Video: Gregory Pardlo reads “Palling Around”
Gregory Pardlo reads “Palling Around” from his collection Digest (Four Way Books) which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
Sarah Browning: Killing Summer
I. The Washington Post, Section B, Local Briefs: another boy dead, and another – Across town. Down the block. In the alley. In his car. A few feet from a … Continue reading
Leonard Gontarek: Night
1 Let the man write about Philadelphia. He has a little cynicism in him. Cynicism is nothing. It’s black coffee with sugar. Let him write about the sirens floating around … Continue reading
Patricia A. Nugent: The Hand of the Poet
“I have a problem. I know you can’t help me, but I want to tell you anyway.” She approaches me after the first class of a four-week writing course … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Anti-Capitalist Manifesto in Celebration of the Spring
Love is everything that isn’t despair. I am almost tempted to say this even though I don’t believe it’s true because there are so many things in-between. A competition lost … Continue reading
Audio: Jack Kerouac reads “October in the Railroad Earth”
Jack Kerouac’s paean to San Francisco. Jack Kerouac (born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a … Continue reading
Video: The Mirrors of Ingmar Bergman, narrated with the poetry of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was a fan of Ingmar Bergman’s work. She was inspired by the mood and imagery of the films, and she based her poem “Three Women” on Bergman’s film … Continue reading
Adrian Blevins: Nouns in their Habitats
New Pilgrims at Tinker Creek: I read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for the first time when I was about fourteen years old. I don’t remember now what I … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Poetry, A River
If you set out on it, raft or riverboat, if you sound your way through the sandbars and submerged barbed wire, if you watch the crows riding the floating corpses … Continue reading
Eduardo Galeano: The Right to Bravery
. In 1816 the government in Buenos Aires bestowed the rank of lieutenant colonel on Juana Azurduy “in virtue of her manly efforts.” She led the guerrillas who took Cerro … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: The Traveler
another gray road a homeless veteran stands at attention — You consider your obligations. You drive on. There is a running man, a shabby man. It would be easy to … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Take a Giant Step
All the out of business auto body shops on this slow highway, all the abandoned buildings with peeling paint, the vacant lots overgrown with junk trees and weeds bounded by … Continue reading
Video: “Strange Fruit” sung by Billie Holiday
. Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, … Continue reading
Sarah Browning: Petworth, Early Evening
A man is stabbing women in my neighborhood. Most poor people in my city are Black and because of the warnings of 400 years I assume the man stabbing … Continue reading →