Black ice and rain October 31, 2008: The changes in the weather here have become less gradual, more brutal. Hailstones fall out of a blue sky. There is snow in October and then there isn’t. It is four years since the sudden death of Michael Donaghy, at the age of 50. Donaghy was an American of Irish descent, who went to the University of Chicago, where he edited The Chicago [...] by Lavinia Greenlaw

Ghosts in Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets October 31, 2008: I am haunted by the ghost in the footnote to the first sonnet. Footnotes in Charlotte Smith do much more than cite sources, and this first footnote interacts with the rhyme of the final couplet to emphasize the word ghost. Ah! then, how dear the Muse’s favours cost, If those paint sorrow best—who feel it most!* * “The well-sung woes shall [...] by Javier Huerta

A Halloween Poem: Strange Are The Products October 30, 2008: George Oppen, New Collected Poems
 A poem written on Halloween in 1976. The poet was living in San Francisco on Polk Street where, four years later, I would be working in a methadone clinic. He is one of my favorite poets. This poem comes from his last book of new poems, Primitive
. It is included in the just-released New Collected Poems [...] by Forrest Gander

Phillies! Phillies! Phillies! October 29, 2008: 9:58 pm South Philly— Whooos, horns honking, somebody hitting what sounds like a cowbell... we don’t have a TV and didn’t get around to see if it was streaming on-line, but we can always tell what’s happening in a ball game that really matters by the noise in the street. As the New York Times live blogger says “And after 98 seasons of [...] by Daisy Fried

Yet share the same house October 28, 2008: from Self-misunderstood by Maxamed Xaashi Dhamac ‘Gaariye’ I can't understand you, curious self, nor grasp how you're both life and death,
 grabbed land and peaceful settlement,
 grudging milker that makes me full,
 sun set at evening whilst casting
 noon's shortest shadow: how can you be
 two who can't marry
 yet share the same [...] by Lavinia Greenlaw

“Writing is exciting and baseball is like writing.” October 28, 2008: Fernando Perez, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder and Columbia University grad, tells the the St. Petersburg Times what's on his World Series night stand: "Are you staying away from heavy plots during the playoffs? Actually, what helps me a great deal right now is poetry, like Robert Creeley and John Ashbery. " This isn't the first time the "baseball [...] by Travis Nichols

Poetry primer for the polls October 27, 2008: As the election season enters its last days, the Poetry Foundation asked poets what guidance through verse they might offer to the candidates—and, perhaps more importantly, to the voters. The first responses came from Matthea Harvey, most recently the author of Modern Life, and Charles Bernstein, director of Buffalo’s Electronic Poetry [...] by Milan Gagnon

Poetas en Nueva Yol October 27, 2008: (with apologies to Forrest Gander) A brown poet does not automatically know the work of other brown poets. It is an education, one that usually does not happen in the classroom. Anthologies, the generous ones, include a brown poet or two, probably Gary Soto, probably Martin Espada. Both are great poets, but come on. It is an education that [...] by Javier Huerta

FRANKENSTEIN’S GRANDMOTHER October 26, 2008: um, that IS right side up. It's from a pretty amazing installation by someone named Matthew Buckingham that I was fortunate enough to stumble upon (and into) at the Henry in Seattle a few months ago. (more...) by Olena Kalytiak Davis

Bite on my Belly October 23, 2008: I. I never refuse seconds. You can tell this by looking at me. Since I don’t make a habit of stepping on the scale, I really can’t say in precise numbers how overweight I am, but I can say that the label gordo would not be inappropriate. I often joke that my favorite mispronunciation of my name is heavier because it describes me so well. Other [...] by Javier Huerta