Nathan Schneider: A Populism of Hope Begins When People Feel Their Own Power
The waning years of the 1800s bore an uncanny resemblance to the present. The U.S. economy was transforming and globalizing, leaving behind many hardworking people. Then, as now, a populist … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: Col. John Stapp, Fastest Man in the World
What saved me were those years in Alamogordo when I was nine & ten, unfettered, unsupervised, so I could build wooden carts, play with bows & arrows, roam empty … Continue reading
Rebecca Gordon: Becoming Stable Geniuses
Seeking New (and Very Old) Habits for a New Year A little over a year ago I wrote about the bloody nightmares rupturing my sleep and the night terrors gripping my little … Continue reading
Mike James: This Life
. This Life Yesterday a half-built mansion. Open to rain, racoons, and a few young, stray vandals. Today a hunter’s shack, cold in the woods, where shadows gather around a … Continue reading
Lindsey Royce: No Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
You opted for the straight fuck, lust with no intimacy & mind-game mystery, even though you tried to please. I loved dearly the illusion you were, mannish boy as John … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: A Billboard Not Outside Ebbing, Missouri
A few years ago, my wife and I were driving in Franklin County, Missouri. I saw something off the road, and excitedly said to her, “Honey, look — look at … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: The donnée as entry to the temple
A crucial point in the making of some poems, especially long ones, arrives when the poet must decide whether to push through a kind of caesura in the process. That’s the … Continue reading
Video: Theodore Roethke — In a Dark Time
. In this 1964 portrait directed by David Myers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet recites a few of his poems and talks about the sources of poetry and his approach to … Continue reading
Video: We Became Fragments
. “Missiles fell from the sky like rain.” The Syrian civil war destroyed this teenager’s family — now he’s in Winnipeg, Canada, starting over. Created by Luisa Conlon for The New … Continue reading
Tom Engelhardt: An Empire of Graveyards
At the Circus with Donald Trump. Recently, a memory of my son as a small boy came back to me. He was, in those days, terrified of clowns. Something about … Continue reading
Video — Falling Lessons: Erasure One, a poem by Beth Copeland
. Director Anh Vu, working with the organization Motionpoems, created this video of Beth Copeland’s poem which interweaves images of the natural world with books, papers and other evidence of … Continue reading
Elizabeth Boakes: Biodiversity isn’t just pretty — it future-proofs our world
A small boy hauls enthusiastically on his fishing rod. The line flies up and a needle-spined fish strikes him in the eye. Desperate to stay outdoors, he ignores the pain, … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Poem
I can’t help but write it, get up in the morning and there it is. Useless, worth nothing on the market. No piece of oil field technology, nor can it … Continue reading
Elizabeth Romero: Blue Willow
Cooking was something I learned to do well. This was a chicken roasted golden; I carved the leg and thigh huddled like a plump comma. The fork slipped. The piece … Continue reading
