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Bob Dylan Called This Kind of Thing a “Truth Attack”
We live, of course, in a nation addicted to lies. (Hence, Julian Assange is a “terrorist”, Obama a “Socialist”, etc.) Doubtless Bill Knott will be dumped on for this—and he does seem to confuse City Lights publications with New Directions, unless I misread his postscript—but the core of his post is (it seems to me) undeniable. How refreshing to know that someone has the courage to say so. In the midst of his attack, Knott notes that he continues to read Ferlinghetti “with admiration” and (presumably) Prévert, whose work I quoted here not long ago.Read More
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The Sound of the Poet
Poetry International Web has added a page to its vast and wonderful site called The Sound of the Poet. You can hear a variety of voices, including Carol Ann Duffy, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Wole Soyinka, and Pablo Neruda (reading “The Heights of Machu Picchu”).Read More
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Re: The Plumbline School
I was a bit surprised to receive an email from Henry Gould of The Plumbline School, inviting me (at the suggestion of Plumbline fellow Joseph Duemer) to join their circle. My response was essentially a reaction to the School’s self-definition, to wit: “Plumbline poetry” is provisionally defined here as poetry which exhibits a stylistic “mean between extremes”: understated, transparent, inclusive, objective. It avoids extremes of both the ponderous and the superficial; it shuns mannerism and facile ornamentation, on behalf of clarity and simplicity of presentation. It strives for mimesis rather than pantomime.Read More
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Pick Up the Phone!
Just finished reading Adrienne Rich’s excellent new collection, Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth (if you know of a better book title from the past year, I’d like to hear about it). Here’s an insightful review that gets to the heart of what makes this book, and Rich’s work overall, continually powerful and refreshing. Her sympathies reach far beyond feminism or politics in the narrow sense, and in the process produce a kind of poetry that seems to move beyond the subjective/objective, interior/exterior dichotomy by bearing witness to our historical/existential moment.Read More
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A Response to Christian Bök
Here’s a response to Christian Bök that I posted on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, for what it’s worth….Read More
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From ChilePoesía 2001
Poetry readings by and interviews with Alberto Blanco, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Antonio Cisneros.Read More
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No Bull Prizes
On his very entertaining blog, the wonderful poet Bill Knott posted his top 10 poet choices for the Nobel Prize. It’s a fun exercise! Here are my ten, in descending order of age (on the theory that we should honor them before they’re dead): Nicanor ParraAndrea ZanzottoCarolyn KizerW. S.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
