© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… On Saturday at Freddy’s Bar, which is a very nice bar by the way, I participated in a poetry reading that was a celebration for a new book of poems by Kryssa Schemmerling, Iris In. The other guest poet … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… “I don’t mean “sober cooking” in the 12 step way,” Lynn says. “It’s really about going through a hard time and staying focused on the little tasks of life like cooking and chopping vegetables. Sober Cooking has a lot … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I read Knock by Janet Hamill in one sitting; it took me by surprise and I just went with it remembering my youth and traveling when life spread out before me with decades ahead. I got in touch with … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Beautiful poems often praise repulsive things like Baudelaire’s rotting carcass. Lynn McGee’s poetry also makes the ugly beautiful. This partly has to do with her poetic sense of empathy. When she writes about the rat, we know the rat … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Joel Colten (1950 – 1980) was a poet and photographer who lived in Philadelphia and Manhattan. From 1976 to 1980, he was also coeditor of the literary magazine Hot Water Review. During his brief career, Colten’s poetry appeared widely … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Scarlet Tanager is a favorite book of mine because it was the first book Bernadette Mayer published after her stroke, and as I read it I knew that she could still write a poem. I went upstate to visit … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I was upstate over Labor Day visiting Philip Good and Bernadette Mayer at their beautiful home. It’s been freshly painted red and continues to await guests along a quiet meandering road on the edge of some woods, Bernadette’s Poetry … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Ron Kolm and I are both Pennsylvanians who moved to New York City. During his time here, he’s edited magazines and published the work of other poets; The Ass’s Tale by John Farris is a great example of his … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… … My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. But I am … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… The last two swallows swoop down over all going toward the barn flying from sight. In ripples of wind out of the west light dies in many clouds and in darkness falls on the pond. Shadows in leaves, the … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… … July 22 Shall I go for a swim? A frog begins to croak, “Jump in!” … … … July 15 Queen Anne’s Lace although a common simple flower is very difficult to capture. … … July 24, Tompkins … Continue reading
© 2016 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer … Continue reading