One of our greatest poets has died at 87. I had the privilege of seeing Kinnell read while I was at Iowa State in the late ’80s. He did some new things – things he’d been working on during the flight out, in fact – but this was the high point of the evening. Thank you, Galway. Sleep well.
Read moreThere’s a new list out ranking the 20 most beautiful college campuses in America. These things are always subjective, and they can start more arguments than they settle, but I have to admit that this is a not-bad list. I haven’t been to all the honored campuses, but I am familiar with several of them. Heck, I hold degrees from
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There’s been some back and forth here in the last couple of weeks about Ello, the new social network. If you’re on Ello, or are thinking of joining, here are some people you might want to investigate and possibly follow. Let’s start with the S&R folks. @docdenny is, as you know, god of macro photography, and lately he’s been experimenting with
Read more22 is my lucky number. 22 years ago I wrote this poem, one of my best ever (or at least the one that a lot of people seemed to like). It’s a Solstice poem, and today is Solstice. So here you go. Happy Solstice.
Read moreBad first impressions linger, but perhaps it’s time I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou reciting her poem “On the Pulse of Morning”, at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, January 1993 It’s shameful how many authors and books that I “should have read” I haven’t yet gotten around to. Especially given that I hold an MA in English and
Read moreApocalyptic neo-Symbolism. With some tangential comment on the pedestrian state of contemporary poetry.
Read moreI do not want to die.
Read moreLet me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote this: Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in
Read moreYou have to have a plan, but happiness depends on how well you roll with the punches. The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley – Robert Burns No plan, however well conceived, survives contact with the enemy. – Military Adage Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson
Read moreOur own poetic voices are the product of the voices of our heroes. Guess who mine are. Here in NaPoWriMo 2014, we’re encouraging everyone to write poetry every freakin’ day. As I said last week, write like nobody’s reading. In my case, I’m not doing new writing so much as I am reflecting on writing and thinking about the times
Read moreNational Poetry Writing Month begins today. Will you write 30 poems in 30 days? Well, no. I won’t, not me personally. I retired from writing poetry a couple years ago. But before I did I wrote four books and am currently looking to publish them, so I definitely salute the annual celebration of the art. Here at S&R we have
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Pussy Riot’s commitment to social justice in the motherland is more than admirable. It perhaps merits a spot in Russia’s artistic canon. The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia closed today, and if you set aside the homophobia and generally strong-armed approach to governance by the host, one Vladimir Putin, these games were remarkable in just about every way. The
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Photographers everywhere can identify with William Anders and the crew of Apollo 8. Our friend Frank Dilatush forwarded a YouTube link this morning commemorating the 45th anniversary of what many consider to be the most famous photograph in history: Earthrise, taken December 24, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders. As it turns out, the iconic shot almost didn’t happen.
Read moreI was never great at love poems, but these two are probably my best. Gravity: Summer Solstice, 1992 – for Mary Go tell it to the sea, how he should let go his moonstruck, his shameless high tides – climbing each day, each night kissing at her cloudless indifference.
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lullaby pit 