“A Thanksgiving to God, for his House” by Robert Herrick
"One of the most accomplished nondramatic poets of his age." - The Poetry Foundation… Read More
“Childlessness” by Amy Gerstler
Amy Gerstler is a writer of poetry, nonfiction and journalism. Her books include Scattered at Sea (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; Dearest Creature (2009); Ghost Girl (2004);… Read More
Afaa Michael Weaver Interviewed Live by Ernest Hilbert
Hey, Philly, I'll be interviewing award-winning poet Afaa Michael Weaver as part of the Moonstone Gold series at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom Street. Further info appears below. Hope to see you there!… Read More
“First Ghost” by Juliana Gray
Juliana Gray is the author of Honeymoon Palsy (Measure Press, 2017), Roleplay (Dream Horse Press, 2012), which won the 2010 Orphic Prize, and The Man Under My Skin (River City Publishing, 2005),… Read More
“Laughter in the Charnel House” by Jeff Holt
Jeff Holt is the author of The Harvest (White Violet Press, 2012). Jeff's poem, "A Madwoman," was featured in the most recent issue of Measure, and he has previously published poems in… Read More
“Dream of Dying” by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
"Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849) is a latter-day Jacobean, the author of blank verse plays and poems which are as bold, wild and fresh as they are archaic in manner. We read his… Read More
“Black Fire” by Christopher Bernard
Christopher Bernard is author of the novels A Spy in theRuins and Voyage to a Phantom City, the short-story collections Dangerous Stories for Boys and In the American Night, and two poetry… Read More
“Hudson” by John Foy
"Night Vision is a book that sees the dark and sees in the dark, with a clarity that few poets achieve even in daylight. Whether John Foy is writing about the casualties… Read More
“Our Monotonous Sublime: Robert Lowell’s Notebook Poems” by Ernest Hilbert
My long essay on Robert Lowell's late career blank verse sonnets appears in the new issue of Literary Matters. Those poems exerted a potent influence on me while writing my own first… Read More
“The Pardon” by Richard Wilbur
"He should be read in the company of Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens" - Harold Bloom… Read More
“Directions to the Church” by G.M. Palmer
G.M. Palmer lives with his wife and daughters on a poodle farm in North Florida. Find him online @gm_palmer.… Read More
“Dwelling” by Catherine Staples
Catherine Staples is the author of two collections of poems: The Rattling Window (The Ashland Poetry Press) and Never a Note Forfeit (Seven Kitchens Press). Her poems and reviews have appeared in… Read More
“Only Human” by Sammy Jay
Sammy Jay, 29, grew up in Oxford and in Ireland by the sea. He is a rare book dealer with Peter Harrington of London, and has just issued his first trade catalogue:… Read More
Don’t Miss Poets Ryan Wilson and James Matthew Wilson at the Free Library
Ryan Wilson, author of The Stranger World and James Matthew Wilson, author of Some Permanent Things at The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., Room 108, Monday, October 2nd, 6:30PM… Read More
“Love is Merely a Madness” by Terese Coe
Terese Coe's poems and translations have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review, The Hopkins Review, Metamorphoses, New American Writing, Poetry, Threepenny Review, Agenda, Crannog, Cyphers, The Moth, Poetry Review, the TLS,… Read More
“Late Echo” by John Ashbery
"There is a meditative Ashbery, a formalist Ashbery, a comic Ashbery, a late-Romantic Ashbery, a Language poet Ashbery, and so on- even a love poet. No poet since Whitman has tapped into… Read More
“An Afternoon at the Beach” by Edgar Bowers
"Though he was essentially a rationalist, Bowers's poems are marked by extreme aesthetic refinement and an intense feeling for the mystery of things. His teacher and friend Yvor Winters described him as… Read More
“An English Teacher” by Reed Whittemore
"Whittemore has the saving face of humor. . . . Being middle-aged and academic, Whittemore fights both labels as best he can, and then succumbs. When he is at least experimental and… Read More
“Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout” by Gary Snyder
"As a boy I was hungry for images of wild nature, for a catalogue of landscapes, of flora and fauna, of minerals and processes, of sensory experiences. 'Pitch glows on the fir-cones'… Read More
“Vacationists” by P.K. Page
Patricia Kathleen "P.K." Page was born in England but raised in Canada. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including The Metal and the… Read More
“Mushroom Hunters, 1957” by Al Basile (with Audio)
Al Basile is a poet, singer/songwriter, and cornetist. He has fourteen solo CDs under his own name, which regularly reach the top 15 on the Living Blues airplay charts following their… Read More
“Hook Road, Delaware River” by John Foy
John Foy’s first book is Techne’s Clearinghouse (Zoo Press). His poems are included in the Swallow Anthology of New American Poets, The Raintown Review Anthology, and Rabbit Ears, an anthology of poems… Read More
Ernest Hilbert’s “Seasonal Drinking” in Modern Drunkard Magazine
My short poem “Seasonal Drinking” appears in the new issue of Modern Drunkard magazine, Number 61, the Adventure Issue, in the “Postcards from Skid Row” section. I subscribe, but I hadn’t yet… Read More
“Savior Machine” by Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith is the author of three books of poetry: The Body's Question (2003); Duende (2007); Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the… Read More
“Watching My Mother Take Her Last Breath” by Leon Stokesbury
"Leon Stokesbury writes with a pure and beautiful clarity, and that clarity is exacting. Whether he is elegiac or irate, magnanimous or biting, amused or exasperated, Stokesbury is always clear about what… Read More
“On The Avenue” by Rhina P. Espaillat
“To Rhina Espaillat the quotidian is no malady . . . it is the source of inspiration. Hers is a voice of experience, but it is neither jaded nor pedantic. She speaks… Read More
“Goths” by Ryan Wilson
Ryan Wilson is the editor of Literary Matters. He has published widely in periodicals such as First Things, Five Points, The Hopkins Review, The New Criterion, The Sewanee Review, and The Yale… Read More
“From ‘The Building of the Ship’ ” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“On the threshold of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln quoted the lines beginning: ‘Sail on, O Ship of State!’ His secretary, Nicolay, declared: ‘These lines seemed to stir something deep in Lincoln.… Read More
“Independence Day” by Ernest Hilbert
The Yale Review traces its history back to 1819, when a group of Yale faculty members started a quarterly journal then known as The Christian Spectator. It was later renamed The New… Read More
“Excerpt from ‘The Rise of the COVFEFE'” by James Feichthaler
James Feichthaler’s poetry has appeared in numerous print and online journals in both the US and UK. His poems are truthful odes to his Imagination, which he calls, “the lunatic disciple of… Read More