I made a big mistake with this poem-elfing. As a rule, I don’t read other interpretations of poems I post, or if I do, I wait until I’ve done my own ruminating. But the internet is a big booby trap (as anyone who’s innocently searched on “lubricants” knows); and as I surfed for background […]
MoreNational Poetry Month, scheduled to begin today, April 1, has been cancelled due to lack of interest. “I’m disappointed,” said poetry fan Mary Hathway. “I was ready for some kick-ass parties.” Local libraries have cancelled poetry readings and contests. “Poem-a-day” apps for the iphone are still available but can only be downloaded once a week. […]
MoreThis weekend I saw the Korean film Poetry, written and directed by Lee Chang-dong. The movie follows Mija, an elderly woman just diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s. She lives with her louse of a grandson (as my friend labeled him) Wook, a lazy, affectless teenage boy who never thanks her for anything. Mija learns that […]
MoreFriendly By Carl Dennis The friendly way to explain the missing punch bowl Is to assume you loaned it to someone Who, by the time he thought of returning it, Had lost his job and moved to another city And loaned it to the hostess of a charity ball Who forgot the person she borrowed […]
MoreA few weeks after the Academy Awards comes another awards event. Fortunately no one honored is in danger of being insulted by Ricky Gervais. A perk of not being alive. Inspired by a New York Times list of the top ten composers of all time (Bach, not Mozart headed that controversial list), University of […]
MoreI Want to Breathe by James Laughlin I want to breathe – you in I’m not talking about perfume or even the sweet odour – of your skin but of the air itself I want to share – your air inhaling what you exhale I’d like to be that – close two of us breathing […]
MoreTomorrow, March 8, is Fat Tuesday, a single day of excess before forty days of sacrifice and deprivation. Here in Michigan the holiday is called Pazcki Day in honor of the jelly doughnuts everyone gobbles down. But not for me. The day I say It’s Pazcki Day! instead of Yes, I’m eating five Peppermint Patties […]
MoreMy pictures could have been more artful. But there I was, loitering in front of the frozen food cases, pretending to read the ingredients in a chicken pot pie, waiting for the aisle to empty, getting more nervous and paranoid by the second. I felt like I was doing something offensive to my fellow […]
MoreI gave up writing rhymed poetry a long time ago. In grade school I composed limericks about other people at recess (not an avenue to popularity, believe me); in college I once wrote a truly awful sonnet that included the word “manacle,” and to my everlasting shame, I entered it in a poetry contest. […]
MoreWhen You Are Old by William Butler Yeats When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of […]
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