Guests

I’m going to use this page to link to guest poets and writers. Click on the name to go to that post. You can also use the “search” feature.

Blog

Nature: Poems Old and NewMay 2, 2025 - 7:52 pm
NATURE: POEMS OLD AND NEW, May Swenson (1913-1989). Houghton Mifflin, 2006. In preparation for my Creative Retirement Institute course on May Swenson, beginning next Tuesday afternoon, I’ve been reading Swenson’s poetry and a collection of essays, Body My House: May Swenson’s Work and Life, edited by Paul Crumbley and Patricia M. Gantt (Utah State Univ. […]
Plum Blossom WineApril 27, 2025 - 1:06 am
PLUM BLOSSOM WINE, Poems by Li Qingzhao, trans. by Sibyl James and Kang Xuepei (Empty Bowl Press, 2024). I had a hectic week, but this morning—with no where to go, no errands, no doctor appointments—I decided to read a book of poems. I cheated, perhaps, by picking up a small book. But, oh my. Mostly […]
A Couple of New ThingsApril 18, 2025 - 6:27 pm
Thanks to a submission push I did last fall, I have a new piece up at Afterimages, which is definitely a substack you want to check out. Click on this link to go directly to “Photographic Evidence of My Mother’s Childhood.” And I have a new book review, posted today, at Escape Into Life. Bird […]
Esther Altshul Helfgott: Listening to MozartApril 16, 2025 - 6:06 pm
LISTENING TO MOZART: POEMS OF ALZHEIMER’S, Esther Altshul Helfgott. Cave Moon Press, 2014 A more personal blogpost today. Instead of hinting about and writing around what’s going on, I want to simply admit that it has been one catastrophe after another here all year, more and more noticeable since our dog (my emotional support animal, […]
Margaret Newlin: Collected PoemsApril 13, 2025 - 1:17 am
My life continues to be challenging, but though I’m not writing much, I find that reading and talking about other people’s poems is a solace. Today I picked up Margaret Newlin’s Collected Poems, 1963-1985 (Ardis, Ann Arbor, 1986) , a book lent to me by a friend (and overdue to be returned.) When I googled […]
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Something about LivingApril 9, 2025 - 10:28 pm
SOMETHING ABOUT LIVING, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha. The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio, 2024, 81 pages, paper, $16.95, https://www.uakron.edu/uapress/. Trying to keep this to a simple appreciation of a poem, and failing, especially with this startling and powerful collection. Something about Living won the 2024 National Book Award, and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha has a whole host […]
Elder VoicesApril 9, 2025 - 2:12 am
ELDER VOICES: WISTFUL, WONDERING, WISE, Editors Marie Eaton, Carla Shafer, and Angela Boyle. Elder Voices Project, Bellingham, Washington. This anthology collects poems and essays from elders living in Whatcom County, Washington. The launch featured six writers, ending with 100-year-old essayist, Maggie Weisberg, who charmed all of us by announcing, before reading “On Being Old,” that […]
Susan Rich: Blue AtlasApril 8, 2025 - 2:17 am
I really would like to post 30 times about 30 different poets during National Poetry Month, but — let me admit up front — I’m lowering thresholds all over the place. Soon I’ll be lying inert in the doorway and you’ll have to step over me. But not today! Today, we get a poem from […]
Serhiy Zhadan: How Fire DescendsApril 7, 2025 - 12:01 am
HOW FIRE DESCENDS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, Serhiy Zhadan. Translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2023, 136 pages, paper, $18, yalebooks.yale.edu. I purchased this book last April, but have put off blogging about it because I would love to attempt to do it justice. A beautiful book, […]
Birdnote.org, etc.April 5, 2025 - 5:23 pm
Busy day in our country today, so I’m cheating a bit and just making announcements and reposting from elsewhere. First, I have been meaning to tell you about two upcoming readings — as it is National Poetry Month, there are many, all over the place — I’ll be reading at Edmonds Bookshop on Thursday, April […]