Poet stamps!

Coming to a U.S. Post Office near you in March. Assuming we still have the post office then. Now go mail some shit.

Via Axis of Abraxas.

“Beat Poets, not beat poets.”

What? Motherfuckers shoved Brenda Hillman and hit Robert Hass? What the fuck is wrong with this country where the current priority seems to be beating up poets and pepper spraying students engaged in non-violent protest?

Poodle kisses monkey

They're Frenching. But in a totally platonic, non-icky way.

Via Cute Overload.

Laurie Saurborn Young is brilliant, but you don't have to take my word for it

The lovely and talented Laurie Saurborn Young gave a really great interview to The American Literary Review. It was one of the best poetry-related things I've read in a long time. Sure it doesn't hurt that I think Laurie is awesome or that we once hung out in North Carolina. Or that the string of airstream trailer lights she gave to me hang on my porch all year.

In the interview she says that she writes "to figure out the world and to discover a way to exist in the world. A way to explore science and the animal world. As I’ve continued to write, I’ve accrued more confidence. With confidence I’ve allowed more space to enter the poems, in terms of structure and form and also in terms of saying the strange things I am thinking and being able to marry them to the human condition. Places of commonality, if you will."

This is pretty much exactly the reason I love poetry, though expressed in an articulate fashion I am likely incapable of.

Her first book, Carnavoria, will be published by H_NGM_N BKS in 2012. I, personally, expect the wait to be excrutiating.

Taha Muhammad Ali has died

Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali has died. He was 80 years old. I saw him read a couple of years ago at UofM and it was one of the best and most moving readings I have ever been to. I can't help but think that if more people read his poetry then the Palestinians would have a much better chance at getting a state, at living in peace, at being seen as human, even. May he rest in a peace that did not exist during his life.

"Pledge of Allegiance" by Married to the Sea

Such a tough choice. Then again, to a lot of kids reading any poem would probably be considered punishment. Alas.

Why yes, that is a pretty good monkey

Toothpaste for Dinner: "haiku format"

"Epistle I" by Sheera Talpaz

A new poem from my friend Sheera at ink node. I especially love the last stanza.

Danielle Steele is "hungry / for your face"

In "The Poetry of Danielle Steel", Lamar Clarkson does a close reading of Danielle Steel's 1984 poetry classic Love.

"Subtract the daring enjambment and add a blinking laptop cursor with a voiceover and you basically have Carrie Bradshaw, 15 years ahead of schedule, but without those annoying egg-white omelets. Our narrator eats real eggs. (We know this because she is always making breakfast for men who may not return.)"

Via The Hairpin.

14 years later

Poetry posted "To You" by Kenneth Koch to their Facebook page this morning. It feels aimed right at me, or, really, from me to my wife, in light of our 14 year anniversary yesterday. Happy Anniversary, Babe! I love you.

This monkey is being kind of a dick to this dog

I know I don't update this much, but this is some quality content right here.

Gibbon vs. Dog from B. Leon (Singhto) Ponsart on Vimeo.

Via Videogum.

Anis Shivani's poetry dump

Anis Shivani shits all over Sharon Olds, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, and Philip Levine in the Huffington Post. It's like the 2 Girls 1 Cup of poetry essays.

"Curiosity Kills" by Joel Watson

Um, yeah. I can definitely see how curiosity could be a bad thing. Kids should really re-think the whole "monkey as pets" ideal portrayed in the Curious George books.

Philip Levine, please save us

With the current state of the U.S. economy, I can't help but find it sadly ironic that Philip Levine, "the voice of the working man," is now our Poet Laureate. Much deserved, mind you. I'm just feeling pretty pessimistic.

Here's an old interview with Levine that is worth reading.