Pound’s “Station,” Lorca’s “Rider,” and Berryman’s “Traveler” May 2, 2012: In April 1913, Ezra Pound published a series of poems under the title "Contemporania" in Poetry. The final poem in the group is one of Pound's most well-known (and frequently memorized) poems, the two-line "In a Station of the Metro," above. Ezra Pound published work in Poetry from its first issue and was Poetry’s long-time foreign [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

From Poetry Magazine: The “Unfashionable Historic Personage” April 2, 2012: Looking through the Poetry archive this past month, we came across the above letter from Conrad Aiken in the March 1964 issue. Aiken's letter is a response to James L. Dickey's review of his book The Morning Song of Lord Zero in the December 1963 issue. Dickey cuts to the chase: The course of poetry appears to have turned away from Conrad [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

Translation is Treason March 7, 2012: Our annual translation issue returns this month with poems that span several centuries and continents. The oldest poem in the issue, from the thirteenth century, appears in a portfolio from Peter Cole’s recently released book, The Poetry of Kabbalah: The Nut Garden holds things felt and thought And feeling for thought is always a [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

Tagore’s Soul and Raymond Carver’s “Happiness” February 29, 2012: Diving into the Poetry magazine archives, we came across this minimal ad for Rabindranath Tagore’s Sheaves: Poems and Songs on the back of the February 1933 issue: New poems by India’s beloved prophet and seer, whose verse, like his life, is distinguished by simplicity, strength and delicacy. Poetry introduced Tagore to the [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

A horse with bird-like wings February 17, 2012: Want to learn more about the Pegasus gracing this month’s cover? February’s Pegasus was created by the inimitable Felix Sockwell, who has a fascinating and, appropriately, very visual post about creating the cover on his blog. Click through to see the instructions we sent to each of the artists (“Anything goes as long as it’s a [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

From Snow City February 14, 2012: Poetry magazine recently received erasures of the May 2011 issue via Eric Elshtain, editor of Beard of Bees Press and poet-in-residence at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital through the non-profit Snow City Arts Foundation. He conducts poetry and art workshops in the pediatrics ward at Stroger, working with children from the ages of 3 to 23. We are [...] by Fred Sasaki

Double murders & Pound in pidgin February 1, 2012: If you've taken a peek at the January issue of Poetry, you might have noticed something new on the last page. In honor of Poetry's centennial, each month the magazine will be reprinting an artifact from the magazine's history at the back of the issue. Paul Durica has been combing through Poetry's archives month-by-month and he surfaces each [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

100 Years January 2, 2012: Here at Poetry, we're celebrating the new year along with readers everywhere; but 2012 marks a particularly important year for us.  As we write in a note to our January 2012 issue, it has now been a full century since that intrepid and ingenious woman, Harriet Monroe, founded a small but seismic magazine for modern poetry.  Ezra Pound, T.S. [...] by Don Share

A damp squid and an angelbeast: observations on poetry and mishearing December 2, 2011: Damp squids have been much in the news lately. As a public service, I'm providing some links to information that might be of use to our readers, especially those who are somewhat familiar with British literature.  After all, as a blog post by Sushrut Munje explains: Many phrases we use are often misquotes from Shakespeare and other [...] by Don Share

Poetry Day(s) October 6, 2011: Depending on what country you live in, there's a Poetry Week, a Poetry Day, a or even, as in the US (which does everything big) an entire National Poetry Month.  The latter has come in for some ribbing from American poets, e.g., Charles Bernstein, who called April "the cruelest month for poetry."  Then, too, there's an official Bad Poetry [...] by Don Share