Category Archives: Poetry

Robert Bly in Point Reyes Poems concludes with a piece called “The large starfish” which describes a nine-pointed starfish which slowly wraps itself around the speaker’s hand and after a while is returned to the tidal pool. In a small … Continue reading →

Jacques Le Clerq in the introduction to the Peter Pauper Press (1955) publication of his translations of Love Poems from the Greek Anthology writes about the “somewhat special” section of the collection, the “Paedic Muse or Musa Puerilis” which, as … Continue reading →

The Bad Sequence by Phil Hall published by Book Thug in 2004 and reprinted in 2007 is built out of a series of repetitions (The Bad Sequence is… The Bad Sequence does…) with one eye-catching exception: Priests are torturing The … Continue reading →

In the midst of this reworking of the Kay and Gerda story (“The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen), Daphne Marlatt introduces a strong childhood memory which I share (I distinctly recall the sugary liquid followed by chewing the wax … Continue reading →

Wickedly good. If Earth Witch, rather than Earth Mother receives the woman’s wound offering — and there is no protection against this — the woman becomes more and more driven with a Need. A Need. … and sometimes leaves her … Continue reading →

In one poem (“The Double-Goer”) Daryl Hine writes “Manifold are the disguises of our love.” That should prepare us for the intriguing passage in “Osiris Remembered”      Once Orpheus had turned his back upon      The saddest and the palest of shades … Continue reading →

I was first taken by how these two lines open a stanza some way through the first section of David McFadden‘s A New Romance. Reality dissolves imagination, dream seeks its own level I was left with the impression of dream … Continue reading →

Mark Sinnett attentive to sensuality brings on layers memories. The child is never very far away from the appetites of the adult. Together they form a continuity that consumes the world with an avidity that results in acute observations. There … Continue reading →

How do you represent an infinite space? You rift on a catalogue. Take two lines from a translation of Borges. Between the lines insert more lines as if the poem could go on and on. You have something like the … Continue reading →