Commentary, Satire & Poetry
By John Frederick Kaufman PEN International is profiling four poets on World Poetry Day now being held either in prisons or under house arrest for dissenting against injustice through art and/or journalism: Aron Atabek of Kzakhstan, Liu Xia of China, Amanuel Asrat of Eitrea, Dareen Tatour detained by Israel. To see what you can do…
Continue reading ➞ To Honor Poetry on World Poetry Day, Help Imprisoned Poets Across the Globe
[JFK: An augury is an omen and this is a political poem because . . . today is Blake's birthday and the poem details connections, relationships ecological and human we too often, especially in the halls of power, fail to acknowledge. The first four lines are famous but we often neglect the rest of this…
By Rumple Oxbridge, The Pacific's radical rhymer, sometimes referred to as "rhymer-in-residence." I was going to say a little goes a long way but if I may be so bold why should any sex be sold? Watching nakedness cavort suggests it's just a spectator sport; sex is touching when eyes are closed-- open, it's just rubbing.
By John Frederick Kaufman Speaking of his poetry, here's what Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who died yesterday in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 84, told the Associated Press in an interview back in 2007: "I don't call it political poetry, I call it human rights poetry; the poetry which defends human conscience as the…
Continue reading ➞ The “Human Rights Poetry” of Yevgeny Yevtushenko Very Relevant Today
There are some things, like poetry, that cannot come easy if the thing is likely to last. Some advice: don't enter a building or a poem (or any long-term relationship) that is not carefully constructed for what you risk is deconstruction of all you thought you stood upon-- the present fails to slam the past and you fall until you…
Continue reading ➞ Resist the “Instapoets”: a quick poem for the young
Though perhaps only of interest to students of American literature, the death this past week of former UW-Milwaukee English professor Ihab Hassan made news because he is credited for creating the term "postmodernism" to describe a style of thinking and writing prominent in the latter half of the 20th century, say after the trauma of…
Continue reading ➞ Reflections on “postmodernism” upon the death of Professor Ihab Hassan
By Rumple Oxbridge (imaginary rhymer-in-residence) Without a witty lover sex is just a spasm, a reflex too clinical and brief, the climax prelude to a sleep or flight . . . This no wit in bed denies: a deft tongue is doubly prized.
Today's post comes to you via Guernica magazine and Indian poet, writer & scholar Manash Bhattacharjee. In his short essay, Bhattacharjee explains why Sartre was wrong to claim that only prose can properly address and provoke political improvement. Here's a brief excerpt: "Poetry and art contribute to political sensibility by not merely appealing to the senses, but also…
Continue reading ➞ Manash Bhattacharjee: How poetry & art express political commitment
By John Kaufman (Translated by Julia Dubnoff via The Divine Sappho) Some say an army of horsemen, some of footsoldiers, some of ships, is the fairest thing on the black earth, but I say it is what one loves. It's very easy to make this clear to everyone, for Helen, by far surpassing mortals in…
[A few lines for these times from Langston Hughes.] Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America. (Read the rest of the poem at the link below.) I, Too by Langston Hughes : The Poetry Foundation.
Here are two poems by the 19th Century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who was, for the record, a Unitarian pacifist who reluctantly supported the Civil War as the only way of ending slavery. Before the war, in 1845, he, along with his wife, Fanny, visited the Springfield Armory where guns were built and stored…
Continue reading ➞ For the Season: Longfellow’s poems of peace
American Life in Poetry: Column 505 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Stuart Kestenbaum is a Maine poet with a new book, Only Now, from Deerbrook Editions. In it are a number of thoughtful poems posed as prayers, and here’s an example: Prayer for Joy What was it we wanted to say anyhow, like today…
Continue reading ➞ “Prayer for Joy”: a poem by Stuart Kestenbaum via American Life in Poetry
(Here's a link to a printed copy of Whittier's poem, published in a newspaper called the Signal of Liberty in 1842.) Most days I am of two minds, a state of being I'm sure I share with many other people: should I try to save the world, or a small part of it, through a prosy speaking out (evidence…
If you are not familiar with Marilynne Robinson's fiction and essays, you would do well to view this video from Moyers' interview with her and, most importantly, read her books.
Welcome to American Life in Poetry. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org. ****************************** American Life in Poetry: Column 498 BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE Here’s a lovely poem for this lovely month, by Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan. Early…
Continue reading ➞ American Life in Poetry Column 498 by Ted Kooser
[Today I'm pleased to present three new poems by Australian poet Rebecca Kylie Law. The poems were submitted to The Afternoon Journal and are published for the first time. Please note the copyright: All rights reserved.] For St Francis of Paola, Hermit In the afternoon becoming night, noticing small ribbed shells the…
April is National Poetry Month, and for the next few weeks the art of poetry will be celebrated across the nation in ways that may help Americans to better appreciate it. But the one place Americans are not likely to come across a complete poem this April or any other month is in an American…
Continue reading ➞ Mending the Wall: American Media and Poetry
