The Poetry of America’s Best and the Brightest The Poetry of America’s Best and the Brightest
The students at Bunker Hill Community College may have difficult lives. But the best are as bright as any Ivy Leaguer.
Sep 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Wick Sloane
‘Poem about My Rights’: Todd Akin, Meet June Jordan ‘Poem about My Rights’: Todd Akin, Meet June Jordan
Todd Akin, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan all have me thinking of June Jordan’s great “Poem about My Rights.”
Aug 22, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Laura Flanders
The Reaches of Stringency: On Philip Larkin The Reaches of Stringency: On Philip Larkin
Self-congratulation, deceptions and the art of failure.
Aug 8, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
Impossible to Tell: On Robert Pinsky Impossible to Tell: On Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky’s Selected Poems shows that being popular doesn't entail being predictable.
Jun 25, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Bass
Among the Tufted Canes: Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry Among the Tufted Canes: Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry
Geoffrey Brock’s anthology of twentieth-century Italian poetry offers the risk of a counter-eloquence.
Apr 11, 2012 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Adrienne Rich’s Touch Was Political Adrienne Rich’s Touch Was Political
A poet passionately engaged with writing and politics, she said "art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage."
Mar 29, 2012 / Books & the Arts / John Nichols
‘I am not myself’ ‘I am not myself’
I’m severely everyone & it hurts if I’m sick you’ll take care of me? “Oh, yeah sure of course.”
Mar 27, 2012 / Books & the Arts / John Coletti
Wislawa Szymborska, 1923–2012 Wislawa Szymborska, 1923–2012
The great Polish poet disclaimed grand political schemes in favor of irony, wit, skepticism and the individual.
Feb 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt
Anxious and Paralyzed: On Spahr, Gordon, Moschovakis and Ossip Anxious and Paralyzed: On Spahr, Gordon, Moschovakis and Ossip
Books by four poets about big modern systems whose results and failures seem inescapable.
Jan 4, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Burt
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Rita Dove's Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry.
Nov 2, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Bass