Summer Shorts August 16, 2008: As I bask in the humid afternoons of August sipping a mint julep on the shore of Lake Wobegone (ok, I’m actually utterly landlocked in my office, wearing a COSATU t-shirt, sans beverage, but who’s counting), I wanted to celebrate the season of pants at or above the knees (the ones we wear over our briefs… well, most of us) with a few [...] by Mark Nowak

For slow and slow that ship will go August 15, 2008: In keeping with the ethos of the movement, I’ve taken my time getting to Dale Smith’s SloPo manifesto over on his Skanky Possum blog, and again (and better) over on Bookslut. In his essay, Smith very politely proposes a poetics that would disrupt systems of thought in a more radical manner than the uber-presence of “conceptual poetry” or [...] by Travis Nichols

What do you mean teaching poetry writing and wasting your time painting sober little organic, meaningful pictures? August 15, 2008:         I was released from forms, from the perpendiculars,   straight lines, blocks, boxes, binds of thought into the hues, shadings, rises, flowing bends and blends     of sight:       I allow myself eddies of meaning: yield to a direction of significance running like a stream through the [...] by Don Share

A Few Thoughts on Poetry and Criticism, Part III August 15, 2008: The rather lively response to my previous two posts on this topic has prompted me to post this excerpt from a piece on which I have been working for a while. I hope that it generates similar interest. Due to the heavily policed institutional borders between creative writing and criticism or literature, the interrelationship of the two is often [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Man Reading Yeats at Wrigley Field August 14, 2008: Don Share wrote in response to Michael Robbins: And then B. [Walter Benjamin] says, commenting on the "ancient lament that the masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator...." Here's a spectator absorbed by art... (more...) by Emily Warn

Meditations in an Emergency August 12, 2008: I know it's been blogged all over the place, but meditate on this, all who debate about expanding the audience for poetry: year-to-date sales of Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency have increased 218%, mostly due to the book's appearance on the AMC TV show Mad Men, in which (m)ad man Don Draper buys what we now know is one of the last [...] by Don Share

Prairie Style: An interview with C.S. Giscombe August 12, 2008: Mark: There’s a wonderful anecdote early in June Jordan’s Soldier: A Poet’s Childhood about waiting as a young child for the arrival of a train, that “moaning in the dark,” that “transitory signal from a hidden fire” that “eased its promise into the night.” I seem to be reminded of this Jordan passage every time I read your [...] by Mark Nowak

Elegies and Eulogies for Mahmoud Darwish August 12, 2008: The BBC says, "It is easy to describe Mahmoud as a national poet, but he is much more than that." The New York Times says Darwish was "one of the greatest contemporary Arab poets" The Los Angeles Times: "Despite his consistently nationalist themes, Darwish sometimes chafed under the title of Palestine's unofficial poet laureate." Jordanian [...] by Travis Nichols

Rêves de poussière (Dreams of Dust) August 11, 2008: The following email message appeared in my inbox over the weekend: OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - National radio says at least 31 people have been killed in a mudslide at an unofficial gold mine in Burkina Faso. There are thousands of unofficial, or bush mines, in West Africa. Desperately poor villagers eke out a living, risking their lives to [...] by Mark Nowak

Are there still sky and earth? August 10, 2008: Gori, population 50,000, is in the news because of the escalating war between Russia and Georgia. Its most famous son is Joseph Stalin. In Gori, there is a Stalin Avenue, a Stalin Square, three Stalin statues, including a giant one in front of town hall, and a Stalin Museum, the town's main tourist attraction. Its exhibits mention no Great Terror [...] by Linh Dinh