water. Hail smashed against windows, vehicles, and … Continue reading
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Judith Harris – Poet
If you are not aware of the poetry of Judith Harris, get aware. Her work is touching and poignant without being maudlin or inaccessible. Her collection, “The Bad Secret” is phenomenal. I am proud to have known Judy for many … Continue reading
Posted in Prose and Poetry
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Warnings
So slowly the ghosts of us appeared. Turreted, fenestrated, moonlight-splashed, they glowed their wailing. Our dreams, benumbed of doubt, lifted shielding hands of waking. Disrobed of pretense, our dream selves dissolved, leaving haunting, vexing traces. Nightly, the fortress-bound spectres, gagged … Continue reading
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