Against Poets November 15, 2008: Poets give the mind a motion too changeable and bewitching, to consist with right practice. We must avoid their specious tropes and figures and the vicious abundance of phrase, this trick of metaphors, this volubility of tongue, which makes so great a noise in the world. I saw the soul of Hesiod bound fast to a brazen pillar and gibbering, and the [...] by Javier Huerta

Terroir, Code Orange November 14, 2008: There are many rich people here, many fine, even spectacular houses, but also modest bungalows and cottages. For a town of 57,000, Santa Cruz has an astonishing variety of architectural styles, with conical towers, shingled turrets, spindled porches and lacy bargeboards hanging from gables. There are tiny apartment complexes sharing intimate, [...] by Linh Dinh

Bolaño Blitz November 13, 2008: FSG released two gorgeous editions of the late Chilean novelist and poet Roberto Bolaño's posthumous opus 2666 on Tuesday, and New Directions released his first collection of poetry to be translated into English, Romantic Dogs, last month. Both have caused quite a stir in what Books sections we have left in the weeklies and dailies of America [...] by Travis Nichols

ALASKARNALITY November 12, 2008: now that we are all done with the important business of sending sarah back home and moving into my new house (!) (um, revise that clause accordingly), i am officially ready to honor my contract with the poetry foundation by bringing things back down (or is it up?) to hank moody style solipsism and, if the opportunity presents itself, POETRY. [...] by Olena Kalytiak Davis

Deciphering the “mi’kmaq book of the dead” November 11, 2008: Although it's not essential to this visual poem or an appreciation of it, mIEKAL aND has produced a translation of what you see above; it begins like this... (more...) by Don Share

Reading Santa Cruz November 11, 2008: (more...) by Linh Dinh

Adapt, Migrate or Die November 11, 2008: (more...) by Linh Dinh

Dreaming the Common Language: A Guest Post by Miguel Murphy November 11, 2008: 1. Tonight I am a parade of love and anger. For those of us who are gay, a sad, palpable irony accompanies, even ruins, the celebratory mood, the prayers of thanks and joy. On November 4, 2008, we accomplish a fulfillment of the civil rights movement, and yet on the same night we find that our relationships are marginalized, our desire to manifest [...] by Javier Huerta

Editing yourself out… and in. November 10, 2008: We open on a tiny flat in Dublin. A young poet sits by a window, writing. But something is wrong. The poem—eloquent, sonorous, carefully crafted—feels off. Studying the page, she suddenly realizes why, and the reason hurts harder for having been so easy to miss: she edited herself out. (more...) by Don Share

What Remains November 8, 2008: A day after the Phillies won the World Series, unleashing a reasonably benign celebration that left only a few windows smashed, a dozen planters destroyed, negligible looting, a tacky bronze statue of a businessman tottering and 76 people (symbolically?) arrested, I took a bus from Philadelphia to Allentown to do a reading at Muhlenberg College. [...] by Linh Dinh