Wednesday Shout Out September 12, 2007: The Biblical phrase “through a glass darkly” is in reference to the human’s inability to achieve enlightenment (or see God’s grace with clarity) until the moment of death. Igmar Bergman’s 1961 film, which uses that phrase as a title, is a twisted portrait of familial alienation, mental illness and the questioning of the existence of [...] by Rigoberto González

Poetry and the Problem of Taste September 11, 2007: "When I say, then, that the current audience for poetry in America lacks taste, I do not mean to suggest that we have bad taste--that we like bad poems. I mean, instead, that we have fallen into a kind of insensiblity, a sort of intelligent numbness, which is both a cause and a consequence of the poetry culture's lingering anxiety." So says [...] by Don Share

Jena Six September 10, 2007: If you depend on television for your sense of what is hot in the news, you may be forgiven for not knowing about the Jena 6. But there is something happening around these six teenagers from Jena, Louisiana. It is all over Black talk radio. And this is no small thing. These quite popular radio hosts are devoting their entire shows—three and four [...] by Kwame Dawes

Whither Beauty September 10, 2007: A few months ago I read Toni Bentley’s and Gelsey Kirkland’s ballet memoirs, and acquired a bad case of self-pity: here was an art so unlike poetry, where the practice was excruciatingly difficult, but the reward so concrete. As in sports, one can still speak of beauty in ballet. Brian Phillips, in his article “Poetry and the Problem of [...] by Ange Mlinko

Play It Again, Sam: On Poetry Reviewing September 8, 2007: I’m still on my mission to convince readers of poetry to try their hand at reviewing a book of poetry at least once! It amazes me how when poets publish a book they hold their breaths awaiting critical responses, and then become disgruntled or depressed when no one else gets off their behinds to review a book. The culture of passivity needs to [...] by Rigoberto González

“It matters cosmically” September 7, 2007: The author of my favorite children's book has died. The New York Times on Madeleine L'Engle: The book used concepts that Ms. L’Engle said she had plucked from Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum theory, almost flaunting her frequent assertion that children’s literature is literature too difficult for adults to [...] by Ange Mlinko

Poetry is so much a part of people’s lives that crowds often assemble! September 7, 2007: "Poetry is so much a part of people's lives that crowds often assemble in the villages around a narrator who recites and interprets the epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and who has survived the impact of the printing press and cinema. Such a recitation may take a few weeks." —Tambimuttu, Poetry, January 1959 In 1954, while in India on a [...] by Don Share

The First Poet I Ever Read (In English) September 7, 2007: I’ve written about this a number of times before in other venues, and the story hasn’t changed: when I was straining to learn English as a recent immigrant at a U.S. elementary school, a well-meaning teacher gave me a book of poems to help me “get rid” of my accent. She thought that the shame of my poor pronunciation was the cause of my [...] by Rigoberto González

You didn’t hear it from me… September 6, 2007: ...but there's a little wisp of a rumor that somewhere, someday, you may be able to get up close and personal with the bloggers of Harriet. Not only will you be able to gaze upon our actual faces, but there may even be a chance to revel and weep as jewels of poetic wisdom drip from our lips! OK, who am I kidding? There's only one of us the [...] by Patricia Smith

Naipaul on Walcott September 5, 2007: For a long time, I have wondered what the West Indies' two living Nobel Laureates thought of each other’s work and success. Perhaps there exists some recent article somewhere by Derek Walcott about V.S. Naipaul. Walcott, I know, has reviewed Naipaul in the past, and made some passing comments and some insightful comments about the value of [...] by Kwame Dawes