The Ageless Continuum
There is a notion of “passing it on,” that simple. One to one. Elder to younger perhaps. That “poetry is news,” that the inspiration for any work you do and the work you do as…
Category: Reading
Children of Vietnam
On Betty Lifton and Tom Fox, Children of Vietnam, 1972 The writer of children’s stories and a former IVS volunteer and journalist had to do something. So they compiled this Mev Puleo-ish book of stories and…
One-Liners Randomly Culled from My Marked-up Copy of Natalie Goldberg’s Writing down the Bones
I have taught over 100 courses since 2001, and I assigned Writing down the Bones in almost all of them. I never tire of hearing the students read aloud her chapters, which contain lines like the following……
Gratitudes/937
It came to my attention Just in the last week or so That Tony Albrecht saw The Book of Mev on the Arandas’ bookshelves, borrowed it, and started reading it Abbie Amico is going over Faces of Poverty…
Gratitude/998
Since she took my class in 2007 She’s read The Book of Mev six times It’s an annual ritual It’s reading as rejuvenation To instill urgency To her flagging spirit
Focused
When I decided to really buckle down and study, I’d study fifteen or sixteen hours a day. I’d have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a book in front of me, never taking my eyes off…
Three Anthologies
Cristina, As you continue your journey into the world of poetry, I can enthusiastically recommend the following anthologies compiled by Eliot Weinberger: The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry American Poetry since 1950: Innovators and…
Summer Poetry Reading List 2014
Ernesto Cardenal, Apocalypse and Other Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Flights of Victory/Vuelos de Victoria Ernesto Cardenal, From Nicaragua with Love Ernesto Cardenal, Golden UFOs: The Indian Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Pluriverse: New and Selected Poems Ernesto Cardenal, Psalms Ernesto Cardenal, The Doubtful Strait Ernesto Cardenal, Zero Hour…
Primacy
“[Shoshani] didn’t teach piety; he taught the texts. The texts are more fundamental—and vaster—than piety. “ –Emmanuel Levinas
Reading/212
“But books grant us many possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination. It may be that there is no book, however well written, that can remove an ounce of pain from the tragedy…