… The flawed human we all know as William Butler Yeats wrote like an angel, but when he read his words, he didn’t intone them so much as drone them, which if one listens enough to old recordings, seems to … Continue reading

… The flawed human we all know as William Butler Yeats wrote like an angel, but when he read his words, he didn’t intone them so much as drone them, which if one listens enough to old recordings, seems to … Continue reading
… “Who ever loved, that loved not at first sight?” Christopher Marlowe asked us in iambic pentameter a few years back, and I thought of that as I began to read If This Is Paradise Why Are We Still Driving? … Continue reading
… I heard about an art opening last May through a Facebook friend, Philip Nikolayev, and from the painting he included with the invitation, I was very interested. And I almost went, but at the last minute I was asked … Continue reading
… Poet, provocateur, musician, among so many other things, Barbara Barg died of cancer in Chicago on May 22, 2018 at the age of 71. Even though I was expecting the news, the earth trembled under my feet when I … Continue reading
… I met up with Anne Waldman on a Friday last April at her house in the West Village to record her reading from First Baby Poems, a favorite book of mine. Anne had just come from Penguin Books where … Continue reading
… The unflattering sketch of Marie Antoinette above on the way to her execution was done by Jacques-Louis David, a Jacobin who had voted for her death. Though some in the crowd jeered and spit, Marie Antoinette, we can see, … Continue reading
… … When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich … Continue reading
… I am always amazed at the pace Robert Rhodes works. Every day he does something new. It almost seems impossible, sometimes even a little terrifying, but always beautiful. Here are some green summer studies he did yesterday, July 9, … Continue reading
… Walking back from Grand Street between Allen and the Bowery; some of the best shopping—my niece is coming. Bought some beautiful cut sunflowers. Stopped by First Avenue and maybe 3rd Street—east side of the avenue anyway—to take these pictures. … Continue reading
… Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of … Continue reading
… June 11 I was visiting Basil and Martha King today and Basil invited me upstairs to see his studio. On entering, I promptly knocked over an empty canvas. “Don’t worry,” Basil said, “I do it all the time.” I … Continue reading
… Birches When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you … Continue reading