slow poem slow poem
slow things heard in old songs sad songs sung by the sides of old inns dry roses clutched by a lover a wedding dress downriver you will ask them their names the women who remember will ask you in turn where you come from inside this small country you are writing a book it’s unfinished the evening enfolding you slowly a soreness in the fingers who are you they ask you will get in the car with the mirror with the silver flaking in the back the book will receive much criticism you knew it from the story the bride gone downriver where dusk pulls the sunset quarter after quarter so many have written they will ask you with roses will ask what to call you by the river where you come.
Nov 9, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Rodney Koeneke
Times Squared Times Squared
Jem Cohen’s Newsreel No. 1, Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, Andrew Niccol’s In Time
Nov 9, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Side by Side: On Britain’s School Wars Side by Side: On Britain’s School Wars
Melissa Benn attacks the deepening rift of privilege and privatization in Britain’s secondary schools.
Nov 2, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stefan Collini
improphised improphised
1imagine peter, not nodding over his palms that dawn, but praying the vindictive 2prayers of the righteous, drawing enough testosterone up from his balls to light 3all the dew in the garden afire, more than enough to keep him awake, enough 4even to make him slap judas’s silvery lips before they could kiss the sacrifice, 5causing chaos among the spear- bearing romans : imagine him alive with the fury 6of love and utterly blind to the lacerated look on his friend-of-friends’ face, denying 7nothing, not his name, not his faith, not his rage, hurling affirmations at his inquisitors— 8yes, i am the man! : this peter, all flesh and flood, imagine him murderously steadfast, 9less rock than stone, a self- made weapon, still weeping at the cock’s crow, every pre- 10diction re-writing itself anew in his woeful image : human if he did and human if he didn’t.
Nov 2, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Evie Shockley
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Rita Dove's Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry.
Nov 2, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Bass
American Idol: On Nietzsche in America American Idol: On Nietzsche in America
Why early twentieth-century Americans—from anarchists to Baptist ministers—fell for the philosophy of Nietzsche.
Nov 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Ross Posnock
Whose News? On Race and the American Media Whose News? On Race and the American Media
News for All the People is a journalistic morality tale.
Nov 1, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Diane Simon
Mu-Mu ♥ Condi Mu-Mu ♥ Condi
Muammar el-Qaddafi had an “eerie fascination” with Condoleezza Rice and kept a scrapbook on her.—News reports Though always with that nurse (the sexy blonde) he Apparently had quite a crush on Condi. So if you called her cold, then you forgot At least one guy sincerely found her hot.
Oct 26, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
This Is Just to Say: On William Carlos Williams This Is Just to Say: On William Carlos Williams
A new biography shortchanges the poetic achievement of William Carlos Williams.
Oct 26, 2011 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Out of the Vinyl Deeps catalogs Ellen Willis’s pop years.
Oct 26, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover