July 31, 2017
Mix-Tape I: Sometimes You Choose Never
In yesterday’s essay, I wrote in part on the difficulties of coming back daily from the noise, especially when it’s not just noise, but policies and public discourse that affect us […]
November 11, 2016
“We need to know how to go about reaching the next days of our lives”
Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” is going around again. W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” is circling through social media, as it did after September 11. Why do we turn to poems […]
February 16, 2012
Mix Tape: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been
The theme park Dickens World “promised to be an ‘authentic’ re-creation of the London of Charles Dickens’s novels, complete with soot, pickpockets, cobblestones, gas lamps, animatronic Dickens characters and strategically […]
February 9, 2012
Mix Tape: Carver Wasn’t Always Carver
In this insightful response to Anis Shivani’s “Can Creative Writing Be Taught? Therapy for the Disaffected Masses,” Karen Babine notes: “the main issue that Shivani overlooks—whether intentional or not, in […]
February 2, 2012
Mix Tape: Cellar Door
What’s so beautiful about cellar door? These two little words have gotten a lot of attention from Donnie Darko, Dorothy Parker, and beyond. “If you can pronounce correctly every word […]
January 26, 2012
Mix Tape: Cursed Poets
What does it mean to “be a poet”? Philip Larkin “didn’t give readings or lectures, was never a poet-in-residence at a university, never taught, rarely gave interviews, generally stayed away […]
January 19, 2012
Mix Tape: Word Processing
Is the Pushcart biased against online journals? The Pushcart folks won’t find much on Meijer’s Facebook page. Although, isn’t sausage, football, and poetry an intriguing combination? Writing long sentences: “a way […]
January 12, 2012
Mix Tape: Bibliophiles, Artists, Hipsters, Literary Men, and Bros
Bookshelf porn: Totally safe for work, except for the fact that it will keep you from doing your job. A fascinating look at famous authors’ personal libraries. Behold the Hipster-Literary-Bro […]
January 5, 2012
Mix Tape: The New Year (“So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different”)
Helen Vendler goes after The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove. “Multicultural inclusiveness prevails: some 175 poets are represented. No century in the evolution of poetry […]
December 29, 2011
Mix Tape: Another Year’s Best List
For my last post of the year, here’s a look back at ten of my favorite literary tidbits from Mix Tape 2011—the sublime, the ridiculous, and a few things not […]
December 22, 2011
Mix Tape: The Holidays Wouldn’t Be the Same Without…
Laughing until your belly shakes like a bowl full of jelly. Check out this video of The Elements of Style rap. Suffering through all the merry and bright after a bad […]
December 15, 2011
Mix Tape: Popular Muses
Check out the How a Poem Happens blog. In the latest post, John Drury talks about inspiration. “Yes, I like being ambushed by memory and imagination, and I do what […]