Chana Bloch: Potato Eaters
My grandmother never did learn to write. “Making love” was not in her lexicon; I wonder if she ever took off her clothes when her husband performed his conjugal duties. … Continue reading
Chard deNiord: The River Merchant’s Mistress, a Letter
Return to her in the mercy of desire no matter where she waits in … Continue reading
Lewis Turco: Much as I love to BS about writing poetry
Much as I love to BS about writing poetry, the main fact about writing in form is that it’s as easy to do as playing the piano if you’ve taught … Continue reading
Video: “Peace Piece” by Bill Evans
Hailed as one of the most beautiful and evocative solo piano improvisations ever performed, Bill Evans’s “Peace Piece” is an unrehearsed modal composition that he recorded for his “Everybody Digs … Continue reading
Jose Padua: A Slightly Hard-Boiled History of my Life as it Moves Slowly away from Cities
It was the summer of 1996. I’d just gotten the money from my discrimination settlement, so Heather and I celebrated by meeting in the great city of Chicago when her … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Courtesy
While stopped at a light this afternoon the big black pickup truck beside me was playing something like Toby Keith while I was sitting in my minivan playing “Right Off” … Continue reading
Video: Galway Kinnell recites “The Bear”
Thomas Jefferson College International Poetry Festival in 1973. Galway Kinnell reciting “The Bear” Galway Kinnell 1927-2014
Jose Padua: Purity
There is no purity in our house, we are dirty like cats in the litter. We get where we’re going just the same. Our windows aren’t clean, full of smudge … Continue reading
Video: They building more prisons for you and me
Homeless man silences the room with his beautiful voice. “People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, … Continue reading
Video: Joseph Campbell — The Rapture of Being Alive
Bill Moyers: “Over the last two summers of his life, in hours of conversations recorded in the library of Lucasfilm in California, [Joseph Campbell and I] talked about how mythology … Continue reading
Jose Padua: The Sound of Music
When I realized that the former prostitute and now homeless old woman who sat at the stone bench facing the Civil War nurses memorial always smelled so bad because whenever … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Farthest from the Sun
Soon the time of year to check the inner flame. Wavering or not. My heart, the guttering candle of the Chinese poets whose friends have all traveled beyond the river. … Continue reading
Chard DeNiord: How are you supposed to know who the poets are?
Too many good books are lost in the sea of hyperbolic blurbs, slick marketing, and over production. Robin Williams’ character, a recent Soviet defector in the 1984 film “Moscow on … Continue reading
