This essay originally appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of Poetry Magazine. If you were compiling a list of Places Appropriate for Poetic Thoughts, the beach probably would rank somewhere near the top, on par with “in a dark wood” and well above “in an Outback Steakhouse.” … [Read more...]
Poetry And, Of, and About
The anthology on my desk is titled Poetry of the Law: From Chaucer to the Present, edited by David Kader (a law professor at Arizona State) and Michael Stanford (a public defender in Phoenix). I’m both a lawyer and a poetry critic, so asking me to discuss this book would seem to … [Read more...]
The Politics of Poetry
Shortly before Ohio's Democratic primary, Tom Buffenbarger, the head of the machinists' union and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, took to the stage at a Clinton rally in Youngstown to lay the wood to Barack Obama. "Give me a break!" snarled Buffenbarger, "I've got news for all … [Read more...]
Eight Takes: Winters, Whittier, Hollander, Lowell, Fearing, Rukeyser, Shapiro, Berryman
The American Poets Project is a series that aims to present “the most significant American poetry” written by poets who are, well, dead. (The lone exception to this rule is Samuel Menashe, whose richly deserved New and Selected Poems was published this year.) The series is … [Read more...]