-
What Age is Worth
Years ago I discovered Ausonius in Helen Waddell‘s wonderful book The Wandering Scholars. (See the first part of my earlier post.) Although I took three semesters of Latin in high school, I promptly forgot most of it, and so my effort to translate the Ausonius epigram below relied on a Latin dictionary and a Loeb Library translation by Hugh G. Evelyn White.Read More
-
Lois Hayna and the Strangeness of Beauty Perfected
I am thrilled to let everyone know that my friend and fellow poet Lois Hayna has been awarded the Colorado Authors’ League’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations, Lois! I first met Lois when she joined a poetry workshop I taught for now defunct Rocky Mountain Writers Guild back in the mid-1970s.Read More
-
Robert Bly at 86
Laurie Hertzel of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune paints a tender portrait of Robert Bly reading last week at the University of Minnesota, with some assistance from his friend and fellow poet Thomas R. Smith. Bly’s new book, Stealing Sugar From the Castle: Selected and New Poems 1950-2013, almost (unbelievably) escaped my notice, but my copy is on the way. I’ve noted before the influence Bly had on me when I was first trying to write poems.Read More
-
Vanessa Sells Out
Let me see: what could I lay before you to concretize the acedia that characterizes Conceptual writing? Well, how about this: Yes, as trumpeted by both conceptualist “author” Vanessa Place and her dopey-eyed peeps at Harriet, Place’s … well, what it is? a “book”? a “work of art”? … let’s just say “latest release” (such as one might enjoy some onanistic evening while pondering the idea of a canvas Duchamp had sense enough never to paint: “Nude Barthes Descending Staircase”)…; to reprise mid-sentence, Vanessa Place, lawyer and con-woman, managed to “sell out” (are we surprised?) this work (is it fair to…Read More
-
W. S. Merwin on Being Sure
W. S. Merwin (top) & John Berryman Berryman by W. S.Read More
-
An Observation
I’m no particular fan of Barnes &Noble, but we writers and readers need to contemplate what Amazon will do once all the brick and mortar stores have been driven out of business.Read More
-
The Best 10 Poetry Books of 2012
I’m talking, of course, about the books that came across my desk—a limiting factor because I almost never receive a “review copy.” (They’re always welcome, though!) I buy all but a handful of the books I read, so my reading is skewed by my own interests right up front. This unprofessional status frees me from the angst suffered by professional critics, according to Stephen Burt and Marjorie Perloff, as they fight to stay atop the wave of new poetry books that maliciously seeks to drown them.Read More
-
Adios, Jake Adam York
A sad day in more ways than one. First, President Obama’s powerful speech at the vigil for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. And then tonight the news that Jake Adam York passed away today from a massive stroke. Jake was just 40, a fine poet with three full-length books to his credit: Murder Ballads, A Murmuration of Starlings, and Persons Unknown. Each book evolved seamlessly from the one that went before. He was going from strength to strength, which many poets do not, and I always looked forward to reading his newest work.Read More
-
Krysl’s “Sutra”
Marilyn Krysl A beautiful poem by poet, fiction writer, and journalist Marilyn Krysl just went up on the Academy of American Poets Web site. It’s called “Sutra,” and it opens with these lines: Looking back now, I see I was dispassionate too often, dismissing the robin as common, and now can’t remember what robin song sounds like. Oh yes. I know that particular sense of regret.Read More
-
American Society: What Poets See
I’m happy to say that I have three poems in a new anthology from FutureCycle Press called American Society: What Poets See. It’s cleverly put together: Poets appear alphabetically with all their poems together; but a secondary table of contents groups poems by theme, and using it yields the heady experience of hopscotching through the collection. (I can’t wield that word without a nod to the great Julio Cortázar, whose Hopscotch broke this structural ground in 1963.) Here are the groups the editors, David Chorlton and Robert 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. 
