Line tamer.
I heart the Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson. I was introduced to her work during grad school by my friend Suzanne Hancock (also from Canada and also an amazing poet; check out her Another Name for Bridge). I had heard much about Anne’s Autobiography of Red and Suzanne lent me her copy. I read it in Read More …
Just wanted to post some pics from the 2/9 Ear Inn Reading (thanks Maeghan!):
At first the method of repetition turned me off, but I soldiered on and halfway through I began to understand what Kincaid was up to and accept some of the repetition in the following ways: 1. A refrain or chorus that is repeated throughout, such as the repeating of Mr. Potter’s birth and death dates, Read More …
Happy Leap Day. So last night I attended the University of Michigan at Carnegie Hall concert thanks to some tickets from a new friend and colleague, Tom Wisniewski. We were in Box 1 on the first tier, practically part of the orchestra. I mused “this must be what it feels like to be Queen” as Read More …
A conversation started on GoodReads in response to my line “Remind me to destroy my fragments folder before I die” when I was commenting on Elizabeth Bishop’s Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box, the volume of fragments and unpublished poems Alice Quinn put together. It’s funny, some would argue that if a writer really didn’t want Read More …
I heard Michael Palmer read back when I was studying at Michigan. Perhaps I wasn’t ready for him then (that happens, that writers speak to you at different points in your life, even certain books speak to you differently when you read them again at another time, in another space, at another place in your Read More …
I was re-reading Raw Goods Inventory after seeing Emily at AWP earlier this month and have two new favorite poems: “The Toy Divine(s)” and “Less Art, More Monkeys” (in addition to my old time favorites: “Elephant,” “At the Sushi Arcade,” the title poem, and “Even Before Your Elbow Knocked Over the Glass.”) I’m biased as Emily Read More …
I’m often refreshed by poets who can handle humor effortlessly, especially when they know how to balance their tonal range through sequencing, as Beth Anne does: at times the poems are subdued and deadpan in their humor, at times situational where much hinges on a fabulous last line, sort of like a punch line, but Read More …
I stole this off Aimee’s shelf while I was cleaning her room this weekend. A favorite line: “After all…who is the greater artist, he who imagines the marvelous transformation, or he who marvelously transforms himself?” I often think something similar when I fantasize about my favorite superheroes…would I rather write their lives and stories, or Read More …
It snowed tonight. I forgot about the reflective glow of the snow at night under the street lamps, and even where there are no lights, the air illumined by that eerie rusty orange light, as if I were on Mars if Mars had an atmosphere that could support life, a sky with clouds that catch Read More …