The Fall of America March 13, 2008: As an immigrant, I always assume that any observation or insight I happen to chance upon is already old news to the rest of the populace. Hey, have you heard the Eagles’ great new ballad, "Hotel California"? But who doesn’t know that Allen Ginsberg saw himself as a coda to Walt Whitman? (more...) by Linh Dinh

Last Chance! Whatever March 12, 2008: In a recent post, Daisy Fried discussed the deflational aspect of standard journalese, how it flattens all horrors big and small into an efficient monotone. Newspaper lingo as tranquilizer. But there’s also yellow journalism, which is sensationalism for the lower class. (This term originates from the Yellow Kid, the first comics character.) [...] by Linh Dinh

Evidence, But of What?, a Mini-Essay on Form March 11, 2008: Does form need to support content? Or is it better when form does the opposite? News item from the Philadelphia Inquirer: Woman wounds Amtrak officer at 30th Street An Amtrak police officer was shot in the foot yesterday morning by a woman at 30th Street Station. The shooting happened in the vicinity of the McDonald’s at the station about 11 [...] by Daisy Fried

Illness and Poetry March 8, 2008: My friend the poet and critic Christopher Hennessy, who maintains a fascinating blog on the multiple relationships between identity (particularly gay identity) and creativity at Outside the Lines, recently asked me, after I described to him one of my chemotherapy side effects, that even picking up a piece of cold fruit burns my hands, whether I [...] by Reginald Shepherd

The Bride-Choosing March 7, 2008: I was trying to read my 14-month old daughter a Grimm's Fairy Tale this morning, but poets of her generation are narratively-challenged, so I post it here instead. The Bride-Choosing There was once a young Shepherd who wished to get married; but although he knew three Sisters, each one was as pretty as the others, and the choice was therefore so [...] by Daisy Fried

Good Night, Sweet Ladies: A Thought About Slightness March 6, 2008: Frank O’Hara and Emily Dickinson both wrote a lot of minor work. O’Hara’s minor work is usually more fun, to me, than Dickinson’s, but either way, they are poets whose lesser poems are an integral part of their overall body of work. Everybody needs to write minor work. I read somewhere that the filthiest limericks were probably written by [...] by Daisy Fried

The Anatomy of Pleasure March 5, 2008: What a delight to see on Poetry Daily yesterday that Knopf has put out a Selected Frank O’Hara, edited by Mark Ford. I have about eight copies of Lunch Poems, and a Meditations in an Emergency, and a Poems Retrieved, and two copies of the Collected, but it is certainly time for a new Selected, and Ford seems like a great person to have edited [...] by Daisy Fried

My Favorite Word March 4, 2008: The cookbook A Tuscan in the Kitchen, by Pino Luongo, is distinguished by not giving measurements for the recipes, and by the stories Luongo tells in between the recipes. In a section of the book called “Grandpa’s Nets and Grandma’s Pots” Luongo tells of his grandfather, a fisherman living in Orbetello during World War II: My grandfather [...] by Daisy Fried

White Dopes on Punk: An Analogy* March 4, 2008: The dichotomy people in the literary world frequently make between mainstream and experimental poetry, conservative and “progressive”? poetry, is very similar in form and tone (the attribution of sin to one and virtue to the other) to the dichotomy people (some of them the same people) make in the field of popular music between disco and punk. [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Eminently Fair March 4, 2008: Australia's leading poet Les Murray is one of the globe's finest, and he knows it. So much so, a request to blurb a collection of poems by the poet J.K. Murphy becomes an opportunity for him to flaunt his clout. Apparently, Les Murray's wife is an aspiring author, a social historian to be precise. Like a good husband, Murray thought he'd lend [...] by Major Jackson