Don Yorty

Alicia Ostriker reads from the volcano sequence

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 →

Don Yorty reads from Fucking at KGB

22 Jul ’22

On May 23, 2022, I read at KGB for the Monday Poetry Series curated by John Deming, Jada Gordon and Jason Schneiderman. I was reading with Kate Gale and went on first. When reading a poem or singing a song, … Continue reading →

Three poems with Art Attached: Hightower, Kolm & Yorty

19 Jul ’22

A few months ago, via email, Scott Hightower sent me his poem, “The Young Man Holding an Empty Glass,” accompanied by a nineteenth century painting and his translation in Spanish. Last week in the mail—or was it two weeks ago?—Ron … Continue reading →

Recent Drawings by Akram

10 Jul ’22

After a long spell of not drawing, Akram has begun to draw again. He is very busy, but draws in the breaks and moments that he can. Being able to take the time anywhere seems to be working for him. … 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 →

Annabel Lee reads Oracular Transcendentalism

21 Jun ’22

Times flies and is truly transcendent. Several months ago, in a colder time, I went over to Jersey City where Annabel Lee currently lives in a beautiful apartment that is yet too small to contain all she does and is. … Continue reading →

Daniel W.K. Lee reads from Anatomy of Want

21 Jun ’22

I missed Daniel W.K. Lee’s reading at the Bureau when he was in town. I emailed him and asked if he would read some poems from his new book, Anatomy of Want, so I could share them on my blog. … Continue reading →

Alicia Ostriker reads from The Mother/Child Papers

3 Jun ’22

I read The Mother/Child Papers in one sitting. Perhaps it was so accessible because I was sitting by the Atlantic Ocean, at the same time of year as the book begins, in early May, but decades later. I like … Continue reading →

Daisy Fried reads from The Year the City Emptied, translations and adaptions from Les Fleurs du Mal

1 Jun ’22

During the pandemic, while taking care of her dying husband, quarantined from friends, and without much help from Medicaid, one day in the spring of 2020, Daisy Fried read a translation of Baudelaire’s “Paysage” by John Ashbery, thought to herself, … Continue reading →

Akash and the female nude

31 May ’22

Akash is an artist who lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He works hard to present the world as he sees it on his sketchpad, and the sketches Akash recently sent me are preliminary first steps to paintings. He is very … Continue reading →