And, breaking into a canter, I set off on the long road south Which was to take me to so many strange places, That room in Cambridge, that room in Cambridge, that room in Cambridge, That room in Cambridge, this room in Cambridge

The poet is necessary for the creation of the poem, and (except, perhaps, with regard to the poem intended only for performance by its author) irrelevant to its functioning.

"[M]eter is the most fundamental technique of order available to the poet. The other poetic techniques of order—rhyme, line division, stanzaic form, and over-all structure—are all projections and magnifications of the kind of formalizing repetition which meter embodies. They are meter writ large."

Onassis.

Jessica Laser's review of "Only Sing" is wonderful and I am so grateful for it! kismet-mag.com/reviews/pani...

Today is the publication date for John Berryman’s "Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs." A few days ago, I read the book for pleasure for the first time. And though I can’t speak to the quality of my introduction, the poems are wonderful. I think you’ll like them.

Thank God I am neither marketable nor likable.

In the--excruciating!--throes of trying to decide whether to keep using Garamond, or switch to EB Garamond.

Zohran!

Hi! Just in case you already have my Gmail address, which I'm phasing out, and want my new email address, it's the same as my Gmail address but with @proton.me at the end of it instead of @gmail.com. That's all! I hope you're having a good weekend!

I have a couple of poems from my new book in the current issue of Image. Thank you to editor @akasomeguy.bsky.social for including these.

On Thursday, October 9th at 7PM I’ll be reading at the Book Culture on W 112th with Phillis Levin and Rosanna Warren in celebration of Rosanna’s brilliant new book, Hindsight. I hope hope hope to see you there! Info and registration here: www.bookculture.com/event/112th-...

My gosh do I love the ending of this Dream Song from "Only Sing" (obliquely, one of Berryman's many Elegies for Delmore Schwartz). Thank you @elizabethscanlon.bsky.social and everybody at @ampoetryreview.bsky.social for publishing it. aprweb.org/poems/long-d...

Howdy, y'all! So, I mentioned a few weeks ago that my son makes rad videos about weather. Well, he has now created a fundraiser to help him fund that work, as well as his life goals in general. Thanks for taking a look. www.gofundme.com/f/empower-ni...

It's nice to be reminded that the iambic pentameter line is one of the most beautiful things to have ever existed.

My son makes hella interesting videos about extreme weather events. Here's one about an outbreak of fire tornadoes, which I didn't even know were a thing before he told me: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWyZ...

I try to write poems. I’m working on it. And I’m very grateful to everybody at @newversereview.bsky.social, especially Steve Knepper and Mary Grace Mangano, for publishing, alongside many rad poems, this poem. I tried. I worked on it. And I hope you like it. www.newversereview.com/2-3-shane-mc...

A few months ago, I thought I was done writing these. But maybe not quite yet? I’m so grateful to @bdralyuk.bsky.social and everybody at @nimrodjournal.bsky.social for publishing this sonnet. I hope you like it. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/elizabetha...

In the past few days, some extraordinary and heartening things have happened, and I’m feeling less down about my poems. The New York Times Book Review podcast recommended “New and Collected Hell,” and the Financial Times included it on their list of Best Summer Books of 2025! I am so, so grateful.

A thing arrived in the mail today.

RIP Alice Notley

I guess I miss England pretty hard--I saw a Cadbury Twirl in a bodega this morning and almost started weeping.

This morning, for the first time in a long time--a decade?--I submitted to a journal that only accepts physical submissions (which is also a journal on my list of journals to which I'm afraid to submit), and wow it felt good and weird and good. The tactile! Communication via the mails!

The book comes out in December, but here, now, via the New Yorker, is “Henry’s Ode,” from “Only Sing: 152 Uncollected Dream Songs,” by John Berryman (edited by me). I am so grateful to everyone involved, especially Kevin Young and Hannah Aizenman. Woo, y’all! Woo! www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The eye deliberate May qualify the joy And that which we create We also may destroy.

Folks, I'm reading with @rika99.bsky.social on Friday, April 18th. Jason Schneiderman will be the host, and if you're around I hope you can make it if for no other reason than to hear what Erika and Jason have to say. www.nyhistory.org/programs/poe...

Thank you everybody at Action, Spectacle for publishing a few of my poems alongside wonders: www.action-spectacle.com/winter-2025-...

John Berryman has been a central poet in my life for more than half my life. But I never imagined his name and mine would be on the same book cover. And yet here they are, together. The book will be published in December, and I hope you like it. I still can't believe I had anything to do with it.

I’m now live! Like and share to get this vital information out to people! #wxsky #tornado m.youtube.com/watch?v=R4g5...

"New and Collected Hell" is out today! If you read it, I hope you like it. I'm grateful to Melissa and my family and everyone at @fsgbooks.bsky.social. A decade of work, a decade of hells emerging and seeming to fade only to reveal themselves as indelible. In the poem, Trump is a demonic beetle.

Obviously boys should not be presidents.

Just deleted my Twitter account! The joy! The freedom!

"New and Collected Hell" is reviewed in the February 10th New Yorker holy moly I can hardly even think about it! I'm so grateful to Elisa Gonzalez and everybody at @newyorker.com! Such a beautifully written review. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Friends, I'm so excited to tell you that I have edited the uncollected Dream Songs of John Berryman, and they will be published in December by FSG! "Only Sing" was a long joy to work on. I am so grateful to Berryman's family, and Jonathan Galassi, and Chris Richards! us.macmillan.com/books/978037...

Hey, y'all! I'll be reading at Poets House with the wonderful and best poets Carolina Ebeid, Sally Wen Mao, and Evie Shockley on the 30th! You come too. poetshouse.org/event/ebeid-...

Another revised poem, since we're back to where we were.

I still can't believe I had anything to do with the making of this wonderful thing, this opera, but if you're in New York you can see it on February, 6th! I am so stoked about this! Here's the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgcd... And here is more info: www.nationalsawdust.org/.../michael-....

A sudden urge to vomit.

Revising poems for a forthcoming chapbook I came across this ugly poem I wrote about an ugly thing and published before it was ready. So I revised it some more.

Now, I'm just a simple country lawyer, but I thought I would like "Don Quixote" more.

O brilliant kids, frisk with your dog

And, you know, just in case I wasn't being clear, which I probably wasn't, I meant that I am in favor of the thing(s), strict form/meter/rhyme, that free the poem and restrict the poet. Happy New Year, everybody!

Recently, I’ve come to understand the use of free verse as a way to exercise control over the poem, rather than as a primarily liberating act, whereas the use of strict form/meter/rhyme empowers the poem to resist the poet’s will, granting the poem a degree of freedom. An essay someday.

For real am I about to read the Robert Alter Hebrew Bible again? Because I kind of think I'm about to read the Robert Alter Hebrew Bible again.

Remember when the *BARF* "president" said the thing about electric batteries and sharks? Of course I wrote a Petrarchan sonnet about that. And then @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social published it, and yesterday, @versedaily.bsky.social featured it, and I am so grateful and I hope you like it. bit.ly/4iJIP2d

The nice people at Anthropocene just published a few of my poems and I hope you like them. It's weird to think one's own poems are OK but I think the middle one, "Lazarus," is OK? At least the title makes me think of the Boo Radleys' song. Thank you everybody at Anthropocene! tinyurl.com/45ddvepx

Y'all, "and we, each," an opera composed by the truly great Michael Hersch and featuring a libretto made of excerpts from my poems plus new bits I wrote specifically for it, will have its New York premier in February y'all. You should go! operawire.com/national-saw...

As a black American, I’m used to not really knowing where I came from, and who my people way back were. Thomas Hooker obviously was a white man, but he was also my people. And he founded Connecticut! I can't describe what it feels like to be figuring this stuff out. But I want to visit Connecticut.

Just learned that my great x 11 grandfather was Thomas Hooker, Founder of Hartford, and father of Samuel Hooker (great grandpa x 10), who was the great x 7 grandfather of Robert Lowell fuckin' A.

RIP Henry Taylor