The Poet gropes in the darkness for the switch knowing that the light that is sought lies within. –William T. Dawson
I met William Dawson when I told a story at last year’s Sunflower Festival in Mountainaire, New Mexico. We shared supper on his simple terrace as we gazed across the desert leading up to the […]

Spain’s King Juan Carlos gave Gelman a medal symbolizing the Cervantes Prize at a ceremony in Alcala De Henares, the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of “Don Quixote.”

Read entire article in International Herald Tribune (Culture section) by clicking here….Argentine poet Juan Gelman receives Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor
To read Gelman’s work in […]

Riehlife National Poetry Month Editor Stephanie Farrow writes:
Dear Friends,
It has been such a treat to share poetry during this past month. Thank you all for participating! Because today is the last day, I’d thought initially that the final poem should be deep and meaningful, inscrutable perhaps and profound—something along the lines of what the New […]

Barry D. Yelton, author of Scarecrow in Gray, (September 2006, Universe) based roughly on the Civil War experiences of his great-grandfather is currently at work on the sequel.

Barry says:
As to my work, I am a bit of a poet, a bit of a novelist, and a whole lot of Southern. I come from the hill […]

ALABANZA: IN PRAISE OF LOCAL 100
Martín Espada
Alabanza[excellent video!]
(for the 43 members of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Local 100 working at the Window on the World restaurant,
who lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center)
Alabanza.Praise the cook with a shaven head
and a tattoo on his shoulder that said Oye,
a blue-eyed Puerto Rican with […]

Crazy Ali Poet of Turkey Photo by Marcy Burns
An unexamined life is not worth living. —Socrates
An examined life is worth curating. —Janet Riehl
Like a museum curator chooses what to put in the exhibit and where to put it, we all choose where and when and with whom to place the events that make up our […]

Blackberries “en bushed”
Sign of the times: Google “blackberry” and what comes up is a mechanical device, not a fruit. To find the fruit on Google, you must type in “blackberry fruit.” Vis: more people have likely held Blackberry devices in their hands these days than have gone berrying and experienced the pleasures Kinnell describes in […]

The Hidden Singer
by Wendell Berry
from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Copyright © 1998)
The gods are less for their love of praise.
Above and below them all is a spirit that needs nothing
but its own wholeness, its health and ours.
It has made all things by dividing itself.
It will be whole again.
To its joy we come together—
the […]

Freida Wheaton gets around. She’s a board member of Dance St. Louis and a member of the Ballet Ball Committee. Freida’s fun and saavy. She assembled a group of friends and supporters to join her at table #33. Freida, Salon 53 and friends provided Bronze Sponsorship to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Alvin Ailey […]

Wow! Go over the Bill Moyers Journal for links to poetry videos and transcripts of your favorite poets.
Hey, Hal Manogue! Here’s a video of Coleman Barks reciting Rumi that will set you up for several days!