May 24, 2016
Shroud, Telltale, Stern: Fantasies of Sailing
This summer, I’m going to learn how to sail. I’ve only taken one lesson in the past, on the water at Hueston Woods in Oxford, Ohio, in a little Sunfish, […]
May 21, 2016
The joy that has no stem nor core
The joy that has no stem nor core, Nor seed that we can sow, Is edible to longing, But ablative to show. By fundamental palates Those products are preferred Impregnable […]
May 10, 2016
Trump, Galumphing
So it’s finally come to pass: Someone as qualified to be president as I am (and I’m not at all qualified) will represent a major American political party in November’s […]
May 5, 2016
Why I’m Still Not Convinced that Meter is Physiological
I sparked a small feud last month when I wrote in this blog that “Iambic Pentameter Has Nothing to Do with Your Heart.” My essay took issue with a “pulse […]
May 4, 2016
Know Your State Poet Laureate: Tod Marshall, Washington
Have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode involving Elaine’s encounter with The Sidler? If not, do. In brief, one of Elaine’s new co-workers reveals himself to have a habit of […]
April 27, 2016
Other Inquisitions: Chasing the Northern Lights
…[T]he universe had no beginning. It existed forever as a kind of quantum potential before ‘collapsing’ into the hot dense state we call the Big Bang. Unfortunately many articles confuse […]
April 27, 2016
#reclaimosu
Thirty-one years ago this month, in April of 1985, as an undergraduate at Columbia, I spent, with hundreds of others, three weeks blockading the university’s administration building. The blockade was […]
April 26, 2016
Prince, The King of France
“Ahhhh, Prince! C’est enorme!” shouted Jean-Baptiste as I handed him a burned copy of the pop god’s most recent release, Musicology. He was a French college student from a small […]
April 22, 2016
We Aren’t Close to Anywhere: On Icelandic Horses
Hranfnkel had one animal in his possession that he valued more than others . . . which he named Freyfaxi. . . . He had such a love for this […]
April 22, 2016
Clowns and Poetry (Part One)
Ann Arbor’s weather of late has been a bit berserk. It snowed two weeks ago; then it was eighty degrees. Today it’s gray and rainy, conditions that pass for spring-like […]
April 21, 2016
Poem in Your Pocket Day is almost here
This is the twentieth year National Poetry Month has been commemorated–it began with the Academy of American Poets in 1996–and we’re pleased to be part of the national celebration. As […]
April 21, 2016
Form and “What We Know of Horses”
It was mesmerizing to hear Reginald Dwayne Betts read “What We Know of Horses,” the final poem from his most recent collection, Bastards of the Reagan Era (Four Way Books, 2015), to […]