… While visiting Susan Bee at the A.I.R. Gallery to record her talking about her “Days of Awe” show, a friend of hers, Buzz Spector, showed up as well. After the recording, Susan took us back into the office to show us a leporello she had just finished. A leporello is a book that opens…
Lynn McGee loves of animals—she can pick up a snake—and by connection she loves the environments that they live in. This love creates empathy in her work. I’ve known Lynn since 2003 when we were colleagues at Borough of Manhattan Community College, new teachers at the beginning of the century. The first poem of hers…
… Last autumn, in late October, I went to the Tibet House to hear Marie Warsh read an essay about her mother, the poet Bernadette Mayer. I had never been to the Tibet House before and I have to say that it is a very beautiful place including the room where the lecture took place….
Ron Padgett’s new book of poems, Pink Dust, is a book I like holding. It’s not too small, but small enough to carry in your coat pocket. You can take it along and it doesn’t slow you down. Pink Dust is published by New York Review Books, the same publisher that put out Ron’s translation…
Objective: Using a picture as a prompt, students will work in groups writing sentences and understanding that there are three kinds of sentences in English, the yes sentence, the no sentence and the question. They will also understand that there are two kinds of questions, the Yes/No and the Explanation. Method: Teacher talk and directionIndividuals,…
… On November 23rd 2024, I attended the memorial for the poet Jim Cory at the Ethical Society in Philadelphia. Jim was exemplary. He helped younger poets find themselves and get published, and often hosted readings in his apartment that I sometimes attended. Although I lived in New York, at Jim’s and in the social…
… … Ed Friedman and Bob Rosenthal created, coordinated, and curated seven poetry readings at Bowery Poetry on Tuesday nights from January 14th to March the 4th 2025. These readings featured twenty three poets. Most of these poets were already here when I arrived in New York City in 1979 and moved to the East…
Voyages is a play by Lonely Christopher about the life of Hart Crane, seminal scenes, acts that created the poet. I love Hart Crane. I first encountered him in my romantic twenties, an inspiring poet whose life, prophetic, tragic, and profane, was very much there in his words. On February the 3rd, a month ago…
In my twenties I was lucky to find an LP of Tennessee Williams reading Hart Crane poems at a record store in Philly. I’ve converted them to Vimeos and include Voyages III and V here. Enjoy. III Infinite consanguinity it bearsThis tendered theme of you that lightRetrieves from sea plains where the skyResigns a breast…
… In the 1950s and early 60s growing up in Lebanon County, PA, there was a program on the local radio station, WLBR, at 5 in the afternoon called “The Jack Hains Show,” which featured Jack Hains who manufactured and sold potato chips, which sponsored the show, which he co-hosted with his wife, whose name…
Jada Gordon is a cohost for the KGB Monday Night Poetry Series, and over the years has introduced me to many new poets. I’d like to return Jada’s wonderful selfless efforts promoting the work of others by sharing some of her poetry with you here. A few Saturdays ago, Jada came over to my place…
Joe Elliot does something that is very difficult to do, he makes a poem funny and sublime and lets it tell a story too, poetry that is not for some, but for everybody. I’ve been wanting to get Joe Elliot on my blog for a long time, and am happy to report that you…
