Doug Anderson: On the consequence of a failure of imagination
Much of the good work in the world is poorly paid or done for free. Poetry would not be written, hospital and hospice sits would not be done, medical care … Continue reading
Jose Padua: On the Realization that Miracles are the Result of Hard Labor
“I’m not having one of those things coming out of me,” my six year old daughter says, meaning babies, “No way!” She pokes her head up from the back seat … Continue reading
Video: Frank O’Hara reading “Having a Coke with You”
Frank O´Hara reading his poem “Having a Coke with You” in his flat in New York in 1966, shortly before his accidental death. Taken from – “USA: Poetry: Frank O’Hara” … Continue reading
Elsa Gidlow: I Come With My Songs
An excerpt from Elsa Gidlow’s autobiography: . . . that house on Redwood Road in Fairfax, Marin County, became mine by the Winter Solstice of 1940. I called it “Madrona”. … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: If the Universe Sends Me a Grip
I’ll drop my Ajax and say something else, but this is about how my full-to-bursting motherliness—my pasty yield to the sweaty troops of me and the dad in the bed … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Sanity
Hands deep in loam. Leaning my face against a draft horse to hear his heart. The molasses smell of dark grain. The smell of a woman’s hair. The meadow quiet … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Blue
When I was young I would say that my favorite color was blue. Blue was the color of the sky, the color of the clothes I most liked to wear, … Continue reading
Video: ‘Dust’ by Dorianne Laux
In this video, Dorianne Laux reads her poem Dust at the 2011 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. — Dust Someone spoke to me last night, told me the truth. Just … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: Bloodline
O, high as crazy hell and blasé like rocks was how he seemed to want to play it there in the hospital with his hands knit loose behind his head … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: After the War
. After the war, some of us had to have answers. Who were these people we’d had a war with? Where did they come from? Where did they learn to … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Sabotage
In the middle of the crowd this woman standing next to me swinging her hips, doing a dance that looks like a leisurely swim except she’s standing, keeps saying over … Continue reading
Chana Bloch: Death March, 1945
. “There was a muddy ditch at the side of the road where the road took a sudden turn. If I could jump —.” Five Muselmänner abreast, the trekking dead, … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: What is Poetry For?
To say the unsayable is the province of poetry in society—to say it in such a way that it occupies the rafters, the eaves, the cantilevers, cornerstones, ogees and Palladians … Continue reading
