Ava Leavell Haymon was recently named Louisiana’s poet laureate. Walter Bargen, a former poet laureate for Missouri, has some insights into what that means.
Poet Focus: Mark Jarman
Mark Jarman’s poetry is such that one gets interested in his background, personality, where he comes from, and how all this finds its way into his poems.
Poetry Review: Mark Jarman’s “Bone Fires”
A review of “Bone Fires: News and Selected Poems, ” by Mark Jarman, notes his development of the themes of family, faith, and doubt.
Poetry Review: The Submerged Depths of Lapse Americana
A review of Lapse Americana: Poems by Benjamin Myers, a poetry volume focused on memory, childhood and understanding.
Poetry at Work: What Poetry Brings to Business
In “What Poetry Brings to Business, ” Clare Morgan combines academic and business styles to explain the benefits poetry can provide to business enterprises.
The Poetry of Riffraff
It’s not a new thing for a poet to take common everyday things, the riffraff of our lives, and use them to signify or explain something larger. Glynn Young reviews Stephen Cushman’s “Riffraff: Poems” with special attention to the unique ways Cushman makes something of the riffraff.
Poetry and Memory: Thomas Lux’s “Child Made of Sand”
“Child Made of Sand” is not the poetry of youth; it is the poetry of wisdom and understanding. Glynn Young reviews Thomas Lux’s new collection of poems.
A Giveaway Winner for ‘Prayers of a Young Poet’
We announce the winner of the giveaway for “Prayers of a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Rilke’s ‘Prayers of a Young Poet’ (And a Giveaway)
Glynn Young reviews Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Prayers of a Young Poet, ” a wonderfully engaging collection, adding new insight to both the man and his poetry.
Poetry for Isaac and Ishmael
This is not the poetry of Mideast politics but the poetry of people – peoples – caught up in Mideast politics, whether the scene is set in the Auschwitz death camp or the Aida refugee camp.
Poetry in the Sunken Garden
Madeleine did not want to go to the poetry festival in July, because no one else’s mother forces children to go to poetry festivals. She lowered her hat down over her forehead, leaving only a glower visible. No one. Else. She wanted to know why. Not a promising conversation in which to explore the ineffable […]
Seamus Heaney, Gem-Cutter
Human Chain refutes the notion that poetry is the province of the young. It’s a collection of poems that demonstrates Heaney’s love of words and language, carefully chiseled and strung together like brilliant diamonds.
Stanley Moss’s “God Breaketh Not All Men’s Hearts Alike”
Now Moss has published what must stand as a testament to his career as a poet
Matthew Duggan’s “Underworld: The Modern Orpheus”
Duggan has done something wonderful here with this retelling of an old, old story. He’s given it a modern sensibility while remaining true to its mythological origins.
Ava Leavall Haymon’s “Why the House is Made of Gingerbread: Poems”
When I was little, my mother would read stories to me from an oversized yet relatively thin edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. It had a green cloth cover, and I remember it specifically because I still have it. (It’s also decorated with writing in crayon, but that’s another story.) One of my favorite stories was […]
Favorite InsideOut Poems
Dream and love poems, from the pollen of a sunflower to blue sky and a curry leaf. Plus, a poem on the pain of senility.
The Poems of John Estes
Estes’ poems evoke a sense of the literary and of everyday reality. He ranges from Virgil to a one-armed, drunken grandfather, and the art of Brueghel.
Carl Sandburg – The Chicago Poems
In the Chicago Poems, Sandburg writes about the immigrants and laborers who helped turn Chicago into the economic powerhouse it became.