The Poet’s Ear (Part 4) April 24, 2013: In my last post I used Robert Creeley’s “I Know a Man” to illustrate the basic principle behind torque: that of twisting or swerving away from an expected cadential trajectory. Creeley’s enjambments are both arbitrary and motivated at the same time: they continually threaten to jar us from the precipitous headlong syntax of the poem. [...] by K. Silem Mohammad

The Poet’s Ear (Part 3) April 22, 2013: The word cadence comes up repeatedly when people are talking about the poet’s ear. With respect to poetry, it denotes “rhythm, rhythmical construction, measure” or in Samuel Johnson’s words, “the flow of verses or periods” (OED). More generally, it refers to rising and falling (especially falling) rhythms, vocal or otherwise, or in [...] by K. Silem Mohammad

Out of Isolation: Alfred Starr Hamilton’s A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind February 15, 2013: Perhaps you have not heard of the reclusive, generous, "slightly surreal" poet Alfred Starr Hamilton. You are not alone--his first collection to be published in over 40 years has just appeared from the insistently smart small press The Song Cave. A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind: The Poems of Alfred Star Hamilton, edited by Ben Estes and Alan [...] by Harriet Staff

Ron Silliman Calls for Wikipoets February 15, 2013: Do you like reading long lists of fabulous poets who either made it into, were dropped from, or were wholly exclude from the Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry? If that's your bag, make your way over to Silliman's blog today to read another insightful dispatch on the poetry glut. The second editions of the NAPAP is once again [...] by Harriet Staff

David Bromige Talk at Silliman’s Blog December 26, 2012: To help put 2012 behind us and usher in the new year, we'd like to point you to Ron Silliman's blog where he has posted a talk by David Bromige called "Condition, Information & the Paranoia of the New." The talk was given on October 4th, 1985 as part of the St. Mark's Talks, curated by Charles Bernstein. Go ahead, have a listen! by Harriet Staff

After a Flood: Silliman Needs Your Help to Recover Damaged Books August 14, 2012: Speaking of Silliman! The poet wrote on his blog yesterday that "over 140 books and journals [have been] water damaged beyond salvation" after a "pipe in the furnace room that adjoins [his] basement study burst, sending water shooting into the room that houses the majority of [his] ten thousand books." Ten thousand! Goodness. Silliman goes on [...] by Harriet Staff

Take a Master Class with Ron Silliman from the Comfort of Your Own Home August 13, 2012: This just in: You can finally take a class with Ron Silliman! The NewPages blog reports that "The Chicago School of Poetics offers online and F2F workshops for writers who 'feel the need for more specialized instruction' beyond the traditional academic program." More: Currently offered is a master class workshop with poet Ron [...] by Harriet Staff

Silliman’s serving Cy Press poetry June 6, 2012: [caption id="attachment_47625" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Brandon Brown (foreground), Dana Ward (background)"][/caption] We want to give a huge thanks to Ron Silliman for connecting us to the Cy Press Reading Series, via PennSound. Thus far this week, he's posted readings by Stephanie Young, Brandon Brown, Arlo Quint, John Coletti, [...] by Harriet Staff

Ron Silliman Redefines Language Poetry in Light of Community, Conceptualism, Time… May 30, 2012: Ron Silliman is using the tag "Language Poetry" on his blog for the first time in ten years, starting off by remarking on the Poetry Communities & Individual Talent conference that took place at Kelly Writers House in April that he missed due to travels on the West Coast. A reading in San Francisco prompts the following: One of the first [...] by Harriet Staff

Celebrating Sigo May 26, 2011: Hey! Ron Silliman applied his admirable analytic faculties to San Francisco poet Cedar Sigo today leading with the sentence "Cedar Sigo is a Frank O’Hara for the 21st century: witty, erudite, serious, with a terrific ear & eye for the minutest details, at home in the world of the arts." Yes! Sigo's new City Lights book, Stranger in Town, [...] by Harriet Staff