…just 44 years old. He had been a major presence in my first years in New York City, as mentor & gentle commentator on my early poems. Here, for the occasion, a poem I wrote a few years later on another 13 September, thinking of Paul, New York and trying to be unusually (for me) O’Hara-ish (published in An American Suite): THE DAY PAUL BLACKBURN DIED for Frank … Read more Paul Blackburn died 45 years ago today…
via Arabic Literature (in English) & BY MLYNXQUALEY on APRIL 27, 2016 • ( 1 ) The year 2015, according to a new report by Hamleh (The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media), saw a surge in the number of Palestinians being arrested, in Israel, on the charge of “incitement through social media.”: One of the most prominent cases is of the poet Dareen Tatour, who was arrested last … Read more The Poem for Which Dareen Tatour’s Under House Arrest: ‘Resist, My People, Resist Them’
…in a poem translated from Yiddish & with a note by Ariel Resnikoff. E.P. After the Yiddish of Mikhl Likht A Ezra : Calm to no avail in classic banalities & offtimes magic clown not from breeding: Your pages — my out-dated prophecies. Your book — sesame for my psychic aventuras. I make a pact with you as you made a pact with the “Good Grey Poet” : I … Read more Mikhl Likht addresses Ezra Pound…
…here — via the very useful Lyrikzeitung & Poetry News — is a translation of Verlaine’s most famous (& famously untranslatable) poem Chanson d’automne into Yiddish by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. Born in Czernowitz in 1924, this young woman, a cousin of Paul Celan’s (they would on occasion meet and sing together & talk poetry at Celan’s grandfather’s brother house on Sabbat evenings), wrote poetry in German and died at 18 of typhus in Michailovka on the … Read more On Paul Verlaine’s 172nd birthday…
Seeing the above headline of the cover story in the French daily Libération, I thought I’d offer a poem I wrote some years ago, after lunch, in Paris, in honor of having just eaten an excellent tête de veau, a calf’s head, as homage to the excellent poeta, prosateur, culinary commentator, dégustateur of all things edible, fisher of trout and readers, that was Jim Harrison. May he eat well wherever he is: … Read more Homage to Jim Harrison
Here a poem by Goethe from his West-Östlicher Divan, a poem addressed to the greatness of the Persian poet Hafiz, and that we can now read as addressing the greatness of the poet Goethe. First in the original, then in my translation. Unbegrenzt Daß du nicht enden kannst, das macht dich groß, Und daß du nie beginnst, das ist dein Los. Dein Lied ist drehend wie das Sterngewölbe, Anfang und Ende … Read more On the Anniversary of Goethe’s Death on this day in 1832
On the anniversary of the birth of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, a new translation by Naser Albreeky: ‘Dying for Free’ Mahmoud Darwish Translated by Naser Albreeky Autumn passing through my flesh as a funeral of oranges.. coppery moon crumpled by minerals and sand children falling in my heart upon the souls of men all the pain is my share..not everything is being told… and the arms of spilled … Read more On Mahmoud Darwish’s Birthday, a New Translation of ‘Dying for Free’
Listening to the opening ceremonies of the Paris talks on French radio on this pre-dawn morning, I remembered a poem I wrote years ago, & want to repost here today: [Introït to my Purgatory] the biggest lie is that we were kicked out of Paradise no one kicked us out of Paradise. No one. Not even ourselves. We did. We did besmirch the place. Shat on the floor of paradise. … Read more A Poem For The Paris Climate Talks
… i.e. 25 years after the Tianammen Square Massacre: Here a poem for the occasion, via PBS where a more detailed report on the poet & the occasion of the poem can be found. By Liao Yiwu, Translated by Wenguang Huang (Composed on the morning of June 4, 1989) Dedicated to those who were killed on June 4, 1989 Dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution Leap! Howl! … Read more No Fire Next Time…