IRL by Tommy Pico @NYJB
Whipsawing between passages of erotic ecstasy and suicidal despair, “IRL” by Tommy “Teebs” Pico reveals itself as a monument of self-lacerating beauty. Continue reading IRL by Tommy Pico @NYJB
Category: Poetry
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, by Daniel Gordis @ NYJB
“Israel is a story of a homeless people that kept a dream alive for millennia, of a people’s redemption from the edge of the abyss, of a nation forging a future when none seemed possible,” Daniel Gordis writes in the introduction to his new book, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn. He continues, “Never had the Jews left Zion willingly, and never had they ceased believing that they would one day return.” Gordis captures the intense struggle of the Jews to secure their homeland as they suffered expulsion, pogroms, and the Holocaust. It is a story of the … Continue reading Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, by Daniel Gordis @ NYJB
Commonplace Book: An excerpt from “Tarantula,” Bob Dylan’s only novel
An excerpt from “Tarantula,” Bob Dylan’s only novel. Continue reading Commonplace Book: An excerpt from “Tarantula,” Bob Dylan’s only novel
Ezra Pound: Poet: Volume III: The Tragic Years 1939–1972, by A. David Moody @ NYJB
“Ezra Pound: Poet: Volume III: The Tragic Years 1939–1972,” by A. David Moody chronicles Pound’s life from his Italian residency prior to the outbreak of World War II to his death. Continue reading Ezra Pound: Poet: Volume III: The Tragic Years 1939–1972, by A. David Moody @ NYJB
Forgotten Classics: Life in the Folds, by Henri Michaux @ NYJB
Life in the Folds by Henri Michaux is “a masterpiece of concision and pain. . . . a literary achievement . . .” Continue reading Forgotten Classics: Life in the Folds, by Henri Michaux @ NYJB
Short Takes I: Chinese Poetry
An early example of poetry by women in China. Continue reading Short Takes I: Chinese Poetry
Critical Appraisals: Nauseating Allegories of Empire: the Victory of sex & Metal by Barbara Mor
Barbara Mor’s new volume of poetry is angry, volcanic, and erudite. Continue reading Critical Appraisals: Nauseating Allegories of Empire: the Victory of sex & Metal by Barbara Mor
Translation Tuesdays: The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander @ NYJB
After ten years of war, soldiers have grown weary. The leadership now endures uncouth criticism of its policy, accusations of self-interest and self-aggrandizement become commonplace. The gods remain fickle, taking sides and influencing the ground game. Some things never change. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander @ NYJB
Critic’s Notebook: David Bowie and the Physiology of Taste
The Argument David Bowie’s recent death has closed a page on music history. On a more personal level, Bowie has been a constant in my life for decades. Beyond mere 80s nostalgia (Labyrinth) or 90s nostalgia (Lost Highway, Outside, and Earthling), Bowie has been instrumental to me personally as a taste-maker. He led me down strange avenues and provided the raw material for discovery and aesthetic experimentation. Embryo My fascinating with David Bowie began early. I can still remember the first Bowie album I bought, sometime in the Nineties. It was a CD of Tonight (1984), an album even Bowie … Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: David Bowie and the Physiology of Taste
Commonplace Book: From a slightly water-damaged collection of Sylvia Plath
Compelling passages, notable quotables, bon mots, disjecta, ephemera, and miscellany. “The Goring” [1956] Arena dust rusted by four bulls’ blood to a dull redness, The afternoon at a bad end under the crowd’s truculence, The ritual death each time botched among dropped capes, ill-judged stabs, The strongest will seemed a will toward ceremony. Obese, dark- Faced in his rich yellows, tassels, pompons, braid, the picador Rode out against the fifth bull to brace his pike and slowly bear Down deep into the bent bull-neck. Cumbrous routine, not artwork. Instinct for art began with the bull’s horn lofting in the mob’s … Continue reading Commonplace Book: From a slightly water-damaged collection of Sylvia Plath
The Driftless Area Review 