Category Archives: Books That Come My Way

john compton reads from the castration of a minor god

Facebook is its own MFA program. When I wanted to be a poet back in the late 1960s, artists and writers gravitated to hip cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, to name just a few, but … Continue reading →

Maureen Owen reads from let the heart hold down the breakage Or the caregiver’s log

6 Nov ’22

When I arrived in NYC in the fall of 1979, one of the first things I did was to go to Saint Mark’s Church and join a poetry workshop at the Poetry Project. After all, poetry was why I’d come. … Continue reading →

Noah David Roberts reads from Final Girl Mythos

30 Oct ’22

When I was becoming an adolescent, as I felt my body change and get hairier it wasn’t odd to think that I could be a werewolf or a vampire. Saturdays I stayed up late to watch the classic horror movie … Continue reading →

Basil King reads from There Are No Ghosts, There Are Portraits.

16 Oct ’22

I love reading Basil King’s poetic histories because they connect time and place and people in unexpected ways that I find delightful. In Basil’s new collection, There Are No Ghosts, There Are Portraits, the first piece, “Soutine, Modigliani, Chagall,” makes … Continue reading →

Talbot Road by Thom Gunn, 1981, a chapbook by Helikon Press

7 Oct ’22

In 1981, Helikon Press under the direction of its publisher, William Leo Coakley, published Talbot Road, a poem by Thom Gunn. Recently, Mr. Coakley gave me a copy of this chapbook that is signed by the poet himself. I’ve … Continue reading →

Jaime Manrique reads from Tarzan My Body Christopher Columbus

20 Sep ’22

I began reading Jaime Manrique’s Tarzan My Body Christopher Columbus over the summer, but because of some eye trouble, my watery itching eyes made it difficult to read. I persevered, however, because the poems valen la pena. As the … Continue reading →

John McCullough reads from Panic Response

16 Aug ’22

English is an old ocean whose waves have been crashing for centuries against our ears, and I can feel the breadth and breath and depth of it when I read Panic Response, a book I liked enough to read … Continue reading →

Before and After, The Metamorphosis of a Poet: Linda Kleinbub reads from Cover Charge

7 Aug ’22

Some paths leading to the craft of poetry are certainly paved with serendipity. Take for example, Linda Kleinbub, who, in a round about way, came to poetry by going on a reality TV show called Ten Years Younger. Married … Continue reading →

Alicia Ostriker reads from the volcano sequence

27 Jul ’22

A friend of mine, the Philadelphia poet Joel Colten, on a trip across the USA, stopped to take photographs of Mount Saint Helens, and died when that volcano erupted in 1980. At Joel’s funeral—his body wouldn’t be found for … Continue reading →

NYC From The Inside: NYC through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here

24 Jul ’22

Poets, some famous and some not so famous, have been included in NYC From The Inside: NYC through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here. This equanimity makes it a very satisfying eventful anthology. I would like to … Continue reading →

Philip Good reads from Subatomic Moss

3 Jul ’22

Subatomic Moss is a chapbook of two collaboration poems by Bernadette Mayer and Philip Good recently published by Vehicle Editions. “Collaborations are a crapshoot,” Bernadette says, “but this one worked.” I couldn’t agree more. I’m kind of in love … Continue reading →

Maged Zaher reads from The shadow that doesn’t leave the shirt

27 Jun ’22

Although Maged Zaher was in Cairo and I was in New York, when he read via Zoom from his new book, The shadow that doesn’t leave the shirt, I felt that I could reach out and touch him. He is … Continue reading →