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THE EAST: FINAL FIRST ROUND CONTEST— TIM SEIBLES AND WILLIE PERDOMO
Poetry—because it is language—should not be able to capture lightning fast, complex, perceptual moments, should it? But look at this by the poet Willie Perdomo: I go up in smoke and come down in a...
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CLAUDIA RANKINE VERSUS ROWAN RICARDO PHILLIPS IN FIRST ROUND SOUTH ACTION
Claudia Rankine wants to correct wrongs with her poetry. She has gone about it in just the right way, and has made a name for herself (in poetry circles, at least) with her indignation. Here’s what...
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RICHARD BLANCO AND CONNIE VOISINE: MORE MADNESS IN THE SOUTH
Is poetry democratic, or is it radically individual? This argument is a good one, for both sides have a lot to say: language unites us, but what price to simply roll us all into a ball? And yet what...
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BRENDA HILLMAN AND LYN HEJINIAN
Poetry is most likely deemed successful if it does two things: 1. It describes what must happen. 2. It describes it as it must be described. Most people, looking back at their lives, would say, I...
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LES MURRAY AND JOE GREEN: FIRST ROUND BATTLE IN THE SOUTH
Language can do anything. If you’ve read Emerson, you know how he says nature is a language, and the Poet, belonging to nature, is nature and speaks nature, and how do you like that? Buying into this...
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SUSAN WOOD AND LAWRENCE RAAB IN LAST FIRST ROUND BATTLE
Shakespeare gives his villains the best speeches—not because Shakespeare is villainous, but because he’s a good teacher. Philosophy is the best teacher, and teaching sometimes features bad examples—in...
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FIRST ROUND 2016 MARCH MADNESS WINNERS!
Jennifer Moxley–How lovely it is not to go. To suddenly take ill. Jorie Graham–A rooster crows all day from mist outside the walls. Mary Oliver–You do not have to be good. Molly Brodak–boundlessness...
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ART AND DEMOCRACY
Art may be defined in the following way: an excellent example of excellence in the particular mode of that excellence. Art is the example, the thing represented is the excellence. Art is the borrower...
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SNOBBERY ON THE LEFT
Alexis de Tocqueville: the French aristocrat who understood America—not! It’s never said, but it’s an unspoken truth: the Left, not the Right, is the snobby political wing in the U.S. If right means...
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STAY IN AND THINK ABOUT TOM
The law interns are crafting language for the next big case That will surely destroy religion at last. The stadium needs painting. Forget about that. It’s raining. She was slightly surprised her...
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SWEET SIXTEEN!!
Scarriet Poery March Madness first round winners have battled it out—and here are the final 16 contestants, the Sweet Sixteen! These are extraordinary lines, evoking entire poems, entire books of...
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LET’S STAY HERE
Here, in the moment, here, where our eyes first met; Here, this moment, this moment never forget; Let’s stay here, in the liquid beauty of our looking eyes: Ocean! Ocean—no shore, no sad-sounding bird...
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HOW CAN I NOT END MY POEM HERE
How can I not end my poem here, Where the sentence ends, as love draws near? The end of all ridiculous poems approaches, The play has ended, the enormous coaches Are pulled up in front of the grand...
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AT THE END OF LOVE
At the end of love, love begins, Love, having always loved, Even as hate breaks hearts and grins, Even as hate breaks hearts suddenly Without warning. Do you remember how you did that to me? I still...
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POETRY MARCH MADNESS ELITE EIGHT!!!!!
NORTH MAURA STANTON —WHO MADE ME FEEL BY FEELING NOTHING BEN MAZER —ALL IS URGENT, JUST BECAUSE IT GIVES, AND IN THE MIRROR, LIFE TO LIFE LIFE GIVES. WEST MARY ANGELA DOUGLAS —THE LARKS CRY OUT AND...
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LOVE DOES NOT EXIST
Love does not exist, and I know this to be true. I am not sitting on the train with you. I have made observances as the scientists do. Love does not exist as I knew love with you. When do you see...
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NEW SCARRIET ESSAY: EVERYTHING IS HARD TO SEE
“…that we as one might separate the curtain.” –Ben Mazer, December Poems Calling someone something never makes it true. Truth itself is deaf to the facts of what we say. What you put in your poetry is...
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THE GIRL
Compare her movements to the way older women walk—heavily, stiffly, In comparison to this little one, whose every movement is a dance— Look at her! She approaches the letters in a curious trance, Her...
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THE DRAMATIC IS NEVER US
The dramatic is never us. It’s the homeless man talking to himself on the back of the bus. The dramatic is the voice we use When describing someone else—when drama visits you, you lose. Drama is ugly...
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THE FINAL FOUR!!!
WHO MADE ME FEEL BY FEELING NOTHING —MAURA STANTON THE LARKS CRY OUT AND NOT WITH MUSIC —MARY ANGELA DOUGLAS I WISH YOU WERE JUST YOU IN MY DREAMS —LORI DESROSIERS AFTER EVERY RAIN I LEAVE THE PLACE...
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