Tag: Virginia
Imagining poetry after the election
Inside Out September, 2016 Shouldn’t talk with a mouthful of half-chewed flags, but he smirks and suggests her Secret Service guys disarm and see what happens. The crowd turns wild and you can spot a star wedged in his molar. Scraps of… Continue Reading “Imagining poetry after the election”
Virtual Poetry Salon #5 with Caroline Cabrera
And even in blindness our chemistries communicate. Our instinct, a lace mycelium. When my cheeks go hot and I distrust a man I may be sensing the hair as it rises from another woman’s neck. I may smell her experience. We know more than… Continue Reading “Virtual Poetry Salon #5 with Caroline Cabrera”
Unmade boundaries of acts and poems
I had a long bout of wakefulness last night, but W&L cancels classes on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I slept until the cold January sun had actually risen, hallelujah. Over my first pot of tea, I picked up a section of Sunday’s… Continue Reading “Unmade boundaries of acts and poems”
“The wonder is that you are here”: poetry, community, and Anne Spencer
One of my favorite visiting-writer stories involves a New York-based author who, while guzzling artisanal cocktails in a local restaurant, said something like, “I don’t know why anyone would bother to write if they don’t live in Brooklyn.” That was a hilariously awful remark… Continue Reading ““The wonder is that you are here”: poetry, community, and Anne Spencer”
In favor of impurity, or, I’m sick at heart and I want to lie down
My daughter told me about the mass killing in Orlando in the car Sunday, as we drove up Route 81 on an errand. We bought summer shorts and solar lights for the back walkway, ate pho and spring rolls, stopped at a bookstore, drove… Continue Reading “In favor of impurity, or, I’m sick at heart and I want to lie down”
All my words small but costly: Emerson, illness, and work
Sometimes there’s a poetry-sized gap in your life. Today I filled it with a vintage stored against future need–Claudia Emerson’s final collection, Impossible Bottle. This was supposed to be one of those golden weeks, too rare even on sabbatical, when I had no big… Continue Reading “All my words small but costly: Emerson, illness, and work”
Doctored
The latest Wheeler-Gavaler time-travel expedition: a Virginia bed and breakfast presided over by a former patient of Dr. William Carlos Williams. Ten or twelve years ago, my mom came to stay with the kids as Chris and I, feeling desperate from too much work… Continue Reading “Doctored”
Teaching and writing in the Confederacy
My cushy job is supported by bequests from wealthy people. I knew some of that wealth must have been amassed in ethically fishy ways. However, I only learned for sure a couple of weeks ago that my home institution prospered directly and substantially from… Continue Reading “Teaching and writing in the Confederacy”
