50/50 April 24, 2010: Linh Dinh: Assembly line line breaks, Kent, and the decline of the comma, one of the greatest of inventions. Worse than reality TV, confessional poetry that doesn’t fess up. On the other leg, paratatic glossolalia, and in the middle, a shriveled hybrid. A feeble bunt. Why not speak the unspeakable, for once? Kent Johnson: The AWP was, [...] by Linh Dinh

By The Time I Get To Arizona April 24, 2010: Reading today's New York Times: Arizona Enacts Stringent Law On Immigration, sent a chill up my spine. It wasn't the proverbial chill. This chill was colder and darker. (more...) by Jeffrey McDaniel

Poetry and Sports: Some Quotes April 24, 2010: I find some sports quotes just as poetic as some of my favorite poems. By "poetic," I don't mean "inspirational." Actually most of the quotes I'm interested in tend to be considered more infamous than inspirational. By "poetic," I mean there is something about the arrangement of the words that makes that quote memorable, lasting. I have always [...] by Javier Huerta

NSFW April 24, 2010: For the past decade, visual artist Paul Chan has created a series of customized fonts based on the texts of various poets, writers, social philosophers, artists, and political movements: Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Fourier, Agnes Martin, ACT UP, etc. Chan uses excerpts from these texts to make fonts that transfigure and disfigure words typed into [...] by Alan Gilbert

What Do You Do? April 24, 2010: “I have sleep to do. / I have work to dream.” (Bill Knott, “(End of Summer (1966)”; Naomi Poems) 'Today, the question “What do you do?” means “How do you earn your living?” On My passport I am described as a “Writer”; this is not embarrassing for me in dealing with the authorities, because immigration and customs [...] by Martin Earl

Another miner dies in Raleigh County, West Virginia April 24, 2010: At approximately 11:30pm Thursday evening, another coal miner was killed in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Still unnamed, still anonymous in the news reports, the miner was crushed to death, pinned against the coal mine wall by a continuous mining machine. This death, in the same county as the Montcoal disaster that killed 29 miners in Raleigh [...] by Mark Nowak

the pressure of inspiration (where’s that piece about those apples) April 23, 2010: I am participating in an art event which neccesitates a newly created PO-EM-PI-ECE based on the art being celebrated at the event…now, it's one thing (more...) by Edwin Torres

We People Who Live Out Loud April 23, 2010: I remember spotting and then studying them surreptitiously as a child. They had what one aunt called je ne sais quoi—an indefinable quality. Men in cravats, tams and clunky jewelry stood out in the 1950s, in leather jackets or colored shirts that visibly set them apart. The women were quieter in some ways, but a slit skirt, open-toed shoes and [...] by Wanda Coleman

Poet Spotlight: Lyz Soto April 23, 2010: Eulogies, by Lyz Soto, was recently published by Tinfish Press. Not only is the poetry beautifully & powerfully written, but the book itself (like all Tinfish books) is strikingly designed. Lyz was kind enough to answer a few questions about her poetry & process. If you are interested, you can purchase the book here. 1) When did you [...] by Craig Santos Perez

Switch, Leap April 23, 2010: Dumb foreigner, always confusing hungry with angry. “Are you hungry at me? Who you hungry at?” “I’m so angry, I could eat a gold man sachs.” Reversing Christ, Vallejo turns bread to stone. In “The Hungry Man’s Wheel,” he riffs, zigzags and amplifies: (more...) by Linh Dinh