Poets.org

Cesar Vallejo: Intellectual Instigator

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Born in Peru, Vallejo's second poetry collection, Trilce, placed Latin American poetry at the center of the Western cultural tradition in the 1920s.

Great Anthology: Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Organized by historical tragedies of the twentieth century, these poems deal with events ranging from Armenian Genocide to the pro-democratic demonstrations in China.

Matthea Harvey: Strawberry on the Drawbridge

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

I tried eating one there on the bridge’s fault line, listening out for / the dispatcher’s radio...

Spotlight Audio: Mark Jarman reads "Ground Swell"

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Is nothing real but when I was fifteen, / Going on sixteen, like a corny song? I see myself so clearly then, and painfully...

Karen Volkman: Mutable Boundaries - on Prose Poetry

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

How can it be a poem at all, lacking that seemingly essential formal marker of poetry, the line-break?

For Mother's Day: Poems About Flowers

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Mix a few paper flowers into your mother's day bouquet this year. Whether tulips or roses, orchids or lilies, find over fifty different poems arranged by flower.

Jorie Graham on the Fragility of Our Planet

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Sometimes I feel I am living an extended farewell, where my eventual disappearance, my mortal nature, normally a deep human concern, has been washed away by my fear for the deeper mortality—the extinction-of other species, and of the natural world itself. I cannot look at the world hard enough.

Spotlight Audio: Michael Ryan reads "Reminder"

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

Torment by appetite / is itself an appetite / dulled by inarticulate, / dogged, daily / loving-others-to-death...

Billy Collins: Introduction to Poetry

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light / like a color slide...

New Audio: A.B. Spellman reads "After Vallejo"

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

i will die in havana in a hurricane / it will be morning, i'll be facing southwest / away from the gulf.

Jason Shinder: 1955-2008

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:03:00 EST

I've never told this story. / Even at the moment / of dying, / I would say / it was someone else's.

Groundbreaking Book: "Selected Poems" by Marianne Moore

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The book is characterized by her distinctive use of a technique called "syllabics." While most poets either employ established meters or write free verse, Moore's poems are built from lines of counted syllables.

Poems For Spring

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Spring is like a perhaps hand / (which comes carefully / out of Nowhere)arranging / a window...

Add Verse To Your Email Signature - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Why not put some poetry in your email? Many email programs allow you to create personalized signatures that are automatically added to the end of every email you send.

Robert Duncan: The Grand Collage

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Associated with both the Black Mountain School and the San Francisco Renaissance, Robert Duncan forged a unique poetic style, presenting the poem as a "compositional field."

Start a Notebook on Poets.org - 30 Ways To Celebrate National Poetry Month

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Our "My Notebooks" feature serves as a scrapbook, allowing you to store links to items on the site that you want to keep track of, such as poems, biographies, upcoming events, and audio clips.

Buy a Book of Poems For Your Library - 30 Ways To Celebrate National Poetry Month

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Many libraries have undergone or are facing severe cuts in funding. These cuts are often made manifest on library shelves.

Ars Poetica: Poems about Poetry

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

"To write about poetry is to believe that there are answers to some of the questions poets ask of their art, or at least that there are reasons for writing it."

Spotlight Audio: Carolyn Kizer reads "Parent's Pantoum"

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Where did these enormous children come from, / More ladylike than we have ever been? / Some of ours look older than we feel. How did they appear...

Organize a Poetry Reading - 30 Ways To Celebrate National Poetry Month

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

When looking for a venue, consider your local library, coffee shop, bookstore, art gallery, bar, or performance space.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Heresy of the Didactic

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

In his essay on poetics, Poe defines "the Poetry of words as The Rhythmical Creation of Beauty."

Read Literary Criticism - 30 Ways To Celebrate National Poetry Month

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Poets writing about their own genre can often be illuminating, such as Wordsworth's preface to Lyrical Ballads, or T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent." Most of the major writers of the twentieth century also wrote prose about poetry.

Aime Cesaire: 1913-2008

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The late poet, playwright, essayist, and political activist Aime Cesaire helped establish the literary and ideological movement known as Negritude.

Video: Poem In Your Pocket Day

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The staff of the Academy of American Poets takes to the streets of NYC to distribute poems for the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day.

Start a Poetry Reading Group - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Ask everyone to bring a favorite poem or two to share with the others. A member of the group can nominate a title for the next meeting.

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day!!

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Celebrate the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day by carrying around a poem to share with friends and family.

Clayton Eshleman wins Harold Morton Landon Translation Prize

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Clayton Eshleman received the 2008 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, selected by Jerome Rothenberg, for his translations of Cesar Vallejo.

New Audio: Walt Whitman reads from "America"

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, all, all alike endear'd, grown, ungrown, young or old...

Take a Poem Out to Lunch - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Adding a poem to lunch puts some poetry in your day and gives you something great to read while you eat.

April is the Cruelest Month (Especially on Tax Day)

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

To mark past tax days, the Academy has distributed thousands of free copies of The Waste Land at selected post offices across the country.

Common Language: Robert Hass in Conversation

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

A recipient of a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, Robert Hass discusses the office of the Poet Laureate and its role in American culture.

Subscribe to a Literary Magazine - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Full of poetry, short fiction, interviews, and reviews, journals are at the forefront of contemporary literature.

Gerard Manley Hopkins: Charged With Grandeur

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era, Hopkins helped rejuvenate poetic language by developing new rhythmic effects.

Listen to a Poem - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Hearing an author read his or her own work can clarify questions about meaning and tone.

Google a Poem - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Many people carry single lines of verse with them, sometimes for years, and are eager to remember the rest of that particular poem.

Robert Fagles: 1933 - 2008

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

"When Alexander Pope translated The Iliad and The Odyssey, he had a crew of clerks working for him, basically, translating and he was doing the finished versions. Bob Fagles did it all himself."

Lucie Brock-Broido: Ornament and Deep Feeling

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The author of three collections, Brock-Broido has been praised for poems that are "gorgeous and mournful, ornate and deeply felt."

Read a poem at an open mic - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

It's a great way to meet other writers in your area and find out about your local writing community.

Play Exquisite Corpse - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Each participant is unaware of what the others have written, thus producing a surprising—sometimes absurd—yet often beautiful poem.

New Audio: Claudia Emerson reads "Homecoming"

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The camera is trained on the door, no one in the frame, only the dog sleeping...

Attend a Poetry Reading - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Each reading is unique, whether the poets are emerging or established, one never knows what to expect. You might be surprised or be emotionally challenged or laugh in fits.

Bring a Poem to Your Place of Worship - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Whether your spirituality leads you to a temple, church, sacred site, or theater, poetry and metaphysics often make a synergistic coupling.

Put Poetry in Unxpected Places - 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Books should be brought to the door like electricity or milk; they should be considered utilities.

Spotlight Audio: Ed Hirsch reads "The Widening Sky"

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

I am so small walking on the beach at night under the widening sky...

New Audio: Ed Ochester reads "Fred Astaire"

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The secret of his popularity was that he looked like a bus driver who could dance...

30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month - Revisit a Poem

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Revisit a poem you loved when you were young, then give a poem you didn’t like another try.

Dashboard Widgets from Poets.org

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Mac users can now instantly view the latest poems and essays added to the site, local poetry events and organizations, poems for any occasion, and more, right from the Dashboard.

30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month - Memorize a Poem

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

The rewards of recalling a private anthology of well-loved poems are both immediate and long-lasting.

30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month - Read a Poetry Book

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:03:00 EST

Anthologies can be great starting points for browsing diverse styles and time periods...

Groundbreaking Book: Ariel, by Sylvia Plath

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:08:00 EST

Published posthumously in 1965, the darkly lyric poems in Sylvia Plath's Ariel address motherhood, sexuality, marriage, and her own experiences with depression.

New Audio: Paul Hoover reads from "Edge and Fold"

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:08:00 EST

"The real that's in the world is a word intending, absenting all it knows..."

Frank Stanford: It Wasn't a Dream, It Was a Flood

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:08:00 EST

The author of over ten collections of poetry, Stanford's work has been praised and elegized by many poets including Thomas Lux, James Dickey, and Franz Wright.

Custom Ringtones From Poets.org

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:08:00 EST

Rage against the dying of the light with free downloadable ringtones for your mobile phone, available in MP3, AAC, and iPhone (M4R) formats.

New Audio: Robert Lowell reads "Skunk Hour"

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:08:00 EST

"Nautilus Island's hermit / heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; / her sheep still graze above the sea. / Her son's a bishop..."

New Audio: Afaa Michael Weaver reads "My Father's Geography"

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:56:00 EST

"I was parading the Côte d'Azur, / hopping the short trains from Nice to Cannes,/ following the maze of streets in Monte Carlo..."

LifeLines Contest

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:56:00 EST

For National Poetry Month 2008, the Academy of American Poets asks you to share the lines of poetry that are the most vital to you, along with notes about the precise situation that summoned them to mind. All participants will automatically be entered to win a piece of jewelry by San Francisco designer Jeanine Payer. Payer specializes in hand-engraving lines of poetry on earrings, necklaces, and other items. The winner will have their "life line" hand-engraved on a specially chosen piece.Entries can be emailed to npm@poets.org until April 1, 2008.

Spotlight Poet: Louise Glück

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:56:00 EST

A former Poet Laureate, Glück has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Stuart Dischell: Days of Me

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:17:00 EST

"When people say they miss me, / I think how much I miss me too..."

New Audio: Mark Jarman reads "Transfiguration"

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:17:00 EST

"They were talking to him about resurrection, about law, / about the suffering ahead. / They were talking as if to remind him who he was and / who they were. He was not..."

Lucinda and Miller Williams: All in the Family

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:27:00 EST

Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, daughter of poet Miller Williams, discusses her music, her influences, and how her father has been her "toughest critic."

Spotlight Audio: Ron Padgett reads "Fairy Tale"

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:27:00 EST

"The little elf is dressed in a floppy cap / and he has a big rosy nose and flaring white eyebrows..."

Poets.org Launches First Mobile Poetry Site

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:16:00 EST

The Academy of American Poets is proud to announce the launch of a mobile poetry archive which provides free and direct access to the entire collection of over 2,500 poems on Poets.org, as well as hundreds of biographies and essays, all in the palm of a hand. Poems can be browsed by author, title, occasion, or form, and searched easily by keyword. Visitors can read a poem, anytime, anywhere—whether to fill a spare moment, woo a darling, toast a friend, find solace, or recite a few immortal lines—verse is now at your fingertips.

Howard Nemerov: A Primer of the Daily Round

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:49:00 EST

"A peels an apple, while B kneels to God, / C telephones to D, who has a hand / On E’s knee"

Parallel Lines and Power Chords: A Meditative ABC on Rock 'n Roll and Poetic Composition

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:54:00 EST

"I is for interstate, the one that travels back and forth between investigation and identification. Interstate suggests Springsteen. I love the sheer wind-in-the-hair joy that "Born to Run" or "Jungle Land" induce — but I'm more fond of Nebraska. A moody boy, I'll take my minor-key melancholy with me for snack just about anywhere. I like his identification songs, but his laments seem more keen on investigation. Music and poetics that invite investigation as opposed to declaring identification have always been somewhat more attractive to me, but perhaps not as a teenager. Investigation might very well lead to identification, but without the former, without the cerebral play of a Stevens or the musical play of a Zappa, I feel we're not meeting our potential as souls and sprits, as well as bodies."

Spotlight Audio: Gwendolyn Brooks reads "We Real Cool"

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:54:00 EST

"We real cool. We / Left school. We / Lurk late. We / Strike straight. We..."

Poetic Form: Abecedarian

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:54:00 EST

Guided by alphabetical order, some of the earliest examples of this ancient poetic form occur in religious Hebrew poetry.

Save the Date! April 17th is National Poem in Your Pocket Day

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:56:00 EST

The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 17. Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. Create your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or let us know how you will celebrate Poem In Your Pocket Day by emailing npm@poets.org.

Amy Lowell: The Poet's Trade

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:56:00 EST

"The poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care, as the cabinet-maker."

Paul Celan: Dream, Fugue, and Death

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:56:00 EST

The son of German-speaking Jews killed by the Nazis, Paul Celan wrote some of the most compelling poems to emerge from the Holocaust.

Spotlight Audio: Thomas Sayers Ellis reads "All Their Stanzas Look Alike"

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"All their stanzas look alike. / All their fences, / all their prisons, / all their exercises, / all their agendas..."

John Donne: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"As virtuous men pass mildly away, / And whisper to their souls to go, / Whilst some of their sad friends do say..."

In Intervals: Robert Pinsky

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

In an interview with Tom Sleigh, Pinsky discusses the musicality of poetry, touching on topics such as jazz, the importance of voice in a poem, and the violent history of the English language.

Spotlight Poet: Mina Loy

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

Famously extolled by Pound, Loy has been labeled a Futurist, Dadaist, Surrealist, feminist, conceptualist, modernist, and post-modernist.

Victor Hernandez Cruz: Problems With Hurricanes

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"A campesino looked at the air / And told me: / With hurricanes it's not the wind..."

Love Poems for Valentine's Day

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

How better to express one’s feelings of love and passion than through reading and sharing a poem? Countless suitors have used verse to woo a love interest, expressing feelings of desire and longing.

Spotlight Audio: Kenneth Koch reads "One Train May Hide Another"

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"In a poem, one line may hide another line, / As at a crossing, one train may hide another train. / That is, if you are waiting to cross / The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at / Least after the first train is gone..."

Poems of the Masters

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

For the past eight centuries "Poems of the Masters" has been China's most studied and memorized collection of verse.

Mary Ruefle: The Hand

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"The teacher asks a question. / You know the answer, you suspect you are the only one..."

Derek Walcott: The Voice of St. Lucia

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:06:00 EST

"Born in the West Indies, poet and playwright Derek Walcott has received numerous honors for his work, including the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Queen's Medal for Poetry."