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Asked and Answered
“Everyone is a poet at 16, but how many are poets at 50?” —Lawrence Ferlinghetti in an interview with Christopher Bollen.Read More
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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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If You Happen to Be in or around San Francisco…
I just got a copy of this one, translated by my friend and mentor George McWhirter, who also edited (with Betty Ferber) Aridjis’s Eyes to See Otherwise (Ojos de otro mirar): Selected Poems 1960-2000 Aridjis is wonderful! And George is a sensitive and inventive translator, so I’m looking forward to reading it in Mexico come mid-April….Read More
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Escapist
I’ve been silent awhile, mostly because I’ve had nothing of substance to say—a state I get into fairly frequently, truth be told. Prisoners in old movies would knot bed sheets together while painstakingly working the bars on their windows loose; in slightly less aged movies, prisoners work bricks free from a wall and spend years digging their way to freedom with a spoon. Me: I read books. Books and magazines and blogs. Eventually there’s a flash of hope: the bars come loose in my hands, or a streak of dusty light appears at the end of the tunnel.Read More
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Happy Birthday, Lawrence!
On Tuesday, March 24, Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 90. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “[San Francisco] Mayor Gavin Newsom has declared that March 24 will henceforth be called ‘Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day,’ in honor of his ‘enormous contributions to our city’s life and culture,’ while the bookstore staff invites everyone to send along birthday wishes, via e-mail, to: lfbirthday@citylights.com.” I first read Ferlinghetti in 1967.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. 
