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MARILYN CHIN AND CHARLES SIMIC CLASH IN THE EAST
To judge a poet by their isolated lines is, of course, totally unfair. But to look at a part helps us to understand a whole. The speech of a poet can be compared to the paint of a painter: We can...
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JORIE GRAHAM AND JEET THAYIL MIX IT UP IN NORTH BRACKET MADNESS
There are times when lines collide and comment on each other wonderfully, like in this battle between American poet Jorie Graham (Iowa, Harvard) and Indian poet, novelist, and musician, Jeet Thayil....
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STEPHEN STURGEON AND SUSAN TERRIS IN THE EAST
There is the sort of poetry which is shy and odd. Here is no titanic novel, no Lord Byron of a thousand rhymes, no comedy, no tragedy, no autobiography, no song. It is the sort of poetry that looks...
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PHILIP NIKOLAYEV AND CHANA BLOCH IN EAST TUSSLE ON GOOD FRIDAY
We might observe on this Good Friday: we have a March Madness battle in which two poets bring lines springing up with a noticeable spiritual passion. Philip Nikolayev wins every debate with his sword...
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I GOT READY FOR LOVE, NOW I GET READY FOR DEATH
I got ready for love, now I get ready for death, With the same uncertainty, the same excited breath, The same thrilling heartbeat, the same glad sadness, The same restraint, the same dignity, as I...
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TOO BEAUTIFUL IS BEST: AN EASTER POEM
You may know the beautiful—- And those who aspire to be beautiful—and all the rest. But for tears and poetry that transforms, Too beautiful is best. Too beautiful to have, too beautiful to rest, Too...
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RAPHAEL RUBINSTEIN AND LORI DESROSIERS: FIRST ROUND EAST
The best competition is love. These two poets—Rubenstein and Desrosiers—in this Scarriet Poetry March Madness battle, could never, in their wildest imaginations, imagine this contest: their lines...
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A.E. STALLINGS AND ADA LIMÓN MIX IT UP IN THE WEST
Sometimes we are amazed at how close poetry is to music. Both arts tells us what to listen for in time. Music can be explained as simply as this: here is a musical note—and now—listen to this one...
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PATRICIA LOCKWOOD AND CANDACE WILEY IN WEST BRACKET BATTLE
The poet is no different than anyone else: there is a middle ground of normalcy which they need to work in, to get along with others and be understood. It doesn’t matter how obscure the vocation—and...
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KEVIN YOUNG AND MEREDITH HASEMANN CLASH IN THE WEST
In the old romance movies, women could not make up their minds in love, and the gallant men who loved them carried on calmly until they did. Chaos was a female weakness to be overcome by male...
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MORE WEST ACTION: ROSS GAY VERSUS DONNA MASINI
We at Scarriet have never really liked poetry that does not use punctuation, or uses a great deal of white space. Written speech is not a magic island or a fancy island in a white sea; it is just an...
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ANDREW KOZMA, NATALIE SCENTERS-ZAPICO IN WEST BRACKET BATTLE
Edgar Poe talked of two kinds of writing: One discloses what we ourselves had thought before. The other seems to us wholly original. Either one gains our approval, though in the case of the former, we...
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CRISTINA SÁNCHEZ LÓPEZ AND DENISE DUHAMEL IN MORE FIRST ROUND WEST ACTION
We have to be careful with poetry. It is likely to be like a looking glass in which we enter—and never return. But of course poetry will immediately laugh, and ask, “Return? Return to where?” Poetry...
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SARAH HOWE AND EMILY KENDAL FREY: FIRST ROUND WEST BRACKET ACTION
Here’s another Madness contest which splits our brains—the infinite gulf poets navigate—between imagery and speech, between showing and telling, between photograph and rhetoric, between gazing and...
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BACK TO THE NORTH: MARY OLIVER VERSUS CHARLES HAYES
There are two types of nature poets: those who use nature to comfort, and those who use it to scare. Nature can do both. Nature poets must realize that we—the humans, the poets—don’t call the shots....
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MORE FIRST ROUND NORTH ACTION: ANNE CARSON AND MOLLY BRODAK
Hearing is what we do when we read poetry. Some people think we see poetry. We don’t. We are capable of seeing things in our minds, and some see certain things more clearly in their minds than...
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ROBERT HASS AND TRACI BRIMHALL IN FIRST ROUND NORTH BRACKET BATTLE
The very, very small things, the mundane things, are immensely important. The mighty know this. But it’s one thing to take care of the small things—quite another to obsess over them. Somewhere...
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IN THE NORTH: MAURA STANTON AND PETER GIZZI
It is what you do not say that matters most in poetry. But how do you not say something? If I could tell you I would let you know. This happens to be one of W.H. Auden’s best lines. See? But Auden is...
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SEAN O’BRIEN AND MELISSA GREEN KEEP THE MADNESS GOING IN NORTH BRACKET
Melissa Green studied with Derek Walcott at BU, in the same classroom Plath studied with Lowell, and was a friend of Joseph Brodsky—who considered her one of America’s best poets. She has a challenge...
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BEN MAZER AND WARSAN SHIRE FINISH THE FIRST ROUND IN THE NORTH
Poetry cannot resemble music—unless it reduces the wealth of words to a few musical words: Shakespeare: For having traffic with thy self alone, Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive. Tennyson:...
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