Transformations September 30, 2009: So long September. On this, the last day of the month, have a lasting look at Cathie Bleck’s “Transformations” above, also featured on the current cover of Poetry.  Inside, I see a hoof, a hand, and (blush) the distinct influence of Rockwell Kent. (more...) by Fred Sasaki

Pharmikon September 30, 2009: Just read Maggie Nelson’s Bluets which will soon be in a bookstore near you. It’s an uncategorizable piece of writing composed of numbered philosophical statements which consider the color blue, and so much else but in the aftermath of reading Maggie’s “bluets” the fascinating word Pharmikon remains in my mind. It means drug though [...] by Eileen Myles

What a marvelous pursuit September 30, 2009: Today I come to the end of my hitch as a Harrieteer. My thanks to all at the Poetry Foundation for this opportunity, and to all of you for the lively conversations. I leave you with this short prose/poem by Julio Cortazar. I've always loved it, but only recently came to understand that it's really about blogging. (more...) by Joel Brouwer

In memoriam: William Safire, a gem of a wordsmith September 29, 2009: Was William Safire a poet? No. He was a Nixon speechwriter, a conservative pundit, a four-time novelist, and a funny, fastidious observer of English usage. But can we detect his influence, however great or small, on such dextrous manipulators of contemporary verse as Matthea Harvey, Heather McHugh, and Paul Muldoon (among others, [...] by Abigail Deutsch

Sickness and Poetry September 29, 2009: Let’s face it; it’s an altered state. I started getting sick in San Diego – I felt shivers as I headed to dinner after the reading and I lay in bed at Roddey’s thinking what if I just fly home without even reading in LA. But I got up and felt a little better and did read and sat shaking lightly in a restaurant afterwards with my friends. [...] by Eileen Myles

This Is The End / FAME September 28, 2009: I wanted to relate to you (and you, and you, and you and you and you) the embarrassing, pleasurable (embarrassingly pleasurable) final fragment of my dream the other night. I was at a coffee shop, a sweet hippie-hipster spot somewhere rural-ish, almost a converted barn, and there was one other person at another table, a man, and a young woman [...] by Rebecca Wolff

A few things about R. Zamora Linmark’s ‘The Evolution of a Sigh’ September 28, 2009: [R. Zamora Linmark: Photographed by Roger Erickson in Los Angeles. From Out Magazine.] I wanted to say a few things about R. Zamora Linmark's energetic collection The Evolution of a Sigh (Hanging Loose Press, 2008) which I've read and reread, and which had me cracking up at some of what I enjoy best in Linmark's work; he mines and dredges [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

“The” “age” “of” “genius” September 25, 2009: In a recent Slate article, Ron Rosenbaum explores uses and abuses of the word “genius,” suggesting: Maybe genius has been, if not democratized, more widely and thinly distributed, rather than concentrated in the hands of a precious few…. Maybe we no longer live in the kind of romantic age that created Byron, the template of genius. Or [...] by Abigail Deutsch

ADFEMPO: Advancing Feminist Poetics & Activism September 25, 2009: Am just back from the first day of the Belladonna ADFEMPO conference at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The opening plenary got off to a late but energizing start. (It didn’t start so late that I should have arrived home at 2 AM this morning in the back of a police car. But here I am. Not in the police car anymore but at [...] by Tonya Foster

Filipino American Poetas en San Francisco September 24, 2009: Hello all. So I've neglected to mention that I co-curate (with poet and editor Edwin Lozada) and host a monthly reading series in San Francisco, for a lovely non-profit organization called the Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. (I am not too thrilled with the "Inc." part of the name, but the organization itself is very good). For those [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes