The Way It Looked in 1969
Now the age of 101, Lawrence Ferlinghetti has composed poetical works about most U.S. presidents since the administrations of Eisenhower in the 1950s. I recall with appreciation his poem “Tale Tale of the Tall Cowboy”…
Category: Poets
Morning and Night
After finishing Hilberg’s trilogy this morning, have spent the evening with the poets: Eluard, Cardenal, Heifetz-Tussman, Glatshteyn, and Brecht.
Gleanings and Connections
Anne Waldman and Laura Wright, editors, Cross Worlds: Transcultural Poetics—An Anthology Dear Layla: “modernist textual montage/collage of a wide-ranging array mixing the personal and the historical” Dear Layla: “Ezra Pound’s Cantos gave me a way…
Training Our Memory
Adam Zagajewski, Another Beauty Translated by Clare Cavanagh Memoirs of a young poet who studied in Krakow. Mostly it is the short aperçus that captured my attention and interest, plus the method of writing a…
Sending a Poem and Its Translation to a Friend
This is by Nicanor Parra. Sound familiar? Parra. As in Violeta Parra (Nicanor’s sister). As in Gracias a la Vida. As in her own recording of same (YouTube hers, not Mercedes’s) As in try and…
Three Incitements to Read a Book of Poems by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
1. Winter Haiku Winter’s on its way. Maple leaves all cross the street together. 2. Recognition The same God Who sent the prophets And inspired the Qur’an has me work at a job I hate…
Trying To Be One-Pointed
In the autumn, on retreat at a mountain temple Although I try to hold the single thought of Buddha’s teaching in my heart, I cannot help but hear the many crickets’ voices calling as well….
Trying To Be One-Pointed
In the autumn, on retreat at a mountain temple Although I try to hold the single thought of Buddha’s teaching in my heart, I cannot help but hear the many crickets’ voices calling as well….
Facing the Future: Resources for Resistance and a Rebirth of Wonder
Dipa Ma’s greatest gift to me was showing what was possible—and living it. She was impeccable about effort. People with this ability to make effort are not disheartened by how long it takes, how difficult…
Minutes & Plans & Moons
I first came to the work of Charles Reznikoff in 2008 when I read his terse “poems” in Holocaust. He had read thousands of pages of war crimes trials transcripts to produce condensed, jarring, essential…