The truth is that I have never really cared for most of the American poetry canon. Yes, there are exceptions. If you count TS Eliot as an American (and since he was born in St. Louis, you kind of have to), then he was my favorite (although, since he abandoned the US and went to Europe, I also wound up
Read moreChardonnay – Gravity: Summer Solstice, 1992 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. Perhaps he’d answer that it’s all cyclical – hope driving him up the beach and the brooding low tides. Even so, most of his time is
Read moreA question arose in a comment thread on an earlier post. To wit: I love reading, and Kindle is cool, but books are expensive. (Okay, that’s really more of a statement than a question. You get my point.) It’s true. Now granted, the average e-book is a lot cheaper than even a paperback, but still, if you read a lot you
Read moreFirst, I hope you checked out today’s outstanding S&R LitJournal offering from Changming Yuan. If not, you really oughta. Second, in addition to being a talented writer, Changming also edits Poetry Pacific in Vancouver. Give it a look. In particular, I really liked the set from Laurence Overmire – very vivid and immediate, I thought. Finally, a literary journal that published
Read moreWait – what? The world didn’t end? Son of a bitch. Didn’t see that coming. Okay. Rebooting. So, some time back I wrote a poem about the end of the world. All things considered, today seems like a good day to post it. Enjoy. To Be Continued (Ars Poetica) I expected more from the end of the world. But the sun
Read moreOur sister site, the 5280 Lens Mafia photoblog, launched not long back, and we continue to produce some very nice work. I thought I’d take a few moments to share some recent shots from the team, which I think you’ll enjoy. Let’s get the show off to a seasonal start with this from Greg Thow (who has featured here at
Read moreIf abstract sculptures did the Safety Dance, I think this is what they’d look like.
Read moreIf you’ve been paying attention you know that our boy Jim Booth recently published a novel. And that it’s really good. And that it presents us with the opportunity to consider fame and substance at war over the soul of an artist. He has now authored a guest essay on “Southern Rock Stardom, Postmodernism, and the Persistence of Memory” over at
Read moreNot long ago a good friend asked me if I’d take a look at this novel he was working on. He felt it was one of the best things he’d written, but was getting no bites from publishers. He was committed to making it work, and he wondered if I had ideas about what might be missing. So I read
Read moreIn my current S&R Honors tribute to William Gibson I say that I think he’s the most important author of the past 30 years, and I acknowledge that this is certainly something of a mouthful. I’ve been gratified by the comments, both here and over at io9, where the post was linked by Charlie Jane Anders. It’s great to make
Read moreI have been known to say that William Gibson is arguably the most important author of the past 30 years. That’s a mouthful of an assertion, especially since we’re talking about a genre writer, I know. But even if I’m wrong, I’m not off by much. The man who more or less invented Cyberpunk, then abandoned it as quickly as he
Read moreI’ve been thinking about Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star, the third novel from my friend and fellow scrogue Jim Booth. I finished reading it a few days ago, but for me it’s been a slightly disjointed experience because I’ve seen most of it in its pieces before: chapters like “Fins” and “The Balcony Scene”
Read moreLately I’m working not only on my actual camera ability, but also on better understanding the technology of processing images. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in the DaVinci Machines Exhibit in Denver working on both composition and technical skills (shooting in lower light, for instance) and doing so with an eye toward how I’d be outputting the images
Read moreI grew up in the South. I have lived roughly 33 of my 51 years below the Mason-Dixon and past the occasional trip for business or to visit friends and relatives I shan’t be going back. The reasons are numerous, but the one I’m concerned with today involves that most sinister of myths. I’m referring, of course, to Southern hospitality. To
Read moreNot long ago I mentioned the launch of S&R’s sister site, 5280 Lens Mafia. 5280LM features a number of current and former S&R folks (writers, guest contributors, commenters, loyal readers) and the truth is that the project is off to a start I could barely have imagined. So if you missed it, I’d like to invite you to investigate some
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lullaby pit 