Tag Archives: poems

FOUND POEM

Posted on September 9, 2014 by

Somebody on Crenshaw Hit on a bicycle And they are dead.

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Life

Posted on August 29, 2013 by

The eagle flies, the crows perch. The eagle craps on the crows’ perch.

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An Interview with Charles Hood

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

__________ Poet and photographer Charles Hood’s most recent book, South x South, based on a trip he made to Antarctica in 2011, has just been published by Ohio University Press (2013). Jordan Davis, poetry editor of The Nation, writes the … Continue reading →

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Emily Dickinson’s Poem, “My Life had stood–a Loaded Gun–“

Posted on May 8, 2013 by

I’d like to offer an existentialist interpretation of Emily Dickinson’s famously perplexing poem, “My Life had stood–A Loaded Gun–” (poem 754 in her collected works). Here’s the poem: My Life had stood–a Loaded Gun– In Corners–till a Day The Owner … Continue reading →

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Sharon Olds in High Form

Posted on April 9, 2013 by
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Have You Lived Today?

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

If so, I suppose that would mean that you: did something novel as opposed to habitual; slowed down and noticed things; thought; loved; valued; took some risks; and either identified with Dionysus or channeled with discipline your Dionysian energies into … Continue reading →

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Narrative is Good for You

Posted on December 22, 2012 by

That’s the thesis of classicist, philosopher, and legal scholar Martha Nussbaum (b. 1947) in her essay, “The Narrative Imagination” (1997). How is it good for you? On Nussbaum’s account, it expands and trains your noticing, theorizing, and moral capacities. Here’s a … Continue reading →

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The Reelection Of Barack Obama (A Poem)

Posted on November 18, 2012 by

Sunrise, seven November, the seventh day. Rest. Gumby, pushing sixty, Enters his yoga studio by the glass door, gliding slowly. Pokey, waiting in Corpse Pose, says, I voted Romney. Big Gum: I did too. At the back window A bat leaves its cave, circles tightly, … Continue reading →

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The Inner Lives of Conservatives in Literature

Posted on November 6, 2012 by

When Mitt Romney loses the election today (as he almost certainly will), where in literature, aside from the Bible, might conservatives go to process that loss? James McGirk sees that processing coming most characteristically from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957). … Continue reading →

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The Man with the Hoe (Millet’s Painting and Markham’s Poem)

Posted on April 28, 2012 by

In the late 1890s, Edwin Markham was visiting San Francisco and found himself awestruck by Millet’s painting of “The Man with the Hoe” (which now resides as part of the permanent collection of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, if … Continue reading →

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Adrienne Rich Reading, “What Kind of Times Are These”

Posted on April 19, 2012 by
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Reading the Poem, “Advice for Dying Fathers,” at Butler’s Coffee

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

On Friday night, one of my poet friends (Niccelle Davis) took a picture of me reading a poem to an audience at Butler’s Coffee in Palmdale, California, and posted it at her blog. I didn’t look too fat, so I asked her … Continue reading →

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A Poem for the New Year: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ring out, wild bells”

Posted on January 1, 2012 by

From In Memoriam (106), by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the … Continue reading →

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Fall Poem: Actor Ralph Richardson Reads John Keats’ “Ode to Autumn” After Reflecting on Old Age and Death

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

Ralph Richardson died in 1983 at the age of 81, so this clip is from the mid-1970s.

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The Religion Tree

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

Using the metaphor of a tree, in the following poem I try to boil down the essence of the human predicament (which I take to be suffering, change, and death) and the response of each major religion to it (including the atheist … Continue reading →

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Charles Hood’s Poem, “What Still Needs To Be Done”

Posted on September 9, 2011 by

Charles Hood recently sent me one of his poems, and I asked him if I could put it on my blog. He said yes. A compulsive explorer of details, Charles Hood’s poems tend to be characteristically long (see here and here), … Continue reading →

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The Problem of Pure Consciousness

Posted on June 29, 2011 by

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              . Sunlight rivers through the shimmering  Sycamore tree, pools on the ground, Makes of shadow a living shoreline.  I vibrate there. The juggler’s balls are Frightfully high in the rarified air. Eight Sheriff’s deputies in four cars came, but They did … Continue reading →

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Advice for Dying Fathers (Contra Dylan Thomas)

Posted on June 27, 2011 by

_____ Leaves cling, do not go gently, but go just The same. The signal is yellow; the alive Are always downcast before being cast down. Look! The green team winning all summer Is starting to lose badly, going bald in The stunning … Continue reading →

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Catnip for Poetry Readers: T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” Gets an iPad App That Breaks New Ground

Posted on June 20, 2011 by

The iPad app for T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” is $13.95, which is a bit pricey as apps go, but what a bargain for poetry lovers! I downloaded it yesterday and started to play with it. The app really represents the … Continue reading →

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What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Posted on January 12, 2011 by

Charles Hood’s photo essay on how places, when we travel, are “supposed” to look (as opposed to how they actually do look) put me in mind of the following Christina Rossetti poem meditating upon the inharmonies of existence. It appears to be addressed to … Continue reading →

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