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IMAGISM
You shouldn’t. The Muse is never pleased when your poems go on too long. The best poems of yours are maybe 8 lines long. Do you remember that cowboy song we sang as we rode into the west? We sang it...
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MUSIC WHICH IS
Music, which is unconscious poetry, Captivated me in my prime. Now I’m ready to talk in verse and be sublime: I’m the only one who does not die. A chair gets old. Out it goes. Goodbye. Everything I...
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ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF POETRY PULITZER PRIZES RANKED
Anne Sexton won in 1967 when she was 39. To judge 100 years of prize-winning poetry is both a challenge and an illumination—the challenge is that in 100 years our idea of poetry has changed. The...
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THE POEM DEFINED
George Dillon was an editor of Poetry magazine in the 30s. There is something about poetry which eludes definition—and therefore attracts the thoughtful person satisfied to reside in an unfinished...
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THE MISUNDERSTANDING
I knew she didn’t trust words so I couldn’t deny what she suspected— even though it wasn’t true. I had my own suspicions about her— what were words supposed to do? Once a suspicion is sitting there...
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TO MYSELF, THE MOST LOVED
Does it make sense to be wild— saying yes to fatherhood after she is pregnant? What if she had decided to kill your child? Tell me, is it ironic that I slept with 23 people in search of my one true...
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I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO SMILE
I do not know how to smile. Can you tell from this? All things indicate I cannot smile, not just the photos in which I grimace— this poem makes it clear, too. And when no one is watching I may laugh—...
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THE ONE AND ONLY SCARRIET POETRY HOT ONE HUNDRED
Scarriet’s Hot 100 has been going on for over 10 years. It’s now a fixture on the poetry scene. Those toiling in the poetry trenches struggling to be read don’t look up. Those who do make this list...
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THE ONE HUNDRED GREATEST POEMS BY WOMEN
This is a silly idea. Why a list of women poets? Is this because I like poetry—or women? And if I made such a list—let’s say the top 100 poems, wouldn’t half the poems be Emily Dickinson’s? What would...
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THE DEATH OF EVERYTHING
Remember when we used to sing?We can sing no longer.The death of this small animal we lovedis the death of everything. So much grief I never felt, even when grief itselfand all grief’s ministers...
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IMAGINE
The insane were going on about poetry while the big oil truck leapt forth in the snow; the young driver was scared: go, go, go, go. “Poetry is finally image.” No, we don’t see; we think we see. In my...
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THE WORST THING
The worst thing is when somebody dies so I don’t think I want to see you again. If I see you and forget you, you are still among the living. This adorable dog still lives with its owner, the one I saw...
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IT WAS HORRIBLE THEN. IT IS HORRIBLE NOW
She was a beautiful adult and I was an ugly baby. It is less humiliating now to pass thru the station alone where we sometimes said our goodbyes and I was nervous and hurt and she sometimes...
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TRICKLE DOWN VERSE
The example of Pound is central and the teasing out of his good—the good is always what matters—only the good produces the good—even if we need to go into the maze and the well to prove it. The “cakes...
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THE GOOD
When arguing with my peers about Pound and my belief that a bad poet cannot write good poetry, a gulf has opened and I feel terribly lonely; no one accepts “only good produces good,” my premise, or...
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THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE GOOD
Two beautiful people having sex makes the old priest upset, even sad but makes the old poet, William Butler Yeats, glad. If you are going to be a poet, you’ve got to roll with the beautiful and the...
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THERE IS PUSHKIN
There is Pushkin, a collection of bones: A translation for you—by T.E. Smith-Jones. It is rumored you and I had an affair. We spoke. More than Pushkin’s poetry was there. I cannot say what...
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The greatest poems work internally. Great poetry cannot be “performed” in the usual sense. There is something about the fine poem which cannot exist in the air where we live. Put music in the...
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SOMETIMES WE FEAR DEATH
Sometimes we fear death and in our poems cry out— buried deep in our imaginations, imagining ourselves alone, lonely and alone, these cries in poems harmless because they’re poems. But in life we are...
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THE TEXTBOOK WHICH CHANGED IT ALL—UNDERSTANDING POETRY
“The subject is exceedingly simple; one tenth of it, possibly, may be called ethical; nine tenths, however, appertain to the mathematics” –The Rationale of Verse- EA Poe If you are reading this, it is...
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