Don Yorty

Sir John Gielgud and Alfred Corn read Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare. Listen!

…If you are ever going to memorize a sonnet of Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 may be the one because it is beautiful to say, easy to understand, and anyone with just a little practice can communicate it. Sonnet 18 is one … Continue reading →

Alfred Corn reads his translation of Rilke’s First Elegy from the Duino Elegies

13 Feb ’22

A few years ago, the news that Alfred Corn was working on a translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies made me very happy. When I was in my early twenties, Rilke was one of the poets who showed … Continue reading →

Elizabeth Bishop’s Sandpiper

8 Feb ’22

Sandpiper The roaring alongside he takes for granted,and that every so often the world is bound to shake.He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake. The beach hisses like … Continue reading →

Star Black reads from Waterworn

2 Feb ’22

Many people may think of Star Black as a photographer who has documented NYC downtown art and literary events. She also curated the Monday Night Poetry Readings at KGB Bar beginning in 1997, an event that has been going … Continue reading →

Neddi Heller at NARS Art Foundation

26 Jan ’22

My friend, the artist Neddi Heller, has two shows going on now in Brooklyn. It’s always a pleasure to see her work so I would advise anyone, especially if you happen to be in the neighborhood, to check them … Continue reading →

Two Elegies by Scott Hightower

24 Jan ’22

Last year on January 30th, my friend Dr. José Fernandez died of a heart attack on his way to work at a nearby hospital. He collapsed on the sidewalk in front of his home. It was an unbelievable shock. … Continue reading →

Susana H. Case reads from The Damage Done

19 Jan ’22

If you have been deciding whether your next read is going to be a novel or a poem, I have the perfect solution for you. Pick up Susana H. Case’s new book, The Damage Done, and the problem’s solved. … Continue reading →

Maria Lisella reads new and published poems

14 Jan ’22

I went to Maria Lisella’s apartment in Queens, a walk from the train, the elevated N. She thoughtfully had prepared a meal for me, soup, bread, cheese, grilled vegetables. Her cooking like her poetry takes what is everyday and … Continue reading →

Drawings by Akash

14 Jan ’22

I became friends with the Bangladeshi artist, Akash, on Facebook a while ago. I’m not sure when or why, but since then, I’ve enjoyed looking at his work and watching his progress. He is a student practicing his craft … Continue reading →

Julia Knobloch reads from Book of Failed Salvation

12 Jan ’22

Many of the poems in Julia Knobloch’s new chapbook, Book of Failed Salvation, are love poems that are secular, but explore the divine as well. The poet may try, as impossible as it may sound, not only to embrace a … Continue reading →

Dean Kostos reads from Broken Color

6 Jan ’22

In Broken Color the poet looks at art, but the poems are not, to my mind, ekphrastic; the poems are more about the looking than what the looking is looking at, pleasure after thought; they are poems about being, more … Continue reading →

Two Sonnets and Three Drawings

30 Dec ’21

158 Like the dried up dead wasp with its venom gone rolled up on the windowsill like a ball of dust my mother slumbers with her head bent near a bowl of fruit Pat Maples sent listening … Continue reading →