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THE END OF RACISM
With the re-election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, America really seems poised for an end of racism. Yea, that ugly thing: racism. Just about over, folks. Not: Racism is over if you,...
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LIBERALISM: AN INFINITE NUMBER OF ATOMS MOVING RANDOMLY THROUGH SPACE
How the World Became Modern—and Stephen Greenblatt Won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize Stephen Greenblat’s The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011) can be usefully compared to Edgar...
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SCIENCE, MATH AND POETRY
When a philosopher’s science fails to be precise, we call it poetry. The impulse towards science in ancient times—when few scientific facts were available—ancient cosmogonies, for example, becomes, in...
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THE JANUARY 2013 ISSUE OF POETRY REVIEWED, PART I
Is Poetry magazine the place where American poetry happens, today? We certainly think so. How did Poetry gain this eminent place? It has a history—so people want to publish there, an important first...
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JANUARY 2013 POETRY MAGAZINE REVIEWED, PART 2
Baudelaire: Scared the hell out of Poetry magazine contributor Daisy Fried We now come to the prose part of Poetry’s January issue, which includes a series of “Reconsiderations” of well-known poets,...
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POETRY NOT LOVE
I knew one who decided That her soul was guided By custom and habit and work, So when she fell madly in love, She decided he was a jerk. In youth she owned a romantic side, Which, when older, she...
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THAT I MIGHT BE THE ONLY ONE
That I might be the only one, I did some math, Counting those close and far—anyone who might be on my path— The poets competing with my words, Songwriters: the famous, even the birds Dozing in the...
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FROM AROUND THE POETRY WEB, PART ONE
Gary B. Fitzgerald: The life of John Gallaher’s blog? Is John Gallaher’s blog losing steam? We thought so, until recently, but then a week ago John asked a general academic question of his readers...
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AROUND THE POETRY WEB PART 2
The World to the Poet: Who the hell are you? Alexandra Petri, on her Washington Post blog, had the following to say about poetry, and it does pack a certain punch: Inaugural poet Richard Blanco said...
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AROUND THE POETRY WEB PART 3
Was Frost a flarfist? We’re guessing Silliman has no idea… Ron Silliman is at it again. When he takes a rare break from posting talking head videos on his blog and speaks directly to his...
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ANXIETY IN POETRY LAND
Mary Ruefle: She bravely asked the right question. Poetry (in its pure sense) might be defined as when you squeeze in a story until it doesn’t look like a story anymore; it unfolds in beauty rather...
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THERE’S SOMETHING I’D LIKE TO GIVE TO YOU
There’s something I’d like to give you And I hope you don’t mind if I do, Something you can put in your pocket, Or slip right into your shoe, Something that’s very small, betokening me. Cost: none....
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MORE ORIGINAL POETRY FROM SCARRIET
I Found Out The Uses of Love I found out the uses of love But they helped me to find Only a buried hope in a buried mind. Love reveals, thus it will not protect, Love reveals, thus it wins no...
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POETRY CANNOT BE ABOUT LOVE
Poetry cannot be about love Unless words bring us together, And those are always in prose: Meet me. When? In an hour. And if the trysts are blocked— No more her lips with my lips locked, Impatient,...
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JUSTIN BIEBER’S BLACK VALENTINE
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) might have the best poem in Rita Dove’s 20th Century Poetry Anthology Did anyone notice that Justin Bieber mentioned Phillis Wheatley on Saturady Night Live last...
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CHRISTIAN WIMAN OPENS THE DOOR TO CRAZY
Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine, 2003-2012 and the recent Poetry anthology, The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine How do you respond to someone who goes on using old terms...
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POETRY IS LOVE, NOT MODERNIST BLAH, BLAH BLAH
It is amazing that people will do a thing without any understanding of what that thing is. Listen to the Romantic poet, S.T. Coleridge: “Ignore thyself, and strive to know thy God!” The secular might...
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STEVEN CRAMER, POET AND MFA DIRECTOR: THE CLANGINGS INTERVIEW
SCARRIET: Poe said poetry should be a passion, not a study. In the classroom it can be both. Among professors and graduate students, we see that it can be a passion and a study. Is to study something...
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RHYTHM AND POETRY
Criticism of Life? Bah. Rhythm! Ode to Joy! One-two-three-four, One-two-three-four, One-two-three-four, One-and-Two! The essence of rhythm is completely misunderstood by the modern poets. They...
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AWP AND THE CRIME OF CAPITALIST POETRY
Ariana Reines: in Seth Oelbaum’s anarchist vision, she’s in the top one percent!! Yea!! What was Seth Oelbaum, of HTMLGIANT literature blog, thinking? This attack on the capitalist AWP goes a little...
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