Paul Christensen: The American Muse
We let the unresolved issues and crises that face us mount up beyond the poet’s window, as the writer gropes for a language in which to imagine something beyond the claustrophobic assumptions we have accepted as our grasp of the world.
Michael Simms: Praise the Poet
Empires fall and buildings crumble, but songs and stories survive.
Mike Schneider: Rain-Father of Narcissism & the Inner Tyrant
Remembering Tony Hoagland (1953-2018)
Michael Simms: A brief note to Vox Populi subscribers
Dear Friends, Just want to let you know that we’ve added two new categories to our menu of posts: Fiction and Literary Criticism and Reviews. The menu can be found … Continue reading
Michael Simms: Re-reading Christina Rossetti’s ‘In an Artist’s Studio’
The value of Rossetti’s poem lies in both the expert use of the Petrarchan sonnet, a particularly challenging form to master in English, and in the poet’s complex stance on the role of art in creating and re-enforcing images of women.
Angele Ellis: Naomi Shihab Nye’s “The Tiny Journalist”
In her latest collection of poems, an award-winning poet explores resistance and hope among the Palestinian people.
Michael Simms: Dogsbody to the Muse
Sometimes it’s painful to watch a group of poets trying to work a room as if they were politicians. The AWP conference, as the wag put it, is comprised of 15,000 introverts pretending to be extroverts.
Mike Schneider: Appreciating Tony Hoagland (1953-2018) — Notes on “America”
From Tony Hoagland’s third book, What Narcissism Means to Me, his poem “America” flaps the self-loving flag of his marvelously ironical title. As Tony explained in a 2003 interview with Miriam Sagan, … Continue reading
Mike Schneider: Notes from the Palm Beach Poetry Festival
Blackface is in the news and — should anyone be interested in the details — instructions on “How to Black Up,” complete with recipe for burnt-cork face-paint can be found in Olio, Tyehimba Jess’ book that won the 2017 Pultizer Prize for poetry.
Mike Schneider: The Wages of Fracking
Amity and Prosperity, One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 2018). An accomplished, award-winning poet, Eliza Griswold also writes for The New … Continue reading
Michael Simms: An Appreciation of the Poetry of Robert Gibb
Robert Gibb is a poet’s poet. By that phrase I mean that he’s widely admired among poets across the country, but virtually unknown to the public. He’s published a dozen … Continue reading
Michael Simms: The Very American Poetry of Jose Padua
What are poets for in destitute times? — Hölderlin . Every poem is a subversive act. In an age when our senses are benumbed by competing media screaming for our … Continue reading
Michael Simms: A Few of my Favorite Jailbirds
But I’m Starting a New Life: A Words without Walls Anthology, Anthony Ciotoli (ed.) Chatham University, Pittsburgh, 2015 Many important writers and poets have spent time in jail or prison, … Continue reading
