Month: december 2017

Reading: The Calves Not Chosen by Linda Gregg
Linda Gregg (b. 1942) lives in New York. The biography on Poetry Foundation only mentions the many awards she won and we don't really care about awards. I found a poem of hers that I find interesting. Here goes: The calves not chosen The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw, dark and fast. The orphan heart cries out, ...
Twee homunculussen
Twee homunculussen: de jouwe en de mijne lopen hand in hand, ze verwaarlozen hun werk, Cartesius lachen ze uit ze geloven niet meer in de kerk van onze lijven, slaan een luid akkoord op het orgel aan, opdat wij dronken vrijen met elkaar, en zij zich kunnen bevrijden van ons, hun apenpaar
"Religions are big slow poems, while most poems are short, fast religions." - Les Murray
Reading: What Marked Tom by Tyehimba Jess
Tyehimba Jess (b. 1965) is the winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for his poetry book 'Olio'. Born in Detroit, he currently teaches at the College of Staten Island in New York City. I was impressed with some pages of Olio, a complex and beautiful poetic journey into the life of African American performers from the Civil ...
Reading: Ellis Island by Peter Balakian
Today I read a poem from Armenian-American poet Peter Balakian (b. 1951). He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2016 and has been vocal about never forgetting the 1909 Armenian Genocide (death and expulsion of 1.5 million people in what was then the Ottoman Empire). Here's a poem called Ellis Island, the island of ...
Reading: Lydia You Old Whore by Leonard Nathan
Leonard Nathan (1924-2007), a fine poet and translator who was an important figure at the University of Berkeley, California. I read a graphic poem about the oldest profession because I found something appealing in its language: Lydia, you old whore after Horace Loaded, pubic boys no longer tap Your windows with their palms and beg ...
The venerated veal reared to reveal a real venereal ordeal.
Reading: A Dirge by Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was an American poet and Trappist monk in Kentucky who published over 70 books including a very popular autobiography. I selected a poem about the victims of war (Merton was a social activist) because I like its powerful language: A dirge Some one who hears the bugle neigh will know How cold ...