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A Blogger’s Notebook 17
Uncles Uncle Walt drank German beer, Uncle Wystan whiskey.Uncle Dylan drank whatever made his tongue feel frisky. Uncle Pablo savored eels; Uncle Osip, stones.Uncle Seamus—cabbage and sloes boiled with marrow bones. Uncle Willie dreamed in a tower, Uncle Rob in a shack.Uncle Wally dreamed at the office of peignoirs and birds that were black. Uncle Bill loved many women, Uncle Frank loved men.Uncle Jack loved anyone who’d stimulate his pen. These and other uncles come to visit once a year.We munch a roasted bird with them; they toast themselves and cheer.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 16
CONCEPTUAL WRITING In the chipped blue bowl there are snippets of lettuce brown at the edges with an oysterish slime. Tough tomato wedges the color of sun-bleached orange plastic. Deliquescent cucumber slices. Carrot shreds curled and dry as the armpit hair of a circus strongman. Dressing the consistency of industrial sludge. We’re hungry but reluctant and in the end don’t bother taking a bite.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 15
Poem Beginning with Two Lines from Montag “Poetrybears repeating”because it bears onand bears upwhat we can’t bearto losebut will—unless I’ve entirelylost my bearings.Read More
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Friday Notebook 09.02.11
Leonardo Sciascia, in the final novella collected in Open Doors, “1912 + 1,” explains a point of timing in the testimony of the case he is describing: When he [the witness] says “one night at about two,” he would, in those days [1913], have been understood by everyone to mean two hours after Avemaria and not, as now, two hours after midnight. Then—and indeed until well beyond my childhood—the day was not divided civically, as it were, by clock-tower chimes but ecclesiastically, by the ringing of church bells: Salveregina, Noon, Vespers, Avemaria, and the Second Hour of the night.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 13
ANOTHER PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING BOOK OF POEMS I don’t know which is more humiliating. That I read itstraight through in one sitting, grinning and grievingin all the right places.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 12
The following found poem stitches together 19 headlines from ads for MFA programs published in the January / February 2010 issue of Poets and Writers—an issue focused on “inspiration.” Each discreet sentence is a headline; those presented as parenthetical statements are, of course, not in parentheses in the ads themselves. The headlines appear in the same order as the ads appear in the publication. To Writing Programs: A Canticle This way, that way, that way, this, Here and there a fresh love is.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 11
GOD OF THE INVISIBLE HAND swift Hermes herald of the godsartful cunning cattle rustlergod of roads and border crossingspatron of traders liars thievesdiscloser of meanings bringer of dreamsconductor of souls to the underworld small wonder the invisible handflowers before you treacherousgod of cattle futures and hedge fundsderivatives and algorithmic tradingJon Green suits golden parachutes“good wars” and terror alerts a radio pundit Freudian slipped“Blood is the money that runsthrough our system” O Hermesyou narrow fellow in the grassthe dreams you bring are dark dreamsthe news you deliver stinks…Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 10
Herewith the reason I finally had to learn how to pronounce “Wittgenstein” (see my previous post).Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 9
NO CHOICE He intends only his own gain, and he is in this […] led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. —Adam Smith The dangling puppetknows it’s a puppet.Is proudof being a puppet.Praises the strengthof that InvisibleHand up therewithout ever asking,“Whose hand?” The puppet—bound to the Handby tough strings(once jute or cotton,now nylon, even steel)—bows, struts, prances,doggedly marches,collapsesin a heap; thenresurrects to applausefrom the audience:also puppets.Read More
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A Blogger’s Notebook 8
THE PH.D.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. 
