Thursday, April 16, 2009

Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry Index #101-200

Columns [#1-100] [#101- 200] [#201- Present] [Prose Columns Index]





American Life in Poetry #200: What My Father Left Behind by Chris Forhan

...surviving the loss of a parent...

American Life in Poetry #199: Inscrutable Twist by Anne Pierson Wiese

...a memoryscape...

American Life in Poetry #198: Self-Portrait by Zozan Hawez

...the first we've published by a young person who is also a political refugee.

American Life in Poetry #197: A Small Moment by Cornelius Eady

I suspect that one thing some people have against reading poems is that they are so often so serious, so devoid of joy, as if we poets spend all our time brooding about mutability and death and never having any fun.

American Life in Poetry #196: Gloves by Jose Angel Araguz

One of the most effective means for conveying strong emotion is to invest some real object with one's feelings,...

American Life in Poetry #195: Christmas Night by Conrad Hilberry

...no more than a little flare of light, an affirmation,...

American Life in Poetry #194: Applied Geometry by Russell Libby

...a way that makes it feel deep and magical.

American Life in Poetry #193: How Is It That the Snow by Robert Haight

The first two lines of this poem pose a question many of us may have thought about...

American Life in Poetry #192: Fences by Pat Mora

...contrasts the lives of rich tourists with the less fortunate people who serve them.

American Life in Poetry #191: Finding a Bible in an Abandoned Cabin by Robert Wrigley

...what's left of a Bible...

American Life in Poetry #190: Cutting Hair by Minnie Bruce Pratt

Occupational hazards, well, you have to find yourself in the occupation to know about those.

American Life in Poetry #189: On Swearing by Gary Dop

...standing at Normandy, remembering.

American Life in Poetry #188: Ghost Villanelle by Dan Lechay

The drifting veils of rhyme and meter disclose a ghost,...

American Life in Poetry #187: The Accompanist by Dick Allen

...the way he so easily draws us in...

American Life in Poetry #186: Daughter by James Lenfestey

...the beautiful mystery of a daughter.

American Life in Poetry #185: The Old Liberators by Robert Hedin

...and now all those have died...

American Life in Poetry #184: After Work by John Maloney

I hope it's not just a guy thing, a delight in the trappings of work.

American Life in Poetry #183: Gathering Leaves in Grade School by Judith Harris

But are our memories as richly detailed as these...

American Life in Poetry #182: The Crow by Kaelum Poulson

A middle school student and already accomplished maker of poems, he writes of the thankless toils of an unlikely but entirely necessary member of our community--the crow!

American Life in Poetry #181: Prayer for the Dead by Stuart Kestenbaum

...the author of this week's poem, lost his brother Howard in the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

American Life in Poetry #180: My name came from. . . by Emmett Tenorio Melendez

...an eleven-year-old poet from San Antonio, Texas, proudly presents us with his name and its meaning.

American Life in Poetry #179: Bushwick: Latex Flat 2001 by D. Nurkse

I especially like the use of the verb, lap, in line seven, because that's exactly the sound a four-inch wall brush makes.

American Life in Poetry #178: Father, Child, Water by Gary Dop

We mammals are ferociously protective of our young,...

American Life in Poetry #177: Rain at the Zoo by Kristen Tracy

...so perfectly truthful and vivid?

American Life in Poetry #176: Sunflower by Frank Steele

Hearts and flowers, that's how some people dismiss poetry, suggesting that's all there is to it, just a bunch of sappy poets weeping over love and beauty.

American Life in Poetry #175: Driving to Camp Lend-A-Hand by Berwyn Moore

...fear--irrational, but exquisitely painful all the same.

American Life in Poetry #174: To Katharine: At Fourteen Months by Joelle Biele

Here's a lovely picture of a small child learning the laws of physics.

American Life in Poetry #173: Piano by Patrick Phillips

...a masterful job of comparing a wrecked piano to his feelings.

American Life in Poetry #172: Marry Me by Veronica Patterson

...senryu is a Japanese form similar to haiku but dealing with people rather than nature.

American Life in Poetry #171: Planting the Sand Cherry by Ann Struthers

Sometimes I think that people are at their happiest when they're...

American Life in Poetry #170: Night Dive by Sam Green

...some really deep, dark water.

American Life in Poetry #169: Heart by Rick Campbell

Seeing one's self as a skeleton, or receiving any kind of medical report, even when the news is good, can be unsettling.

American Life in Poetry #168: The Laughter of Women by Mary-Sherman Willis

So often, reading a poem can in itself feel like a thing overheard.

American Life in Poetry #167: For the Tattooed Man by Sharmila Voorakkara

Among young people, tattoos are all the rage and, someday,...

American Life in Poetry #166: Fried Beauty by R. S. Gwynn

...a picnic instead of a sermon.

American Life in Poetry #165: Seeing the Eclipse in Maine by Robert Bly

Notice how the experience happens to "we," the group,...

American Life in Poetry #164: Dead Butterfly by Ellen Bass

How often have you wondered what might be going on inside a child's head?

American Life in Poetry #163: Ode to Marbles by Max Mendelsohn

I have always enjoyed poems that celebrate the small pleasures of life.

American Life in Poetry #162: Summer Job by Richard Hoffman

Though at the time it may not occur to us to call it "mentoring,"...

American Life in Poetry #161: Car Showroom by Jonathan Holden

...a young car salesman, who is trying hard, perhaps too hard.

American Life in Poetry #160: Three Teenage Girls: 1956 by Steve Orlen

...the details not only help us to see the girls clearly, but the last detail...

American Life in Poetry #159: The Inevitable by Allan Peterson

...gets at the feelings of receiving bad news by letter...

American Life in Poetry #158: Part of a Legacy by Frank Steele

Putting bed pillows onto the grass to freshen, it's a pretty humble subject for a poem,...

American Life in Poetry #157: In Your Absence by Judith Harris

...you may remember A. E. Housman's poem that begins, "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now/ Is hung with bloom along the bough."

American Life in Poetry #156: Today's News by David Tucker

...deputy managing editor of the New Jersey "Star-Ledger" and has been a reporter and editor at the "Toronto Star" and the "Philadelphia Inquirer." He was on the "Star-Ledger" team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

American Life in Poetry #155: Hospital by Marianne Boruch

...a space familiar to us all but made new...

American Life in Poetry #154: Yellowjackets by Yusef Komunyakaa

...a fine portrait of the hard life of a worker--in this case, a horse...

American Life in Poetry #153: Spare Parts by Trish Dugger

...Poet Laureate of the City of Encinitas, makes fine use of the one patched but good heart she has.

American Life in Poetry #152: Medical History by Carrie Shipers

...how she once wished for a dramatic rescue by screaming ambulance, only to find...

American Life in Poetry #151: Safe by Steven Huff

Thirty, forty years ago, there were lots of hitchhikers...

American Life in Poetry #150: What the Frost Casts Up by Ed Ochester

There's a world of great interest and significance right under our feet, but most of us don't think to look down.

American Life in Poetry #149: The Quarrel by Linda Pastan

Elsewhere in this newspaper you may find some advice for maintaining and repairing troubled relationships.

American Life in Poetry #148: Santa Paula by Lee McCarthy

The poet can steer us a little by the selection of details, but a lot of the effect of the poem is in what is not said, in what we deduce.

American Life in Poetry #147: [Untitled] by William Kloefkorn

...a late confession...

American Life in Poetry #146: Veterans of the Seventies by Marvin Bell

...a group of these emotionally damaged soldiers, gathered together for breakfast.

American Life in Poetry #145: Insomnia by Rynn Williams

...a suitable remedy.

American Life in Poetry #144: How Good Fortune Surprises Us by Jackson Wheeler

...we're happy that it didn't happen to us.

American Life in Poetry #143: In the House of the Voice of Maria Callas by Steve Orlen

...many of us listened to her on the radio or on our parents' record players...

American Life in Poetry #142: Elegance by Linda Gregg

...that old business about the tree falling in the middle of the forest...

American Life in Poetry #141: Trust by Thomas R. Smith

...some practical advice.

American Life in Poetry #140: Chanukah Lights Tonight by Steven Schneider

Isn't this a party to which you'd like to be invited?

American Life in Poetry #139: The Lady and the Tramp by Bruce Guernsey

...a domestic communion.

American Life in Poetry #138: At a Certain Age by Deborah Cummins

...in the best of all possible worlds, people who love their work should be able to do it as long as they wish.


American Life in Poetry #137: Superhero Pregnant Woman by Jessy Randall

...the senses can go haywire.


American Life in Poetry #136: Sleep by Todd Davis

...a fine seasonal poem...


American Life in Poetry #135: The Crossing by Ruth Moose

What motivates us to keep moving forward...


American Life in Poetry #134: Old Woman With Protea Flowers, Kahalui Airport by Kathleen Flenniken

Those were among our first stories, and we still venture into the world and return to tell others what happened.


American Life in Poetry #133: Afterwards by David Baker

By alone I mean that even among throngs of mourners we pull back within ourselves and peer out at life as if through a window.


American Life in Poetry #132: The Garden Buddha by Peter Pereira

Poets are good at discerning life within what otherwise might seem lifeless.


American Life in Poetry #131: A Dandelion for My Mother by Jean Nordhaus

...every experience, however commonplace, is unique to he or she who seizes it.


American Life in Poetry #130: Columbus Park by Anne Pierson Wiese

...winner of the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets...


American Life in Poetry #129: Louisiana Line by Betty Adcock

Betty Adcock, has written scores of beautiful poems, almost all of them too long for this space.


American Life in Poetry #128: Snip Your Hair by Devon Regina DeSalva

...she wrote this poem to get back at her mother, only to find that her mother loved the poem.


American Life in Poetry #127: Nest by Marianne Boruch

It is the simplest of discoveries, yet she uses it to remind us that what at first seems ordinary,...


American Life in Poetry #126: The Raspberry Room by Karin Gottshall

...her own sort of private place.


American Life in Poetry #125: Subway by Barry Goldensohn

...a contemporary subway station.


American Life in Poetry #124: Matinee by Patrick Phillips

Here is a lovely poem about survival...


American Life in Poetry #123: Found Letter by Joshua Weiner

Such a poem might be words scrawled on a wadded scrap of paper, or buried in the classified ads, or on a billboard by the road.


American Life in Poetry #122: Hymn to the Comb-Over by Wesley McNair

...these valorous attempts to disguise hair loss.


American Life in Poetry #121: Wind by Mike White

A large white umbrella blown into the street, and an aproned waiter rushing to the rescue.


American Life in Poertry #120: Heaven, 1963 by Kim Noriega

The loss of youth and innocence...


American Life in Poetry #119: Banana Trees by Joseph Stanton

I'm a dedicated stay-at-home and much prefer to read something fascinating about a place than visit it myself.


American Life in Poetry #118: Alberto by Warren Woessner

And weather stories? We tell them in the same way our ancestors related encounters with fearsome dragons.


American Life in Poetry #117: Geometry by Nancy Botkin

...the parents downstairs in their stultifying dailiness, the children enjoying their youth under the eaves...


American Life in Poetry #116: Safari, Rift Valley by Roy Jacobstein

...experience on a safari to the place believed by archaeologists to be the original site of human life.


American Life in Poetry #115: Visitation by Jeffrey Harrison

...bittersweet poem...


American Life in Poetry #114: Echo by Robert West

...successful poems not only make use of the meanings and sounds of words, as well as the images those words conjure up, but may also take advantage of the arrangement of type on a page.


American Life in Poetry #113: Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle by Freya Manfred

...most of the world's species look upon us with justifiable wariness, for we're among the most dangerous critters on the planet.


American Life in Poetry #112: Slow Dancing on the Highway: the Trip North by Elizabeth Hobbs

Not only do we have road rage, but it seems we have road love, too.


American Life in Poetry #111: Drought by Felecia Caton Garcia

...there are times when parents feel helpless and hopeless. But the human heart is remarkable and, like a dry creek bed, somehow fills again, is renewed and restored.


American Life in Poetry #110: Summer Downpour on Campus by Juliana Gray

Here's the celebration of a moment on a campus somewhere, anywhere.


American Life in Poetry #109: Wallpapering by Sue Ellen Thompson

One big test of the endurance of any relationship is taking on a joint improvement project.


American Life in Poetry #108: Houdini by Kay Ryan


American Life in Poetry #107: Supple Cord by Naomi Shihab Nye

...a lovely moment from her childhood.


American Life in Poetry #106: Catching the Moles by Judith Kitchen

...an experience that resonates beyond the simple details...


American Life in Poetry #105: Laundry by Ruth Moose

...poetry can hold a mirror up to life, and I'm especially fond of poems that hold those mirrors up to our most ordinary activities, showing them at their best and brightest.


American Life in Poetry #104: Where They Lived by Marge Saiser

...a house where aged parents lived out their days.


American Life in Poetry #103: How Are You Doing? by Rick Snyder

It's not just baseball caps, it's Tasmanian Devil caps; it's not just music on the intercom, it's James Taylor.


American Life in Poetry #102: Morel Mushrooms by Jane Whitledge

The morel is among nature's most elusive species.


American Life in Poetry #101: Wax Lips by Cynthia Rylant

Those big cherry flavored wax lips that my friends and I used to buy when I was a boy, well, how could I resist this poem...


Columns [#1-100] [#101- Present] [Prose Columns Index]

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Giacomo Leopardi Page

Giacomo Talegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi, Conte, was born on the 29th of June, 1798, and died on the 14th of June, 1837.


Essays/Saggi in English:

Essays/Saggi in Italiano:




Poems/Poeme in English Translation:
Poems/Poeme in Italiano:
  • I Canti (Leopardi.it, testo intiero in Italiano);
  • I Canti (Progetto Giacomo Leopardi, testo intiero in Italiano);
Prose/prosa in English Translation:

Prose/prosa in Italiano:
Book Reviews:
  • "A complete history of astronomy" by Giovanni F. Bignami. A review of Storia dell'astronomia: dalle origini al duemila e oltre by Giacomo Leopardi & Margherita Hack. Edizioni dell'Altana: 2002. (pdf format)(Nature, June 2002);

Correspondence/Corrispondenza:
Manuscripts/Manoscritti:
Images:
  • The Apostle of the Infinite. A nice biography, in English, with many images including a post-mortem photo (?), holographic manuscript copies, and title page of Poesies et ouevres morales de Leopardi Premiere traduction complete precedee d'un essai sur Leopardi per F.A.AulardParis, Librairie Alphonse Lemerre, 1880 (Quilldrivers);
  • Complete holographic copy of "Letteratura ed Arti Liberali: on the Work of Madame De Stael", by Giacomo Leopardi, as it appeared in the Bibliotecha Italiana, April 1816 (Dibattito sulla utilita delle traduzioni, Zacinto.it);

News Stories/Articles:

Miscellaneous / Miscellaneo:
Other VGS Author Pages / Altri Pagini di Autori VGS:


Pablo Neruda Page

Pablo Neruda was born Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, on July 12th, 1904, in Parral, Chile. Chile is a land with a diversity of climates, and Parral is in the temperate-zone. His mother died of tuberculosis a month after he was born. His father moved the family to Temuco, a frontier outpost in the far south of the country, where the young Richardo grew up among half finished houses and torrents of rain. [To read the complete biography click >>> here]




Interviews/Entrevistas:


Essays in English:

Essays in Espanol:
Poems/Poemas in Translation:


Poems/Poemas in Espanol:

Prose in English:
Prose en Espanol:
Photos / Images:
Reviews/Revistas:

Articles/Articulos:
Miscellaneous:
Other VGS Author Pages:


Naomi Shihab Nye Page

Naomi Shihab Nye was born on March 12, 1952, in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Palestinian father and an American mother. She has lived for periods of time in Ramallah, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. She has received a B.A. in English and World Religions from Trinity University. and has since become a poet, essayist, author of children's books, and a songwriter. She has been a recipient of writing fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Witter Bynner Foundation.

Readings:
  • Meet the Poet: Naomi Shihab Nye (Real Audio)(Real Video)(WGBH Boston);
  • Women Poets from the Middle East (MP3) (PEN American Center);




Interviews:
Essays:
Poems:
Prose:
Photos / Images:
Reviews/Revistas:
  • "Warm Baths" by Phil West. A review of Never In A Hurry by Naomi Shihab Nye (Austin Chronicle);

Articles/Articulos:
  • "Many Voices: Poet/Essayist Naomi Shihab Nye" by Phil West (Austin Chronicle);
Miscellaneous:
Other VGS Author Pages:


Lisel Mueller Page

Lisel Mueller (February 8, 1924 - ), nee Neumann, was born in Hamburg, Germany. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was 15 years old, where her father was a professor at Evansville College. She married Paul Mueller and the two built a home in Lake Forest, Illinois, where they settled for many years.

Readings:


Interviews:


Essays:

Poems:


Prose:


Photos / Images:


Reviews/Revistas:




Articles/Articulos:



Miscellaneous:



Other VGS Author Pages:


Thursday, December 18, 2008

Palanca Food Pantry Page


The Palanca Food Pantry is a ministry of Holy Redeemer Episcopal Church, a member of the Diocese of Southeast Florida. The Pantry is located at 3730 Kirk Road, Lake Worth, FL (map). It serves the homeless, working poor, disabled and retired populations in its community and throughout Palm Beach County.

The Pantry proper opens its doors every Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. A box of food is provided to take home. Second hand clothing and household items are available, as well. The Pantry also partners with churches, and other organizations, located throughout Palm Beach County, to provide sit-down meals Monday through Friday as follows:


Mail service is available to the homeless, and those without a fixed abode, every Tuesday and Friday during the program times.

Should you have any questions concerning the Palanca Food Pantry please feel free to contact Gilbert Purdy. Your correspondence should be addressed to:

Gilbert Purdy
Program Coordinator
Palanca Food Pantry
Holy Redeemer Episcopal Church
3730 Kirk Road
Lake Worth, FL 33461.

Should you wish to donate to the Palanca Food Pantry please send your check to the same address. Checks should be made out to "Holy Redeemer Episcopal Church". The "memo" line should read "for Palanca Food Pantry". Checks can also simply be made out to "Palanca Food Pantry". Please do not send cash or checks made out to the addressee personally. Donations are fully tax deductable.

Should you live in the area served by the Palanca Pantry and wish to donate used clothing, household items, holiday packages, etc., there is generally someone on-site throughout the day. Should you arrive with the items at a time when the church is unattended, feel free to leave the items outside of a door. Someone will soon arrive and bring them inside. Please do not leave large items as storage space is not available in which to accomodate them. Please do not leave dirty items as sufficient staff is not available to clean them. Please do not leave food items unless you have contacted Holy Redeemer Episcopal Church beforehand and made the necessary arrangements.

Se Habla Espanol y Lenguaje por Señas Americanas.
We speak Spanish and American Sign Language.


More About the Palanca Pantry:

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Virtual Grub Street Contributor: Jared Carter.

Jared Carter has published four books of poetry: Work, for the Night Is Coming (Macmillan, 1981), which received the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets; After the Rain (Cleveland State University Poetry Center), which received the 1994 Poets’ Prize; Les Barricades Mystérieuses (Cleveland State, 1999); and Cross this Bridge at a Walk (Wind Publications, 2006). He has received a Guggenheim fellowship, two creative-writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. He lives in Indianapolis, where he worked for many years as an editor and designer of textbooks and scholarly works, first with the Bobbs-Merrill Company, and later in association with Hackett Publishing Company. He maintains a web site at http://www.jaredcarter.com/.

Items at Virtual Grub Street by/about Jared Carter:

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Poetry Book Review Index.

PUT ON THAT PARTY-CRASHING DRESS. A review of Lilies Without, by Laura Kasischke. Ausable Press.

Laura Kasischke's latest poetry collection, Lilies Without, offers unsettling charms. [Go to the Review>>>]


ARMED WITH VERSE. Reviews of The Baghdad Blues, Sinan Antoon (Harbor Mountain Press), The War Works Hard, Dunya Mikhail. trans. by Elizabeth Winslow (New Directions Publishing) and Here, Bullet, Brian Turner (Alice James Books).

With recent collections of war poetry in his bag, an ex-soldier returns to Afghanistan. [Go to the Review>>>]


THEY TELL THE TRUTH, BUT TELL IT SLANT. Reviews of Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera, by Anne Carson (Alfred A. Knopf) and Scar Tissue, by Charles Wright (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Poets Anne Carson and Charles Wright revise and refresh the usual ways of seeing the world. [Go to the Review>>>]


GHOSTS, SEX, AND PHYSICS: Devin Johnston & Pattiann Rogers. Reviews of Aversions, by Devin Johnston (Omnidawn) and Firekeeper: Selected Poems, by Pattiann Rogers (Milkweed Editions).

In poem after poem Johnston turns away from the world at hand and moves into a kind of hushed borderland, even as he redirects our attention to the here and now. Like the filmmaker Stan Brakhage, to whom he pays homage, this poet can't get enough of those seemingly mundane spots in time when some subtle presence arrives, thrumming in over the wires. [Go to the Review>>>]


GHOSTS, SEX, PHYSICS: J.D. McClatchy & Anne Stevenson. Reviews of Poets of the Civil War, ed. by J.D. McClatchy (The Library of America) and Poems 1955-2005, by Anne Stevenson (Dufour Editions).

What makes this collection of Civil War poets so valuable is the power with which it disrupts that trend, corroborating William Faulkner's claim that "The past is not dead. It is not even past." [Go the the review>>>]


Moxie and Dreams by D. H. Tracy. Feminine Gospels, by Carol Ann Duffy. Faber and Faber, 2005, and Burnt Island, by D. Nurkse, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

I gather Carol Ann Duffy is the most popular poet in the UK, and the American publication of her seventh (adult) collection may be an opportunity to extend her empire. It could happen: Duffy's work is so rich that it can't help but be thoroughly of the place it was written in, but her consistent moxie, her affable rambunctiousness,... [Go to the Review>>>]



The Cosmic I







Present Company by W. S. Merwin
Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2005.
140 Pages. $22.00 cloth. ISBN 1556592272.


Mere months after Copper Canyon Press has released Migration, W. S. Merwin's selected poems (and recent winner of the 2005 National Book Award for Poetry), the volume is incomplete.... [Go to Review>>>]


True Stone and Epitaph: the Poetry of Pablo Neruda.
by
Gilbert Wesley Purdy.

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems, Mark Eisner, Ed.
San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2004. 222 pages
ISBN 0-87286-428-6


The year 2004 is the centennial of the birth of the poet Pablo Neruda. As a result, the already considerable amount of work published annually by and about the poet has increased exponentially. City Lights' 100th birthday gift is The Essential Neruda, a selection of poems, edited by Mark Eisner, a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Center for Latin American Studies. [
Go to the review>>>]


Pierce Butler, Fanny Kemble, et al.
by Gilbert Wesley Purdy.

The Weeping Time: Elegy in Three Voices by Christopher Conlon.
Washington, D.C.: Argonne House Press, 2004.
138 pp. $19.95 paper. ISBN 1-887641-18-1.


In March of 1859, Pierce Butler, a Philadelphian, wealthy by virtue of two plantations in Georgia, auctioned some 430 of his slaves in one of the largest such sales in American history. That auction became known as 'The Weeping Time'. The poet Christopher Conlon memorializes that day with a book of poems bearing the same name. Butler is of further historical interest by virtue of his rocky marriage to the famous English actress, Fanny Kemble,... [
Go to the Review>>>]


A Word Association Test
by
Gilbert Wesley Purdy.

Words Brushed by Music ed. by John T. Irwin.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
200 pp. $12.95 paper. ISBN 0-8018-8029-7. $27.50
hardcover. ISBN 0-8018-8028-9.


In 1979, while the poetry world as a whole was marching with ever greater determination towards quote-unquote free verse and one or another variation of anti-poetry, Johns Hopkins University Press staked out its own territory. Its new Poetry Series would provide a haven for poets who had chosen to write the only truly alternative poetry that remained: a poetry which stayed connected to the tradition of the craft.... [
Go to the Review>>>]


The Way of Mrs. Wei.
The Tao of Mrs. Wei by Hilary Tham
Washington, D.C.: The Bunny and Crocodile Press, 2003


...how different the world has become.
Mortal Arguments by Sue Sinclair.
London, Ontario: Brick Books, 2003.
-and-
Secrets of Weather and Hope by Sue Sinclair
London, Ontario: Brick Books, 2001.

Prima Materia.
The Feast: Prose Poem Sequences by Walter Bargen.
Kansas City: BkMk Press, 2004.


The Eye of the Beholder.
eye: poems and retina prints by Elizabeth Goldring.
Kansas City: BkMk Press, 2002.


The Vulgar Tongue
.
Churlsgrace by William Hathaway.
Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 1992.




Off-Site Reviews:


Fruitful Clutter
by
Gilbert Wesley Purdy.

In the Dark by Ruth Stone.
Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2004.
128 pages pp. $22.00 paper. ISBN 1-55659-210-8.


After her husband committed suicide in 1959, Ruth Stone moved into the house they had just purchased in Goshen, Vermont. It had been intended as a sanctuary in which the two would find the peace and serenity to write, a place to get away from the New York literary scene. She brought up their three daughters there. Some 46 years later she remains in the house, nearly deaf and all but blind. [
Read entire review>>>]



Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Poetry Foundation Syndicate Column Index

X. THE SONG OF AN ODD BIRD

Why Stevie Smith is the right poet for our times.


30. Desire to Burn.

Did his misreading of a poem contribute to Kurt Cobain's demise?


29. Put On That Party-Crashing Dress.


28. Armed with Verse.


27. Fables and Foibles.

Reviews of Dear Ghosts, by Tess Gallagher (Graywolf Press) and Swithering, by Robin Robertson (Harcourt).




26. Seriously Playful.

A review of Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, by John Ashbery (Ecco Press).


25. Over the Moon.

A review of Sleeping With the Moon, Colleen J. McElroy (University of Illinois Press).


24. The War of Art.

A review of War and the Iliad, by Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff with an essay by Hermann Broch. Tr. by Mary McCarthy. Introd. by Christopher Benfey (New York Review Books).


23. Close -- But Not Too Close -- Observation.

Reviews of Burn the Field, by Amy Beeder (Carnegie Mellon University Press) and Riding Westward, by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).


22. They Tell the Truth But Tell It Slant.




21. Translating Poetry Into Poetry. (Interview)

C. K. Williams on becoming a poet, and how he creates English versions of ancient Greek dramas--without knowing any Greek.


20. Thrills and Chills and Home Movies.

Reviews of Strong Is Your Hold, by Galway Kinnell (Houghton Mifflin) and Interrogation Palace, by David Wojahn (University of Pittsburgh Press).


19. Never Far from a Breakdown.

A Review of Collected Poems: With Notes Toward the Memoirs, by Djuna Barnes. Ed. by Phillip Herring and Osias Stutman (University of Wisconsin Press).


18. A Psalm? How So?

"The tension between the attempt to mean and the routine failure to entirely mean": the limits of human language and worship in George Oppen's "Psalm."


17. Nature Poems in a Post-Natural Age. (Interview)

Poet Gary Snyder thinks the landscape of contemporary poetry should include wildflowers . . . and highway fast food joints.


16. Herbert Sucks. Donne is a Pimp.

Why high school students make great poetry critics.


15. Writing on the Wall.

Scholars and poets around the world consider dissident poet Huang Xiang the Whitman of China, but his work is still banned there.


14. No Personal History Here.

Eleanor Wilner "gets out of the way" of her poetry.


13. John Donne is Hot.

"The Sun Rising" is so romantic it will burn your eyes.


12. Barnes on Fire.

Hilarious and pious, Dick Barnes is essential to poetry's future.


11. The Inner Life and the Inner City.

The kaleidoscopic poetry of Kay Ryan and Major Jackson.


10. The Poet of Green Bananas and Bacalao. (Interview)

How a plate of food reminds Victor Hernández Cruz of history.


9. The Poet and the Rock Band.

John Berryman's ghost makes cameo appearances on the Hold Steady's new album.


8. GHOSTS, SEX, AND PHYSICS: Devin Johnston & Pattiann Rogers.

Reviews of Aversions, by Devin Johnston (Omnidawn) and Firekeeper: Selected Poems, by Pattiann Rogers (Milkweed Editions).


7. THE GARDEN OF MEMORY

Pulitzer-prize winning poet Lisel Mueller's gentle, steady voice was shaped by a harsh history.


6. GHOSTS, SEX, PHYSICS: J.D. McClatchy & Anne Stevenson.

Reviews of Poets of the Civil War, ed. by J.D. McClatchy (The Library of America) and Poems 1955-2005, by Anne Stevenson (Dufour Editions).


5. In Praise of Rareness.



4. HE'S OUR SHAKESPEARE

So why is America ambivalent about Whitman?


3. MOXIE AND DREAMS: Carol Ann Duffy and D. Nurkse.

Reviews of Feminine Gospels, by Carol Ann Duffy (Faber and Faber) and Burnt Island, by D. Nurkse (Alfred A. Knopf).


2. Plath at 75.

The legacy of the poet who died at 30.


1. The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks Essential Enough?

Review of The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks. Ed. by Elizabeth Alexander (Library of America).



Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Thomas Gray Page

Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 - July 30, 1771)



Poetry:


Prose:

Letters:
Biographical:
  • The Life of Gray by Samuel Johnson (Jack Lynch, Rutgers University);
  • The Life of Thomas Gray by Rev. John Mitford. Facsimile of The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, Little Brown and Company, 1862 (Making of America Books);
Essays:
Reviews:
Images:
Articles:
Miscellaneous:
Other VGS Author Pages: