Poetry
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Viva Richard Blanco!
As of today the question of whether President Barack Obama or former Governor Mitt Romney won the Cuban vote in Florida, traditionally a solid Republican bloc, remains in dispute. Back in early November exit polls had the president with 51%.…
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Wikipedia Says It Will Pass by Diana Salier
Wikipedia is not to be trusted, at least not entirely. We all know this. (For a brief period in August of 2009 the first sentence of the “Trees” poet—“Poems are made by fools like me/ But only God can make…
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“Stingray Clapping” by Andrew Choate
Perhaps what is most thrilling about Stingray Clapping, Andrew Choate’s enigmatic collection of tonal, non-sequitur phrases, is that the book compels the reader to imagine the amoral absurdities of phrases not (yet) part of the cultural lexicon. In it, aphorisms…
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“American Mastodon” by Brad Ricca
Few poets choose to share poignant emotions with a cheeky smile and a sly wink. It is rare indeed when a poet manages to successfully blend comedy with genuine emotional insight, but that is exactly what Brad Ricca has accomplished…
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“Fancy Clapping” by Mark D. Dunn
How many contemporary Canadian poets can I name? Not many, which makes me feel stupid, especially since the books I have read by Canadian writers are so good. Mark Dunn is one of those writers. He’s also an accomplished singer-songwriter…
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Letter to An Imaginary Friend: Super-Sized Rockin’ Poetry
If Thomas McGrath were a painter, he would apply fat brushes to giant canvasses in complex color and texture. Gershwin’s gloss and the landscape of Copland are tame music compared to his. McGrath writes in the dissonance of Ives –…
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“Many Ways to Say It” by Eva Saulitis
In her first book of poetry, naturalist and award-winning essayist Eva Saulitis explores the web of connections between nature, science, language, and the continually opening territory of the self, where all of those topographies intersect and the individual must navigate…
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The Last Poem I Loved: She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo
Reading my own poetry feels like looking into a blurred old mirror at an antique shop. I can’t tell if I look good or pale and pasty. I can’t figure out if it’s my writing or my self-criticism that is…
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“Collected Poems” by Jack Kerouac
You know Jack Kerouac. Everyone knows Jack Kerouac. Father of the Beat generation, though he disliked that label, author of the free thinkers bible On the Road, culture maker, lover of the mad, and general all around badass. He receives…
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“Babel’s Moon” by Brandon Som
In the 2000 Chinese film, In the Mood for Love, an ancient story is shared that portends to secrets: if you have a burning secret, you must take it to the top a mountain.
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“To Keep Love Blurry” by Craig Morgan Teicher
Craig Morgan Teicher’s third collection To Keep Love Blurry calls attention to our formal and confessional roots in giants such as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Frost. Teicher’s wife, poet Brenda Shaughnessy (after whom he titled his first collection…
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Our Andromeda by Brenda Shaughnessy
In her new collection, Our Andromeda, Brenda Shaughnessy presents emotions at their most bare in experiences both familiar and alien—and alien sometimes in a literal sense as the speakers regularly shuttle to and from the Andromeda Galaxy, the galaxy closest…