Tag Archives: America
P is for Poetry, a definition of sorts from Edward Hirsch
POETRY An inexplicable (though not incomprehensible) event in language; an experience through words. Jorge Luis Borges believed that “poetry is something that cannot be defined without oversimplifying it. It would be like attempting to define the color yellow, love, the fall of leaves in autumn.” Even Samuel Johnson maintained, “To circumscribe poetry by a definition will […]
Writers: Edward Hirsch
“Quitting Time,” by Caleb Crain
In the empty room, he slowly wiped clean the blackboard. Before he remembered that Edgar might have notes in his satchel, it was too late to look at them: a girl was hesitating in the doorway. “Come in,” said Bernard. “Where’s Mr. Price?” “He’s not feeling well.” “He’s sick,” she said, interpreting. She scooted herself […]
Writers: Caleb Crain
Gary Snyder in New York
This autumn Counterpoint Press, heir of the beat- and Japanese-inflected North Point Press of Berkeley, founded by Jack Shoemaker in 1980, brings back Gary Snyder’s Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems in a lovely reissue, as well as a twentieth anniversary edition of Snyder’s summative The Practice of the Wild, with a new introduction by the […]
Writers: Gary Snyder
“Break the Glass,” by Jean Valentine
Little Star welcomes the appearance of Break the Glass, an enigmatic and limpid new book from Jean Valentine. Some of our favorite poems from Break the Glass are available on line: “In Prison” and “Hawkins Stable” in The New Yorker “The Whitewashed Walls” at Copper Canyon Press “Time is Matter Here” on Poetry Daily One […]
Writers: Jean Valentine
Gjertrud Schnackenberg returns!
After a hiatus of nearly ten years, during which she published no poems that this reader could find, we receive this searing, soaring new book. As always Schnackenberg’s poems are meticulously constructed and ornately referential: they inhabit their metaphors like a mote suspended in air. But in Heavenly Questions Schnackenberg’s poems achieve a new degree […]
Writers: Gjertrud Schnackenberg