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Legions of the Sun—Now Available
The companion anthology to “War of Words” is now available.Read More
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Legions of the Sun
Good news! The companion anthology to “War of Words,” Legions of the Sun, has arrived just in time for you to purchase it at the event! The book includes all the poems performed in “War of Words” as well as poems about WWI but written later. The latter section includes work from the immediate post-war (Jeffers, Pound, Eliot, Cummings and more) along with poems about the war by more recent poets, ranging from Louise Bogan, Archibald MacLeish, and Yehuda Amichai to Thomas Lux, Nicholas Samaras, Robert Cooperman, and Kierstin Bridger.Read More
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Poetry Month 2016: Sappho
Yes, Atthis, you may be sure… Even in Sardis Anactoria will think often of us of the life we shared here, when you seemed the Goddess incarnate to her and your singing pleased her best Now among Lydian women she in her turn stands first as the red- fingered moon rising at sunset takes precedence over stars around her; her light spreads equally on the salt sea and fields thick with bloom Delicious dew pours down to freshen roses, delicate thyme and blossoming sweet clover; she wanders aimlessly, thinking of gentle Atthis, her heart hanging heavy with longing in her…Read More
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Stirring the Fire: Artistic Wisdom from Denise Levertov
I’ve lately been rereading Denise Levertov—always a refreshing pleasure. Here’s the poetic preface to her 1959 collection, her third book, With Eyes at the Back of Our Heads. The poem is a translation from the Spanish poem “El Artista,” which itself is a translation from the original Toltec poem, “Toltecatl,” written in Nahuatl probably between the 10th and 12th centuries CE. THE ARTIST The artist: disciple, abundant, multiple, restless. The true artist: capable, practicing, skillful; maintains dialogue with his heart, meets things with his mind.Read More
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Christopher I. Beckwith’s Empires of the Silk Road
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present by Christopher I. Beckwith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I can’t remember what led me to this book. I often read history, but not generally sweeping histories like this, which generally sacrifice depth for breadth. All I know is that I picked it up and found myself hooked from the Preface on. Beckwith has a magisterial command of his material and moves easily from bird’s-eye to ground-level views without losing track of the broader story.Read More
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WaPo Intern Pokes Poetry, Concludes It Is No Longer Living
On her aptly titled ComPost blog, Harvard grad and erstwhile pundit/humorist Alexandra Petri uses Richard Blanco as a footstool (much as Marlowe‘s Tamburlaine did the Emperor of the Turks) and from that elevation declaims her negative opinion of American poetry.Read More
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DiDiodato in Mexico
Conrad and Friend (perhapsa member of the Redwood Nation) Mexico, where we go (on the Caribbean coast of Yucatán), inspires concentration. We’re usually there in April or early May, around my sweetie’s Yoga Fiesta—and where we stay (where we’ve stayed for 17 years now) is a quite, “boutique” hotel with a pool, a bar, a lending library, and hammocks scattered here and there in palapa shade and the shade of palm and almond trees.Read More
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Folderol Stew
Ever wonder why even the best American poetry draws so little attention from the public at large? There are lots of reasons, of course, but today’s sermon deals with just one: the dreadful quality of writing about poetry. Compare the 11,000 words Susan M. Schultz lavishes on Charles Bernstein here with the 3,850 words James Salter devotes here to Paul Hendrickson‘s new book on the last 27 years of Ernest Hemingway‘s life. Salter beguiles; he makes me want not only to read Hendrickson but to reread Hemingway.Read More
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On Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic
I’ve been struggling—let me admit it—to find a way to write about Ed Baker’s Stone Girl E-Pic. It’s a 515-page poetic adventure, the reading of which is like watching sparks thrown off by a fire: the fire’s below the rim of the firepit, so you can’t see it directly, but the climbing sparks, the waves of light and heat under a skyful of stars—this is the sensation Stone Girl produces.Read More
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Adios, Dizzy
We’ve had to let go of our 12-year-old Dalmatian, the second of two Dals—Mingus and Dizzy (after Charles and Gillespie)—that we rescued 11 years back. Mingus we said adios to three years ago; Dizzy, younger (by how much we don’t know) and more rambunctious, moved on this morning.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 17 books, including a translation of flash fictions by Mexican author Miguel Lupián, and co-edited two anthologies. He lives in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. He teaches at the University of Denver's University College, where he currently directs three programs: Professional Creative Writing, Arts & Culture Management, and Global Community Engagement. 
