Artwork by Sandra Kleven One may feel an inclination to adore famous poets. To be impressed beyond ease of expression. To see the greatest of poets as nearly holy, and the greatest poems as personal touchstones. “You do not have to be good…” Mary Oliver “This is the way the world ends…” T. S. […]
Sandra Kleven: Embracing Icons Read More »
Susanna Mishler A poem is a machine made of words. – William Carlos Williams As poet and electrician, I wonder how this statement might be true. The objects of machine and poem seem contrary. But if a poem is a machine made of words, and the idea of a poem as machine seems contradictory, then
Susanna Mishler: A Fine Contrivance Read More »
Still, now; the torn tin-wrapped two-story structure stands: Towards a century ago; its tired timber and stone-age material met To hold each other unconditionally; To vanquish Kikiktagruk’s seasons. Legendary: a hunting-guide, a bush-pilot, a man; Family spent and shared time and more time. Liquor and grub given to many at “Marie’s”: Before the hunt; Roy
Alaska Shorts: 301 Shore Avenue, by Stephen D. Bolen Read More »
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it’s understood.” T.S. Eliot Earlier tonight, I sat at a table with four poets. They are each successful and brilliant, and each came to poetry in their own unique way. One of them stumbled into a prestigious graduate program only after dropping out of school. “The last thing in the
Daryl Farmer: To Write Good Prose, Learn to Love Poetry Read More »
In our current literary culture there isn’t much demand for the long poem. Magazines, with limited space, are looking for one or two pagers so they can include more contributors, and, hopefully, draw more readers. While poetic sequences do provide an opportunity to expand beyond the short lyric and explore a wider range of experience,
John Morgan: How about Long Poems? Read More »
Well-known as a novelist, John Straley is also a poet; “The Gift,” he says, is an old poem from his cowboy days. Don’t miss his craft talk, “Lessons from a Life of Crime,” Thursday night, Feb. 6, from 7:00-8:30 pm at the Great Harvest Bread Company in Anchorage. THE GIFT Pulling a pack string up the
Alaska Shorts: The Gift, by John Straley Read More »
And Though God’s Eye is on the sparrow, this one nevertheless falls today to earth having dashed itself head-long against the windowed wall of my study, a pane it did not see in time to save itself. The unbroken wing folds. The blank black bead of an eye looks skyward. By the time a
Alaska Shorts: Three Poems by Anne Caston Read More »
Requiem for the Kuskokwim It is cold and windows rattle with razors and hooks. Dread permeates light moments like a mean dog tied to a stove. Foreign to the territories, with tendered immunity, you walked through wild like a wraith. Jingling coins, coining jingles, sure to find another word for snow. Happy, you floundered there,
Alaska Shorts: Poems from Defiance Street Read More »
Still Life With Vegetables Not a tradition. Yet. Or is it a one-time shot where initial conditions of dirt (a continuous factor) and H – 2 – O from the sky combine to produce magnificent roots that achieve colors like vermilion, creamy buckskin, and opaque amber. Colors that I cannot shake, the firmness of flesh
Spotlight on Alaska Books: Unbound, by Katie Eberhart Read More »
Joan Kane (photo by Seth Kantner) Joan Kane is Inupiaq with family from King Island and Mary’s Igloo, Alaska. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and her MFA from Columbia University. Kane’s awards include a 2007 individual artist award from the Rasmuson Foundation, a 2009 Connie Boochever Fellowship from the Alaska State Council on the
Jeremy Pataky Interviews Joan Kane Read More »
