: Dealing with health insurance is a healthy pain in the ass! And I have, truly, a good …
: Teaching starts tomorrow. Two syllabi down, one to go. I wish I were more excited.
: Four by Four is a curated list of four articles, four images, for pieces of music, and four things …
: This song, music and lyrics by the award winning composer David First with vocals by Yvette …
: The final installment of my series Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On? is now live on …
: “Subtext,” the second part of my series, Palestine and Israel: Whose Side Are You On?, …
: I’ve written a three part series called “Israel and Palestine: Whose Side Are You On?” “Part 1: …
: I’ve decided on two notebook projects for 2024. First, I bought a 5 year memory book from …
: My mother runs a dog rescue in New Jersey. These are pictures I’ve taken of her dogs over the …
: I put this out every two weeks: A curated list of articles, images, music, and some stuff about …
: From my wedding thirty years ago. My wife had no idea what to expect.
: This is quite an honor. It’s a post from Asymptote that one of the poems by Salvador Espriu that …
: I cried my last one for now.
: I had the deep pleasure of being interviewed about T’shuvah, my new book of poems, by Jaime …
: T’shuvah, my third book of poems, is now available for pre-order! The official release date is …
: This is me reading at the New York Poetry Festival from T’shuvah, my third book of poems, …
: Keeping me company while I work.
: I’m always interested to see where my translation are quoted.
: From The Parasite of Translation, by Johannes Göransson: If translating a poem is impossible …
: The hunt is on: I am, once again, an essayist in search of a conclusion.
: So we recently had a water leak in our apartment. They came and stripped away the paint and this …
: My Father’s Day gift from my son.
: Me at work in my son’s room, because we had to have work done in the room I use as an office …
: My grandparents had a country house where we spent summers when I was a kid. I remember my …
: After 14 student deaths, North Carolina State confronts a national crisis While I am unaware of …
: From Fletcher’s Field, by Derek Webster in @columba_poetry: All these years, I have lived as if a …
: Too many people fail to understand that responding to student writing—not just grading it, …
: The online journal EuropeNow has published five poems by the Catalan poet Salvador Espriu that Sonia …
: That feeling when a student you’ve bent over backwards for resorts to cheating on an assignment …
: What I’m listening to while I grade: It’s not really helping much!
: I had very strange dreams last night, but the only thing I remember is that the word …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #148
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #147
: Going through drawers I haven’t been in in a very long time, I found this, drawn by my friend …
: If I believed in a god, I would ask that diety to save me from grading. Just for today. Or maybe …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #146
: Sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, piece by piece, the jigsaw puzzle of this essay is …
: Teaching the sexual politics of Deaf Republic to students in Introduction to Literature–mostly …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #145
: Asymmetry: Wrote two paragraphs of what will be the concluding section of my essay. Now I need to …
: Symmetry: now that I’ve finished the novel I was reading, today’s task is to finish a …
: Finished reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 📚
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #144
: Just got my royalty statement from CavanKerry Press for 2022 for $3.84, which represents five copies …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #143
: Out of curiosity, anyone on here tried Spoutible?
: Even the parts of my first draft that I deleted, thinking them irrelevant, are finding their way …
: I’ve reached the point in the essay where I think what I’m saying is stupid obvious and I’m saying …
: A knot in prose represents a knot, logical and emotional, in the writer. Unraveling it usually means …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #142
: Sometimes patience is a writer’s most effective tool.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #141
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #140
: Finished reading: The First Warm Evening of the Year by Jamie M. Saul 📚 It’s supposed to be a …
: I wrote this today in a grant application. I think it’s worth sharing: According to …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #139
: And yet I seem able to cross post. These are coming from my micro.blog.
: Strange: Twitter said I exceeded my 2400 tweet limit for today. There is no way I sent that many …
: Interesting discussion at First Tuesdays last night about whether or not prose poetry is actually …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #138
: I drafted a pitch letter today for a book of translations from a language I don’t read or …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #137
: Sometimes it’s better if what is meant to be hidden from sight stays there.
: Given the size of my classes and how much writing I have to ask them to do, I always think when I …
: I’m teaching a full load for the first time in a very long time and I’m reminded how inhumane it is, …
: I did not sleep well and I have a very long day today.
: That unsettled feeling you carry around when the poem you’re working, or the essay or the …
: This quote from Borges’ The Book of Imaginary Beings made me laugh: “The pleasures of Paradise are …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #136
: First week of teaching at community college A student who wants to teach ESL; A student who informed the class she is homeless; A student who …
: Off to my second day of teaching. The first time I’m teaching a full load (plus one additional …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #135
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #134
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #133
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #132
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #131
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #130
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #129
: If you’re interested in seeing my Bookshelf Juxtapositions series to-date, click here
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #128
: Sometimes, watching mindless TV to keep from thinking just doesn’t work.
: Trying to figure out how to be, in my friend Elizabeth’s words, the loyal opposition when I …
: “Oppressive language does more than represent violence, it is violence; does more than represent the …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #127
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #126
: Adventures in Spam Just checked my spam folder, as I do every so often, and, apparently, Guillermo …
: I feel like I just traveled back in time submitting an essay pitch using an SASE. I hadn’t …
: That’s Beauty on my left and Gypsy in my lap. I’d take them both home in a heartbeat, if I could. I …
: I’d like to accomplish at least one of two things today: finish a grant application and …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #125
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #124
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #123
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #122
: Bookshelf Juxtaposition #121
: A Turkish student in one of my ESL classes gave me this as a gift more than twenty-five years ago. …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #120
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #119
: Playing with the edit function on my iPad.
: Because I’m tired of looking at the snow.
: When reframing a pitch helps you realize that the pitch itself needs to go to an entirely different …
: My weekend reading for the last two nights of Chanukah: Not finished yet. I just got to the …
: I don’t usually announce the publication of a review I’ve written, but, in light of what …
: Orchid on the fourth night against the skyline backdrop.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #118
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #117
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #116
: I think I took this is Sweden.
: I don’t remember when or where this picture was taken.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #115
: I liked these poems by Unoma Azuah in Isele Magazine
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #114
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #113
: From a long time ago: their names were Matisse and Colette.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #112
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #111
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #110
: “For me, imagination is synonymous with discovery. To imagine, to discover, to carry our bit …
: Birds on the roof across the street.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #109
: Perched high in a tree, a man chopped hard at the base of the branch where he was sitting. Looking …
: The largest samovar I’ve ever seen.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #108
: I like how the cat and the doll are giving off almost the exact same vibe. It’s just that the …
: Me and Mikey. I post this every so often. I miss him.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #107
: From the most recent issue of my newsletter: Regardless of their differing beliefs about abortion, …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #106
: My new newsletter is out: Being A Woman Is Not A Punishment: What’s At Stake For Men in The …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #105
: My father died on October 7 of this year. I’m not in mourning for him. I grieved “my dad”—which he …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #104
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #103
: From the next newsletter I am working on: It is a central tenet of unionism that an attack on one …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #102
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #101
: “[Adultery] promises no new beginnings, no second chance for monogamy, for the “good marriage” …
: “Modern masturbation is profane. It is not just something that putatively makes those who do …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #100
: “Grammar is no more than a logical organization for the presentation of thoughts and feelings. …
: Subliminal erotic messaging. Two prints from the hotel room we stayed in this past weekend.
: “I only desire one lover, yet I also desire infinite possibilities with this love.” …
: “In our quieter moments, Natasha told me about the men who had taken her picture. She hadn’t …
: Esopus Creek, in Saugerties, NY, lit up Thanksgiving night.
: Small Fundamental Essay What many people fail to understand about the art and science of mechanics …
: If the attack on reproductive rights is also an attack on women as workers, perhaps we should …
: “Circumcision, then, [according to the Midrash] completes a man and makes him ready for a …
: “Circumcision has the distinction of making sure that a [Jewish] man is never naked of God’s …
: “To witness the moment when pain causes a reversion to the pre-language of cries and groans is …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #99
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #98
: I search a face for obstacles to genocide I search beyond the dead and driven by imperfect visions …
: “But I also survived, in the years after my rescue and well into adulthood, by using my …
: Well before and well after 1712, the body was thought to suffer from bad behavior. Medicine had …
: On the sidewalk on 42nd Street, outside the New York Public Library.
: The Enlightenment project of liberation—the coming into adulthood of humanity—made the most secret, …
: Two passages from two different poems in Saadi’s Bustan that seem apt, given what’s …
: The most immediate reason to oppose laws like compulsory hejab or abortion prohibitions, of course, …
: Poetry can only be an exploration of ideology, not a means of expressing belief in it. Reluctant to …
: It’s not keeping track of multiple projects that gets to me; it’s resisting the …
: There can be no doubt that many poems—even many great poems—would gain by being translated into the …
: …the couplet was regarded as a plain, ordinary kind of verse, in contrast to the stanzaic …
: “[T]he paper makes a[n] argument for making college a public good, low-cost or even free for …
: Last week, I took part in PenParentis' monthly salon along with the wonderful writers Jessica DuLong …
: We must not cede the power to witness what is happening to us, to know how we are seen, to oversee …
: Marvin Świetlicki, from the introduction to his Poems, published in 2011, translated by Elżbieta …
: My bewilderment and rebellion before American education were enhanced by looking back to Chinese …
: The sexual dramas of white men have to do with not being able to resist the drives or struggling to …
: Watched the Kanye West episode of Impact: deals his antisemitic comments. Worth watching. One …
: Treat this world as if it were stranger, a musician with a new gig every day. –Saadi’s …
: “There is no more powerful position than that of being ‘just’ human. The claim to power is the …
: “The man who gives and takes judiciously draws the world behind him in his wake. Be that man; …
: From Saadi’s Bustan (my version): I garnered for myself fruit I did not eat; helpless as death …
: To be a man of God involves imagining oneself as a woman, at least when the divine-human …
: If the deity is the father writ large, then this divine masculinity is by no means simply a …
: If this were a fantasy novel, that leaf would be an omen of something.
: Once again, his body was the measure of all things: the cellar, his bowels; the roof, his scalp; the …
: If a unicorn and a butterfly had a child:
: “[I]f a work does not compel us, it is untranslatable…” –Yves Bonnefoy
: “Kids in distressed families are great repositories of silence and carry in their bodies whole …
: Yvor Winters to Marianne Moore urging her to publish a first book. Quoted in The First Book by Jesse …
: “The only true motive for putting poetry into a fresh language [translating it] must be to …
: “As a form of training…it is important that the poet develop a strong bond with life, to be …
: Revising the first edition of Saadi’s Bustan and finding all the beginner’s mistakes I …
: “The poet’s autonomy from the literary marketplace is presented not as an option but as …
: This is a very interesting essay about Jews’ relationship to Israel that is rooted in a truly …
: “Metaphor is a way to explode sequence.” –James Wood on Virginia Woolf in The …
: Thinking today, and I wish I weren’t, of the student in the section of Intro to Jewish …
: The arena of victory or of defeat? Tonight, for me, it was victory; last night, it was defeat.
: I needed this poem by Elizabeth Bishop today: Sonnet (1928) I am in need of music that would flow …
: Five years ago at my mother’s dog rescue.
: I am enjoying the way this poem is growing in increments and how, the richer and more complex it …
: I know I posted the picture from Korea just two days ago, but looking at it today and then looking …
: Yin and Yang. Actually, Mahtab (moonlight) and Leila (night). Sadly, neither cat is with us anymore.
: Me in my apartment in Seoul, Jugong Apartments, Building 112 #513, more than 30 years ago.
: Without context and without comment, from “Harper’s Findings,” March 2020: “In the past …
: Next book on the TBR shelf. The first poem, “Preface,” is a retelling of Adam and Eve that I need to …
: Down to one open poetry submission in Submittable. Whether it’s accepted or not, it’ll …
: An interesting detail I overlooked in the first edition of my translation of Saadi’s Bustan: …
: One more, “My Father Watches Michelle Obama Garden While Mama Cooks,” from Sadia …
: From “Sujui,” by Sadia Hassan’s, @blckrdaberry, chapbook Enumeration: The Tana River, red and …
: Finished reading: Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by …
: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I wrote this blog post almost ten years ago about …
: I’ve published work in four journals this year, two nominated me for Best of The Net: iambapoet and …
: Iran: At least 82 Baluchi protesters and bystanders killed in bloody crackdown - Amnesty …
: I had new author photos taken. The one I chose is now on Micro.blog, Twitter, and Facebook. It was, …
: The true poet gives up the self. The I of my poem is not me. It is the first person impersonal, it …
: In the annals of idiot things poets sometimes write: The mother goddesses of Crete were always …
: A thought for Yom Kippur: If you do not learn to love the questions, how will you ever learn to love …
: That feeling when you realize that the last three lines you’ve written are indeed the last …
: We become active readers of poetry only after learning to discover in it that which is conducive to …
: Working after 12 AM on a poem that has become an irreverant letter to a friend who died too young of …
: This is well worth reading: How the CIA failed Iranian spies in its secret war with Tehran
: It’s always the last few sentences, and especially the last one, that take the longest.
: I’ve reached the point in my life when it’s not hard to know what I want to say in an …
: Monday Morning Music The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin'
: If you’re looking for a really interesting read, try Spruce, Queen of Serpents, …
: Shanah Tovah! Sunset paints the sky, leaving the old year behind. Carry what you’ll need. …
: Shanah Tovah to all who celebrate! (Photo credit Megs Harrison)
: Fatemeh Keshavarz, writing about the 13th century poet Saadi, suggests that the eclectic nature of …
: Finished reading: Death Fugue by Sheng Keyi 📚A fascinating book, a dystopia, translated from Chinese …
: When you write what you think will be the first two paragraphs of the concluding section of a very …
: “From the late 1990s to 2014, Twenge found, drawing on data from the General Social Survey, …
: Monday Morning Music Earth, Wind & Fire - September
: From The Atlantic: Workism Is Making Americans Miserable “The economists of the early 20th …
: This is worth reading: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? “Curious, I asked my …
: It’s difficult to watch from afar as a problematic situation you care deeply about unfolds. …
: Just saw two poets at the corner of 6th Avenue and Central Park South with a typewriter and a sign: …
: I did not know that 68th Street near Hunter College had been named Audre Lord Way. I think that’s …
: Just went to use the bathroom in the library. No one was in the men’s room, but to get there, …
: I’m at the library, starting work on a second edition of translations I published 15 years ago. I …
: Monday Morning Music Roy Clark - Malagueña
: Last year, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, during my brief stint as acting president of my union, I …
: I think I took this near Seneca Lake, but I am not sure.
: “There is a concerted campaign afoot to delegitimize academia in the United States, one that too …
: On Chong-no 2-ga, Seoul, in 1988.
: Just because it’s a whiskey I like.
: And because I am almost always reading more than one book at a time, I’m also currently …
: Currently reading: The Moral Judgement of Butterflies by K. Eltinaé 📚. A lovely, powerful meditation …
: Monday Morning Music Woody Guthrie - Union Burying Ground
: “Love connects us to what is larger than us and to what is larger within us than we thought we …
: At The Planting Fields Arboretum in Nassau County yesterday.
: The same squirrel, ready to go dancing!
: Just playing with portrait mode and photo editing on my iPhone.
: This guy came to say hello while was sitting in the garden. I’ll take it as a sign of something. The …
: The cynicism in the right’s use of the concept of “grooming” to defend Don’t …
: The click, click, click of an essay’s logic falling into place; the ticking of the clock as …
: The way your ear has to shift when you move from revising poetry to revising prose.
: Digging today–to prepare for submission–into an essay that unpacks the first time I …
: I just love it when a poet–and one about whom I have, ahem, serious questions–gets in …
: Monday Morning Music Children of Sanchez
: “I wonder how it can be that global knowledge of these anticipated crimes—against …
: Took me almost an hour to find a parking space and now I need to unwind a bit before I go to bed…at …
: Flower Friday with butterfly
: Writing a poem can be therapeutic, but it is not therapy.
: First poem in Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. I remember reading it as a boy …
: Saw Bullet Train last night. It’s a stupid movie. It’s supposed to be a kind of satire, I guess, and …
: Monday Morning Music War Pigs
: Finished reading: It’s about Time by Barry Wallenstein 📚 Reading this book is like having an …
: Starting to put the publicity together for the First Tuesdays 2022-2023 season, the tenth since I …
: The clouds look like a mountain range behind Manhattan’s skyline.
: Sitting on my mother’s deck thinking about change. When it happens organically, it may be hard, but, …
: Casinos are places of such desperation. This is not a comment about people who enjoy gambling or who …
: Monday Morning Music Married To The Blues
: Me at Saadi’s tomb in Shiraz in 2008.
: Going through my photos the other day, I realized that the angle of my right arm in this one makes …
: From “Simplicity,” in Barry Wallenstein’s It’s About Time: the urge toward perfection belongs to the …
: from the lovely prose poem Shroud, by Erin Moure, published in @Columba: “…to set sail …
: A strange message to have hanging in a restaurant’s men’s room.
: Monday Morning Music Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right
: From “Calling it ruins,” by Precious Okpechi in Isele Magazine: say you paint me an image of the …
: Going through old papers, I found this. My business card from when I taught English in South Korea …
: From “Arthur Mitchell, by Marianne Moore: Slim dragon-fly/too rapid for the eye/ to cage…
: Just finished the first final draft of an 11,000 word essay. Next step: let it sit a bit and then …
: Currently reading: The Truffle Eye by Vaan Nguyen, translated from Hebrew by Adriana X. Jacobs 📚. …
: Two articles I happen to come across today at more or less the same time, without further comment: …
: Monday Morning Music Soul Man
: I’m happy to have in Cloudbank 16 a translation by Sonia Alland and myself of “The End …
: Monday Morning Music Which Side Are You On?
: I do not know the political or geographical specifics, but I identify with everything else about …
: Currently reading: Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories by Rebecca Harding Davis 📚
: Monday Morning Music The Bricklayer’s Song
: A lovely poem by Christina M. Rau, @ChristinaMRau, from What We Do To Make Us Whole.
: Me and Gypsy, two different moods. The white chihuahua in the back to the right in the one where …
: Watching someone being gaslit right in front of you and not being able to do anything about it—the …
: Continuing to make my way through Christina Rau’s What We Do To Make Us Whole …
: Clouds out the plane window looking like a landscape.
: Not that women’s bodies have ever not been a battleground under patriarchy, and acknowleding …
: Things I never thought I’d talk about in class: I’m teaching the Prologue to The Arabian …
: In Christina Rau’s What We Do To Make Us Whole, this is from “Taking Tea From …
: Finished reading: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres 📚. This will, I am sure, be an unpopular opinion, …
: Done grading for now. I am struck over and over again by the futility of the exercise when there are …
: Last one before I go back to grading. Two different shots of the same sculpture on a street in …
: They remind me of two old men having a cup of tea on a lazy afternoon.
: Posting some more pictures as a sort of “palate cleanser” while I grade. At the bazaar …
: Also from Persepolis. Not someone whose bad side you want to be on.
: Another one from the Grand Canyon
: Another break from grading: Norooz eggs from years and years ago.
: I’d rather be under that tree on a day like today than grading, and that’s true even …
: Make sure you get my good side.
: That’s fifteen-or-so-year-old me in my drum corps uniform. I played bass baritone bugle, and I …
: “Google is reportedly paying Apple upward of fifteen billion dollars a year to remain the …
: We met this guy in Iran, in the summer of 2008.
: One more of Mahtab and Aunt Gussie’s scultpure.
: I saw this on Twitter (h/t @StephenJFurlong) and it made me laugh out loud.
: When a poet’s explanations of the theory behind their work, or what they are trying to …
: This will be interesting to watch: Florida abortion ban violates religious freedom, lawsuit says - …
: I’m about a third of the way through a first pass at revising a 36 page essay and I just read …
: Currently reading: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres 📚: As an academic, as a poet, I am fascinated and …
: Liquor-cabinet-top still life.
: A sunflower in Darakeh, from our 2008 trip to Iran.
: One more from the Vasa Museum.
: This griffon, along with its twin on the opposite side of the gate you can see in the lower …
: I keep seeing calls for submissions, and I keep having to remind myself that I have right now only …
: From our 2016 trip to Sweden. I wish I had been more careful about keeping track of where I took …
: Through the screen, in the light of an early summer evening, the buildings looked like shadows of …
: To riff on Ezra Pound’s parody of the 13th century poem: Change is icumen in/Llhude sing Goddamn!
: By Farnaz Fatemi, from Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, edited by Christopher …
: Interesting discussion earlier about the politics in my local poetry community. No different than …
: Mahtob, whom we had to give up, staring out onto the street below, while my great-aunt …
: First taste of this tonight. It’s smooth and delicious, warm and warming. A drink to comfort a …
: It’s an odd feeling wanting not to get involved in something you’re trying to leave …
: What the Uvalde shooter did was monstrous. Calling him a monster, however, conveniently elides the …
: I recently had the pleasure of appearing on Arts Calling, Jaime Alejandro’s (@cruzfolio) …
: It was disappointing to read this piece about the great replacement conspiracy theory, What Oprah …
: The view from Walkway Over the Hudson.
: Maybe from the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay:
: I’d forgotten how literary Monty Python’s humor was.
: I don’t remember where I took this:
: A poem from my forthcoming manuscript with @PressFernwood was accepted today by a journal I’ve been …
: Where we live rewards volume.
: A market in Iran, Isfahan I believe, from our trip in 2008:
: When I am back in the classroom after my sabbatical, I am going to require the students in every …
: I thought technology was supposed to make life easier. Submitting final grades the way I have to do …
: To be savored one drop at a time…
: That sinking feeling you get when you find out a friend, someone whose art you respect, is an old …
: A poem from my first book, The Silence of Men, that should never have become as relevant as the …
: Holocaust Remembrance Day: it’s worth looking at every single image.
: It made me angry and very sad to read this: The AAUP Explains Antisemitism and Gets It Wrong, by …
: I just learned that May is Jewish American Heritage Month, that it has been so designated since …
: Contract signed and manuscript sent to Fernwood Press (@PressFernwood). Looking forward to the …
: Cody Peterson, from “Requiem For The Trees:” —If there were ever a truly holy war, this struggle–to …
: A Lit Match to Burn What Your Country Doesn’t Remember - The Offing, By THANH-TAM NGUYEN
: I think it’s classy when publishers I’ve written to withdrawing a book query or ms …
: Essay: What Is Poetry? - The New York Times
: Grading: I don’t think I have ever written “unclear meaning” or “I …
: I am grateful for the high school years I spent learning gemara every time I need to read contract …
: Getting a new car—buying or leasing—takes too damned long.
: The First Time I Told Someone, which took me nearly 30 years to write is up at @solsticelitmag. It …
: The conclusion to “Two Sisters,” by Safia Jama, @safiapoet, from Notes On Resilience: …
: from “You,” by Zeenit Jacobs – in Botsotso In two minds you were, wrestling under cool satin sheets …
: From Leaving in Four Parts, by Brandon Hamber: In a thousand invisible places A charcoal sketch …
: My friend Ronny, whose memorial is later this month, took this picture of my hands while I was …
: Blatant sexism last night at the First Tuesdays open mic. I called it out at the mic immediately …
: From The New York Times. The images in this article are gorgeous: Gazing at the ‘Black Sun’: The …
: Classroom teaching is sometimes pure improvisation, but not because you are not prepared. Precisely …
: From Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, by Simin Behbahani, translated by Farzaneh …
: You better get out of here before the storm hits, I repeated to Watson who just then produced a bag …
: Finished Revolution Of The Scavengers, by Henneh Kyereh Kwaku, which is one of the chapbooks in this …
: I run a reading series in my neighborhood called First Tuesdays. In February of 2020, just before …
: I just learned a new word: demisexual, someone who only feels sexually attracted to another person …
: Just had a very pleasant conversation with the manager of my campus bookstore. There is a …
: Another stack. This time they’re all books I own. I’m slowly starting to prep for my fall 22 …
: Grading, and I confess I am tired of students who, even after several reminders and even one-to-one …
: Went to AWP’s book fair yesterday. First time in ten years. Promised myself, I have backlog enough, …
: A Latina novelist spoke about white privilege. Students burned her book in response
: “A language is a dialect with an army.” —Dr. Aaron Carton I doubt Professor Carton—who …
: Grading pet peeve: Students who, with no apparent purpose in mind, switch tenses mulitple times in …
: Major grading peeve: When students write without confirming their memory of the plot or argue based …
: Thinking about this in the context of MFA-related threads and levels of MFA-related debt: Someone …
: Which makes me think it’d be interesting to write—maybe a blog post—about the one poem, from my …
: Every book of poems is uneven in places. In a good book, that uneveness is part of the pleasure: …
: “That’s when I saw: it was just one more leash.” voxpopulisphere.com
: Do American Jews speak a Jewish Language? A very interesting talk:
: Yes. Exit Plan – Michigan Quarterly Review
: I love it when a sequence of lessons comes together!
: I just published the latest issue of my newsletter: Standing With Ukraine Also Means Paying …
: Currently reading: A Slow Green Sleep by Jonathan Weinert 📚
: This is really good as well:
: This is an amazing jam. Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr and others on Funk #49.
: A question for people who use Academia.edu: Is the premium plan worth it? If you do find it worth …
: Currently reading: Secure Your Own Mask (White Pine Poetry Prize) by Shaindel Beers 📚 Closely …
: When the content of the book of poems you’re reading really matters and should be compelling, but …
: These were above our fireplace.
: Another flower from who-knows-when-or-where. I need to learn to keep track of when and where I take …
: “He who thinks for himself can never remain of the same mind.” —Herman Melville
: I do remember where I took this picture: in Iran, in 2008, when we were there for my …
: Another flower, from I also don’t remember where:
: A flower from I don’t remember where:
: ‘Christian veterans’ protest outside Jewish politician’s home as priest compares vaccine mandates to …
: This is somewhere in Sweden, but I don’t remember where:
: More from the L Line in New York City:
: The cover of my first book, The Silence of Men and the painting that Peter Cusak, who was designing …
: In a station on the L line of the New York City subway system.
: Writing, Ambition, and Language The beginning of James Wood’s essay on Melville (The Broken Estate, 26) got me thinking about what …
: I went through a period where I was taking pictures of flowers. These are from the Brooklyn …
: Yesterday, I received an SASE rejeciton. Took me back to when there was no Submittable, no email …
: My most recent book buying binge. Trying hard to read books I already own first, but when “found …
: I’m reading White Lung, by Kimberly O’Connor. For me, what’s most interesting are …
: “According to a report by the RAND Corporation last year, ‘nearly one in four teachers overall, and …
: Currently reading: White Lung by Kimberly O’Connor 📚
: If you’re in academia, you should read this thread regarding sexual harassment in Harvard’s …
: Given what coverage in the USA is like, and the embarrassing paucity of literary translation here, …
: Currently reading: Basic Needs by Vanessa Jimenez Gabb 📚
: Metaphors have their own internal logic and if you follow the logic of the metaphor, you will always …
: Took this in 2016 when I was in Edinburgh with my wife and son. The same place I ate at when I was …
: I am happy the Popular Cultural Association made this explicit statement against antisemitism. There …
: Scrolling through my photos, and I like these of the Three-Legged Buddha at Storm King Art Center in …
: 📚 Finished reading: Life Sciences, by Joy Sorman, translated by Lara Vergnaud. I’m interested …
: Stairway to Heaven is one of those songs that I think I’ve heard enough times to last a …
: More on Fear and Trembling: When Abraham presumes to drag Isaac along, he presumes to become as God …
: From notes I made to Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling more than 30 years ago: The problem with …
: Now that I’ve stepped down from my union position, readjusting to teaching a full load is proving, …
: ‘The Jew is the devil’ — Neo-Nazis rally in Florida - The Jerusalem Post Apparently, …
: I wonder if anyone would recognize me?
: They are best buddies at my mother’s dog rescue, Wilma’s Orphans, and I so wish I could …
: From a summer 2020 night walk in our garden: flowers in the lamp light near the building next to …
: America’s Parents Express Overwhelming Support for Teachers, Their Unions and Public Education
: In the 1990s, I had a side business doing freelance business-to-business corporate communications. I …
: ‘Maus’ Holocaust Novel Removed From Classrooms by School Board - The New York Times
: And now the campus internet is down to boot. Perfect way to end the first week of classes.
: I have my one remote class to teach today and the website that I need for the lesson seems to be …
: Short of physical exclusion, there is no surer way to tell someone they don’t belong than to …
: The most useful advice I was ever given about writing conclusions is that they should answer the …
: I don’t remember where I was when I took this picture, but I was surprised to learn that the …
: Boy did I have a lot of hair in 9th grade! And that’s me, not more than ten years later.
: From “The Inertia of Anxiety,” by Shuri Kido, tr by Tomoyuki Endo and Forrest Gander …
: “When it comes to language, all writers want to be billionaires. All long to possess so many …
: I’d rather be here than writing syllabi.
: Taking a break from writing a syllabus. These are from Storm King, a place where I find peace:
: Dog in the Night, by Pamela Painter, in Michigan Quarterly Review: “In every story’s evening and …
: Sometimes what counts as daily progress is only a sentence or two, but they’ve opened the door to …
: September of last year. This was a lovely day.
: A wonderful reimagining of Cinderella, by Stephanie Burt. In @MQR_tweets. Definitely worth reading.
: I’ve always been a “kinder, gentler” sort of teacher, but writing a kinder, gentler syllabus to …
: John Donne. What else is there to say? Talk about a haunting: The Apparition
: Tonight’s victory: A chicken dish–an Instant Pot chicken dish, no less–that my …
: The dog I would take home with me in a heartbeart if I could:
: The latest edition of my newsletter just went out.
: Definitely worth reading: I’m a Longtime Union Organizer. But I Had Never Seen Anything Like This
: I Think I’m Finally Figuring Out What I Want My Online Presence To Be I have stepped down from my position as one of the two vice presidents of my faculty union–a …
: Finished reading: Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky 📚
: A strange position to be in: Not writing new poems bc I’m prepping classes. I’ve time to …
: By Zishe Landau, from Voices Within The Ark, tr by Ruth Whitman: “Lately, brothers, I have a …
: I saw this on Twitter and it made me laugh out loud. “Twitter explained in 10 seconds:” twitter.com …
: Since I first started writing poetry as an undergraduate, my initial instinct has been to turn …
: Finished reading: The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition), translated by Husain Haddawy 📚 I’m …
: Mark Powell, in MQR: You experience certain things at a time when you’re really malleable and your …
: From “Here But Elsewhere,” by Bret Shepard, from MQR Winter 2022: “Christian’s …
: They caught the guy who’s been stealing unpublished manuscripts.
: I run First Tuesdays, a reading series in Queens, NY. First Tuesday of the month, September through …
: They spelled my name wrong, but this is publicity from the 1980s, when I played my one and only …
: This was a fun read: The Magpie of Superstitions, by Liam Hogan in @Contrary Magazine.
: Haunting. Three Hours in Central Pennsylvania, by Matt Barret. In @Contrary, same issue as my poem. …
: More worth reading from the Winter 2022 issue of @Contrary. From “How Deep In The …
: Contrary Magazine just published What Filled The Room, my first publication of 2022. It’s an …
: From The Gig Academy, by Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, and Daniel T. Scott: Universities’ need for …
: Monday Morning Music - Larkin Poe
: I read Robert Hayden as a young, aspiring poet in the 1980s. I haven’t read him since. This piece by …
: One more from Gray Latitudes, by Michelle K. Angwenyi, “I Hope You Can Dance Now:” “I hope you …
: By Alain Locke, From the first issue of Harlem magazine, November 1928 Via Book Post: Artistically it is the one fundamental question for us today.—Art or Propaganda. …
: Michelle K. Angwenyi, from Gray Latitudes: “one thing stays the same: lined paper written over on …
: I’m reading through my pile of literary journals. Aphorisms, even interesting ones, even profound …
: Currently reading: The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief by James Wood 📚
: I’ve decided to restart my newsletter and New Year’s Day seems an auspicious time to do …
: More from Isele Magazine that is worth reading: Postpartum Interiorities - Ukamaka Olisakwe
: I gave The Abundant Life an honest try. I just couldn’t get into it.
: Going through old papers, I found this from when I was a first year student in Syracuse University’s …
: I am enjoying the work Isele Magazine (@iselemagazine) publishes. An Exquisite Creature - Sophie …
: Yes, it’s mine—whatever that means—and, yes, I am.
: Doesn’t this cat look like it belongs in “Let This Be Your Last Battlefield” from the original Star …
: Watched Hanna and The Witcher. Liked them both well enough, but was disappointed that each ended up …
: I just found this video from 1989. I have the album this song is on and I think I might have been …
: Monday Morning Music - The Mamas and The Papas
: From Bitch, I am (not) a Mother! - Temi Chukwumah – Isele Magazine, well worth reading: “This dream …
: Want to read: Original Light: New and Selected Poems, 1973-1983 by Albert Goldbarth 📚 I owned this …
: Scrolling through old photos, I found this poem. Sadly, I did not note who wrote it or where I found …
: I read Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet many years ago and loved it. I am looking …
: Apropos my post yesterday about change, my translation of a poem by the 13th century Iranian poet, …
: Wilma’s Orphans is my mother’s dog rescue.
: I’m thinking a lot this morning about how important it is not to force change, but rather to create …
: I miss the way my cat, Leila–whom we had to let go a couple of months back–would keep me …
: The danger of “the paralysis of analysis:” spending way too much time just thinking, not doing …
: As Whiteness Is to People Of Color, So Christianness Is to Jews and The People of Other Non-Christan Religions: A Provocation to Further Thought Last night, at the end of a meeting I attended, the presiding officer, a Jewish woman, in the …
: I’m stepping down from my position as a union officer Today I put the finishing touches on what is likely to be my last official act as a union officer, a …
: Two Trees, by Don Paterson @donpatersonpoet. I love the kind of truth-telling where this poem ends …
: Leila after taking her thyroid medicine.
: A new blog post: The Music I’d Like to Put Back in My Life: “My grandmother made sure I …
: “In Minnesota, the number of teachers applying for retirement benefits increased by 35… In …
: Sterling A. Brown from The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetrt. Absolutely beautiful!
: My cat thinks it’s time for me to take a break.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #97
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #96
: Two new poems up on Unlikely Stories: one about something that happened 30 years ago when I was …
: This is a lovely and powerful poem by @RosebudBenOni on Poem-A-Day: “So They Say— They Finally …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #95
: First newsletter since the pandemic shutdown. I’m hoping to be more consistent in getting this …
: So this odd: A night with no email. My inboxes—note the plural—have been empty for hours.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #94
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #93
: I am very happy to have a new poem, #24 from the sequence “This Sentence Is a Metaphor for …
: This is very strange and a little disturbing: Duck Sauce - Big Bad Wolf
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 31 (last day): Rewilding by January Gill O’Neil @januaryoneil. This is …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #92
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 30: History of Bodies, by Mariko Nagai This is from “Ovid’s Lovers:” …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #91
: This is a lovely poetry video: youtu.be/Izq883SOj…
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 29: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde - I read The First Cities This is …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #90
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 28: The Collected Poems of Ai. From Twenty Year Marriage: Pretend you don’t …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #89
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 28: Look, by Solmaz Sharif No excerpt today. I’m posting this away …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #88
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 26: Heavy Daughter Blues, by Wanda Coleman from Stampede my mind belly and …
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 25: Kissing God Goobye, June Jordan From The Bombing of Baghdad VI And all …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #87
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 24: A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor, Maram Al-Massri, tr Khaled Mattawa. …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #86
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 23: Anxiety of Words, tr Don Mee Choi. From Song of Skin, by Kim Hyesoon The …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #85
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 22: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, tr by Judith Hemschemeyer. I read …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #84
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 21: Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad tr by Sholeh Wolpé from …
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 20: An Absence of Shadows, by Marjorie Agosin, translated by Celeste …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #83
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 19: Language Duel/Duelo del Lenguaje, by Rosario Ferré. The first poem in …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #82
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 18: Directions For Use, by Ana Ristović, tr Steven & Maja Teref From …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #81
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 17: Spring Essence, tr by John Balaban: Jackfruit My body is like the …
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 16: The Ink Dark Moon, tr by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani: By Izumi …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #80
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 15: BeautyBeast, by Adina Dabija, tr by Claudia Serea: from The Blood: I’m …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #79
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 14: Songs of Love and War: Afghan Women’s Poetry, tr by Marjolin De Jager …
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 13: Poems of Jahan Malek Khatun in Faces of Love, tr by Dick Davis. Read his …
: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 12: Sin Puertas Visibles, edited & translated by Jen Hofer. From Third …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #78
: Day 11 #TheSealeyChallenge, #WITMonth: Songs of the Kisaeng, tr by Constantine Contogenis, Wolhee …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #77
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #76
: Day 10 #TheSealeyChallenge: Cattle of the Lord, by Rosa Alice Branco, tr. by Alexis Levitin. From …
: Day 9 #TheSealeyChallenge: She Says by Venus Khoury-Ghata 📚 “He shakes her so she’ll drop the words …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #75
: Day 8 #sealeychallenge: Factory Of Tears, by Valzhyna Mort. This is from “Berlin-Minsk:” It’s …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #74
: Day 7 #sealeychallenge: Other Side River, eds. Leza Lowitz & Miyuki Aoyama. From …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #73
: #sealeychallenge Day 6: A Long Rainy Season: Contemporary Japanese Women’s Poetry, Volume 1” …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #72
: #sealeychallenge Day 5: Trace/Traza, by Iliana Rodríguez: from “On The Mound of Earth:” A woman like …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #71
: #sealeychallenge Day 4: Look There, by Agi Mishol. This is from from “Moment:” “I could have …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #70
: #sealeychallenge Day 3: On Foot I Wandered Through the Solar Systems, by Edith Södergan: from …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #69
: #sealeychallenge Day 2: Empty Chairs, by Liu Xia, translated by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern: “I want …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #68
: The sky tonight over Jackson Heights.
: From Invitation to a Secret Feast, by Joumana Haddad, edited by Khaled Mattawa. This poem translated …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #67
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #66
: This is heartening: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and …
: From The Collected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid, translated by Peter Cole: Could kings right a people …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #65
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #64
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #62
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #61
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #60
: There is truth in this critique of white liberals.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #59
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #58
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #57
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #56
: “Apologies: To whom exactly?” he wrote. “The critics on the Facebook page? Facebook is a cesspool …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #55
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #54
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #53
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #52
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #51
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #50
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #49
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #48
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #47
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #46
: Flowers in the garden at night.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #45
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #44
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #43
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #42
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #41
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #40
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #39
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #38
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #37
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #36
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #35
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #34
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #33
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #32
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #31
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #30
: From The NY Times: “I’m Finally An Angry Black Man”
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #29
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #28
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #27
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #26
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #25
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #24
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #23
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #22
: Right now, in front of the 115th precinct in Queens, NY. Blocks from where I live.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #21
: Someone who has belittled me, called me a “yes man,” and otherwise disrespected my work as a union …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #20
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #19
: So I’m populating my new Blot site with old posts, but I’m also “cheating" and …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #18
: Trying to decide what to do about students who asked for extensions, have not handed in the work, …
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #17
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #16
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #15
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #14
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #13
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #12
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #11
: Because I can never read just one book at a time.
: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #10
: The same painting from two different angles.
: Sunday morning, reading a first book by someone I know casually, who is really crappy at writing …
: I’m thinking today about contract negotiations, the shrinking budget for public higher …
: My Year-Long Writing Project - first post on my new Blot website.
: Even Layla thinks it gets boring. She won’t even look at the papers.
: One of the hardest parts of paper grading for me is the monotony. My students—who’re the same age as …
: This poem, by Ellen Bass, is lovely and painful and necessary: “I want your scent in my hair. …
: Grading, grading, without an end in sight… (To the tune of “sailing, sailing…)
: The latest issue of my newsletter is out, focused on the process of putting together a book of poems …
: It’s interesting, sadly predictable, and not a little disturbing, that it was a picture of two young …
: The unread results of my resolution not to acquire too many new books over the last two years. To be …
: “The textbook companies are not gearing their textbooks toward teachers; they’re gearing their …
: Sa'di of Shiraz, from 13th Century Iran A day or so ago, in response to the escalating tensions between Iran and the United States, I posted …
: It’s a NY Chanukah! Chag Sameach, if you’re celebrating!
: This poem and the turn when it becomes about gun violence: “That will stop us from wanting to turn …
: Caught my first plagiarist just two papers in. She cut and pasted an entire paragraph from …
: This is very dangerous: “In its agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, the university said it …
: An interesting article in the Times about a post-social media world. Not stuff I have thought deeply …
: I’ve just sent an email to David, but I am wondering if anyone else here who is using @Blot is …
: This tweet made me laugh out loud.
: It’s been a while since I’ve had a new publication to announce, so I am happy to share …
: For her, this is keeping me company while I grade.
: I wrote a “craft talk” on rhythm and the line in Quincy Troupe’s work that was published on the blog …
: Perhaps the smartest critique of the how-to-fix-masculinity industry—and part of the problem, of …
: “Failed Essay on Privilege,” by Elisa Gonzalez - The New Yorker
: This Twitter thread from an independent bookstore owner and an open letter to Jeff Bezos.
: By the way, that four page poem I posted about a week or so ago is now up to 15 pages and counting. …
: Aaaaand…the rejections have started coming in. Ah well…that just means I need to set some time aside …
: I was 13 months. I remember that teddy bear. He became my toilet training buddy.
: First poem in a long time and it’s already four pages long. Sometimes I wish I wrote tightly …
: A still-relevant poem by Carl Sandburg, with apologies for the spacing From Long Guns, by Carl Sandburg: “Then came Oscar, the time of the guns, And there was no …
: That moment, when you’ve finished one project, you’ve given yourself some time off, and now you’ve …
: If you her full size, you’d think she was too big to fit into this box
: Recently, I’ve been paying too little attention to sending work out. This month, I decided to …
: A special delivery to keep me company while I’m commenting on student poems.
: I’m guessing others here have already seen this, but in case not: Facebook Tests Hiding ‘Likes’ on …
: Going to a training session on Turnitin this morning. I’m oddly less worried about my students …
: 100,000 men have been sexually assaulted in the military in the past decades, from The NY Times.
: Received two emails today congratulating me that my poem was the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the …
: There is sad truth in this, from The NY Times: What I Know About Famous Men’s Penises
: Oman sounds like a really interesting place: Muscat: Where the Arab World Meets the Indian Ocean
: This is worth reading if you want to know something about the origins of the fear of the “great …
: A single boot on top of paper recycling. There’s a story behind this.
: From the Catbird Seat: What it was like to be a woman and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of …
: Oy! Why is Netanyahu reviving Palestinians' ‘willing relocation’?
: From Poets Corner, Matthew Baker: A poem by Sylvia Plath in honor of Women’s Equality Day
: Chilling is an understated adjective to describe this: NYTimes: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over …
: A dark poem for a dark time. From Mikhail Aizenberg’s Say Thank You, translated by J. Kates.
: Seems like useful information to have. From The NY Times: Don’t pay the ransom if you’re hit by …
: It’s about time: The motivations of men who commit mass shootings are often muddled, complex or …
: This is worth reading about the international networking of the far right.
: Made the final edits and layout corrections today and it’s off to its first destination, which will …
: A forbidding sky in Fishkill, NY.
: I’m at that point in the revision process where I’m convinced the book sucks. I will probably not …
: It’s an experimental narrative essay, so nonfiction, but this section is about a previous, failed …
: Finally started reading Citizen, by Claudia Rankine. So far, it’s as remarkable as everyone …
: There are two types of hijabs. The difference is huge. - The Washington Post. This is a really …
: I don’t drink coffee, but I smiled at this.
: The Financial Calamity That Is The Teaching Profession The paragraphs below are from an article in The Atlantic by Alia Wong with the same title I’ve …
: An important truth about the value of community colleges and the education students get there. I …
: Reading Say Thank You, by Mikhail Aizenberg, translated by J. Kates. Very interesting poems. …
: The structure of a traditional literary reading turns the act of attending it into an act of …
: One editor’s take on the current state of literary journals
: Ready, finally, for a final round of edits before I send it off to a very fine publisher with whom I …
: ELP’s Pirates. Been a long time since I’ve heard it and this live performance just made …
: Why are conclusions/endings–I’m thinking about essays here in particular–always so …
: Well this is sobering: Axios Future: Special report — Surveillance capitalism
: Newsletter Issue 7 is out. One highlight: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has set my poem “Light” …
: Okay, sometimes satire is necessary and this made me laugh out loud in a couple of places: Every …
: Ordinary Iranians feel like they’re already at war.
: “The far right does not respect the free and liberal exchange of ideas. It is not open to …
: When we talk about abortion, let’s talk about men
: At The Risk of Tooting My Own Horn a Bit... I’ve been going through some old files and links and I came across this lovely open letter …
: It’s Taken 5 Decades to Get the Ph.D. Her Abusive Professor Denied Her
: A rabbi’s Twitter thread apropo Alabama’s newcabortion law: “Call it Christian theocracy, which it …
: Me and Mikey, whom my mother had to have put down because he broke a knee and the complications were …
: Mother and daughter, though the mother–on the right–is long gone. For some reason, they …
: Apple Cracks Down on Apps That Fight iPhone Addiction
: I just published my newsletter: #NationalPoetryMonth, #MeToo, Leaving Neverland, and Sexual Assault …
: A Tale of Two Cancelled Speeches: Beloit and Columbia - ACADEME BLOG
: Democrats Are Failing Ilhan Omar
: Wow! A poem by Robin Coste Lewis
: The Moroccan Exception in the Arab World: Morocco’s efforts to reconnect with Moroccan Jews and …
: An interesting tweet about Israeli Arab and Israeli Jewish attitudes towards coexisting in Israel.
: Oy! Conservative Professor Sues State Senator Over Blog Post - ACADEME BLOG
: "My mother is this mourning mother who begged the staff to search for her daughter, but was denied. …
: Barbara Streisand’s comments about Leaving Neverland are tone deaf at best and seem to justify or …
: This is a powerful poem from the Academy of American Poets.
: This is a lovely poem by Carrie Fountain, from the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day.
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - March 9, 2019 Stalk the need that begs you to return: the flower blooming on her skin, the course your finger …
: This pretty smart: How Should We Talk About the Israel Lobby’s Power? - New York Magazine
: First full working draft. I am happy!
: I saw today a screening of Leaving Neverland and Oprah’s interview with the two men who tell their …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 23, 2019 Your choice bewilders logic out of spite. …
: A momentary vent: Trying to get work done (grading papers) in the middle of a spiteful family …
: This Seth Meyers bit is very well done: youtu.be
: nyti.ms Not the Fun Kind of Feminist
: What Ilhan Omar Said About AIPAC Was Right - The Nation This is worth reading.
: Lies Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 12, 2019 Unfurl your guilt inside a circus tent. …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 9, 2019 Immerse yourself without pretense. Disguise the wilderness you crave. Behind barbed wire, what you …
: This is exciting! The musical group Pneuma has set one of my poem to music for their upcoming album, …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 2, 2019 Renounce the cradle. Trade belief for blame. What leaves the body leaves itself behind. Make your …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 1, 2019 Let laughter scatter what you trust like …
: I’m doing some file maintenance on my hard drive and came across this. It’s the cover of …
: Trying to write about race, especially when you’re dealing with people and events in your life …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 31, 2019 In language they will call “a woman’s crime,” give your breath to each aborted fear. The masks you …
: The next anthology I am going to tackle. It’s been on my shelf since the 1980s and I’ve …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 27, 2019 You know there’s something you can never …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 25, 2019 Fling against the wall of your virginity the …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 24, 2019 Some think understanding is the point. Some believe the point demands release. Others point between …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 23, 2019 You crane your neck, stand on your toes. “My …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 22, 2019 Part ways with what you’ve hidden on your …
: This is the first poetry anthology I’ve ever read cover to cover. Now that I’ve finished …
: A Trip Down Memory Lane In 1988-89, I taught English in South Korea. Han Young Ae was one of the …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 21, 2019 You crane your neck, stand on your toes. “My …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 20, 2019 (Birthday Version) Detachment carves a lack into a line. Curled on either side, a farewell waits to force a fledgling …
: A post I wrote about abortion in Jewish law that some here might find interesting. It’s part …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 18, 2019 The child hung suspended in midair like …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 17, 2019 The line of people leaving, a living scar …
: I’m in an online discussion of Nancy MacClean’s Democracy in Chains. Has anyone here …
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - January 16, 2019 Desire’s undiluted sequence ends the scene, concealing what will save us. Claim the center. Don’t …
: Socrates Park, Long Island City, three or so years ago.
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 14, 2019 Across the span, as counterpoint, a flock of pigeons lifted into flight. “We get,” he said, “a …
: One more quote from Metres: Surveillance is observation without consequences…The danger of our …
: "The idea that I could be a writer gave me [hope]" From The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuse and Resistance: Writing seemed to stitch together the …
: Finished reading: Though I Get Home by YZ Chin 📚
: Elsevier journal editors resign, start rival open-access journal www.insidehighered.com This seems …
: Currently reading: The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance by Philip Metres 📚 We …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 13, 2019 A child’s bleeding hid you from the truth, …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 10, 2019 I cursed the deal I cannot say I made in …
: The first poem I will read a tonight. A translation from Bustan, by 13th century Persian poet, Saadi …
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - January 9, 2019 Desire feeds on what it finds, blurring the …
: I’m prepping Introduction to Literature, our second semester writing course, which I …
: Makes me wonder exactly where this prohibition starts and ends
: The first of what will be two or three blog posts on my own history of blogging, keeping a journal, …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 7, 2019 The rules require a precise exchange of …
: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows sounds like a very interesting novel.
: The Slowdown is a lovely poetry podcast by Tracy K. Smith, US Poet Laureate. Each episode is between …
: This, Following protests, London mosque cancels planned Holocaust exhibition, unless there is some …
: That’s me and Mikey at my mother’s. She’s got a dog rescue, Wilma’s Orphans. Mikey and I …
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - January 5, 2019 You gathered every inch of trust you could …
: This article about the trial in Israel of a Palestinian poet arrested and put on trial for a poem …
: When the Chancellor Donates his $50,000 Raise to the University
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 3, 2019 Instead, they pull their swollen anger tight, walk it like a wire stretched between the pliant mask …
: By way of introducing some of my Persian translation work to people here who might be interested, …
: Currently reading: Body of Water 📚
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 2, 2019 Beneath this season’s long and gentle gaze, …
: What It’s Like to Be a Female Movie Critic in the #MeToo Era
: One of the ways that poets and writers can change the cultural conversation in significant ways.
: In Screening for Suicide Risk, Facebook Takes On Tricky Public Health Role: Paraphrasing, “Facebook …
: Last night was one hell of a New Year’s Eve—for the cat, apparently, not me. We stayed in and had a …
: My new journal. Handmade in Brooklyn, by a guy from Turkey. He started out making them to display …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - December 30, 2018 Keep a tryst that peels the skin from fear, pierce the clouds before the fight begins, pull on every …
: I have mixed feelings about this: In Defense of Satoshi Kanazawa’s Academic Freedom - ACADEME BLOG
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 29, 2018 Let the force of this imagined form make real the hollow where your love should be; press your lips …
: America Is Losing Its Teachers at a Record Rate. Specifically, public educators. There are people on …
: From The Desk of Richard Jeffrey Newman #5 is out.
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 28, 2018 The waitress moved across the restaurant …
: The to-read piles I’ve accumulated–not new books I’ve bought–over the course of …
: More from our 2008 trip to Iran. I took this in the bazaar in Isfahan.
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 27, 2018 Knowing someone else had gone instead, we hid, dreading the snow’s blunt precision, its indifferent …
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 26, 2018 Imagine bark as skin, ponder roots. Interrogate the love they implicate. Because you’re a …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - December 23, 2018 Now you have to choose. Join with what for …
: The poet is Tom Leonard. I read him when I studied at Edinburgh University in the summer of 1985. …
: Persepolis, Iran. Taken 10 years ago. I remember being really surprised at how not merely phallic, …
: Lines Left On The Cutting Room Floor - December 21, 2018 Those rotting corpses will not breathe …
: After More Than Two Decades of Work, a New Hebrew Bible to Rival the King James This, from The New …
: What my desk at school looks like now that the semester’s over and I’ve handed in all my grades. …
: Lines Left On The Cutting Room Floor, December 20, 2018 You’ll understand in time. For now, your …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor, December 19, 2018 Below your bed, the city lives its life. The …
: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - December 18, 2018 Leave aside the mercies you’ve received. Refuse amelioration. Place your trust where camouflage …
: Anybody else find Tracy Smith’s NY Times essay on political poetry as unsatisfying as I did? Still …
: As a union officer, I inevitably learn things about my colleagues, some of them at least, that I …
: This past summer, I saw an Ent in Westchester County.
: More from Storm King Art Center.
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 14, 2018 Take refuge in the withered disarray …
: Currently reading: The Collected Poems of Ai by Ai 📚
: Sunset from my window–but not today’s. Today it was raining.
: When what you have to say as a poet and writer is rooted both in your experience as a man who …
: The sky over Long Island City.
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 13, 2018 Your hunger will dissolve if you can’t cope with animal disgust. The albatross will disavow your …
: The Three-Legged Buddha at Storm King Arts Center.
: My cat is not as evil as she looks in this picture, but I like how evil she looks nonetheless.
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 12, 2018 Your white, well-muscled belly compensates for what’s beneath that pilfered wedding dress. Or at …
: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 11, 2018 If faith requires doubt, you can’t pretend the other door will open when you ask: you need to …
: I’m looking for poets on Micro.blog. Anybody out there?
: The first five poems in my new, booklength sequence, This Sentence Is A Metaphor For Bridge, have …
: A lot of contemporary poetry I read these days seems built around metaphors & images …
: I think every working person should read this book regardless of party/political affiliation. …
: It’s 1 AM and I’m sitting in my dining room watching my Chanukah candles burn—I lit them late—and …
: This is a thought-provoking piece: nyti.ms I’m a Democrat and a Feminist. And I Support Betsy …
: Trying to like this book as much as the hype says I should, but no matter how gorgeous much of the …