April is the Cruellest Month April 6, 2010: Correct me if I’m wrong ( probably I am), but poetry is the only art form in the United States to have been handed its own month and given free reign to use it as it likes. There is no novel month, no painting month and no photography month. (more...) by Martin Earl

The Mulch Shoveler July 12, 2009: Walter Earl, age 76, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, shoveling mulch. This is supposed to be the post in which I sign off, pack up my bags and leave as gracefully as possible. (more...) by Martin Earl

The Fish, II (following a recent post by Camille Dungy) June 30, 2009: Gabriel Metsu – “Maid Broiling Fish”, mid 17th century, Flemish Gary Winogrand, one of America’s greatest street photographers, working in the tradition (or rather reworking the tradition) of Henri Cartier-Bresson, said that he was not interested in reality, per se, but what it looked like in a photograph. Camille’s passionate [...] by Martin Earl

Poets and Painters June 17, 2009: Richard and Mafalda sitting beneath a Pontus Carle painting, Lisbon 2008   The image of Thomas Mann at his writing desk is, for me, emblematic. The writer at work. Five thirty am, the light of day nowhere apparent, two candles illuminating the mahogany surface of his desk, haloing pens, inkstand, blank pages. The order in his studio is [...] by Martin Earl

The Fallacy of Rejecting Closure June 2, 2009: Gary Hume, Dream, 1991 (From "Door" series) 1. My first camera, which I was given at the age of twelve, was a Japanese made Petri, a simple rangefinder camera that my father had bought at the PX in Okinawa, where he was stationed for three years as an Air Force Lieutenant, from 1954 to 1957. The camera traveled back to the U.S. in the hold [...] by Martin Earl

A SHORT, HIGHLY PERSONAL OBSERVATION COMPLETELY LACKING IN EXAMPLES WHICH I COULD HAVE NEVER HAVE MADE THIRTY YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS A YOUNG POET STILL LIVING IN NEW YORK, BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW ENOUGH TO KNOW IT WAS TRUE. BUT I DO NOW. May 19, 2009: Germaine Greer, 
Paula Rego, 1995. (Pastel on Paper laid on aluminum
 120 x 111 cm., National Portrait Gallery). W.H. Auden once said that he always felt that he was the youngest person in the room, even at an older age, when this was certainly not the case. I’ve felt similarly while blogging, especially when being reprimanded by [...] by Martin Earl

Writing on Stone May 5, 2009: Looking east towards Alexanderplatz and its famous television tower, East Berlin City Center   We are rapidly approaching the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, the most emblematic event of the collapse of communism in Europe, and of its ensuing collapse in the Soviet Union itself. (more...) by Martin Earl

Some Practical Advice for Young Poets Considering Exile: Part 2 April 21, 2009: The catalyst, the fuse, call it what you like, whatever it is that sets sweeping change into motion, often comes in the form of epiphany, the sudden realization that things are not what they had seemed to be a moment earlier. (more...) by Martin Earl

Some Practical Advice for Young Poets Considering Exile: Part 1 April 9, 2009: Perfect Parallax Correction In my case it took almost two years of leaving and then returning, and then leaving once again to reach the point at which I finally gained what I would call a legal footing in Europe. In the midst of these two years (1984 - 1986) I even spent a week in China - an alternative to the European project - having [...] by Martin Earl

One Big Self: Finding The Noble Vernacular (C.D. Wright / Deborah Luster) April 2, 2009: Much of what passes for poetry these days is written by talented pretenders, or pretending talents. They are the products of a system which turns out poets as ably as medieval Italian city-states turned out artisans: legions of well-trained technicians who made careers out of duplicating the brush strokes of their masters. Their task was to [...] by Martin Earl