On Verse
Ted Kooser’s Celebration of Metaphor
In Ted Kooser’s newest book, the poet challenges us to consider what constitutes poetry in the deepest sense of purpose and, yes, meaning.
Between gods and animals: becoming human in the Gilgamesh epic
What a late addition to the epic tells us about what it meant to be human in the ancient world.
An Anatomy of Freedom on India’s 75th Anniversary
A poetry anthology memorializing the 75th anniversary of India’s independence questions the very idea of freedom.
On the Fairy Tales School of English-Language Poetry
Poets reframing, repurposing, revising, and revisioning fairy tales are producing some of the most inventive and dynamic poetry today.
For Love of the Earth, and the Luck of a Poet: on Derek Sheffield’s Not for Luck
Poets like Sheffield have admonished us not to speak on behalf of the earth…
Somebody Loves Us All: Finding Beauty in a Filling Station
My father’s car wash, Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Filling Station,” and the somebodies who care for us all.
Charting Relics of Lust: On Sophia Dahlin’s Natch
What if a callous shepherdess composed a queer love song for her crush, crooning “I invited you home to worry my mother, tra la”?
Aging and Accomplishment in Sonnetville, New Jersey
Craig Morgan Teicher establishes himself as one of our finest poets on marriage and fatherhood.