“Ideally, magazines should be supported by their subscribers. But our educational system doesn’t produce such audiences. We publish poetry; we don’t read it. We like it performed for us so that it will, with the poet, take the plane. And we like our few books autographed, because they will, one day, be worth more to our heirs and our assigns.” — William H. Gass, “The Shears of the Censor,” from Tests of Time
Some of the stories and poems may be inappropriate for persons under 16
- A Dog by the Ears
- Abrumpo
- After the Dreaming
- Albuquerque, 1996
- All the Sobbing Cops
- apple strudel
- At Kahun, for the Health of the Mother and the Child
- burning man
- Candlelight and Flowers
- Casserole Man
- Christmas Pictures
- Dehiscence
- Descartes’ Dreams – Intro
- Desserts for the Reading of the KJV
- Dolomite
- Dropping back to Punt
- Eighth Dream – The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- eleanor in uncertain way, pulling
- Entomology
- Exit Interview
- Extinguisher (with Unpacking the Object)
- Fifteen Small Apocalypses
- Fifteenth Dream – The, uh, target
- First Dream – Puttin’ on the Ritz
- Fourteenth Dream – By the Waters of Babylon
- Fourth Dream – Motherless Child
- Franny & Toby
- Gnats
- Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Pickles and Fries
- Guys Come in Three Sizes
- High Street: Lawyers, Guns & Money in a Stoner’s New Mexico
- Howl
- Introduction
- Karen and the Dropout
- Kimberly!
- King of the Wire Rings
- latrodectus, loxosceles, lycosa tarentula
- Lawn
- Legal Advice
- Liberation
- Linear Perspective
- Lost Things and Missing Persons
- mama when she’s really pretty
- Metronome
- My Friend!
- Ninth Dream – Descartes’ Dreams
- Poems 2001-2010
- Rag Doll
- Road Rave
- Sandhills
- Saved
- Shelving
- Shod
- Sixteenth Dream – Scoring Six Hits
- Tahoe
- Taking Calls
- Tale of the Tribe
- Tenth Dream – The Vicissitudes of the Seasons
- The Comedian
- The Congenital Fiance
- the german for it, the french
- The Gordon Lish Notes
- The Hole of Sharon
- The Italian Story
- The Lock
- The Take-Out
- the talking french cat
- The Tellings
- The Tiny Toy Train
- The Usual Story
- The Well-Molded Military Brick
- The Year Our Children Left
- Third Dream – A Thousand Times No
- Three Very Short Fictions
- Tossing Baby to the Tiger
- Twelfth Dream – Fantod
- Vitrine
- Wednesday
- What Coy Said
- Who, what, etc.
- Yellowjacket
- Yttat
That’s a good point. I was never taught about poetry in school, so the entire concept seemed out of reach. A couple of years ago I read an essay about how poetry should be experienced as a work of art, an abstraction, more to be felt than dissected. What a revelation. Now I have several books’ worth at home, all very well read.
I’m trying to teach my youngest about poetry. Thank god for Poe, guaranteed to hold the attention of a 10-year-old boy.
It may be worth noting the poetry began as a performance art. Maybe if it were taught that way in the public schools, more children would learn to appreciate it.
Also, forms of poetry vary widely, as you know. “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” are examples of wonderful performance poems; much modernist and post-modernist poetry, maybe not so much.
If I felt myself competent to make an argument for it, I might argue that Lord Byron marked the pinnacle of English-language poetry and it’s all been pretty much downhill in the two centuries since his heyday.
Yes to the performance art. I don’t have the voice for reading poetry (think Luna Lovegood) but I discovered many of Poe’s works on YouTube, read by Vincent Price and James Earl Jones, etc. Very cool.
The little guy is tearing it up on the Kindle as well. I got a new one for my birthday and gave him the old. I think he’s attracted to the modernity of the format so I’m trying to go with it and use whatever works to entice him into reading.
VP and JEJ are two perfect voices for one interpretation of Poe. I wonder how Lady Gaga would do “Annabel Lee”? And I bet Michelle Obama reading “The Raven” would be an interesting twist.
I’d like to hear Gaga read “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Off-track if we’re thinking of poetry, but how cool would it be.
I’d melt if Alan Rickman would read me Neruda. Holy mother of god. Actually, Rickman could read me his grocery list and I’d ask him to repeat it. Slowly.