Tag: Capricorn
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* skimming with kelli russell agodon
Reading through Kelli Russell Agodon’s collection, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, I was moved again and again by the kinship evoked between speaker and the poets addressed throughout the poems, but also between poet and craft, and poet to poet. In this week’s poem, “Yakima Ferry at Sunset,” this idea of kinship is there…
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* moody mooning with stafford & gilbert
If you were a scientist, if you were an explorer who had been to the moon. . . What you said would have the force of that accumulated background of information; and any mumbles, mistakes, dithering, could be forgiven . . . But a poet – whatever you are saying, and however you are saying…
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* tejiendo roosters: a translation tale
Once upon a time, I was a young poet reading through an anthology of Latin American poetry when I came across a poem by João Cabral de Melo Neto that just blew me away. I wrote the poem down in a notebook – it was in Spanish, translated from the original Portuguese – to translate into…
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* beginning with juan felipe herrera & some news
This week’s poem by Juan Felipe Herrera (recently appointed as the first Chicana/o U.S. Poet Laureate) caught me towards the end the first time I read it. The way the details come together. The turn and return at the end to the image of something dark around the neck. Each reading of it since that…
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* stitching along with valerie wallace
I came across this week’s poem – “Winged” by Valerie Wallace – reading through the latest issue of Rust + Moth. I was taken in by the Auden reference to the “old masters” from his poem Musee des Beaux Arts. I find the reference suiting since the impetus for Wallace’s poem comes from Alexander McQueen, whom…
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* microcuentos, new work & augusto monterroso
The Dinosaur – Augusto Monterroso When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there. * The above, by the Honduran writer Augusto Monterroso, is credited as being one of the world’s shortest stories. Monterroso is one of my favorite writers in the Latin American microcuento tradition. When I first read him, I was amazed at how much spookiness…
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* remembering galway kinnell
Given this week’s news of Galway Kinnell’s passing, I find myself heading into Dia de los Muertos this weekend with him on my mind. I had the pleasure of attending a reading he gave alongside Phil Levine in NYC. The two great poets chatted at their table before the reading. When the time came to…
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william james: a lyrical alignment
So, earlier this week, THIS happened: I’m delighted to share the news of my having become married. 🙂 Those of you who’ve followed me on the Influence for a while may have caught me speaking about a previous divorce. I’m happy to have been keeping up this blog long enough to show that life has…
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* another world with robert bly
The Moose – Robert Bly The Arctic moose drinks at the tundra’s edge, swirling the watercress with his mouth. How fresh the water is, the coolness of the far North. A light wind moves through the deep firs. Reading this week, I came across these two short lyrics by Robert Bly. I love…
The Friday Influence 