Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Every American needs to watch this:

It's only week 3 of the year, but we're deep in the trenches of witness via language. That's what poets do. Join us.

The dark irony of being in a French town named "By-the-Sea" yet there was no sea! We wandered in search of home/paradise. Post-apocalypse? Post-Eden? The imperative to "see like the grass sees"? Utopia means No Place - the poem's shimmering absence/presence. www.thecommononline.org/january-2026...

This deep into holidaze I will not be linking anyone tonight but here at least is a not-at-all-rushed edition of the poetry blog digest for your reading pleasure. I think it's a particularly good round-up. But then I think that every week. www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

In this week’s newsletter, I explain how Trump’s $1,776 payments is actually one of the most dangerous things he’s ever done. Armies loyal to a paycheck and not the government is how you get authoritarian overthrows of republics.

To quote Churchill, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Sam Zurier, State senator in RI, representing #Providence has it right...we've been through a lot already. Still we're in for a rough ride. Be gentle.

Steve isn’t here anymore, but he always posted this picture on Hanukkah so I thought we could carry on his tradition and remember him.

Helicopters are circling again over the Brown campus and College Hill. After whirring for hours and hours on Saturday night, they stopped -- let's now call it a pause - the killer hadn't been caught, the goal hadn't been met. Anxiety runs high; the choppers whirr. #BrownUniversity #massshooting

Helicopters have been circling overhead #BrownUniversity, shining searchlights down onto the Green, gardens and contorted streets looking for today's horrid perpetrator. Circling circling, light shining off my windows in my darkened house (all neighbors darkening our houses). Peace to the students!

This is what @thepoetslizard.bsky.social and I are facing at Via Negativa, a literary blog with nearly 15,000 posts. We might have to password-protect our archives just to keep the site from being taken offline www.glamelab.org/products/are...

A round of applause for the French is in order! 👏👏👏

Beautiful thought and writing. I feel so good after reading the Digest. Giving thanks to Dave!

Poets...canaries in the mind. It's always a bellwether whether it's change of season or radical reorientation. Another great digest, Dave!

A young artist, Julia Lion, sat at the back of my reading at Lange Studio for “Diaspora of Things,” jotting down her favorite phrases. She sketched me on her IPad. I love the image she created! It is so much fun!

Trump’s Marie Antoinette Moment: asked for Trump’s response to #NoKingsDay massive protest for fairly priced bread, a spokeswomen conveyed his concern: “Who Cares?” WHO CARES? #Trump, Ask your fellow celeb monarch how that turned out!

you fucked around and now the Episcopalians are doing memes. are you happy now. are you

I braved the war-torn streets of Portland to pick up dinner at Panera. Tragically, I accidentally ordered two tomato soups instead of one tomato and one squash as I planned. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers during these difficult times.

On Homer's Winged Words and the Life of Poetry blog.jillpearlman.com?p=3586

Note left on our typewriter.

The totality of David Byrne’s art piece- ie his massively conceived conceptual concert — is inspiring in its daring and overstuffedness. No minimalism here. One of the reasons I loved it. Like he’s back at #RISD, having rolled up a lifetime of curiosity & sensory experience. #DavidByrne #concert

Yehuda Amichai from Open Closed Open. So felicitously said! The point is as universal as it gets— we have to fiercely guard hope. And particular for Yom Kippur — be strong and strengthen your heart. Life isn’t for the weak hearted.

A taste of my chapbook, “Diaspora of Things.” Every poem could be accompanied by a sad monkey, though this one is particularly apt. Launch: 9/27, 6pm, Riffraff, 60 Valley St, Providence, RI.

Thinking about our commandant-in-chief, who loves to mock but can’t bear being mocked

My sister tactfully decided not to discuss my will so close to my birthday. We moved on to the demise of our country. #JimmyKimmel

They don’t know what they’re doing. - Tomaz Salamun

When control rests in the hands of the few, then the few control the rest of us.

Your silence will not save you! #AcademicSky

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

[everyone posting cool Redford photos] [posts one with former Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, on the set of Three Days of the Condor, October 1975] [record scratch]

Untitled Clear and still, with dew dripping off the roof and a pair of phoebes yelling "Phoebe!" at each other. Twenty-four years ago, the sky was just this clear.

Clifford Brown & Strings "Memories Of You" youtu.be/yAand_kXMds?... #Jazz #JazzSky #JazzMusic #Music #MusicSky 🎧

If I have any credibility with you from 20 years of reporting on rightwing & fascist movements, please listen when I beg you not to celebrate Charlie Kirk getting shot. Leave aside morality: this isn’t a match in dry grass, it’s a torch. We do not want what this could ignite & we would not win.

Poet Gillian Allnutt has flown under my radar. The poems highlighted by Victoria Moul are startling and gorgeous. The beginning of a new poetic fascination? Gillian Allnutt, "lode" open.substack.com/pub/vamoul/p...

Another bang-up edition of the Poetry Blog! Poetry ripens in the September harvest. Many thanks, Dave!

The Guardian's own brilliance in putting #Alcaraz-#Sinner in context: "There’s something profoundly moving about two young people captivating the world with their brilliance; in the sense that by watching them, we’re participating in art and history at the same time." @us.theguardian.com #usopen

The disappearing sea, whales, ICE and icebergs, summer tremors recorded by poets and gathered by the inimitable Mr. Bonta!

What a beautiful July outing! Full of feeling. Poets are ripening in the mid-summer sun.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." — Voltaire

I see the Washington Post is platforming an op-ed by Krisi Noem, because apparently they're still pissed they missed their opportunity to publish Goebbels in the original German.

When I read, may I be relaxed as Geoff Dyer and keep one hand in my pocket in case i need a sneezing instrument. (Or an instrument of magic.) Riffraff, Providence, RI #homework #books @literaryhub.bsky.social

Teaching a Celan seminar brought out the best in me and readers. It's deep stuff, so we were all talking from our depths, groping along as our poets did. No need to dumb down anything! Just guide. Often our best work is done in collaboration. Given the intensity of each day, we need each other! #Lit

Just in case anyone wants a reminder of how Trump helped create the situation he's now using as justification to bomb Iran. abcnews.go.com/Politics/ira...

If you're arrested in Illinois protesting against Trump's war on Iran for Israel, I can represent you pro bono. Email me at [email protected].

Could there be a more perfect Solstice poem for right now? Threadsuns by Paul Celan, tr. Michael Hamburger

An ode to a chamber poet....The poem has a certain je ne sais quoi! The experience of emptying a family home has a hallucinatory quality. It resonates with many losses of things you think you hold. Grief, our trickster. finishinglinepress.com. Diaspora of Things. paddockreview.com/2025/06/18/a...

I wrote about a recent visit to Fallingwater and how both the house and the vision are holding up, almost 100 years in www.vianegativa.us/2025/06/fall...

So much thoughtful, inspiring stuff! It's almost like hearing poets think aloud.

Is 50501 the zip code of Utopia? If not, could someone enlighten me? #50501