Notes on Ave Atque Vale September 13, 2008: 1. The deadline for former students to submit poems in memory of Chicano poet and UC Berkeley professor Alfred Arteaga was yesterday at 3pm. (He passed away earlier this summer; he was born on Cinco de Mayo and died on the 4th of July; he would have appreciated these coincidences immensely.) The poems are to be collected in a booklet by the [...] by Javier Huerta

Reginald Shepherd (1963-2008) September 11, 2008: Reginald Shepherd died earlier this evening. We will miss you, Reginald. Reginald Shepherd's Blog Reginald Shepherd's Harriet page You, Therefore For Robert Philen You are like me, you will die too, but not today: you, incommensurate, therefore the hours shine: if I say to you “To you I say,” you have not been set to music, or broadcast live [...] by Emily Warn

Clayton Eshleman on 9/11 September 10, 2008: "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."--George W. Bush, 9/13/01 "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."--George W. Bush, 3/13/02 "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool [...] by Linh Dinh

The Poetry-Transfigured Essay September 10, 2008: The best book by our best living literary essayist, An Elemental Thing
 by Eliot Weinberger got scant attention when it was published in 2007. As is sometimes the case with significant American writers, Weinberger’s reputation may be greater abroad than at home. Certainly his work has been translated into umpteen languages (including [...] by Forrest Gander

James Franco: Starving, Hysterical, Naked September 10, 2008: The Los Angeles Times reports that "Howl," a Gus Van Sant produced film about Allen Ginsberg's obscenity trial, is set to start production with a cast that includes David Strathairn, Alan Alda, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Rudd--and James Franco as Ginsberg. Never camera shy himself, Ginsberg popped up in quite a few films during his [...] by Travis Nichols

Encounters at the End of the World September 9, 2008: On Saturday, I took five children, ranging in ages from three (Campbel (Camper) Pillifant) to just turned nine (Amelia (Mia) Belle Pillafant) to see Werner Herzog's "Encounters: At the End of the World". We[1] walked from my house (I use the term "my" loosely), just off the Taony Knowles Coastal Trail (I'm doing this Alaska thing, because—well, [...] by Olena Kalytiak Davis

Welsh Poetry, Psychogeography & EcoPoetics September 8, 2008: It is 12:20 in Providence a Friday… I scroll through the madding blogs and check in with Harriet
 to see what the poets in Wales are doing these days… Zoë Skoulding What ARE the poets in Wales doing these days, fifteen years after R. S. Thomas’ God-haunted Collected Poems
, fifty-five years after Dylan Thomas’ wildly popular Under [...] by Forrest Gander

Easy listening September 8, 2008: I like what Clive James has to say about Plath’s suave swing and what it is that activates a poem, or sustains one. On two recent occasions I have sat listening to people - first scientists, then academics - talk about the “poetic” when what they meant, in terms of content as well as style, was a kind of background music or easy listening. [...] by Lavinia Greenlaw

What Are Years. September 5, 2008: Marianne Moore once explained that she did not put a question mark after the title of her poem "What Are Years?" - though it kept being printed with one. It's not a question at all, she explained: "It's a meditation: 'What Are Years. What Are Years.' You're not thinking about it, not asking anyone to come and answer you." Really, Miss [...] by Don Share

Advertisement September 5, 2008: (It is highly improbable that a reader would encounter an “Advertisement” in the opening pages of a contemporary book of poetry. Preface, Foreword, Prologue, Introduction—Yes to all of these. But the “Advertisement” is a past genre that didn’t make the evolutionary cut. It differs from those other types of prefatory remarks in that [...] by Javier Huerta