“Sea Canes” by Derek Walcott
“As a member of the great Nobel-winning poetic generation that included Brodsky and Heaney, he did as much or more than anyone to win the global respect for Caribbean writing that it… Read More
“Epic” by Patrick Kavanagh
"Kavanagh defined his approach as 'parochial' and he contrasted it favourably with 'provincialism.' For him a provincial was someone who defers in matters of taste to a higher, and distant, authority— most… Read More
“Sunday Morning at the Caffe Mediterraneum” by Wendy Sloan
Wendy Sloan practiced labor law with the firm of Hall & Sloan before returning to poetry. Sunday Mornings at the Caffe Mediterraneum (Kelsay Books, 2016) is her first collection. Sloan’s poems and… Read More
“At a Bistro” by J.D. Smith
J.D. Smith is the author of three previous collections, most recently Labor Day at Venice Beach (2012), and his books in other genres include the essay collection Dowsing and Science (2011) and… Read More
Literary Matters Reviews Ernest Hilbert’s Book Caligulan
Literary Matters is the online journal of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. Issue 9.2 includes a comprehensive review of Ernest Hilbert’s third book, Caligulan, by critic Robert Archambeau: “Little… Read More
“The Chances” by Christopher Bullard
Christopher Bullard is a native of Jacksonville, FL. He lives in Collingswood, NJ, and works for the federal government as an Administrative Law Judge. … Read More
“Eye of the Beholder” by Danielle Livingston
Danielle Livingston recently self-published a book of poems titled Word Salad. She also works with the irregular literary magazine SEEMS as an assistant editor. Livingston will graduate with her bachelor’s degree from… Read More
Steff Bomb! E-Verse’s Favorite Plush Artist Signs Toy Deal
Steff Bomb signs a toy deal. … Read More
“The Devil in Grand Saline” by Michael Shewmaker
Michael Shewmaker is the recent winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and author of Penumbra (Ohio UP, 2017).… Read More
“Meeting and Passing” by Robert Frost
"...Earth's the right place for love: / I don't know where it's likely to go better." - Robert Frost, "Birches" … Read More
“Prayer Before Birth” by Louis MacNeice
"To speak for myself, rereading MacNeice I have been overwhelmed and exhilarated. What other twentieth-century poet writing in English explores with such persistence and brilliance all that being alive can mean?" -… Read More
“Listening Comprehension” by Maryann Corbett
Maryann Corbett earned a doctorate in English from the University of Minnesota and expected to be teaching Beowulf and Chaucer and the history of the English language. Instead, she spent almost thirty-five… Read More
Archibald MacLeish’s ‘The Fall of the City’, a Radio Play in Verse Starring Orson Welles and Burgess Meredith
CBS broadcast the The Fall of the City nationwide from the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York at 7 PM on April 11, 1937 as part of the Columbia Workshop radio series… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reads in DC for “Lunch Poems: Readings from The Hopkins Review”
Lunch Poems: Readings from The Hopkins Review Featuring Ernest Hilbert, Helena Chung, Natalie Shapero, Erica Dawson, and Mark Halliday The Loft @ Busboys and Poets 5th & K Streets 1025 5th Street… Read More
“On a Phrase of Thomas Merton’s” by Bill Coyle
"Bill Coyle's poems can strike every kind of note: they are grave or touching, acerbic or funny, and always civil. He writes with a clear flow of lively thought, and at the… Read More
Now That’s What We Call a Poetry Slam: “Miserable Failure” by Iron Reagan
Imagine if a mosh pit broke out at a poetry reading. Sometimes I wish one would! Some great crossover thrash in the tradition of DRI and Exodus. Enjoy!… Read More
Our New First and Second Families Have Been Given Secret Service Names, and Here They are . . .
Bethany brought us the Top Five Fun Secret Service Names (Henry Kissinger = Woodcutter, for instance) and the Top Five Secret Service Code Names for the 2016 US Presidential Race. Now we have a… Read More
“The Improved Binoculars” by Irving Layton
“I taught him how to dress; he taught me how to live forever." - Leonard Cohen … Read More
“Myth” by Muriel Rukeyser
"She is a radical politically, but she writes as a poet not a propagandist. When you hold this book in your hand you hold a living thing." - W. R. Benet… Read More
“At the Tomb of the Unknown President” by Tom Disch
"Tom Disch’s novels and poems may be applied as touchstones against cant and mealy-mouthed self-deception. Vigilance will be much harder with him gone." - David Yezzi… Read More
Donald Trump: The Magazine of Poetry
Publisher, bookseller, critic, blogger, and all-around polymath Henry Wessells is the man behind Donald Trump: A Magazine of Poetry, issued in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, The Magazine of Poetry, which was… Read More
“The Muse and the Auctioneer’s Gavel: Learning About Poetry from First Editions” by Ernest Hilbert
The editors at Plume magazine in Canada asked me to supply a short piece on first editions of famous works of poetry for their Essays and Comment section. … Read More
“Two Portraits” by Ernest Hilbert in the Southwest Review
My poem "Two Portraits" appears in the new issue of the Southwest Review alongside poems by Denise Duhamel, A.M. Juster, Mary Jo Salter, Gerard Malanga, and others.… Read More
“The Music Crept By Us” by Leonard Cohen
“Leonard Cohen is a narcissist who hates himself.” - Irving Layton … Read More
Books Read or Reread by Ernest Hilbert in 2016
One thing I’ve learned about fatherhood is that the number of books one will have time to read in a given year plummets precipitously. Nonetheless, I managed a few. George Saintsbury,… Read More
“Skeptic Christmas” by Jules Laforgue (Trans. by Kate Flores)
"He is an exquisite poet, a deliverer of nations, a father of light," - Ezra Pound… Read More
“Ars Poetica #58” by Alexander Long
Alexander Long has published four chapbooks, most recently The Widening Spell (Q Avenue Press, 2016) & Lunch with Larry (Q Avenue Press, 2014). Long has also published three full collections of… Read More
“An honest volume for dishonest times”: Caligulan as Not-Half-Bad Christmas Present
I'd be remiss if I didn't make at least a small seasonal push for my latest book Caligulan.… Read More
“Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)” Sung by Nat King Cole
A true classic. Relax and enjoy! "The Christmas Song" (commonly subtitled "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" or, as it was originally subtitled, "Merry Christmas to You") is a classic Christmas song… Read More