From Fort Lauderdale, drive south. It doesn't matter whether you take the Florida Turnpike or I-95 because you'll drive beyond where they end, through Florida City, off the mainland, into the Keys. Follow the trail Henry Flagler laid out, more or less, when he connected the mainland to Key West with a series of rail … Continue reading The Old Bridge
No Jealousy, Just Admiration
Don't have time for a long post here, but I wanted to get this out there. I finished Sandra Beasley's latest, i was the jukebox (don't know whether to capitalize it or not), and I am in awe of it. Not that I want to ape the style or the voice, not that I look … Continue reading No Jealousy, Just Admiration
Poetic Lives Online
Tara Betts found herself attacked by a particularly ignorant political blogger named Debbie Schlussel over her class at UrbanWordNYC. Betts's response is elegant, measured, and powerful, everything the attack was not. Oscar Bermeo takes on the changes at Harriet and talks about the need for an actual exchange of ideas about poetry. Kaya Oakes wants … Continue reading Poetic Lives Online
A Brush With Jackholery
I almost got into a fight last night, for the first time since junior high school. I've been around fights in the decades between--I had to break up a few when I was a bartender and when I was in the fraternity--but I haven't been a combatant in one since I was in 7th grade. … Continue reading A Brush With Jackholery
More poetry and politics
David Biespiel's scolding essay in the latest issue of Poetry would bug me more if its claims weren't so easy to debunk. Many of the commenters there--and thanks to the Poetry Foundation for not closing them down the way they did the ones at Harriet--did a good job of disemboweling Biespiel's claims by pointing to … Continue reading More poetry and politics
Art vs. Politics
Amy McDaniel over at HTMLGIANT is talking about the aesthetic versus the political in art, and she uses this as part of the basis of her argument. Politics are terminal. They are finite. We might say we are interested in raising questions when we talk about gender or race or other categories that are defined … Continue reading Art vs. Politics
Am I a feminist poet?
I've been a feminist for a long time now--even in my more conservative days, I was a strong supporter of equal rights for women, even though I was a bit of an ogre personally. I've had a long way to travel from my fundamentalist upbringing, but it's been a good road and I'm glad I've … Continue reading Am I a feminist poet?
Question
How does one review a collected works? I'm having some problems figuring out an approach that doesn't reduce to "do you like what so-and-so has written over the course of his/her career? Then you'll probably like this." I suppose a reviewer could review the poet's career as a whole, but that seems a daunting, if … Continue reading Question
Some Post-National-Poetry-Month Thoughts
I'm really proud of the selection of poems and poets I was able to gather for The Rumpus project. I got good poems from a wide variety of poets--I discussed that variety here--and had a strong month in terms of reviews and interviews as well, something I hope will carry over into the rest of … Continue reading Some Post-National-Poetry-Month Thoughts
Poetic Lives Online
So, did you like our National Poetry Month project? If you missed any of the poems, check them out here. Barbara Jane Reyes has some interesting thoughts on poetic tradition. Virginia Heffernan discusses the way self-publication has lost some of its stigma, and introduces me to a new term: microniche publishing. If you missed seeing … Continue reading Poetic Lives Online
Another Poem to Love 