Jose Padua: Breaking Bread
Although we call it breaking bread there are few acts of breaking less violent than this, and though dinners sometimes erupt, and lunches boil over into menace and disgust, the … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Shakespeare in the Schools
I grew up with Shakespeare. Even the working class side of the family could quote his poetry and apply it to their lives. Reading Shakespeare created imaginative range and intellectual … Continue reading
Lewis Turco: Dirge in a Minor Key
Willow, willow, Weep for me Buried beneath The blood-root tree, Socket clogged By digging root, Nostril pierced By seedling shoot, Rock, miasmas In my breast — Willow, will you Guard … Continue reading
Djelloul Marbrook: The Bridge
A small creek feeds our pond, as well as underground springs, and a bridge spans the creek from the rear of our barn to a bog. Over time the bridge … Continue reading
Chard deNiord: Late Night Listening, Tahiri Square, February 2, 2011
I felt: you are an I, you are an Elizabeth, you are one of them. Why should you be one, too? Elizabeth Bishop I heard their voices inside … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Baltimore
I realize I quote her as often as Allen Ginsberg quoted Jack Kerouac, but when she was three my daughter said, “It’s not crazy—it’s Baltimore,” then proceeded to improvise better … Continue reading
Jack Kerouac (rare footage) / Cat Power – Good Woman
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucian Carr, and others in New York 1959… set to soundtrack of “Good Woman” by Cat Power.
Doug Anderson: Letter
Deer hunters half whose energy is spent not shooting one another in these little scraps of east coast woods I see you going out before dawn in your camo even … Continue reading
Allison Joseph: Elegy for Too Many
Bring back the poets, all gone too soon. Bring back Jake and Rane and Deborah and Reetika. Bring them all back because reading their words is not enough On a … Continue reading
Video: “Sea of Heartbreak” by Don Gibson
First recorded in 1961, “Sea of Heartbreak,” written and performed by Don Gibson, made many people aware for the first time of the potential for poetry in the lyrics of … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: What Combat Veterans Know
There is a war inside the war that only combat veterans know. They’re not being mysterious when they talk and seem to leave you out. They’d prefer it weren’t that … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: In Transit
on the train between Prague and Vienna I wanted to compose a poem something in a holy moment less than the Elevation at the Mass of course but still filled … Continue reading
Chard deNiord: Song
. Memory’s needle tracked a groove until it bled. You called it “the little heaven of memory” and covered your ears. You called it “Please Please Please…” You sang along … Continue reading
Jose Padua: My Introduction to the Hierarchy of Beings
I must admit that when I was a child one of the first things that made me appreciate my tropical roots was the mango. When I dug into its rough … Continue reading
