Personally, I have no use for the kind of binary set up by the idea of “the true poet”—what, then, is a false poet?—and I would prefer to call “the first person impersonal” an invitation rather than permission, but everything else Hamill says in that quote rings true for me... #writing #poetry

[T]his was in large measure why I didn’t get very far in The Screwtape Letter: I found it hard to take the Christianness of the material very seriously. I had a similar issue with the The Lord of The Rings, in which Frodo "suffers for the sake of us all.”

From my Scrapbook:

For me, the spiritual practice of writing poetry locates itself in the moment that the language in which I am immersed opens up into possibilities I neither predicted nor consciously desired and the decision I have to make about whether to trust where that language will lead me. #writing #poetry

"I live in New York, where abortion is legal and where...it can be all too easy not to pay attention to what abortion bans around the country are doing to women, their families, and their doctors. To say that the right is waging a war on women is not to indulge in metaphor."

No comment.

At the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 21, I had the opportunity to record this video for Sagging Meniscus press. I'm looking forward to reading the book, Wings, by Amir Or, translated from the Hebrew by Seth Michelson: @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social #writing

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #3 You know you are expected to respond,
that rules establish how to choose your words. Instead, you lead her out beyond the edge
and watch her iron shackles become birds.
Surrender to this failure. Shave your head.
Embrace her like the resurrected dead. #poetry

I write a blog for my publisher, Fernwood Press. Called Learning To Love The Questions, it's focus is the relationship(s) between and among poetry, politics, and spirituality (broadly defined). Check out this month's post: What Poems Do We Need Right Now? #poetry #writing

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #4 You did not create 
the arrogance 
that lies in wait. Wilted in the sun, 
surrendered generosity 
is not an accident.
 Facts matter.
 So does silence. #writingcommunity

Lines That Didn’t Make The Cut #1 They can’t be less inhuman than they are. 
The line of people leaving, a living scar 
across the flesh that was our home, stretched far
 beyond where I, at six years old, could see. 
Even now, that child breathes in me, 
riding his father's shoulders...

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @kent-nj.bsky.social @matriches.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @matthewepaul.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

And there I saw the seed upon the mountain but it was not a seed it was a star but it was not a star in was a world but it was not a world it was a god but it was not a god it was a laughter —from “Time in the Rock or Prelude to Definition,” by Conrad Aiken www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/

You Hate Me

A Dream www.richardjnewman.com/microblog/a-...

This is just appalling: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/w...

This made me smile.

Writing style according to Virginia Woolf

It is always such a pleasure to be included among Dave’s selections.

from "Fixtures and Fittings," by Sarah Salway: ...The eternal whispering of the kettle would have kept us awake if our beds had let us sleep, duvets rapunzelling out of windows, but still the oven and the fridge carried on their terrible dance...

A Cautionary Tale: "A man whose appetite is very small will not be overwhelmed by any hardship, but a man who thinks that eating signifies his wealth—if hardship overtakes him, he’ll die." —from Golestan by Saadi of Shiraz, translated by Edward Rehatsek and Richard Jeffrey Newman

A sobering fact: My son will be this year the same age I was when I started the job I just retired from.

My Father’s Day gift!

MALES do that! By me and @postcardsbybecky.bsky.social. Read more cartoons! #PoliCartoon Help us make more! patreon.com/barry #TERFssuck

This week In the poetry blogs w/ @edmundprestwich.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @jwikeley.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @richardjnewman.bsky.social @willsjack.bsky.social @billymills.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/05/poet...

I met with the final class of my career at Nassau Community College last week and I will this week turn in my last set of final grades. My retirement doesn't become official until August 31, but after this week, I am, essentially, retired!

This was written during Trump’s first term, was published in 2022, and is absolutely current:

"You don’t need a creative writing degree to be a poet." Those words may be no less true today than they were back when Philip Booth said them to me, but I wonder if a young poet in 2025 would hear in them the kind of permission they were for me in 1985 to chart my own course. #writingcommunity

Once upon a time...

"A man abused as a child at a Missouri Christian camp agreed to remain silent, and took his own life. His sister is pushing several states to ban such nondisclosure agreement." Such stories are why the talk I gave last month on my campus, "Being Able To Say This Out Loud," are so important.

I gave this talk last month on my campus. I am sharing it because I think it’s important to make sure the voices of male survivors are heard and to let you know that I'm available to give this talk for your organization. I hope you will share this post far and wide. You have my thanks in advance.

“Even before there were religions there was religious war.” —from Richard Hoffman's essay, “Like Never Before”, in his book Remembering The Alchemists. Read the full quote in my Scrapbook:

A boy and his dog!

My mother cut open an orange pepper and found an alien inside.

I am in very good company.

Some personal weiting news, a realky interesting article on Iranian women’s poetry, and a trip back through papers I wrote in college.

Interesting to compare Saadi of Shiraz's most famous poem to a passage from John Donne's "Devotions." They start from the same place but end up with very different conclusions.

I am happy to be Yetzirah's featured poet this week. They are is doing important, community-building work in bringing together and supporting Jewish poets of all stripes. I hope you'll check them and, selfishly, my work out.

Thank you to Majuscule for publishing my essay "I Was A Creative Writing Program Dropout: One Poet's Story." It says some things that I think need saying. I hope you'll check it out.

I am in very good company in this latest aggregation of poetry blogging by Dave Bonta. Thanks for including me, Dave, and I hope anyone seeing this will check it out!