The prospects for American poetry may look highly uncertain. But one thing can be said with assurance about its future: whatever happens, poets will be sitting around lamenting the present state of American poetry. I may well be one of... Continue reading

Marianne Moore has my vote for the Most Exciting of 20th-century American poets. This would be an award related to but distinct from Most Painfully Underrated (John Crowe Ransom) or Most Consistently Splendid (Elizabeth Bishop) or Most Dangerous to Imitate... Continue reading

"Make it new!" Ezra Pound urges, leaning imposingly toward you, and you nod knowingly back at him. But the two of you are sitting in a packed bar in the East Village at Happy Hour, and it's a little hard... Continue reading

{Today's topic is acceleration. For a schedule of my week's blogs, please go to the first of them--Jan 17.} In college I took a year-long survey of British literature in which I probably learned a lot--I had much to learn--though... Continue reading

It stares back at you, that singular and signal creature: a poem on a page. What is the very first message it conveys? For it seems you're somehow already in touch with it, even before you've read a word, before... Continue reading

Years ago, somebody told me that Marilyn Monroe once remarked that she liked reading poetry because it "saves time." I've never confirmed that she actually said it. If she didn't, I hope no one ever disabuses me, because I'm fond... Continue reading

Spontaneity has its time and place--but maybe not now and maybe not here. For poets, anyway, it's usually an overrated virtue. I suppose this is one reason I've always so envied jazz musicians--their world where improvisation flourishes. For them, the... Continue reading