May 2008
New poems by Spencer Reece, Jane Hirshfield, Seth Abramson, Liz Waldner, Sandra M. Gilbert, Cathy Park Hong, and others; notebook by Eavan Boland; exchange between Cate Marvin and Joshua Mehigan, and more!
COVER STORY
Rudy Can’t Fail
"Where the photographs insist on a tension between figure and ground, an excited, impassive inside-joke feeling, the films dissipate that tension, amassing beautiful and silly details en route to the sublime." Jordan Davis discusses the poetics of Rudy Burckhardt's photography and film.
MORE FEATURES
Photo FinnishBY Jana Prikryl
The snapshot poems of Henry Parland.
Verse by the YardBY Izzy Grinspan
The longest poem in the world will be written by horny robots.
Over the MoonBY Valerie Trueblood
Colleen McElroy's women go on and on, courageous and grim.
Structure Is StructureLydia Davis interviewed by Jason McBride
Fiction writer and Proust translator Lydia Davis takes on a Catalan carol.
“Every Tool Became a Weapon”YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA INTERVIEWED BY TOD MARSHALL
Talking with Yusef Komunyakaa about race and war.
“How Do You Like Your World?”BY Travis Nichols
The Zen of Philip Whalen.
Diversity Then! BY Paul La Farge
Frenchmen Félix Fénéon and Victor Segalen looked to crime and China for inspiration.
To Write About the ButtonBY Rachel Aviv
The late short-story wizard Grace Paley began and ended her long writing career as a poet.
Post-apocalypse, Poetry, and Robots Matthea Harvey interviewed by Jeannine Hall Gailey
A conversation with Matthea Harvey about Modern Life.
Hillary Clinton’s Poetry ChallengeBY Alexander Provan
The candidate grapples with the "art of making possible."
Confronting the WarplandBY Ed Herrmann
Black poets of Chicago: a radio documentary.
The Poem as Comic Strip #6By R. Kikuo Johnson and A.E. Stallings
Another graphic novelist let loose in our archive.
Valentine's PoemsBY The Editors
Great love poems to share.
Gogol NewsBY Jessica Winter
Introducing My Nose and Me, winner of the Poetry Foundation's first Verse Drama Prize.
The Long GoodbyeBY Ben Ehrenreich
In which our reporter falls for Frank Stanford's poetry, heads for the lost roads of Arkansas, and searches for the man behind the myth.
In a Barbie WorldDavid Trinidad interviewed by Richard Siken
On shame, empowerment, and why the clothes are as important as the dolls themselves.
Ah, MemoriesBY The Editors
Our favorite reads, listens, and looks of 2007.
Beach ReadingBY Troy Jollimore
The pleasures of Robert Hass's criticism.
From Poetry Front Man to Award WinnerRobert Hass interviewed by John Freeman
On the echo chamber of writing and reading poetry.
More than Mother Gooseby Julie Danielson and Eisha Prather
Poems for the kids in your life.
FEATURES FROM POETRY
Islands Apart: A Notebook
BY EAVAN BOLAND
There has been a gradual, perhaps calcifying professionalism which requires of a poet a standard of behavior and communality which poets were once exempted from. I was never uncritical of that exemption. But now, somehow, I wish I saw more of it.
Curious Specimens: An Exchange
BY CATE MARVIN & JOSHUA MEHIGAN
When I am allowed to look in on the haphazard and dangerous moments of decision making, well, that is when I find a poem to be most alive.
Islands Apart: A Notebook
BY EAVAN BOLAND
There has been a gradual, perhaps calcifying professionalism which requires of a poet a standard of behavior and communality which poets were once exempted from. I was never uncritical of that exemption. But now, somehow, I wish I saw more of it.
Curious Specimens: An Exchange
BY CATE MARVIN & JOSHUA MEHIGAN
When I am allowed to look in on the haphazard and dangerous moments of decision making, well, that is when I find a poem to be most alive.
American Perspectives:
Edward Hirsch
Thursday, May 15
6:00 PM