Dom Moraes (b. 1938-2004) was an Indian poet, widely regarded as foundational figure in Indian English literature. He was Catholic and struggled with alcoholism. I read Kanheri cave, I think it gives a good impression of the man’s writing: Kanheri cave Over these blunted, these tormented hills, Hawks hail and wheel, toboggan down the sky. …
Britain’s leading theater and television poet is Tony Harrison (b. 1937), who is celebrated of the twentieth century’s true working class poet. He is a translator, director, playwright who says that all is implied in the job description: poet. I read ‘Turn’ about his passed father, where the class consciousness becomes visible: Turn I thought …
Rita Dove (b. 1952) was the youngest Poet Laureate in the nineties and well-known to the American public. She has written a lot of longer, mythology-inspired stuff, but for our bric-a-brac anthology I read a shorter verse: Dawn revisited Imagine you wake up with a second chance: The blue jay hawks his pretty wares and …
Jorie Graham (b. 1950) is another famous North American poet with a unique style. Pulitzer Prize 1996. Here is The way things work: The way things work is by admitting or opening away. This is the simplest form of current: Blue moving through blue; blue through purple; the objects of desire opening upon themselves without …
Greg Williamson (b. 1964) is known for his ‘double exposure’, a technique where poems can be read in multiple ways. I approach his verse without any theoretical pre-study though, the same way I would approach life. The following poem is beautifully crafted, it holds the lyricism of yore in a floating frame of free existentialist …
Denise Levertov (1923-1997) was a prolific British-born American writer who never received formal education. Influences are among others the Blue Mountain school, William Carlos Williams, Rilke. She was a very serious social activist who at times seemed arrogant to her readers. Here is a poem that is prettily vulgar: Hypocrite women Hypocrite women, how seldom …
Anna Kamieńska (1920-1986) was a Polish poet, literary critic, translator and children’s book author. I read a short elegy by her hand, in a translation by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanaugh A prayer that will be answered Lord let me suffer much and then die Let me walk through silence and leave nothing behind not …
Today a 1969 poem by Missouri-born James Tate (1943-2014) who once said that “If you laughed earlier in the poem, and I bring you close to tears in the end, that’s the best.” I read this poem because it shows the magic of language and absurdity that Tate handled well: Cryptozoa I wish the stone lady …
Beat poetry is something different. Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), associated with the San Francisco Renaissance, was influenced by Zen Buddhism, lived in Japan, traveled in India with Ginsberg. I like this song of hers: It’s been a long time _______________NOTES FROM THE REVOLUTION During the beat of this story you may find other beats. I mean …
Richard Kenney (b. 1948) is an American poet and professor of English. His work has been praised for his deft use of language and formal poetic forms. Today, I read an innocent morning poem: Aubade Cold snap. Five o’clock. Outside, a heavy frost—dark footprints in the brittle grass; a cat’s. Quick coffee, jacket, watch-cap, keys. …
Jane Shore (b. 1947) is an American poet with a unique voice, often expressing her Jewish heritage. Don’t confuse her with a love of King Edward IV 🙂 I found a funny poem entitled ‘November’: November My north-exposed begonia the first frost got to, spunky in its porcelain pot splays out like spokes of an …
Today I read a poem by Lisel Mueller (b. 1924), another Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (in 1996, for her poetry collection Alive together), born in Germany who emigrated to the US as a child. She wrote a famous poem about ‘things’, but I prefer this one: Blood Oranges In 1936, a child in Hitler’s Germany, what …
Today’s poem is by American poet Mona van Duyn (1921-2004) who won all important literary prizes in America and presided over a unique literary circle in St. Louis, Missouri. I picked a poem with a typical ‘Van Duyn’ touch: From Endings Setting the V.C.R. when we go to bed to record a night owl movie, …
Philip Schultz (b. 1945) won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry with a collection called ‘Failure’. To him, that failure referred to the relative failure of his alter ego the novelist, who finally gave in to the poet, under one condition: the subtitle of the book is ‘a novel in verse’. Here is a poem called …
Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) was a modern British poet who had studied philosophy. He caught pneumonia while inspecting a mine shaft for its sound quality – what a way to go. Here is ‘wolves’: Wolves I do not want to be reflective any more Envying and despising unreflective things Finding pathos in dogs and undeveloped handwriting …
