A Poem Miasma
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"could do without this"
June 15, 2015
It is considered corny to like Billy Collins. His poems are as easy to read as your standard airport bestseller paperback. This makes them less important...
Dragging a dead poem up a hill
April 11, 2015
For the past eleven days of April I have been writing a poem every day. It’s a challenge that I’ve heard called the grind or a 30/30. I am learning a lot...
You are publicly listening
January 14, 2015
Long ago in Internet Time (which moves much faster than Everyday Life Time) I sent an email where I recommended this prose poem by Claudia Rankine. The poem...
Recent work; future hangs
December 15, 2014
I don’t have a long letter this month. I have a few links to other things I’ve written and done, and one thing I will be doing. If you like reading these...
Beyond all this fiddle, what’s useful
November 10, 2014
At the end of this month, on November 30th, I’m doing a reading here in Chicago. There’s more information on Facebook. I’d love to see you in this mysterious...
A theory of muchness
September 26, 2014
Here’s my latest review for the Volta, of a new poetry collection called Interrobang. In it I keep returning to “muchness.” Google reveals that I...
Baba Yaga and sky every day
August 18, 2014
First: my third review for the Volta, of Aram Saroyan's Complete Minimal Poems, is online. This is some of the most fun critical writing I've done this year:...
Poems by heart, and an exciting reading
July 14, 2014
I am so excited to tell y'all that I'm a semifinalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. If you're in Chicago, please come out to the Chopin Theater at...
What is it about April?
April 22, 2014
I remember the tones of my father's voice reciting scraps of "The Waste Land" more immediately than anything else about that poem, like a melody stuck in my...
Poets with boring jobs
March 12, 2014
Because looking for a new job has occupied me lately, I want to talk about poets with boring jobs. In this category I count anyone who's written poems but...
Instax Winter
February 12, 2014
I put together a poem with some photographs in a short chapbook called Instax Winter. I'll mail you a copy for $2.50, or you can see a PDF of it here. I...
Troll poetry
January 13, 2014
(This is the latest in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them.) The commonest insult to lob at a poem is "This isn't a poem at all!" I've...
A house full of empty fruit bowls
December 10, 2013
(This is the third in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them.) "Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living," says...
Some arrows; future perfect.
November 13, 2013
(This is the second in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them. You probably subscribed to these letters when I sold you a chapbook of...
Poems, puzzles, and grapefruit.
October 8, 2013
(This is the first in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them. You probably subscribed to these letters when I sold you a chapbook of...
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