UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTION #1

Who turned Robert Creeley into Robert Frost? And how? And why? I know, that's three uncomfortable questions. But uncomfortable questions are like…


AMIRI BARAKA – the field was real life not just a poetic allusion

“But all were urging a clarity to me about what there was of value in the N[ew] A[merican] P[oetry] that ironically finally made me look…


All Literature by Laura Riding Jackson

All literature is written by the old to teach the young how to express themselves so that they in turn may write literature to teach the old how to…


The Law of Poetic Composition, by Diane di Prima

DiPrima - The Law of Poetic Composition


“Reading Time by Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980)”

Muriel Rukeyser was a lifelong social activist, fully committed to the struggle against inequity and oppression and for social justice. Her writing…


MARINETTI, ACADEMICIAN by Álvaro de Campos

On March 29, 1929, Filippo Marinetti, one of the baddest of all avant-garde bad boys, was nominated to the Royal Academy of Italy by Mussolini, in…


Statement of the Croatoan Poetic Cell on the Poetry Foundation and the cops, with a letter from Jeremy Prynne

A conversation between Linh Dinh and Brooks Johnson Linh Dinh: First off, I want to provide some background: In September of last year (2011), the…


Jack Spicer to Foot 2, 1962

I am not submitting the poetry I promised to the magazine. One of the three editors of your magazine [Philip Whalen]  is participating in the…


John Clarke to Tom Clark, 28 June 1991

John (Jack) Clarke carried out an extensive correspondence with Tom Clark while Clark was writing Charles Olson: The allegory of a poet’s life.…


Benjamin Hollander Responds to CA Conrad, 11 June 2015 [link]

"What most people I agree with politically and whose politics are considered progressive  don't even realize is that, when it comes to poetry or…