Britain’s Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has commissioned some war poetry for today as the Afghan war rages and the official inquiry into the Iraq War begins.

Joel Brouwer commemorates the 25th anniversary of the “What Is a Poet?” symposium held in Tuscaloosa Alabama in 1984.

A. S. Maulacci: “To be quite candid, I don’t see the point in poetry that reveals or revels in the poet’s unhealthy sexual preferences. I would find a poem about rape or sexual abuse to be repugnant, no matter how perfect its technique. Similarly, poetry about the mind of a psychopath, a vampire, or a serial killer would be highly offensive to my sensibilities.” How nice for him.

Linebreak has a new poetry news aggregator named Swindle. They can use some more sources, so if you have a blog or site that could use some more exposure, contact them. Same thing goes for us.

Finally, this isn’t strictly poetry related, but our condolences to the family of E. Lynn Harris, who died unexpectedly on Thursday.