October 2, 2019
A Record of What It Meant: An Interview with Carl Phillips, Author of The Art of Daring and Coin of the Realm
This post is the twelfth in a months-long series that explores the topic of craft: what it is, how it has evolved, who has historically had access to it, and […]
May 29, 2019
Meditations in an Emergency: Ilya Kaminsky, Mad Men, and the Backdrop of War
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money, our great country of money, we (forgive us) lived happily during the war. So ends […]
September 29, 2018
New Origins
Poetry may often come to us in small packages and brief passages, but poetry is rooted in our big human questions: who are we? how (and why) did we get […]
September 5, 2017
New Poems by Oliver de la Paz and Danez Smith
Two new poems that have moved me most deeply recently are Oliver de la Paz’s “Autism Screening Questionnaire – Speech and Language Delay” in the July/August 2017 issue of Poetry and […]
May 22, 2017
“Verde que te quiero verde”: Poems Written in Green
Living in Western Massachusetts instead of Baltimore this spring, I found myself rooting for the color green like its approach was a spectator sport. Baltimore’s springs arrive comparatively early and […]
April 24, 2017
Positive Negation: Saying No in Poetry
The old creative writing class imperative to “write what you know” may have its place, but lately I’ve been thinking of the power of poetry not to “know,” but to […]
February 1, 2017
Echoes and Mirrors (Innovation in Conversation: Part III)
One of the joys of teaching, and of writing for the Kenyon Review blog, is the two-way street of ideas and information these forums afford. While I hope I’m educating in […]
December 31, 2015
Old Year/New Year: Poems
Woody Guthrie: “Woody Guthrie’s 1943 “New Years Rulin’s.” Found in one of his journals dated January 1st, 1943.” — woodieguthrie.org * Naomi Shihab Nye: Burning the Old Year Letters swallow […]
November 20, 2015
Who Only Has at Heart Your Getting Lost: Wandering Into Poetry
Even for those of us who don’t have to be convinced to read poetry in the first place, it can be a challenge to “keep up” with poetry. If you’re reading […]
November 1, 2015
A Resident Ghost of Spain: On Camarón
Somehow, you can live in a place for months and fail to meet a resident ghost. After five months in Granada, Spain in 2003, I was well-acquainted with Lorca. I’d […]
February 4, 2012
Forests of Trees: More on the Book as a Form (for Poets)
In response to my last post, Miss Redd writes: Pre-creating a book of poems before the book of poems has been written seems like an elaborate and tricky solution to […]