April is National Poetry Month. In that spirit, select a couple of your favorites, bring several copies to pass around, and we’ll surely hear a variety of poets, themes, historical periods, and styles. Don’t be…
Dear friends, and here I say friends the broad sense of the word: Wife, sister, associates, relatives, Schoolmates of both sexes, People seen only once Or frequented all my life; Provided that between us, for…
“The Not-Word: German-Jewish Poetry after the Holocaust” What does it mean to write in German as a Jewish author after the Holocaust? Can poetry recover, reclaim, and renew language after unspeakable trauma? How do we…
You who live secure In your warm houses Who return at evening to find Hot food and friendly faces: Consider whether this is a man, Who labours in the mud Who knows no peace Who…
WOULD YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT OLD AGE His students once asked Of Dr. Bertrand Russell & the venerable elder replied: Old age… A time like any other For fighting for a cause that’s just –Chliean…
Dear Chris, Thanks to you, I now have the following favorite Alice Walker poems from The World Will Follow Joy: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit Democratic Womanism Hope to Sin Only in the Service…
Don’t let your life be governed by what disturbs you. — Abu-al-Ala al-Ma’arri [973-1052]
The following passages are from an interview with U.S. poet Anne Waldman, co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics… Poetry needs the breath. It needs the voice. It needs the body. It needs…
Cab, Here’s section 51 of Song of Myself, which you’ve heard me and others quote scores of times, and even today as we discussed The Brothers Karamazov. And you might also enjoy June Jordan’s essay,…
Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces Wislawa Szymborska Translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh Herein are a few score short pieces by the Nobel laureate (Literature, 1996), usually no more than a page or two, although…