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 […]
April 20, 2016
Writing to Write, to Write, to Write?
Just out from Sidebrow Books, every single poem in Mathias Svalina’s new collection, The Wine-Dark Sea, is entitled “The Wine-Dark Sea.” And every single one is great. But “The Wine-Dark Sea” […]
February 16, 2016
Life of a Poem, Part II
In my last post, I spent some time with the first line of George Starbuck’s poem “Of Late.” “‘Stephen Smith, University of Iowa sophomore, burned what he said was his […]
January 30, 2016
Under the Eye of the Name: On Writing and Insomnia
I’ve had chronic insomnia all my life— I’m going through a bout of it as I write this. When the sleepless nights start to add up, a phantasm filters […]
January 1, 2016
The Year Twenty Fixteen
When my daughter counts, she recites all the numbers in order, until she reaches “12, 13, 14, Fixteen, 17, 18, 19….” Soon enough, I’m sure she’ll separate fifteen and sixteen […]
December 27, 2015
An End In Itself
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. — Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho I’ve been thinking about failure all month, ever since I wrote about it in the […]
November 30, 2015
A Moveable Funeral
Sales of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast spiked in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. The media has framed it as a book that captures the dream of Paris, […]
October 22, 2015
1,369 Light Bulbs, or, How to Write in a Basement
Ralph Ellison wrote the first page of Invisible Man while staying at a friend’s farm in Waitsfield, Vermont. He had been to the farm before, and upon his first visit […]
September 30, 2015
Imagining America
This weekend–starting tomorrow–I’ll be attending my first Imagining America conference. When I left Iowa City and my position as the director of the Iowa Youth Writing Project, I felt confident that new […]
August 31, 2015
Blog Discussion of Roger Rosenblatt’s Kayak Morning: Learning to Drift
Throughout this month, we’ll be using the blog to have a conversation about Roger Rosenblatt’s Kayak Morning. Rosenblatt will receive the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement in New York […]
June 18, 2015
Teach This (Part II)
Yesterday afternoon, I hit “Publish” on a blog post reflecting on widely anthologized and widely taught poems. My intention was not to criticize those poems (there are many good reasons […]
June 17, 2015
Teach This, Not That!
I don’t mean that, of course. Whatever “this” and “that” are, I probably believe in teaching both of them. (This post’s title is really just a silly tongue-firmly-in-cheek reference to a […]