ABRASIVE MACHINING April 28, 2011: I’m reading a poem by Paul Foster Johnson called ABRASIVE MACHINING   It goes:   aided your thought process you self-styled outsiders sharpening sticks against your enemies. Some of us were driven into your arms. Off-kilter and feline, you worked under difficult conditions putting out stapled [...] by Eileen Myles

Tony Hoagland’s “The Change” April 28, 2011: Since Tony Hoagland wrote “The Change” about a decade ago, the poem (from What Narcissism Means to Me, Graywolf 2003) has been praised by African-Americans and whites, and attacked as racist by almost as many—or maybe more. That readers find the poem painful is understandable. Hoagland probably intended the poem to cause pain. But “The [...] by Daisy Fried

from shining G to shining G April 28, 2011: Now it's a lot more fun to keep secrets than it used to be And it's a lot more fun to forestall doom than it used to be It's a lot more fun to mum halo than it used to be And it's sure a lot more fun to be a shambles of a person than it used to be Plus, and I have to say it, it's a lot more fun to write the poems than [...] by Anselm Berrigan

Devil’s Lunch by Aleksandar Ristovic April 28, 2011: Aleksandar Ristovic is a Serbian poet (1933-1994) with one book in English, Devil’s Lunch, translated by Charles Simic. Pasted below is the title poem, which is not the best poem in the collection, but it’s a good introduction to his work. Devil’s Lunch A thorn is enough for him. An apple made of iron. The nipple of a girl who [...] by Jeffrey McDaniel

taking baudelaire and ingesting him from notwhich April 28, 2011: I've been asked to participate in an evening celebrating John Ashbery's new translations of Rimbaud's "Illuminations." The section entitled TALE resonated with where I felt my life was at this point — a bit groundless yet lit; my job in transition again, a few life curves to consider, your basic mirror-check with the other eye free in the ease [...] by Edwin Torres

According to Beauty April 28, 2011: Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Soon April will end and I’ll be as guilty as the editors behind the fashion shoot in O Magazine’s April poetry issue. I spoke with a few of the featured poets, raising expectations that I’d write about what the O issue left out—their poetry and their experience of the shoot. Many felt set up by the [...] by Emily Warn

Hey Small Press! April 28, 2011: So, poets: how do printed copies of your books end up in libraries? Do they end up in libraries? What’s even going to happen to libraries? There have been plenty of stories lately about how libraries are changing, and that some—like this one in Newport Beach, California—might soon stop housing books, because a “transition toward an [...] by Kathleen Rooney

Have Come, Am Here April 27, 2011: I’ve been reading essays by Carlos Bulosan, published in On Becoming Filipino (Temple University Press, 1995), which is an excellent collection of his poetry, stories, essays, and correspondence, edited by the preeminent Filipino American and postcolonial scholar E. San Juan, Jr. From these essays, particularly, “I Am Not A Laughing [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Stutter April 27, 2011: I was thrilled to see Jeffrey McDaniel throw some love at Diane Seuss. Here’s a link to an interview I conducted with her last fall over at Critical Mass. I found out about her book visiting Poetry Daily--don’t forget to toss a few bucks in that direction, by the way, during their National Poetry Month fund drive! I do, year after year. [...] by Rigoberto González

Workers Across the Americas April 27, 2011: Several times this month, fellow Harietteers have posted wonderful lists of books they’ve been reading, catalogs of their poetry bookshelves, overviews of new poetry volumes, histories of their late modernist avant garde archival projects, and the like. Probably not so surprising to those who read my posts, my own reading patterns tend to drift [...] by Mark Nowak