“I am ashamed for the first time in my career,” says U.S. Special Forces soldier witnessing the betrayal of his former Kurdish comrades. Fox News, 9 Oct. 2019
Poetry & Fiction
Nile. Hudson. Rio Grande.
i.m. Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and Valeria Ramirez
Point Dume
The drive to Point Dume, like Joe, is astounding. That’s one of my words. If Joe was telling this story, he’d say a lot of things in a different way, like: I can’t tell you how many times I drove out there that week! He’d slap his face like Jack Benny and you’d wonder how somebody could look so innocent and capable of violence all at once. Astounding, isn’t it? The way his voice eats up the can’t-tell part and growls away with a moan of a laugh. That’s Joe and that’s Point Dume.
Leper’s Block
I fumbled my idioms
adjectives were shocked
you could hear the adverbs grinning
all around that writer’s block
Keil’s Tree of Life
Charlie Keil caught up with Aretha Franklin’s “Tree of Life” last week. When your editor mentioned there were other wonders on Franklin’s Rare and Unreleased CDs, Keil mused about another rare Ree: “I think I still have somewhere a 45 rpm single of Aretha’s ‘Precious Lord’ that I picked up at Chess Records office.” Keil responded to Aretha’s call with this shapely poem …
Public Events & Private Truths: Two Poems from “A Dog’s Life”
If we’re lucky, Adam Scheffler’s poetry–lucid, demotic, right-valued–is on the verge of becoming a national resource.
Robert Lowell x 3
1. I was crossing Harvard Square, coming from the Coop, on my way to Adams House, where my study was. I saw Lowell near the kiosk and he saw me about the same time. He waved me over. “The most extraordinary thing has happened,” he said. “Can you come with me?”
Razzle Dazzle: Alison Stone’s New Poems
Alison Stone has been a vital voice in First of the Month‘s mixes for nearly 20 years. The following poems from her new collection, Dazzle, testify to her undimmed instinct for happiness inside the dailiness of life. Not that she’s Ms. Beamish. Stone often gives First first shot at her more engagé poems. One of them recently got up Facebook’s nose.
John Berryman On News We Can’t Use
Who can keep up? It wasn’t so long ago that we were concerned because the print press couldn’t keep up with the 24/7 news channels, which had scandals and disasters on the air while they were still in progress. Now, the 24/7 news channels can’t keep up with themselves: by the time they’ve assembled a panel of Wise Ones to analyze the most recent infamy, another one has unfolded. Or two. Or three. There is no pause, no day without too many tales to tell, let alone to tell well.
Which is why John Berryman’s 1939 poem “World-Telegram” has new currency. It is about the weight of headlines, of leads, of information that can barely be understood, let alone borne.
The Country & the City: Poems by Adrian Blevins
The first two poems here come from Adrian Blevins’ new collection, “Appalachians Run Amok”. Ms. Blevins’ exemplary wit sparked our current batch of posts (below) on the Country and the City.