2023-03-21: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #145
2023-03-12: Sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, piece by piece, the jigsaw puzzle of this essay is …
2023-03-07: Teaching the sexual politics of Deaf Republic to students in Introduction to Literature–mostly …
2023-03-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #145
2023-03-05: Asymmetry: Wrote two paragraphs of what will be the concluding section of my essay. Now I need to …
2023-03-04: Symmetry: now that I’ve finished the novel I was reading, today’s task is to finish a …
2023-03-04: Finished reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 📚
2023-02-28: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #144
2023-02-28: Just got my royalty statement from CavanKerry Press for 2022 for $3.84, which represents five copies …
2023-02-25: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #143
2023-02-19: Out of curiosity, anyone on here tried Spoutible?
2023-02-19: Even the parts of my first draft that I deleted, thinking them irrelevant, are finding their way …
2023-02-17: I’ve reached the point in the essay where I think what I’m saying is stupid obvious and I’m saying …
2023-02-17: A knot in prose represents a knot, logical and emotional, in the writer. Unraveling it usually means …
2023-02-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #142
2023-02-14: Sometimes patience is a writer’s most effective tool.
2023-02-14: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #141
2023-02-13: It’s a clothing catalogue.
2023-02-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #140
2023-02-12: Finished reading: The First Warm Evening of the Year by Jamie M. Saul 📚 It’s supposed to be a …
2023-02-11: I wrote this today in a grant application. I think it’s worth sharing: According to …
2023-02-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #139
2023-02-08: And yet I seem able to cross post. These are coming from my micro.blog.
2023-02-08: Strange: Twitter said I exceeded my 2400 tweet limit for today. There is no way I sent that many …
2023-02-08: Interesting discussion at First Tuesdays last night about whether or not prose poetry is actually …
2023-02-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #138
2023-02-07: I drafted a pitch letter today for a book of translations from a language I don’t read or …
2023-02-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #137
2023-02-06: Sometimes it’s better if what is meant to be hidden from sight stays there.
2023-02-03: Given the size of my classes and how much writing I have to ask them to do, I always think when I …
2023-02-03: I’m teaching a full load for the first time in a very long time and I’m reminded how inhumane it is, …
2023-01-30: I did not sleep well and I have a very long day today.
2023-01-29: That unsettled feeling you carry around when the poem you’re working, or the essay or the …
2023-01-27: This quote from Borges’ The Book of Imaginary Beings made me laugh: “The pleasures of Paradise are …
2023-01-27: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #136
2023-01-27: 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 …
2023-01-25: Off to my second day of teaching. The first time I’m teaching a full load (plus one additional …
2023-01-25: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #135
2023-01-24: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #134
2023-01-23: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #133
2023-01-22: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #132
2023-01-21: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #131
2023-01-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #130
2023-01-17: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #129
2023-01-15: If you’re interested in seeing my Bookshelf Juxtapositions series to-date, click here
2023-01-15: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #128
2023-01-15: Sometimes, watching mindless TV to keep from thinking just doesn’t work.
2023-01-14: Trying to figure out how to be, in my friend Elizabeth’s words, the loyal opposition when I …
2023-01-14: “Oppressive language does more than represent violence, it is violence; does more than represent the …
2023-01-13: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #127
2023-01-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #126
2023-01-12: Adventures in Spam Just checked my spam folder, as I do every so often, and, apparently, Guillermo …
2023-01-11: I feel like I just traveled back in time submitting an essay pitch using an SASE. I hadn’t …
2023-01-09: That’s Beauty on my left and Gypsy in my lap. I’d take them both home in a heartbeat, if I could. I …
2023-01-08: I’d like to accomplish at least one of two things today: finish a grant application and …
2023-01-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #125
2023-01-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #124
2023-01-05: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #123
2023-01-03: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #122
2023-01-02: Bookshelf Juxtaposition #121
2022-12-31: A Turkish student in one of my ESL classes gave me this as a gift more than twenty-five years ago. …
2022-12-30: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #120
2022-12-29: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #119
2022-12-27: Did I do that?
2022-12-26: Playing with the edit function on my iPad.
2022-12-26: Because I’m tired of looking at the snow.
2022-12-26: When reframing a pitch helps you realize that the pitch itself needs to go to an entirely different …
2022-12-24: My weekend reading for the last two nights of Chanukah: Not finished yet. I just got to the …
2022-12-23: I don’t usually announce the publication of a review I’ve written, but, in light of what …
2022-12-21: Orchid on the fourth night against the skyline backdrop.
2022-12-21: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #118
2022-12-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #117
2022-12-19: Portal to another dimension
2022-12-19: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #116
2022-12-18: First night! Chag Sameach!
2022-12-16: I think I took this is Sweden.
2022-12-16: I don’t remember when or where this picture was taken.
2022-12-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #115
2022-12-15: I liked these poems by Unoma Azuah in Isele Magazine
2022-12-14: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #114
2022-12-13: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #113
2022-12-12: From a long time ago: their names were Matisse and Colette.
2022-12-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #112
2022-12-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #111
2022-12-10: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #110
2022-12-09: “For me, imagination is synonymous with discovery. To imagine, to discover, to carry our bit …
2022-12-09: Birds on the roof across the street.
2022-12-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #109
2022-12-07: Perched high in a tree, a man chopped hard at the base of the branch where he was sitting. Looking …
2022-12-07: The largest samovar I’ve ever seen.
2022-12-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #108
2022-12-06: I like how the cat and the doll are giving off almost the exact same vibe. It’s just that the …
2022-12-06: Me and Mikey. I post this every so often. I miss him.
2022-12-06: Smoked fish in Iran.
2022-12-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #107
2022-12-05: From the most recent issue of my newsletter: Regardless of their differing beliefs about abortion, …
2022-12-05: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #106
2022-12-04: My new newsletter is out: Being A Woman Is Not A Punishment: What’s At Stake For Men in The …
2022-12-04: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #105
2022-12-04: My father died on October 7 of this year. I’m not in mourning for him. I grieved “my dad”—which he …
2022-12-03: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #104
2022-12-02: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #103
2022-12-01: From the next newsletter I am working on: It is a central tenet of unionism that an attack on one …
2022-12-01: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #102
2022-11-30: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #101
2022-11-30: “[Adultery] promises no new beginnings, no second chance for monogamy, for the “good marriage” …
2022-11-29: “Modern masturbation is profane. It is not just something that putatively makes those who do …
2022-11-28: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #100
2022-11-27: “Grammar is no more than a logical organization for the presentation of thoughts and feelings. …
2022-11-26: Subliminal erotic messaging. Two prints from the hotel room we stayed in this past weekend.
2022-11-26: “I only desire one lover, yet I also desire infinite possibilities with this love.” …
2022-11-25: “In our quieter moments, Natasha told me about the men who had taken her picture. She hadn’t …
2022-11-24: Esopus Creek, in Saugerties, NY, lit up Thanksgiving night.
2022-11-24: Our Thanksgiving view!
2022-11-24: Small Fundamental Essay What many people fail to understand about the art and science of mechanics …
2022-11-23: If the attack on reproductive rights is also an attack on women as workers, perhaps we should …
2022-11-23: “Circumcision, then, [according to the Midrash] completes a man and makes him ready for a …
2022-11-22: “Circumcision has the distinction of making sure that a [Jewish] man is never naked of God’s …
2022-11-21: My wife’s birthday orchid.
2022-11-21: “To witness the moment when pain causes a reversion to the pre-language of cries and groans is …
2022-11-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #99
2022-11-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #98
2022-11-20: I search a face for obstacles to genocide I search beyond the dead and driven by imperfect visions …
2022-11-19: “But I also survived, in the years after my rescue and well into adulthood, by using my …
2022-11-18: Well before and well after 1712, the body was thought to suffer from bad behavior. Medicine had …
2022-11-17: On the sidewalk on 42nd Street, outside the New York Public Library.
2022-11-17: The Enlightenment project of liberation—the coming into adulthood of humanity—made the most secret, …
2022-11-16: Two passages from two different poems in Saadi’s Bustan that seem apt, given what’s …
2022-11-16: The most immediate reason to oppose laws like compulsory hejab or abortion prohibitions, of course, …
2022-11-16: Poetry can only be an exploration of ideology, not a means of expressing belief in it. Reluctant to …
2022-11-15: It’s not keeping track of multiple projects that gets to me; it’s resisting the …
2022-11-15: There can be no doubt that many poems—even many great poems—would gain by being translated into the …
2022-11-14: …the couplet was regarded as a plain, ordinary kind of verse, in contrast to the stanzaic …
2022-11-13: “[T]he paper makes a[n] argument for making college a public good, low-cost or even free for …
2022-11-13: Last week, I took part in PenParentis' monthly salon along with the wonderful writers Jessica DuLong …
2022-11-13: We must not cede the power to witness what is happening to us, to know how we are seen, to oversee …
2022-11-12: Marvin Świetlicki, from the introduction to his Poems, published in 2011, translated by Elżbieta …
2022-11-12: My bewilderment and rebellion before American education were enhanced by looking back to Chinese …
2022-11-11: The sexual dramas of white men have to do with not being able to resist the drives or struggling to …
2022-11-10: Watched the Kanye West episode of Impact: deals his antisemitic comments. Worth watching. One …
2022-11-10: Treat this world as if it were stranger, a musician with a new gig every day. –Saadi’s …
2022-11-10: “There is no more powerful position than that of being ‘just’ human. The claim to power is the …
2022-11-10: “The man who gives and takes judiciously draws the world behind him in his wake. Be that man; …
2022-11-10: From Saadi’s Bustan (my version): I garnered for myself fruit I did not eat; helpless as death …
2022-11-09: To be a man of God involves imagining oneself as a woman, at least when the divine-human …
2022-11-08: If the deity is the father writ large, then this divine masculinity is by no means simply a …
2022-11-07: If this were a fantasy novel, that leaf would be an omen of something.
2022-11-07: Once again, his body was the measure of all things: the cellar, his bowels; the roof, his scalp; the …
2022-11-07: If a unicorn and a butterfly had a child:
2022-11-06: Found in the garden:
2022-11-06: “[I]f a work does not compel us, it is untranslatable…” –Yves Bonnefoy
2022-11-05: “Kids in distressed families are great repositories of silence and carry in their bodies whole …
2022-11-05: Yvor Winters to Marianne Moore urging her to publish a first book. Quoted in The First Book by Jesse …
2022-11-04: “The only true motive for putting poetry into a fresh language [translating it] must be to …
2022-11-03: “As a form of training…it is important that the poet develop a strong bond with life, to be …
2022-11-02: Revising the first edition of Saadi’s Bustan and finding all the beginner’s mistakes I …
2022-11-01: “The poet’s autonomy from the literary marketplace is presented not as an option but as …
2022-10-30: This is a very interesting essay about Jews’ relationship to Israel that is rooted in a truly …
2022-10-30: “Metaphor is a way to explode sequence.” –James Wood on Virginia Woolf in The …
2022-10-30: Thinking today, and I wish I weren’t, of the student in the section of Intro to Jewish …
2022-10-28: The arena of victory or of defeat? Tonight, for me, it was victory; last night, it was defeat.
2022-10-28: I needed this poem by Elizabeth Bishop today: Sonnet (1928) I am in need of music that would flow …
2022-10-27: Five years ago at my mother’s dog rescue.
2022-10-25: I am enjoying the way this poem is growing in increments and how, the richer and more complex it …
2022-10-25: I know I posted the picture from Korea just two days ago, but looking at it today and then looking …
2022-10-24: Dogs of the day.
2022-10-23: Yin and Yang. Actually, Mahtab (moonlight) and Leila (night). Sadly, neither cat is with us anymore.
2022-10-23: Me in my apartment in Seoul, Jugong Apartments, Building 112 #513, more than 30 years ago.
2022-10-23: Without context and without comment, from “Harper’s Findings,” March 2020: “In the past …
2022-10-20: Next book on the TBR shelf. The first poem, “Preface,” is a retelling of Adam and Eve that I need to …
2022-10-20: Down to one open poetry submission in Submittable. Whether it’s accepted or not, it’ll …
2022-10-18: An interesting detail I overlooked in the first edition of my translation of Saadi’s Bustan: …
2022-10-17: One more, “My Father Watches Michelle Obama Garden While Mama Cooks,” from Sadia …
2022-10-16: From “Sujui,” by Sadia Hassan’s, @blckrdaberry, chapbook Enumeration: The Tana River, red and …
2022-10-15: Finished reading: Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History by …
2022-10-15: October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I wrote this blog post almost ten years ago about …
2022-10-13: I’ve published work in four journals this year, two nominated me for Best of The Net: iambapoet and …
2022-10-08: Iran: At least 82 Baluchi protesters and bystanders killed in bloody crackdown - Amnesty …
2022-10-06: I had new author photos taken. The one I chose is now on Micro.blog, Twitter, and Facebook. It was, …
2022-10-06: The true poet gives up the self. The I of my poem is not me. It is the first person impersonal, it …
2022-10-06: In the annals of idiot things poets sometimes write: The mother goddesses of Crete were always …
2022-10-05: A thought for Yom Kippur: If you do not learn to love the questions, how will you ever learn to love …
2022-10-04: That feeling when you realize that the last three lines you’ve written are indeed the last …
2022-10-03: We become active readers of poetry only after learning to discover in it that which is conducive to …
2022-10-03: Working after 12 AM on a poem that has become an irreverant letter to a friend who died too young of …
2022-09-29: This is well worth reading: How the CIA failed Iranian spies in its secret war with Tehran
2022-09-29: It’s always the last few sentences, and especially the last one, that take the longest.
2022-09-28: I’ve reached the point in my life when it’s not hard to know what I want to say in an …
2022-09-26: Monday Morning Music The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin'
2022-09-26: If you’re looking for a really interesting read, try Spruce, Queen of Serpents, …
2022-09-25: Shanah Tovah! Sunset paints the sky, leaving the old year behind. Carry what you’ll need. …
2022-09-25: Shanah Tovah to all who celebrate! (Photo credit Megs Harrison)
2022-09-23: Fatemeh Keshavarz, writing about the 13th century poet Saadi, suggests that the eclectic nature of …
2022-09-23: Finished reading: Death Fugue by Sheng Keyi 📚A fascinating book, a dystopia, translated from Chinese …
2022-09-20: When you write what you think will be the first two paragraphs of the concluding section of a very …
2022-09-19: “From the late 1990s to 2014, Twenge found, drawing on data from the General Social Survey, …
2022-09-19: Monday Morning Music Earth, Wind & Fire - September
2022-09-19: From The Atlantic: Workism Is Making Americans Miserable “The economists of the early 20th …
2022-09-18: This is worth reading: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? “Curious, I asked my …
2022-09-16: It’s difficult to watch from afar as a problematic situation you care deeply about unfolds. …
2022-09-14: Just saw two poets at the corner of 6th Avenue and Central Park South with a typewriter and a sign: …
2022-09-13: I did not know that 68th Street near Hunter College had been named Audre Lord Way. I think that’s …
2022-09-12: Just went to use the bathroom in the library. No one was in the men’s room, but to get there, …
2022-09-12: I’m at the library, starting work on a second edition of translations I published 15 years ago. I …
2022-09-12: Monday Morning Music Roy Clark - Malagueña
2022-09-11: Last year, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, during my brief stint as acting president of my union, I …
2022-09-09: I think I took this near Seneca Lake, but I am not sure.
2022-09-09: “There is a concerted campaign afoot to delegitimize academia in the United States, one that too …
2022-09-08: On Chong-no 2-ga, Seoul, in 1988.
2022-09-08: Just because it’s a whiskey I like.
2022-09-05: And because I am almost always reading more than one book at a time, I’m also currently …
2022-09-05: Currently reading: The Moral Judgement of Butterflies by K. Eltinaé 📚. A lovely, powerful meditation …
2022-09-05: Monday Morning Music Woody Guthrie - Union Burying Ground
2022-09-04: “Love connects us to what is larger than us and to what is larger within us than we thought we …
2022-09-04: More from the arboretum.
2022-09-04: At The Planting Fields Arboretum in Nassau County yesterday.
2022-09-02: The same squirrel, ready to go dancing!
2022-09-02: Just playing with portrait mode and photo editing on my iPhone.
2022-09-02: This guy came to say hello while was sitting in the garden. I’ll take it as a sign of something. The …
2022-09-02: The cynicism in the right’s use of the concept of “grooming” to defend Don’t …
2022-08-31: The click, click, click of an essay’s logic falling into place; the ticking of the clock as …
2022-08-31: The way your ear has to shift when you move from revising poetry to revising prose.
2022-08-30: Digging today–to prepare for submission–into an essay that unpacks the first time I …
2022-08-29: I just love it when a poet–and one about whom I have, ahem, serious questions–gets in …
2022-08-29: Monday Morning Music Children of Sanchez
2022-08-28: “I wonder how it can be that global knowledge of these anticipated crimes—against …
2022-08-28: Took me almost an hour to find a parking space and now I need to unwind a bit before I go to bed…at …
2022-08-26: Flower Friday with butterfly
2022-08-25: Writing a poem can be therapeutic, but it is not therapy.
2022-08-25: First poem in Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. I remember reading it as a boy …
2022-08-25: Saw Bullet Train last night. It’s a stupid movie. It’s supposed to be a kind of satire, I guess, and …
2022-08-22: Monday Morning Music War Pigs
2022-08-21: Finished reading: It’s about Time by Barry Wallenstein 📚 Reading this book is like having an …
2022-08-20: Starting to put the publicity together for the First Tuesdays 2022-2023 season, the tenth since I …
2022-08-20: The clouds look like a mountain range behind Manhattan’s skyline.
2022-08-19: Flower Friday
2022-08-18: Sitting on my mother’s deck thinking about change. When it happens organically, it may be hard, but, …
2022-08-15: Monday Morning Music Eulogy
2022-08-12: Casinos are places of such desperation. This is not a comment about people who enjoy gambling or who …
2022-08-12: Flower Friday
2022-08-08: Monday Morning Music Married To The Blues
2022-08-07: Me at Saadi’s tomb in Shiraz in 2008.
2022-08-07: Going through my photos the other day, I realized that the angle of my right arm in this one makes …
2022-08-06: From “Simplicity,” in Barry Wallenstein’s It’s About Time: the urge toward perfection belongs to the …
2022-08-05: from the lovely prose poem Shroud, by Erin Moure, published in @Columba: “…to set sail …
2022-08-05: Flower Friday
2022-08-02: A strange message to have hanging in a restaurant’s men’s room.
2022-08-01: Monday Morning Music Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right
2022-07-30: From “Calling it ruins,” by Precious Okpechi in Isele Magazine: say you paint me an image of the …
2022-07-29: Going through old papers, I found this. My business card from when I taught English in South Korea …
2022-07-29: Flower Friday
2022-07-28: From “Arthur Mitchell, by Marianne Moore: Slim dragon-fly/too rapid for the eye/ to cage…
2022-07-27: Just finished the first final draft of an 11,000 word essay. Next step: let it sit a bit and then …
2022-07-27: Currently reading: The Truffle Eye by Vaan Nguyen, translated from Hebrew by Adriana X. Jacobs 📚. …
2022-07-27: Two articles I happen to come across today at more or less the same time, without further comment: …
2022-07-25: Monday Morning Music Soul Man
2022-07-22: Flower Friday
2022-07-19: I’m happy to have in Cloudbank 16 a translation by Sonia Alland and myself of “The End …
2022-07-18: Monday Morning Music Which Side Are You On?
2022-07-16: I do not know the political or geographical specifics, but I identify with everything else about …
2022-07-13: Currently reading: Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories by Rebecca Harding Davis 📚
2022-07-11: Monday Morning Music The Bricklayer’s Song
2022-07-10: A lovely poem by Christina M. Rau, @ChristinaMRau, from What We Do To Make Us Whole.
2022-07-07: Me and Gypsy, two different moods. The white chihuahua in the back to the right in the one where …
2022-07-06: Watching someone being gaslit right in front of you and not being able to do anything about it—the …
2022-07-01: Continuing to make my way through Christina Rau’s What We Do To Make Us Whole …
2022-06-30: Clouds out the plane window looking like a landscape.
2022-06-24: Not that women’s bodies have ever not been a battleground under patriarchy, and acknowleding …
2022-06-24: Things I never thought I’d talk about in class: I’m teaching the Prologue to The Arabian …
2022-06-23: In Christina Rau’s What We Do To Make Us Whole, this is from “Taking Tea From …
2022-06-22: Finished reading: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres 📚. This will, I am sure, be an unpopular opinion, …
2022-06-22: Done grading for now. I am struck over and over again by the futility of the exercise when there are …
2022-06-22: Last one before I go back to grading. Two different shots of the same sculpture on a street in …
2022-06-22: They remind me of two old men having a cup of tea on a lazy afternoon.
2022-06-22: Posting some more pictures as a sort of “palate cleanser” while I grade. At the bazaar …
2022-06-22: Also from Persepolis. Not someone whose bad side you want to be on.
2022-06-22: A detail from Persepolis
2022-06-21: Another one from the Grand Canyon
2022-06-21: The Grand Canyon
2022-06-21: Another break from grading: Norooz eggs from years and years ago.
2022-06-21: I’d rather be under that tree on a day like today than grading, and that’s true even …
2022-06-20: Make sure you get my good side.
2022-06-20: Without further comment.
2022-06-19: That’s fifteen-or-so-year-old me in my drum corps uniform. I played bass baritone bugle, and I …
2022-06-18: “Google is reportedly paying Apple upward of fifteen billion dollars a year to remain the …
2022-06-18: We met this guy in Iran, in the summer of 2008.
2022-06-18: One more of Mahtab and Aunt Gussie’s scultpure.
2022-06-17: I saw this on Twitter (h/t @StephenJFurlong) and it made me laugh out loud.
2022-06-16: When a poet’s explanations of the theory behind their work, or what they are trying to …
2022-06-15: This will be interesting to watch: Florida abortion ban violates religious freedom, lawsuit says - …
2022-06-12: I’m about a third of the way through a first pass at revising a 36 page essay and I just read …
2022-06-10: Currently reading: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres 📚: As an academic, as a poet, I am fascinated and …
2022-06-08: Liquor-cabinet-top still life.
2022-06-06: A sunflower in Darakeh, from our 2008 trip to Iran.
2022-06-06: One more from the Vasa Museum.
2022-06-05: This griffon, along with its twin on the opposite side of the gate you can see in the lower …
2022-06-04: I keep seeing calls for submissions, and I keep having to remind myself that I have right now only …
2022-06-04: From our 2016 trip to Sweden. I wish I had been more careful about keeping track of where I took …
2022-06-03: Through the screen, in the light of an early summer evening, the buildings looked like shadows of …
2022-06-02: To riff on Ezra Pound’s parody of the 13th century poem: Change is icumen in/Llhude sing Goddamn!
2022-05-31: By Farnaz Fatemi, from Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, edited by Christopher …
2022-05-31: Interesting discussion earlier about the politics in my local poetry community. No different than …
2022-05-30: Mahtob, whom we had to give up, staring out onto the street below, while my great-aunt …
2022-05-29: First taste of this tonight. It’s smooth and delicious, warm and warming. A drink to comfort a …
2022-05-29: Central Park wildlife.
2022-05-28: It’s an odd feeling wanting not to get involved in something you’re trying to leave …
2022-05-25: What the Uvalde shooter did was monstrous. Calling him a monster, however, conveniently elides the …
2022-05-24: I recently had the pleasure of appearing on Arts Calling, Jaime Alejandro’s (@cruzfolio) …
2022-05-24: It was disappointing to read this piece about the great replacement conspiracy theory, What Oprah …
2022-05-21: The view from Walkway Over the Hudson.
2022-05-20: Maybe from the Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay:
2022-05-19: I’d forgotten how literary Monty Python’s humor was.
2022-05-19: I don’t remember where I took this:
2022-05-18: A poem from my forthcoming manuscript with @PressFernwood was accepted today by a journal I’ve been …
2022-05-18: Where we live rewards volume.
2022-05-18: A market in Iran, Isfahan I believe, from our trip in 2008:
2022-05-17: When I am back in the classroom after my sabbatical, I am going to require the students in every …
2022-05-16: I thought technology was supposed to make life easier. Submitting final grades the way I have to do …
2022-05-15: To be savored one drop at a time…
2022-05-06: That sinking feeling you get when you find out a friend, someone whose art you respect, is an old …
2022-05-03: A poem from my first book, The Silence of Men, that should never have become as relevant as the …
2022-04-28: Holocaust Remembrance Day: it’s worth looking at every single image.
2022-04-27: It made me angry and very sad to read this: The AAUP Explains Antisemitism and Gets It Wrong, by …
2022-04-27: I just learned that May is Jewish American Heritage Month, that it has been so designated since …
2022-04-26: Contract signed and manuscript sent to Fernwood Press (@PressFernwood). Looking forward to the …
2022-04-23: Cody Peterson, from “Requiem For The Trees:” —If there were ever a truly holy war, this struggle–to …
2022-04-22: A Lit Match to Burn What Your Country Doesn’t Remember - The Offing, By THANH-TAM NGUYEN
2022-04-20: I think it’s classy when publishers I’ve written to withdrawing a book query or ms …
2022-04-18: Essay: What Is Poetry? - The New York Times
2022-04-16: Grading: I don’t think I have ever written “unclear meaning” or “I …
2022-04-16: I am grateful for the high school years I spent learning gemara every time I need to read contract …
2022-04-12: Getting a new car—buying or leasing—takes too damned long.
2022-04-10: The First Time I Told Someone, which took me nearly 30 years to write is up at @solsticelitmag. It …
2022-04-10: The conclusion to “Two Sisters,” by Safia Jama, @safiapoet, from Notes On Resilience: …
2022-04-09: from “You,” by Zeenit Jacobs – in Botsotso In two minds you were, wrestling under cool satin sheets …
2022-04-09: From Leaving in Four Parts, by Brandon Hamber: In a thousand invisible places A charcoal sketch …
2022-04-07: My friend Ronny, whose memorial is later this month, took this picture of my hands while I was …
2022-04-07: Blatant sexism last night at the First Tuesdays open mic. I called it out at the mic immediately …
2022-04-05: From The New York Times. The images in this article are gorgeous: Gazing at the ‘Black Sun’: The …
2022-04-04: Classroom teaching is sometimes pure improvisation, but not because you are not prepared. Precisely …
2022-04-03: From Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, by Simin Behbahani, translated by Farzaneh …
2022-04-03: You better get out of here before the storm hits, I repeated to Watson who just then produced a bag …
2022-04-02: Finished Revolution Of The Scavengers, by Henneh Kyereh Kwaku, which is one of the chapbooks in this …
2022-03-31: I run a reading series in my neighborhood called First Tuesdays. In February of 2020, just before …
2022-03-30: I just learned a new word: demisexual, someone who only feels sexually attracted to another person …
2022-03-30: Just had a very pleasant conversation with the manager of my campus bookstore. There is a …
2022-03-28: Another stack. This time they’re all books I own. I’m slowly starting to prep for my fall 22 …
2022-03-27: Grading, and I confess I am tired of students who, even after several reminders and even one-to-one …
2022-03-27: Went to AWP’s book fair yesterday. First time in ten years. Promised myself, I have backlog enough, …
2022-03-26: A Latina novelist spoke about white privilege. Students burned her book in response
2022-03-21: “A language is a dialect with an army.” —Dr. Aaron Carton I doubt Professor Carton—who …
2022-03-17: Grading pet peeve: Students who, with no apparent purpose in mind, switch tenses mulitple times in …
2022-03-15: More muppets:
2022-03-14: Major grading peeve: When students write without confirming their memory of the plot or argue based …
2022-03-11: Thinking about this in the context of MFA-related threads and levels of MFA-related debt: Someone …
2022-03-07: Which makes me think it’d be interesting to write—maybe a blog post—about the one poem, from my …
2022-03-07: Every book of poems is uneven in places. In a good book, that uneveness is part of the pleasure: …
2022-03-04: “That’s when I saw: it was just one more leash.” voxpopulisphere.com
2022-03-02: Do American Jews speak a Jewish Language? A very interesting talk:
2022-03-01: Yes. Exit Plan – Michigan Quarterly Review
2022-02-28: I love it when a sequence of lessons comes together!
2022-02-28: I just published the latest issue of my newsletter: Standing With Ukraine Also Means Paying …
2022-02-26: Currently reading: A Slow Green Sleep by Jonathan Weinert 📚
2022-02-26: This is really good as well:
2022-02-26: This is an amazing jam. Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr and others on Funk #49.
2022-02-25: A question for people who use Academia.edu: Is the premium plan worth it? If you do find it worth …
2022-02-25: They look like muppets:
2022-02-23: Currently reading: Secure Your Own Mask (White Pine Poetry Prize) by Shaindel Beers 📚 Closely …
2022-02-20: The view from the couch.
2022-02-19: Two views.
2022-02-19: When the content of the book of poems you’re reading really matters and should be compelling, but …
2022-02-18: These were above our fireplace.
2022-02-18: Another flower from who-knows-when-or-where. I need to learn to keep track of when and where I take …
2022-02-18: “He who thinks for himself can never remain of the same mind.” —Herman Melville
2022-02-16: I do remember where I took this picture: in Iran, in 2008, when we were there for my …
2022-02-16: Another flower, from I also don’t remember where:
2022-02-16: A flower from I don’t remember where:
2022-02-15: ‘Christian veterans’ protest outside Jewish politician’s home as priest compares vaccine mandates to …
2022-02-15: This is somewhere in Sweden, but I don’t remember where:
2022-02-14: More from the L Line in New York City:
2022-02-14: The cover of my first book, The Silence of Men and the painting that Peter Cusak, who was designing …
2022-02-14: In a station on the L line of the New York City subway system.
2022-02-14: Writing, Ambition, and Language The beginning of James Wood’s essay on Melville (The Broken Estate, 26) got me thinking about what …
2022-02-14: I went through a period where I was taking pictures of flowers. These are from the Brooklyn …
2022-02-13: Yesterday, I received an SASE rejeciton. Took me back to when there was no Submittable, no email …
2022-02-12: My most recent book buying binge. Trying hard to read books I already own first, but when “found …
2022-02-11: I’m reading White Lung, by Kimberly O’Connor. For me, what’s most interesting are …
2022-02-10: “According to a report by the RAND Corporation last year, ‘nearly one in four teachers overall, and …
2022-02-09: Currently reading: White Lung by Kimberly O’Connor 📚
2022-02-09: If you’re in academia, you should read this thread regarding sexual harassment in Harvard’s …
2022-02-08: Given what coverage in the USA is like, and the embarrassing paucity of literary translation here, …
2022-02-06: Currently reading: Basic Needs by Vanessa Jimenez Gabb 📚
2022-02-06: Metaphors have their own internal logic and if you follow the logic of the metaphor, you will always …
2022-02-06: Took this in 2016 when I was in Edinburgh with my wife and son. The same place I ate at when I was …
2022-02-05: I am happy the Popular Cultural Association made this explicit statement against antisemitism. There …
2022-02-04: Scrolling through my photos, and I like these of the Three-Legged Buddha at Storm King Art Center in …
2022-02-04: 📚 Finished reading: Life Sciences, by Joy Sorman, translated by Lara Vergnaud. I’m interested …
2022-02-04: Stairway to Heaven is one of those songs that I think I’ve heard enough times to last a …
2022-02-02: More on Fear and Trembling: When Abraham presumes to drag Isaac along, he presumes to become as God …
2022-02-02: From notes I made to Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling more than 30 years ago: The problem with …
2022-02-01: Now that I’ve stepped down from my union position, readjusting to teaching a full load is proving, …
2022-01-30: ‘The Jew is the devil’ — Neo-Nazis rally in Florida - The Jerusalem Post Apparently, …
2022-01-29: I wonder if anyone would recognize me?
2022-01-29: They are best buddies at my mother’s dog rescue, Wilma’s Orphans, and I so wish I could …
2022-01-28: From a summer 2020 night walk in our garden: flowers in the lamp light near the building next to …
2022-01-28: America’s Parents Express Overwhelming Support for Teachers, Their Unions and Public Education
2022-01-27: In the 1990s, I had a side business doing freelance business-to-business corporate communications. I …
2022-01-27: ‘Maus’ Holocaust Novel Removed From Classrooms by School Board - The New York Times
2022-01-27: And now the campus internet is down to boot. Perfect way to end the first week of classes.
2022-01-27: I have my one remote class to teach today and the website that I need for the lesson seems to be …
2022-01-24: Short of physical exclusion, there is no surer way to tell someone they don’t belong than to …
2022-01-22: The most useful advice I was ever given about writing conclusions is that they should answer the …
2022-01-20: I don’t remember where I was when I took this picture, but I was surprised to learn that the …
2022-01-20: Boy did I have a lot of hair in 9th grade! And that’s me, not more than ten years later.
2022-01-20: From “The Inertia of Anxiety,” by Shuri Kido, tr by Tomoyuki Endo and Forrest Gander …
2022-01-20: “When it comes to language, all writers want to be billionaires. All long to possess so many …
2022-01-19: I’d rather be here than writing syllabi.
2022-01-19: Taking a break from writing a syllabus. These are from Storm King, a place where I find peace:
2022-01-19: Dog in the Night, by Pamela Painter, in Michigan Quarterly Review: “In every story’s evening and …
2022-01-18: Sometimes what counts as daily progress is only a sentence or two, but they’ve opened the door to …
2022-01-18: September of last year. This was a lovely day.
2022-01-17: A wonderful reimagining of Cinderella, by Stephanie Burt. In @MQR_tweets. Definitely worth reading.
2022-01-17: I’ve always been a “kinder, gentler” sort of teacher, but writing a kinder, gentler syllabus to …
2022-01-16: John Donne. What else is there to say? Talk about a haunting: The Apparition
2022-01-16: Tonight’s victory: A chicken dish–an Instant Pot chicken dish, no less–that my …
2022-01-16: The dog I would take home with me in a heartbeart if I could:
2022-01-15: The latest edition of my newsletter just went out.
2022-01-15: Definitely worth reading: I’m a Longtime Union Organizer. But I Had Never Seen Anything Like This
2022-01-14: 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 …
2022-01-14: Finished reading: Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky 📚
2022-01-13: A strange position to be in: Not writing new poems bc I’m prepping classes. I’ve time to …
2022-01-13: By Zishe Landau, from Voices Within The Ark, tr by Ruth Whitman: “Lately, brothers, I have a …
2022-01-12: I saw this on Twitter and it made me laugh out loud. “Twitter explained in 10 seconds:” twitter.com …
2022-01-10: Since I first started writing poetry as an undergraduate, my initial instinct has been to turn …
2022-01-10: Finished reading: The Arabian Nights (New Deluxe Edition), translated by Husain Haddawy 📚 I’m …
2022-01-10: Mark Powell, in MQR: You experience certain things at a time when you’re really malleable and your …
2022-01-08: From “Here But Elsewhere,” by Bret Shepard, from MQR Winter 2022: “Christian’s …
2022-01-06: They caught the guy who’s been stealing unpublished manuscripts.
2022-01-06: I run First Tuesdays, a reading series in Queens, NY. First Tuesday of the month, September through …
2022-01-04: They spelled my name wrong, but this is publicity from the 1980s, when I played my one and only …
2022-01-04: This was a fun read: The Magpie of Superstitions, by Liam Hogan in @Contrary Magazine.
2022-01-03: Haunting. Three Hours in Central Pennsylvania, by Matt Barret. In @Contrary, same issue as my poem. …
2022-01-03: More worth reading from the Winter 2022 issue of @Contrary. From “How Deep In The …
2022-01-03: Contrary Magazine just published What Filled The Room, my first publication of 2022. It’s an …
2022-01-03: From The Gig Academy, by Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, and Daniel T. Scott: Universities’ need for …
2022-01-03: Monday Morning Music - Larkin Poe
2022-01-03: I read Robert Hayden as a young, aspiring poet in the 1980s. I haven’t read him since. This piece by …
2022-01-03: One more from Gray Latitudes, by Michelle K. Angwenyi, “I Hope You Can Dance Now:” “I hope you …
2022-01-02: 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. …
2022-01-02: Michelle K. Angwenyi, from Gray Latitudes: “one thing stays the same: lined paper written over on …
2022-01-01: I’m reading through my pile of literary journals. Aphorisms, even interesting ones, even profound …
2022-01-01: Currently reading: The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief by James Wood 📚
2022-01-01: I’ve decided to restart my newsletter and New Year’s Day seems an auspicious time to do …
2022-01-01: More from Isele Magazine that is worth reading: Postpartum Interiorities - Ukamaka Olisakwe
2021-12-31: I gave The Abundant Life an honest try. I just couldn’t get into it.
2021-12-30: Going through old papers, I found this from when I was a first year student in Syracuse University’s …
2021-12-30: Watkins Glen State Park
2021-12-30: I am enjoying the work Isele Magazine (@iselemagazine) publishes. An Exquisite Creature - Sophie …
2021-12-29: Yes, it’s mine—whatever that means—and, yes, I am.
2021-12-29: Doesn’t this cat look like it belongs in “Let This Be Your Last Battlefield” from the original Star …
2021-12-29: Watched Hanna and The Witcher. Liked them both well enough, but was disappointed that each ended up …
2021-12-27: I just found this video from 1989. I have the album this song is on and I think I might have been …
2021-12-27: Monday Morning Music - The Mamas and The Papas
2021-12-26: From Bitch, I am (not) a Mother! - Temi Chukwumah – Isele Magazine, well worth reading: “This dream …
2021-12-24: Want to read: Original Light: New and Selected Poems, 1973-1983 by Albert Goldbarth 📚 I owned this …
2021-12-23: Scrolling through old photos, I found this poem. Sadly, I did not note who wrote it or where I found …
2021-12-22: I read Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet many years ago and loved it. I am looking …
2021-12-22: Apropos my post yesterday about change, my translation of a poem by the 13th century Iranian poet, …
2021-12-21: Wilma’s Orphans is my mother’s dog rescue.
2021-12-21: I’m thinking a lot this morning about how important it is not to force change, but rather to create …
2021-12-20: I miss the way my cat, Leila–whom we had to let go a couple of months back–would keep me …
2021-12-17: The danger of “the paralysis of analysis:” spending way too much time just thinking, not doing …
2021-12-16: 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 …
2021-12-13: 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 …
2021-02-21: Two Trees, by Don Paterson @donpatersonpoet. I love the kind of truth-telling where this poem ends …
2021-02-12: Leila after taking her thyroid medicine.
2020-12-26: A new blog post: The Music I’d Like to Put Back in My Life: “My grandmother made sure I …
2020-11-30: “In Minnesota, the number of teachers applying for retirement benefits increased by 35… In …
2020-11-14: Sterling A. Brown from The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetrt. Absolutely beautiful!
2020-11-02: My cat thinks it’s time for me to take a break.
2020-10-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #97
2020-10-02: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #96
2020-09-25: Two new poems up on Unlikely Stories: one about something that happened 30 years ago when I was …
2020-09-24: This is a lovely and powerful poem by @RosebudBenOni on Poem-A-Day: “So They Say— They Finally …
2020-09-18: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #95
2020-09-17: First newsletter since the pandemic shutdown. I’m hoping to be more consistent in getting this …
2020-09-16: So this odd: A night with no email. My inboxes—note the plural—have been empty for hours.
2020-09-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #94
2020-09-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #93
2020-09-04: Cat Yoga
2020-09-03: I am very happy to have a new poem, #24 from the sequence “This Sentence Is a Metaphor for …
2020-09-03: This is very strange and a little disturbing: Duck Sauce - Big Bad Wolf
2020-08-31: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 31 (last day): Rewilding by January Gill O’Neil @januaryoneil. This is …
2020-08-31: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #92
2020-08-30: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 30: History of Bodies, by Mariko Nagai This is from “Ovid’s Lovers:” …
2020-08-30: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #91
2020-08-30: This is a lovely poetry video: youtu.be/Izq883SOj…
2020-08-29: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 29: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde - I read The First Cities This is …
2020-08-29: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #90
2020-08-28: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 28: The Collected Poems of Ai. From Twenty Year Marriage: Pretend you don’t …
2020-08-28: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #89
2020-08-28: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 28: Look, by Solmaz Sharif No excerpt today. I’m posting this away …
2020-08-27: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #88
2020-08-26: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 26: Heavy Daughter Blues, by Wanda Coleman from Stampede my mind belly and …
2020-08-25: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 25: Kissing God Goobye, June Jordan From The Bombing of Baghdad VI And all …
2020-08-25: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #87
2020-08-24: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 24: A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor, Maram Al-Massri, tr Khaled Mattawa. …
2020-08-24: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #86
2020-08-23: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 23: Anxiety of Words, tr Don Mee Choi. From Song of Skin, by Kim Hyesoon The …
2020-08-23: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #85
2020-08-22: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 22: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, tr by Judith Hemschemeyer. I read …
2020-08-22: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #84
2020-08-21: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 21: Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad tr by Sholeh Wolpé from …
2020-08-20: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 20: An Absence of Shadows, by Marjorie Agosin, translated by Celeste …
2020-08-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #83
2020-08-19: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 19: Language Duel/Duelo del Lenguaje, by Rosario Ferré. The first poem in …
2020-08-19: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #82
2020-08-18: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 18: Directions For Use, by Ana Ristović, tr Steven & Maja Teref From …
2020-08-18: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #81
2020-08-17: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 17: Spring Essence, tr by John Balaban: Jackfruit My body is like the …
2020-08-16: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 16: The Ink Dark Moon, tr by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani: By Izumi …
2020-08-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #80
2020-08-15: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 15: BeautyBeast, by Adina Dabija, tr by Claudia Serea: from The Blood: I’m …
2020-08-15: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #79
2020-08-14: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 14: Songs of Love and War: Afghan Women’s Poetry, tr by Marjolin De Jager …
2020-08-13: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 13: Poems of Jahan Malek Khatun in Faces of Love, tr by Dick Davis. Read his …
2020-08-12: #TheSealeyChallenge Day 12: Sin Puertas Visibles, edited & translated by Jen Hofer. From Third …
2020-08-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #78
2020-08-11: Day 11 #TheSealeyChallenge, #WITMonth: Songs of the Kisaeng, tr by Constantine Contogenis, Wolhee …
2020-08-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #77
2020-08-10: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #76
2020-08-10: Day 10 #TheSealeyChallenge: Cattle of the Lord, by Rosa Alice Branco, tr. by Alexis Levitin. From …
2020-08-09: Day 9 #TheSealeyChallenge: She Says by Venus Khoury-Ghata 📚 “He shakes her so she’ll drop the words …
2020-08-09: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #75
2020-08-08: Day 8 #sealeychallenge: Factory Of Tears, by Valzhyna Mort. This is from “Berlin-Minsk:” It’s …
2020-08-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #74
2020-08-07: Day 7 #sealeychallenge: Other Side River, eds. Leza Lowitz & Miyuki Aoyama. From …
2020-08-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #73
2020-08-06: #sealeychallenge Day 6: A Long Rainy Season: Contemporary Japanese Women’s Poetry, Volume 1” …
2020-08-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #72
2020-08-05: #sealeychallenge Day 5: Trace/Traza, by Iliana Rodríguez: from “On The Mound of Earth:” A woman like …
2020-08-05: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #71
2020-08-04: #sealeychallenge Day 4: Look There, by Agi Mishol. This is from from “Moment:” “I could have …
2020-08-04: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #70
2020-08-03: #sealeychallenge Day 3: On Foot I Wandered Through the Solar Systems, by Edith Södergan: from …
2020-08-03: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #69
2020-08-02: #sealeychallenge Day 2: Empty Chairs, by Liu Xia, translated by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern: “I want …
2020-08-02: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #68
2020-08-01: The sky tonight over Jackson Heights.
2020-07-28: From Invitation to a Secret Feast, by Joumana Haddad, edited by Khaled Mattawa. This poem translated …
2020-07-18: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #67
2020-07-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #66
2020-07-16: This is heartening: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Where Is the Outrage Over Anti-Semitism in Sports and …
2020-07-15: From The Collected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid, translated by Peter Cole: Could kings right a people …
2020-07-15: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #65
2020-07-14: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #64
2020-07-13: Bookshelf Juxtaposition #63
2020-07-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #62
2020-07-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #61
2020-07-10: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #60
2020-07-09: There is truth in this critique of white liberals.
2020-07-09: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #59
2020-07-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #58
2020-07-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #57
2020-07-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #56
2020-07-05: “Apologies: To whom exactly?” he wrote. “The critics on the Facebook page? Facebook is a cesspool …
2020-07-04: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #55
2020-07-03: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #54
2020-07-02: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #53
2020-07-01: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #52
2020-06-30: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #51
2020-06-29: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #50
2020-06-28: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #49
2020-06-27: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #48
2020-06-26: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #47
2020-06-24: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #46
2020-06-23: Flowers in the garden at night.
2020-06-23: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #45
2020-06-22: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #44
2020-06-21: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #43
2020-06-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #42
2020-06-19: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #41
2020-06-18: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #40
2020-06-17: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #39
2020-06-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #38
2020-06-15: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #37
2020-06-14: Ready to be shipped.
2020-06-14: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #36
2020-06-13: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #35
2020-06-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #34
2020-06-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #33
2020-06-10: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #32
2020-06-09: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #31
2020-06-08: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #30
2020-06-07: From The NY Times: “I’m Finally An Angry Black Man”
2020-06-07: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #29
2020-06-06: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #28
2020-06-05: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #27
2020-06-04: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #26
2020-06-03: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #25
2020-06-02: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #24
2020-06-01: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #23
2020-05-31: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #22
2020-05-30: Truth.
2020-05-30: Right now, in front of the 115th precinct in Queens, NY. Blocks from where I live.
2020-05-30: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #21
2020-05-30: Someone who has belittled me, called me a “yes man,” and otherwise disrespected my work as a union …
2020-05-29: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #20
2020-05-28: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #19
2020-05-27: So I’m populating my new Blot site with old posts, but I’m also “cheating" and …
2020-05-27: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #18
2020-05-26: Trying to decide what to do about students who asked for extensions, have not handed in the work, …
2020-05-26: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #17
2020-05-25: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #16
2020-05-24: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #15
2020-05-23: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #14
2020-05-22: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #13
2020-05-21: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #12
2020-05-20: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #11
2020-05-19: Because I can never read just one book at a time.
2020-05-19: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #10
2020-05-18: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #9
2020-05-17: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #8
2020-05-16: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #7
2020-05-15: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #6
2020-05-14: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #5
2020-05-13: The same painting from two different angles.
2020-05-13: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #4
2020-05-12: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #3
2020-05-11: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #2
2020-05-10: Bookshelf Juxtapositions #1
2020-05-10: Sunday morning, reading a first book by someone I know casually, who is really crappy at writing …
2020-05-09: I’m thinking today about contract negotiations, the shrinking budget for public higher …
2020-05-09: My Year-Long Writing Project - first post on my new Blot website.
2020-02-15: Even Layla thinks it gets boring. She won’t even look at the papers.
2020-02-15: One of the hardest parts of paper grading for me is the monotony. My students—who’re the same age as …
2020-02-14: This poem, by Ellen Bass, is lovely and painful and necessary: “I want your scent in my hair. …
2020-02-08: Grading, grading, without an end in sight… (To the tune of “sailing, sailing…)
2020-01-27: The latest issue of my newsletter is out, focused on the process of putting together a book of poems …
2020-01-20: It’s interesting, sadly predictable, and not a little disturbing, that it was a picture of two young …
2020-01-14: The unread results of my resolution not to acquire too many new books over the last two years. To be …
2020-01-12: “The textbook companies are not gearing their textbooks toward teachers; they’re gearing their …
2020-01-10: 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 …
2019-12-24: It’s a NY Chanukah! Chag Sameach, if you’re celebrating!
2019-12-19: This poem and the turn when it becomes about gun violence: “That will stop us from wanting to turn …
2019-12-16: Caught my first plagiarist just two papers in. She cut and pasted an entire paragraph from …
2019-12-11: This is very dangerous: “In its agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, the university said it …
2019-11-30: An interesting article in the Times about a post-social media world. Not stuff I have thought deeply …
2019-11-29: I’ve just sent an email to David, but I am wondering if anyone else here who is using @Blot is …
2019-11-27: This tweet made me laugh out loud.
2019-11-26: It’s been a while since I’ve had a new publication to announce, so I am happy to share …
2019-11-24: For her, this is keeping me company while I grade.
2019-11-14: I wrote a “craft talk” on rhythm and the line in Quincy Troupe’s work that was published on the blog …
2019-11-07: Perhaps the smartest critique of the how-to-fix-masculinity industry—and part of the problem, of …
2019-10-29: “Failed Essay on Privilege,” by Elisa Gonzalez - The New Yorker
2019-10-22: This Twitter thread from an independent bookstore owner and an open letter to Jeff Bezos.
2019-10-20: By the way, that four page poem I posted about a week or so ago is now up to 15 pages and counting. …
2019-10-19: Aaaaand…the rejections have started coming in. Ah well…that just means I need to set some time aside …
2019-10-12: I was 13 months. I remember that teddy bear. He became my toilet training buddy.
2019-10-10: First poem in a long time and it’s already four pages long. Sometimes I wish I wrote tightly …
2019-10-05: 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 …
2019-10-04: That moment, when you’ve finished one project, you’ve given yourself some time off, and now you’ve …
2019-10-01: If you her full size, you’d think she was too big to fit into this box
2019-09-30: Recently, I’ve been paying too little attention to sending work out. This month, I decided to …
2019-09-29: A special delivery to keep me company while I’m commenting on student poems.
2019-09-26: I’m guessing others here have already seen this, but in case not: Facebook Tests Hiding ‘Likes’ on …
2019-09-16: Going to a training session on Turnitin this morning. I’m oddly less worried about my students …
2019-09-11: 100,000 men have been sexually assaulted in the military in the past decades, from The NY Times.
2019-09-01: Received two emails today congratulating me that my poem was the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the …
2019-09-01: There is sad truth in this, from The NY Times: What I Know About Famous Men’s Penises
2019-08-28: Oman sounds like a really interesting place: Muscat: Where the Arab World Meets the Indian Ocean
2019-08-27: This is worth reading if you want to know something about the origins of the fear of the “great …
2019-08-27: A single boot on top of paper recycling. There’s a story behind this.
2019-08-26: From the Catbird Seat: What it was like to be a woman and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of …
2019-08-26: Oy! Why is Netanyahu reviving Palestinians' ‘willing relocation’?
2019-08-26: From Poets Corner, Matthew Baker: A poem by Sylvia Plath in honor of Women’s Equality Day
2019-08-26: Chilling is an understated adjective to describe this: NYTimes: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over …
2019-08-16: A dark poem for a dark time. From Mikhail Aizenberg’s Say Thank You, translated by J. Kates.
2019-08-14: Seems like useful information to have. From The NY Times: Don’t pay the ransom if you’re hit by …
2019-08-11: It’s about time: The motivations of men who commit mass shootings are often muddled, complex or …
2019-08-10: This is worth reading about the international networking of the far right.
2019-08-08: Made the final edits and layout corrections today and it’s off to its first destination, which will …
2019-08-02: A forbidding sky in Fishkill, NY.
2019-07-30: I’m at that point in the revision process where I’m convinced the book sucks. I will probably not …
2019-07-26: It’s an experimental narrative essay, so nonfiction, but this section is about a previous, failed …
2019-07-25: Finally started reading Citizen, by Claudia Rankine. So far, it’s as remarkable as everyone …
2019-07-21: There are two types of hijabs. The difference is huge. - The Washington Post. This is a really …
2019-07-20: I don’t drink coffee, but I smiled at this.
2019-07-19: 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 …
2019-07-18: An important truth about the value of community colleges and the education students get there. I …
2019-07-18: Reading Say Thank You, by Mikhail Aizenberg, translated by J. Kates. Very interesting poems. …
2019-07-17: The structure of a traditional literary reading turns the act of attending it into an act of …
2019-07-17: One editor’s take on the current state of literary journals
2019-07-16: Ready, finally, for a final round of edits before I send it off to a very fine publisher with whom I …
2019-07-12: ELP’s Pirates. Been a long time since I’ve heard it and this live performance just made …
2019-07-11: Why are conclusions/endings–I’m thinking about essays here in particular–always so …
2019-07-03: Well this is sobering: Axios Future: Special report — Surveillance capitalism
2019-06-25: Newsletter Issue 7 is out. One highlight: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb has set my poem “Light” …
2019-06-23: Okay, sometimes satire is necessary and this made me laugh out loud in a couple of places: Every …
2019-06-22: Ordinary Iranians feel like they’re already at war.
2019-06-15: “The far right does not respect the free and liberal exchange of ideas. It is not open to …
2019-06-03: When we talk about abortion, let’s talk about men
2019-05-30: 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 …
2019-05-26: It’s Taken 5 Decades to Get the Ph.D. Her Abusive Professor Denied Her
2019-05-15: A rabbi’s Twitter thread apropo Alabama’s newcabortion law: “Call it Christian theocracy, which it …
2019-05-05: Me and Mikey, whom my mother had to have put down because he broke a knee and the complications were …
2019-05-05: Mother and daughter, though the mother–on the right–is long gone. For some reason, they …
2019-04-27: Apple Cracks Down on Apps That Fight iPhone Addiction
2019-04-25: I just published my newsletter: #NationalPoetryMonth, #MeToo, Leaving Neverland, and Sexual Assault …
2019-04-18: A Tale of Two Cancelled Speeches: Beloit and Columbia - ACADEME BLOG
2019-04-17: Democrats Are Failing Ilhan Omar
2019-04-16: Wow! A poem by Robin Coste Lewis
2019-04-09: The Moroccan Exception in the Arab World: Morocco’s efforts to reconnect with Moroccan Jews and …
2019-04-05: An interesting tweet about Israeli Arab and Israeli Jewish attitudes towards coexisting in Israel.
2019-04-02: Oy! Conservative Professor Sues State Senator Over Blog Post - ACADEME BLOG
2019-03-25: "My mother is this mourning mother who begged the staff to search for her daughter, but was denied. …
2019-03-23: Barbara Streisand’s comments about Leaving Neverland are tone deaf at best and seem to justify or …
2019-03-16: This is a powerful poem from the Academy of American Poets.
2019-03-13: This is a lovely poem by Carrie Fountain, from the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day.
2019-03-09: 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 …
2019-03-08: This pretty smart: How Should We Talk About the Israel Lobby’s Power? - New York Magazine
2019-03-01: First full working draft. I am happy!
2019-02-28: I saw today a screening of Leaving Neverland and Oprah’s interview with the two men who tell their …
2019-02-24: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 23, 2019 Your choice bewilders logic out of spite. …
2019-02-23: A momentary vent: Trying to get work done (grading papers) in the middle of a spiteful family …
2019-02-22: This Seth Meyers bit is very well done: youtu.be
2019-02-22: nyti.ms Not the Fun Kind of Feminist
2019-02-15: The sky over Laguna Beach.
2019-02-14: What Ilhan Omar Said About AIPAC Was Right - The Nation This is worth reading.
2019-02-12: Lies Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 12, 2019 Unfurl your guilt inside a circus tent. …
2019-02-09: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 9, 2019 Immerse yourself without pretense. Disguise the wilderness you crave. Behind barbed wire, what you …
2019-02-06: This is exciting! The musical group Pneuma has set one of my poem to music for their upcoming album, …
2019-02-02: 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 …
2019-02-01: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - February 1, 2019 Let laughter scatter what you trust like …
2019-02-01: I’m doing some file maintenance on my hard drive and came across this. It’s the cover of …
2019-01-31: Trying to write about race, especially when you’re dealing with people and events in your life …
2019-01-31: 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 …
2019-01-27: The next anthology I am going to tackle. It’s been on my shelf since the 1980s and I’ve …
2019-01-27: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 27, 2019 You know there’s something you can never …
2019-01-25: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 25, 2019 Fling against the wall of your virginity the …
2019-01-24: 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 …
2019-01-23: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 23, 2019 You crane your neck, stand on your toes. “My …
2019-01-22: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 22, 2019 Part ways with what you’ve hidden on your …
2019-01-22: This is the first poetry anthology I’ve ever read cover to cover. Now that I’ve finished …
2019-01-21: A Trip Down Memory Lane In 1988-89, I taught English in South Korea. Han Young Ae was one of the …
2019-01-21: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 21, 2019 You crane your neck, stand on your toes. “My …
2019-01-20: 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 …
2019-01-18: A post I wrote about abortion in Jewish law that some here might find interesting. It’s part …
2019-01-18: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 18, 2019 The child hung suspended in midair like …
2019-01-17: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 17, 2019 The line of people leaving, a living scar …
2019-01-17: I’m in an online discussion of Nancy MacClean’s Democracy in Chains. Has anyone here …
2019-01-16: 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 …
2019-01-15: Socrates Park, Long Island City, three or so years ago.
2019-01-14: 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 …
2019-01-14: One more quote from Metres: Surveillance is observation without consequences…The danger of our …
2019-01-14: "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 …
2019-01-14: Finished reading: Though I Get Home by YZ Chin 📚
2019-01-14: Elsevier journal editors resign, start rival open-access journal www.insidehighered.com This seems …
2019-01-13: Currently reading: The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance by Philip Metres 📚 We …
2019-01-13: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 13, 2019 A child’s bleeding hid you from the truth, …
2019-01-10: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 10, 2019 I cursed the deal I cannot say I made in …
2019-01-09: The first poem I will read a tonight. A translation from Bustan, by 13th century Persian poet, Saadi …
2019-01-09: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - January 9, 2019 Desire feeds on what it finds, blurring the …
2019-01-09: I’m prepping Introduction to Literature, our second semester writing course, which I …
2019-01-08: Makes me wonder exactly where this prohibition starts and ends
2019-01-08: The first of what will be two or three blog posts on my own history of blogging, keeping a journal, …
2019-01-07: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 7, 2019 The rules require a precise exchange of …
2019-01-07: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows sounds like a very interesting novel.
2019-01-06: The Slowdown is a lovely poetry podcast by Tracy K. Smith, US Poet Laureate. Each episode is between …
2019-01-06: This, Following protests, London mosque cancels planned Holocaust exhibition, unless there is some …
2019-01-05: That’s me and Mikey at my mother’s. She’s got a dog rescue, Wilma’s Orphans. Mikey and I …
2019-01-05: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - January 5, 2019 You gathered every inch of trust you could …
2019-01-05: This article about the trial in Israel of a Palestinian poet arrested and put on trial for a poem …
2019-01-04: When the Chancellor Donates his $50,000 Raise to the University
2019-01-03: 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 …
2019-01-02: By way of introducing some of my Persian translation work to people here who might be interested, …
2019-01-02: Currently reading: Body of Water 📚
2019-01-02: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - January 2, 2019 Beneath this season’s long and gentle gaze, …
2019-01-02: What It’s Like to Be a Female Movie Critic in the #MeToo Era
2019-01-02: One of the ways that poets and writers can change the cultural conversation in significant ways.
2019-01-01: In Screening for Suicide Risk, Facebook Takes On Tricky Public Health Role: Paraphrasing, “Facebook …
2019-01-01: Last night was one hell of a New Year’s Eve—for the cat, apparently, not me. We stayed in and had a …
2018-12-31: My new journal. Handmade in Brooklyn, by a guy from Turkey. He started out making them to display …
2018-12-30: 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 …
2018-12-30: I have mixed feelings about this: In Defense of Satoshi Kanazawa’s Academic Freedom - ACADEME BLOG
2018-12-29: 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 …
2018-12-29: America Is Losing Its Teachers at a Record Rate. Specifically, public educators. There are people on …
2018-12-28: From The Desk of Richard Jeffrey Newman #5 is out.
2018-12-28: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 28, 2018 The waitress moved across the restaurant …
2018-12-28: The to-read piles I’ve accumulated–not new books I’ve bought–over the course of …
2018-12-27: More from our 2008 trip to Iran. I took this in the bazaar in Isfahan.
2018-12-27: 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 …
2018-12-26: 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 …
2018-12-23: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - December 23, 2018 Now you have to choose. Join with what for …
2018-12-22: The poet is Tom Leonard. I read him when I studied at Edinburgh University in the summer of 1985. …
2018-12-21: Persepolis, Iran. Taken 10 years ago. I remember being really surprised at how not merely phallic, …
2018-12-21: Lines Left On The Cutting Room Floor - December 21, 2018 Those rotting corpses will not breathe …
2018-12-21: After More Than Two Decades of Work, a New Hebrew Bible to Rival the King James This, from The New …
2018-12-20: What my desk at school looks like now that the semester’s over and I’ve handed in all my grades. …
2018-12-20: Lines Left On The Cutting Room Floor, December 20, 2018 You’ll understand in time. For now, your …
2018-12-19: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor, December 19, 2018 Below your bed, the city lives its life. The …
2018-12-18: Lines Left on The Cutting Room Floor - December 18, 2018 Leave aside the mercies you’ve received. Refuse amelioration. Place your trust where camouflage …
2018-12-18: Anybody else find Tracy Smith’s NY Times essay on political poetry as unsatisfying as I did? Still …
2018-12-15: As a union officer, I inevitably learn things about my colleagues, some of them at least, that I …
2018-12-15: This past summer, I saw an Ent in Westchester County.
2018-12-15: More from Storm King Art Center.
2018-12-14: Lines Left on the Cutting Room Floor - December 14, 2018 Take refuge in the withered disarray …
2018-12-14: Currently reading: The Collected Poems of Ai by Ai 📚
2018-12-14: Sunset from my window–but not today’s. Today it was raining.
2018-12-14: When what you have to say as a poet and writer is rooted both in your experience as a man who …
2018-12-13: The sky over Long Island City.
2018-12-13: 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 …
2018-12-12: The Three-Legged Buddha at Storm King Arts Center.
2018-12-12: My cat is not as evil as she looks in this picture, but I like how evil she looks nonetheless.
2018-12-12: 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 …
2018-12-11: 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 …
2018-12-09: I’m looking for poets on Micro.blog. Anybody out there?
2018-12-09: The first five poems in my new, booklength sequence, This Sentence Is A Metaphor For Bridge, have …
2018-12-08: A lot of contemporary poetry I read these days seems built around metaphors & images …
2018-12-08: I think every working person should read this book regardless of party/political affiliation. …
2018-12-07: It’s 1 AM and I’m sitting in my dining room watching my Chanukah candles burn—I lit them late—and …
2018-12-05: This is a thought-provoking piece: nyti.ms I’m a Democrat and a Feminist. And I Support Betsy …
2018-12-04: Trying to like this book as much as the hype says I should, but no matter how gorgeous much of the …
2018-11-26: Hello Micro.blog. Just starting to learn how this works.