Have you seen World Class Poetry’s new book reviews? Last week we published two and just today we published a third. Synopses of the reviews follow:
Warhorses – Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa’s latest book, tackling the issue of war through myth and history. I don’t want to spoil the end, but you’ll have to read the [...]
Reluctant poetry readers often feel intimidated with talk of poetics. All that talk about extended metaphors, trochees, and enjambed feminine endings can get confusing. So why bother?
Alice B. Fogel, herself a widely published poet, has written one of the best primers to poetry in recent years. While I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect book, I [...]
When I was a young rebellious man (as opposed to now being an old rebellious man) I thought it crafty to take two opposing ideas and juxtapose them by melding them into one phrase that on the surface appeared to be a contradiction, an oxymoron. Examples might be
Contemporary antiquities
Elevated valley
Stupid genius
Utopian nihilist
That last one is [...]
Satellite Convulsions: Poetry From Tin House
Tin House Magazine debuted in 1999. Since then it has been a powerhouse of postmodern poetry while making inroads into a new era. Frankly, I think we’ve moved beyond the postmodern, but some postmodern icons are still represented in the pages of the magazine as evidenced by its recently published [...]
Thanks to reader Gary Fitzgerald for pointing me to a website called It’s JUST War. Read poems, watch videos, and hang out a while. Be sure to read Gary’s four poems on the Vietnam War posted on September 2, 2008. Powerful stuff.
On another note, I’m testing some new social features at World Class Poetry, this [...]
What would you expect to find at a poetry brothel? What would you expect to pay? If $15 sounds like a good deal then you might want to head to New York and talk to the Poetry Madam. Because that’s a damn good deal. I once paid $20 for a “special massage” but that was [...]
Geez, I’ve been busier than Satan at a church meeting. That’s why you haven’t seen many posts lately. It’s just frickin’ hard raising three children below the age of 7 and maintaining a full-time business. I need a sidekick. Or a maid. Or a second brain.
But I’ve managed to kick out two new book reviews [...]
New book review at World Class Poetry:
Publisher-poet Sidney Hall Jr., owner of Hobblebush Books has released Fumbling In The Light. Read the World Class Poetry review here.
If you like poetry that informs and enlightens then you’ll like Helene Pilibosian’s History’s Twists: The Armenians.
Pilibosian writes well-crafted technical, if there is such a term, Postmodern poetry. The biggest problem I have with it is that it is “too” Postmodern. I think her poems could stand to be little more formal, considering the subject [...]
I received a copy of Itinerary by the late Reginald Shepherd, compliments of John Gallaher. It is not often that I read through an entire work of a poet, even a small one, and marvel. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of reading certain Reginald Shepherd poems and I’ve enjoyed them, though I’ve never [...]