Tag Archives: personal

‘You Have to Be Interested in the Playfulness of Poetry’

[Billy Collins] sat on a bench and watched some students playing Wiffle ball on a quad. “You have to be interested in the playfulness of poetry to want to keep writing it,” he said. Then, as if to shoo away … Continue reading

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Ann Lauterbach’s ‘Door’: Trouble Me, Poet

A noun or pronoun, with a participle in agreement, may be put in the ablative to define the time or circumstances of an action. This construction is called the Ablative Absolute… The Ablative Absolute is an adverbial modifier of the … Continue reading

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Arabic Poetry Note: A. J. Arberry (1905-1969)

Given the exiguous outbound appeal I muster, I work hard at not being longwinded. I revel, though, in venting puffs of comment on my adventure with Arabic and its poetry. A.J. Arberry’s essential anthology of 31 poets spans a period … Continue reading

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Try It My Way

Ladies and gentlemen (grant me this antiquated mode of address), we have much in common. We all have nipples. We all have equivalencies of kit in our genital wheelhouses. There’s a comical, often derisory cliché of the (rare) male striving … Continue reading

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To Be or Not to Be That, Is the Question

You’ve been punctuated! In my title, moving the pause (caesura) signaled by a comma turns Hamlet’s proposition into something different. Whatever “that” may be, being it or not being it is what’s now in play. The New York Times publishes … Continue reading

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Can This Be Poetry? It’s Direct, Clever and Fun!

Poetry, February 2023, celebrates William J. Harris (still living). Reading the issue’s portfolio of Harris’s poems gave me some laugh-out-loud moments. Here are two (in full): On Wearing EarsAs long as peoplecontinue to wearearsthere won’tbe muchpeace and quietin this world. … Continue reading

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Verse from Two Directions

“I tire of being made to feel smart rather than pleased.”(Peter Schjeldahl) 1. Online One finds lineated speech flowing freely, touching on themes of love, nostalgia, rage, nature, disillusionment, mortality and healing. There’s earnestness, the odd hard edge, whiffs of … Continue reading

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‘Cucumber Sandwiches. Season with Pepper Apparently’

My title is, in full, a text message received from a correspondent in early morning with no context. I read it silently then more attentively aloud. With growing alarm I realized it was a perfect dactylic pentameter. Rubbing sleep from … Continue reading

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A Good Clinician Knows Communication Fosters Wellness

My pendant whatnots had a fiery itch. I bashfully exposed them to the Dermatologist. “It’s excruciating,” I said. She cast her glance and looked up brightly. “Ah yes, I see what you mean,” she said. I pressed for amplification. “It’s … Continue reading

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The Bro Mob: Meta, Not Beta

“Last month, Mark Zuckerberg spent hours touting his love of jiujitsu, wrestling and UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is known for its hypermasculinity. Watching TV was not active enough, Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Compared with social media, … Continue reading

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