- What the Poet Must Answer for is the Un-Poetic Poetry in Person is a rare gem that could easily be overlooked. Alexander Neubauer has carefully edited together old school cassette tape recordings of in-classroom conversations between the legendary Pearl London and a long list of poetry super-stars. Just some of these poets include: Robert Pinksy, Lucille Clifton, Edward Hirsch, and Muriel Rukeyser. Poetry in Person is next-level […]
- AWP16 Offsite: All the Parties I’m Crashing This will be my first year going to AWP, and I’m sufficiently stoked that all of my writerly people are descending on Los Angeles. For the uninitiated, AWP is the mega-glorious conference for North American publishers, writers, and writing programs. There are far (far, far, far) more impeccable readings and parties to go to than is humanly […]
- 50 Words: Mandy Kahn’s Math, Heaven, Time Mandy Kahn’s Math, Heaven, Time (Eyewear Publishing) has a balmy quality, offering a welcome mat. This collection is smart and extraordinarily accessible, with a surreptitious mysticism. Can’t you hear Rilke in Kahn? Her poems are savory, lucid, accidentally philosophical. It seems they ask us to live more sincerely. Buy the book direct from the author here – for $15, or direct from Eyewear […]
- Condensed Poetry Reviews in 50 Words (Yes, exactly 50 words.) Since my foray (read: baptism by full immmersion) back into poetry, I have been reading furiously. The last nine months I’ve been submerged in language (by way of advanced conversation courses at the Italian Cultural Institute), re-learning Latin at home, and stacks of contemporary poetry. It is, assuredly, a vast luxury to be surrounded by […]
- Born in:on Blue In the last week or so, I have said to more than one person that my return to poetry makes me feel born again. I do not know how not to use religious language for this experience, but I do think that spirituality and language have the same geneologies. I’m talking goodnight ma- goodnight pa-goodnight […]
- Metrical Poems are a Carnival Ride I have been reading Mary Oliver’s Rules for the Dance; I must say, I may not have appreciated it as much before, but how wonderful is the land of metrical poetry. I think the rules and boundary lines are particularly important in our post-post modern world of make-your-own-rules and free verse, and what have you. There […]
- I Often Reschedule Dates, and that is Just Fine Sometimes it is necessary to reschedule a date in order to go on a different kind. The kind where you drive across 1st street bridge alone, and you are enamored by the small-but-potent skyline. You will park in a fifteen minute zone in Downtown Los Angeles, furiously trying to read if at 8 o’clock the […]
- Discipleship is Ardent Following; or, “I thought I followed Shelley, who thought he was following radiant desire.” Today’s post is part of the ongoing blog series Discipleship: Re-Imagining Our Calling From Christ that the wonderful Tyler Braun is putting on. I’m absolutely honored to a part of this eclectic group of writers. I have to confess, when Tyler asked me to write about discipleship, my English-major brain turned to etymology. I thought to […]
- Beautiful Bear Brown; a Poem by Anna (in 2nd grade) My Eyes My eyes see my family so I can hug them tightly. I hate when my eyes get wet and watery it feels weird. When I close my eyes to sleep at night I start to think great thoughts. I like how my eyes see my beautiful house! My eyes are beautiful bear brown. […]
- Until the Moon Rose [Moon over Coimbra, Portugal by Paulo Brandão]
- Summing up the Los Angeles Improv Scene; I Want to Go There. Last night I met up with Sarah Painter in Hollywood to see her improv teacher perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade. (See also: Amy Poehler, etc.) The show was called “Sentimental Lady: Guilty Pleasures” and was easily the best $7 I’ve spent in quite some time. Absolutely hilarious. Seven people play off of each other’s […]
- Finding Solitude in the City; or, John Keats’ first published Piece O Solitude (1816) O SOLITUDE! If I must with thee dwell, Let it not be among the jumbled heap Of murky buildings; – climb with me the steep, Nature’s Observatory – whence the dell, Its flowery slopes – its rivers crystal swell, May seem a span: let me thy vigils keep ‘Mongst boughs pavilioned; where […]