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

Samuel Menashe, 1925-2011. August 23, 2011: We are sad to learn that Poetry contributor and recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Neglected Masters Award, Samuel Menashe, died peacefully in his sleep on the night of August 22, 2011.  Sam was a longtime friend to so many of us, who will miss the phone calls, faxes, and handwritten letters though which he liked to share his latest [...] by Don Share

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning July 26, 2011: How can we be forbidden to mourn?  The notion seems shocking, yet it is espoused in John Donne's great poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." It might take some acquaintance with Christian theology, the science of alchemy, Donne's penetrating use of conceits and metaphors, and much else besides to explain this mystery, but one is [...] by Don Share

Twombly. Poetry. The Crisis of the Line. July 6, 2011: The painter Cy Twombly, who died recently, meant a great deal to poets - and it's no wonder.  As The New York Times put it: Mr. Twombly, a tall, rangy Virginian who once practiced drawing in the dark to make his lines less purposeful, steadfastly followed his own program and looked to his own muses — often literary ones, like Catullus, Rumi, [...] by Don Share

I Think That I Shall Never See June 13, 2011: As most literate folks know by now, Leonard Stern, co-creator of Mad Libs, has died. For many of us, Mad Libs was a first introduction to the considerable pleasures of wordplay. The most apt obituary I've come across is one with a Mad Lib lead-off at the Washington Post. Well, I thought I'd honor Stern's memory with the above poetry Mad [...] by Don Share