Tag Archives: poets

RIP: Ai

Until I received word of her death this morning, I hadn’t read any poetry by Ai in a number of years. But her poetry played an important role in my life when I first encountered it nearly 20 years ago. … Continue reading

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RIP: Lucille Clifton

I met Lucille Clifton in 1990 at a reading I attended with my future wife/mother-of-my-children/ex-wife and a good friend I’d grown up with who was still smarting from the arm twisting I’d given him while convincing him to come along. … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday Bob Grumman!

Today is Bob Grumman’s birthday and I wish him (as ancient as he is) many more! Bob is the owner/editor of Runaway Spoon Press. Bob is a tireless advocate for visual and minimalist poetries. Bob’s a creative… a visual poet, … Continue reading

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A Blurb by David Kirby

via a friend on a mailing list comes this blub by David Kirby for The Ecstacy of Capitulation, a book of poems (unknown to me) by Daniel Borzutzky: “After I first read Daniel Borzutzky’s poems in magazines, I became a … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday: E. E. Cummings

[CC photo (larger view)  by Tony the Misfit] Today is the birthday of E. E. Cummings, born on this day in 1894. In a letter, Robert Lowell remarked about Cummings: “He [Cummings] is a razor-blade without the handle.” (Side note: … Continue reading

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In and Out of Love (with Poetry)

Though most of the resulting discussion has been about the virtues of collecteds vs. selecteds, which would be interesting had I not just engaged in my share of angel-counting on the NewPoetry mailing list, Joel Brouwer asks an interesting question … Continue reading

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Bill Knott on Robert Hass

I recently ‘fessed up to a friend that I sometimes enjoy William Logan’s vicious reviews. I don’t necessarily agree with the substance of Logan’s criticism—in fact I agree with most of the well-publicized pans—but I admire his verbal facility, his … Continue reading

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RIP: Deborah Digges

[photo by Pascal B] Sad news… poet Deborah Digges has (apparently) committed suicide. A poem of Deborah’s: “The Leaves” I can bless a death this human, this leaf the size of my hand. From the life-line spreads a sapped, distended … Continue reading

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RIP: Donald Finkel

image “borrowed” from stlog Donald Finkel is one of those poets I’ve yet to get around to seriously reading but whose poems stand out enough that I actually remember them long after serendipitously discovering them in journals such as The … Continue reading

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Wendell Berry on Hayden Carruth

[photo shamelessly cadged from this profile of Carruth] “I think that Hayden’s idea of a livable life is a life that has affection in it– a life, to give it the fullest scope of his art, in which the things … Continue reading

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7 Things You Should Know

(about poetry and being a poet) 1. A word assemblage isn’t a poem just because someone says it is; no one really knows what a poem is. 2. Most readers of poetry are poets; no one reads poetry anymore. 3. … Continue reading

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Ange Mlinko on A Prairie Home Companion

Mlinko asks: Why does this feel like some sort of joke at the expense of poets, from beginning to end? Or am I reading too much into another meaningless non sequitur of a role for interchangeable starlets? I answer, in … Continue reading

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Oliver, Gioia and Form

What a bizarre interpretation of Gioia and Oliver. Has he read any of their poetry? How about the poets each has championed? I’m guessing not. Yes, they both feel that form has been given a bum rap in the contemporary … Continue reading

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Billy Collins on Clarity in Poetry

From an interview with Billy Collins in Guernica: Particularly when I thought of myself as a Wallace Stevens acolyte, I wrote very difficult poetry and I was really guilty of not knowing what I was talking about. I was going … Continue reading

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