Poetry
The two books reviewed here represent the launch of the reborn Black Sparrow Press under the auspices of David R. Godine, Publisher. Very exciting. Let’s give them a big warm Boston welcome!
In these poems, contemplation, serenity, and service are the order of the day.
Rowan Ricardo Phillips attempts to combine a woke perspective with his vast knowledge of poetry from the past.
Wherever Robert Hass is, the poet drinks in (and reports to us) the details of place and human activity.
It’s hard to think of a contemporary poet who has engaged so passionately and devotedly, over many decades, with a single forebear.
We were both English-speaking ex-patriots living in Istanbul, and John Ash’s poetry spoke eloquently to that shared experience.
Frolic and Detour contains a few poems that I judge to be instant classics of English-language poetry.
Michael Hofmann nicely captures our age of truthiness and alternate facts and multiple perspectives, the hollowness of everything from the news-cycle to pop-up restaurants, all of the distractions driven by money and advertising.
In his new book, poet Charles Simic employs his customary strategies, but he seldom achieves the intensity he once did.
Poetry Remembrance: John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes” — Forever Young at 200
Keats is comfortable in that ambiguous space between reality and the imagination, and you will find no finer example of Romantic poetry when he fuses them in the language of an erotic dream.
Read More about Poetry Remembrance: John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes” — Forever Young at 200