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A Blogger’s Notebook 8
THE PH.D.Read More
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Dialectical Me
Joel Jacobson has an intriguing reading here of my own The Rain at Midnight. He zeroes in on the dialectical nature of my work, which is something I’m seldom aware of as I write, but am always aware of when I arrange poems in book form: I find myself looking for “productive tensions” as the manuscript develops, from poem to poem and among sections (if there are any).Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 7
Several blog exchanges over the past few weeks seem to have sparked this one.Read More
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Three Recent Publications
You can find three recent poems of mine online, thanks to editors Edward Byrne at Valparaiso Poetry Review and Robert S. King at FutureCycle Poetry. And Linh Dinh recently found room for three short homages to Kobayashi Issa on The Lower Half.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 6
In an earlier post I wondered, “Can poetry address a historical moment in the moment?” Hermagoras, in the comment stream, cited Thomas Kinsella’s “in the moment” poem entitled “Butcher’s Dozen: A Lesson for the Octave of Widgery,” about the Bloody Sunday slaughter perpetrated by British troops in Derry, Ireland. Hermagoras pointed out that the poem was “written, printed, and distributed eight days after the publication of the Widgery Report exonerating the British forces for the … massacre.” Kinsella himself called the poem “doggerel,” but Hermagoras notes that “it holds up … remarkably well.” And I agree.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 5
I drafted this one back in August and began tinkering with it after the handing over of our banking system to the Paulson/Bernanke, who of course have been acting primarily to protect their bosses.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 4
I’m currently wandering in the weird limbo that is the aftermath of finishing (put that word in quotes) a long poem (27 pages in manuscript) that has consumed, off and on, nearly three years of my life. There were many other short poems along the way—sprints in the midst of the marathon—but now I feel pretty much out of ideas. Such times always send me back to my notebooks. Two thirds of what I write never leaves them, for good reason.Read More
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A New Poem Winging Toward Your Computer Screen…SPLAT!
A new poem of mine has arrived in the beautiful new issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review online.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook
ODE TO CONNIE FRANCIS AS THE U.S. BANKING SYSTEM COLLAPSES In the midst of a typicallyAmerican money crisis,in which we allall of a sudden findslippery strangersin the Capitoland in our ownbathroom mirrors,Linh Dinh—a poetborn in a far-offcountry ravagedby one of our mostfamous wars—postson his blog a blurryslide show: gorgeousold-time photosof Connie Francis;they parade before usas she bitter-sweetlysings.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook Poem Wordle-ized
Now this is fun: my “Blogger’s Notebook” poem “The Things That Carried Them” as graphically transformed on Wordle. I posted the original on this blog some time ago.Read More