Lately I’ve caught myself saying things like “if a culture gets poetry right, its politics will take care of itself.” Kudos to Bruce Jacobs and our friends at The Agonist for their Poem for Tuesday feature, which reminds us each week of the true, transcendent power of words. Today Bruce offers up something from Mark Doty. A snippet: What these
Read moreIn 2005 my friend and colleague, Lars Bjuvberg, committed suicide in Stockholm. Lars and I weren’t all that close, but his death hit me in a way that I still don’t fully understand. Perhaps it was as simple as the fact that someone so very talented had escorted himself off this mortal stage. Or perhaps it was more complicated –
Read moreToday The Agonist features the wonderful art of found poetry. That’s the great thing about art – sometimes it doesn’t wait to be made. It just goes ahead and makes itself. Like poetry? Tune into The Agonist every Tuesday, and you might also like this little poetry community, where today’s featured poem examines what the heck is a poem, anyway.
Read moreIn addition to being a blogger and a marketing whore, I’m a poet. Actually, that’s what I enjoy the most and what I’m best at. Sadly, poetry doesn’t pay the way I’d like. Still, I do it because it matters a great deal to me. Lately I’ve been writing more and thinking more about how I can better promote my
Read moreI’m not normally a slam guy. I’m a poet, and slam poetry tends to be more about the performance and less about the words, per se. That’s a generalization, I know, and there are exceptions. Most slam I see has more in common with hip-hop than poetry. All that said, this guy is amazing.
Read moreSometimes you write poetry. Other times you just find it laying around in the oddest places. Much fun this morning at The Agonist. Have a look.
Read moreI spent the weekend up in Gunnison at the annual Writing the Rockies Conference, hosted by Western State College. While there, I got to enjoy weather that was staggeringly beautiful, great beer from the Gunnison Brewery and the Crested Butte Brewing Company (Gunnison’s GABF Gold Medal-winning Summertime 69 was righteous, by the way), outstanding readings and seminars from the likes
Read moreOh, we lives for this, yes we does. Runner Up: Detective As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway, he placed his ear to the ground and, with his heart in his throat, silently mouthed to his companion, “Arm yourself, Watson, there is
Read moreEvery once in awhile I come across unrelated stories that somehow associate themselves in my mind. Take these, for instance: First, I hope you saw Lex’s tribute to Starchild (given name, Gary Shider), he of P-Funk fame. As Lex notes, Shider experienced problems where the cost of fighting the cancer that killed him was concerned. Second, another American music icon,
Read moreEvery once in awhile I come across unrelated stories that somehow associate themselves in my mind. Take these, for instance: First, I hope you saw Lex’s tribute to Starchild (given name, Gary Shider), he of P-Funk fame. As Lex notes, Shider experienced problems where the cost of fighting the cancer that killed him was concerned. Second, another American music icon,
Read moreThe Agonist’s “A Poem for Tuesday” feature raises an interesting issue today (doesn’t it always?). To wit: what’s the difference between a poem and prose. The example is a great one. Have a look.
Read moreWe love The Agonist. And we love poetry. So it’s only natural that we’d love The Agonist’s “A Poem for Tuesday” feature. Today Bruce Jacobs has some thoughts on one of my favorite poems ever, Yeats’ “The Second Coming.” By all means, click over there and have a look.
Read moreAs Chris noted earlier this morning, today is Poem in Your Pocket Day. The rules are simple enough, but I may need a bigger pocket. For one thing, I can’t make up my mind as to what my favorite poem is. And second, I have this bad tendency toward long poems. The wall on my office at work features portraits
Read moreHe is nearly finished, bella. They want it erected in the Piazza della Signoria. Already some are calling him a masterwork. That’s nice, dear. Can you move your things? Lucia is stopping by.
Read moreWe went to see Momix at the University of Colorado’s Mackey Auditorium last night. They’re currently doing a “Best of Momix” tour, and the show was wonderful. I’d never seen them before, and the inventive mix of dance, visual illusion and humor left me looking forward to their return. Here’s one they didn’t do last night.
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lullaby pit 