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 […]
April 7, 2016
Let’s Not and Say We Did: on traveling and literary residencies
“If they told me I couldn’t leave the radius of six miles from my house, I really wouldn’t care. There’s nowhere I really want to go.” Thus saith poet and […]
December 17, 2015
A Last-Minute Shopper’s Guide to Children’s Poetry
Before my son was born, I memorized a poem. I know how this must sound to parents and non-parents: another hopelessly sentimental exercise that’s more about the papa than the […]
November 1, 2015
Exxon Vs. Biophilia
By Karen Malpede The news broke in October, during the lead up to the Paris Cop21. Exxon’s scientists investigated the effects of burning fossil fuels in the 1970ies and 80ies. […]
October 14, 2015
Elitism and American Poetry
The question of “the audience of poetry” is one that vexes poets and critics endlessly in our country. There are, on this as on so many other issues, two camps, […]
May 31, 2015
Walter
Not too long ago, a couple moved into a house near mine. They have a son named Walter who’s maybe two years old—and, as of a few weeks ago, they […]
March 31, 2015
Whitman’s Obituary, Slightly Annotated
I spent part of last week thinking about Whitman’s final days: his misreported final day and his actual final day. In the course of this thinking (and thinking may just […]
March 26, 2015
Whitman Dies, as My Daughter Would Say, “For Real Life”
“I know I am deathless,” Whitman wrote, in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. “I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter’s compass, I know […]
March 25, 2015
Walt Whitman, Run Down by a Train!
A few days ago, bouncing around in the Walt Whitman Archive, I happened upon a gem of an essay: “Walt Whitman’s ‘Lively Corpse’ in 1871: The American Press on the […]
December 26, 2014
Poetry, Power, and Panache
“Me, we,” wrote Muhammad Ali, in what may be the shortest poem ever composed (or at least the shortest poem ever delivered as part of a Harvard commencement address). It’s […]
December 16, 2014
Patterns of Poetic Revolution
One of the most famous lines in English poetry about poetry is Moore’s “I, too, dislike it.” The interesting thing is just how much the best poets, historically, have […]
September 2, 2014
The Dutiful Mob, Reconsidered
It’s the day after Labor Day, which means—at many college campuses, including the one where I teach—that fall classes are starting. In constructing the syllabus for my poetry workshop, I’ve […]