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Waiting for the Barbarians: A Sequel
This poem is an updated and repurposed version of “Waiting for the Barbarians,” by C. P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley. Read it here.Read More
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Adventures in Reading 2018
Old Reading Room at BookBar (Photo: Tricia M.) Let me admit up front that I’ve included half a dozen books here that were read as part of my work with the Professional Creative Writing program at University College. But they all turned out to be worthwhile reading experiences. Even those I couldn’t quite connect with—Juan Gelman’s The Poems of Sidney West, Ben Lerner’s Angle of Yaw, and Adonis’s powerful Concerto al-Quds, which is also recondite and nakedly anguished by turns—continue to haunt me. This is usually an early indicator of re-readings in the offing.Read More
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My Year in Books (2017)
This year’s list is longer than usual, in part because I created two literature courses for the Professional Creative Writing program I direct at D.U.’s University College, a process that entailed lots of reading.Read More
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Poetry Month 2016: Constantine Cavafy
The First Step The young poet Evmenis complained one day to Theocritos: “I have been writing for two years now and I have composed just one idyll. It’s my only completed work. I see, sadly, that the ladder of Poetry is tall, extremely tall; and from this first step I now stand on I will never climb any higher.” Theocritos replied: “Words like that are improper, blasphemous. Just to be on the first step should make you happy and proud. To have come this far is no small achievement: what you have done is a glorious thing.Read More
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Out and Back to Ithaka
Startling and yet imaginatively right to see images of the Southwest here. Are those Anasazi cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde or Canyon de Chelly? Powerful images in any case. And the resonant voice of Sean Connery leading us from one to another, borne along by the current of Vangelis’s music. Lovely! The translation is uncredited on YouTube but is by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. It’s available in The Essential Cavafy and at various locations online, including the amazing C. P. Cavafy site.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. 
