by Alice Quinn “A Morning” by Mark Strand (1934-2014): I have carried it with me each day: that morning I took my uncle’s boat from the brown water cove and headed for Mosher Island. Small waves splashed against the hull and the hollow creak of oarlock and oar rose into the woods of black pine … Continue reading A Poem For Friday
by Alice Quinn “The Afternoon According to Saint Matthew” by Mary Ruefle: There’s the black truck with orange flames on its hood. There’s the girl in the pink pajamas. There’s her sister in a bumblebee suit. They are playing with dirt. When they find bugs they scream but no one hears them. Their minds are … Continue reading A Poem For Thursday
From Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn: I am not a poet but reading certain poems gives me a feeling which I like to believe tells me something of what it might feel like to be a poet, one who makes the compositions that bear that sacred name. That’s how I feel when I read the … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: Mark Strand was (even for a poet) exceptionally captivated by a cat-and-mouse game – whimsical and profound – with the subject of death. He left this realm on Saturday, November 29th, to the great sorrow of his many, many dear friends and admirers. He was, I reckon, mostly cat … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: Last week I introduced Sharon Olds at a benefit for Red Hen Press in Pasadena. At Knopf in 1983, I was her editor for The Dead and the Living, her second book of poems, winner of both the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the National … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
From Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn: I’ve been reading The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 for weeks and am mesmerized by the beauty and power, the humor, complexity, and charge of her poems, often bringing to mind the work of another great, canny contemporary poet, the Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska. Toni Morrison wrote … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: I introduced the Scottish poet Robin Robertson at the 92nd Street Y this past Monday, where he read with another wonderful poet, Carolyn Forché. Reading his poems beforehand for days and days (and I’ve been reading his work for years) reinforced my sense that he is writing some of … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell died last week. He loved the poems of his predecessors, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, whose line from “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” we post in his honor. “I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter.” “Blackberry Eating” by Galway … Continue reading A Poem For Friday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: From poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets, I learned that Amy Lowell from the grand Massachusetts family, whose brother Abbott Lawrence, would become president of Harvard College from 1909-1933, “secluded herself in the 7,000 book library” of her family’s estate in Brookline to study literature at … Continue reading A Poem For Monday
Dish poetry editor Alice Quinn writes: The superb American poet Galway Kinnell, who was also a sweet, generous, gallant, much-beloved man, died peacefully in Sheffield, Vermont this past Tuesday. When The Book of Nightmares, long considered one of his best, was published in 1971, fellow poet John Logan wrote, “Each generation looks about to see … Continue reading A Poem For Saturday
