If you don’t listen to This American Life on 89.5, you should. And, beyond its great storytelling, I’ll give you another reason to listen:... »
Literary Arts
Poem: Spiro Who?
W. W. Yoder, III of Chesapeake share his thoughts on 'the second coming of suburban bliss.' »
Poetry: 2 June
W. W. Yoder, III of Chesapeake VA shares the experience of a June day turn night after hours stuck inside during choir practice. Although the author doubts the sense of practicing indoors, he finds solace in the evening. »
Line in Time: Local poetry this week
Greetings Y’all Poets, Bards n Troubadours.Saturday Jack Callan had a triumphal overtime reading from his new book “Knucklehead Poems” at Iris Art Studio in Poquoson. If you weren’t there, you MISSED it BIG TIME. This weekend 5 of us from PSV were privileged to hob-knob with countless English and Language Arts teachers from across Virginia... »
ALP: First Grade
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 It’s been sixty-odd years since I was in the elementary grades, but I clearly remember those first school days in early autumn, when summer was suddenly over and we were all perched in our little desks facing into the future. Here Ron Koertge of California gives us a... »
Poetry as economic recovery
It seems that we’ve done just about everything to get the American auto industry out of the doldrums. We’ve forced bankruptcies. We’ve exchanged cash for clunkers. But have we tried poetry? – Op-Ed Contributor – Poetry in Motion – NYTimes.com Ford Edsel, by dstone7y During the 1950s, the Ford Motor Company asked Marianne Moore to... »
…when nobody reads poetry?
In response to this in last Sunday’s Parade Magazine insert to the Virginian-Pilot (8-6-09): “Q: Why are my tax dollars going to pay a poet laureate when nobody reads poetry? »
ALP: Green-Striped Melons
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 Jane Hirshfield, a Californian and one of my favorite poets, writes beautiful image-centered poems of clarity and concision, which sometimes conclude with a sudden and surprising deepening. Here’s just one example. Watermelons, by S n o R k e l American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry... »
ALP: Photo, Brownie Troop, St. Louis, 1949
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 There have been many poems written in which a photograph is described in detail, and this one by Margaret Kaufman, of the Bay Area in California, uses the snapshot to carry her further, into the details of memory. 80’s Collage Project, by Sakurako Kitsa American Life in Poetry is... »
ALP: Sustenance
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006 Elizabeth Bishop, one of our greatest American poets, once wrote a long poem in which the sudden appearance of a moose on a highway creates a community among a group of strangers on a bus. Here Ronald Wallace, a Wisconsin poet, gives us a sighting with similar results. ... »
Welcome our new editors and authors
The Ghent Reader would like to introduce Michael Wingfield, Pete Freas and Lisa Flowers as editors for the site and Sionne Angbarad, Karl Watson and Grace Tazewell as authors. »