“University Hospital, Boston” by Mary Oliver
"Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries… Read More
John Wall Barger’s Poem “Ash Baptism” Appears in the Latest Installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine
John Wall Barger’s disturbing poem “Ash Baptism” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine. To visit and read it, simply follow the instructions below. Step one: Download… Read More
“Youth Becoming” by Terese Coe
Terese Coe’s poems and translations have appeared in Agenda, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Hopkins Review, The Moth, New American Writing, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Review, The Stinging Fly, Threepenny Review, and… Read More
Ernest Hilbert’s Poem “Visitations” Appears in the First Print Annual of Cassandra Voices
You can read more from the volume online at Cassandra Voices. … Read More
Ernest Hilbert’s “Mars Ultor” Quoted in The Washington Post
Ernest Hilbert’s poem “Mars Ultor,” which appeared in the Best American Poetry 2018 anthology (and will appear in Hilbert’s next book, Last One Out, March 2019), is cited by Michael Dirda in… Read More
“New Year Poem” by Philip Larkin
"A poetry from which even people who distrust poetry, most people, can take comfort and delight." - X.J. Kennedy … Read More
“New Year’s Eve” by David Livewell
David Livewell grew up in Philadelphia and won the 2012 T.S. Eliot Award for Poetry for Shackamaxon (Truman State University Press). He is now at work on a second collection.… Read More
“Distracted by an Empty Cheetos Bag” by Nicholas Friedman
Nicholas Friedman is the author of Petty Theft, winner of the The New Criterion Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The New York Times, POETRY, Yale Review, and other venues. A… Read More
“Christmas Eve: A Gloss” by David Livwell
David Livewell grew up in Philadelphia and won the 2012 T.S. Eliot Award for Poetry for Shackamaxon (Truman State University Press). He is now at work on a second collection.… Read More
Listen to a Recording of Ernest Hilbert Reading Poetry of the First World War at the Free Library
Ernest Hilbert reads poetry of the First World War at the Philadelphia Free Library to commemorate the centenary of the war’s end: “Channel Firing” by Thomas Hardy, “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke,… Read More
Journalist Jenny DeHuff Spotted in Caligulan Shirt
Jenny DeHuff is a versatile journalist, able to expose citywide corruption one day (her work in the “Breakfastgate” scandal) and interview members of Slayer the next (she appears in my essay about… Read More
Ernest Hilbert and Others Read Poems of the First World War at the Free Library
Join us for a commemoration of the centennial of the armistice that ended the Great War. A selection of Philadelphia poets will present poems of the “War to End All Wars.” Click… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews a New Book About Edward Gorey for the Washington Post
Edward Gorey’s modern Gothic world is as eerie as it is instantly recognizable: Grim, house-coated patriarchs; wilting, kohl-eyed flappers; fainting hostesses and hapless tots; figures posed peculiarly in deep-shadowed drawing rooms or… Read More
“In Thankful Remembrance for My Dear Husband’s Safe Arrival Sept 3, 1662” by Anne Bradstreet
"Anne Bradstreet was the first non-didactic American poet, the first to give an embodiment to American nature, the first in whom personal intention appears to precede Puritan dogma as an impulse to… Read More
“Homeland Security” by Brian Brodeur
Brian Brodeur is the author of the poetry collections Self-Portrait with Alternative Facts (2019), Natural Causes (2012) and Other Latitudes (2008), as well as the poetry chapbooks Local Fauna (2015) and So… Read More
“Dreamers” by Siegfried Sassoon
"For his generation, the poetry and career of Siegfried Sassoon were emblematic of the ways in which the secure truths of Western civilization were destroyed in the hopeless foxholes of the First… Read More
“One Day This Year” by Anton Yakovlev
Anton Yakovlev’s latest chapbook Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the 2018 James Tate Poetry Prize, is available for pre-order at http://www.survisionmagazine.com/books.htm. He is the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and… Read More
“Halloween” by Chad Abushanab
Chad Abushanab is the author of The Last Visit (Autumn House Press 2019), which won the Donald Justice Poetry Prize. He is a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at Texas… Read More
“All Hallows” by Louise Glück
Glück's voice is like no other in modern American poetry. Her poetic domain--like that of Wallace Stevens--lies in the seclusion of analytic thought. The seamless continuity of her verse suggests a mind… Read More
Top Five Works of Art Destroyed By Idiots
It can take years to create a masterpiece, mere seconds to ruin it. Let's have a look. … Read More
“Frogs in Texas” by Daniel Klawitter
Among other things, Daniel Klawitter has been an actor, a labor rights activist, the lead singer/lyricist for the Indie rock band Mining for Rain, and a poetry book reviewer for NewPages.com. His… Read More
“But Look! Here Come More Crowds”: The First Annual Moby-Dick Marathon Reading
This year, the library’s Manager of Public Programs, Ed Pettit, unveils his mad masterwork, a marathon reading of the entirety of Melville’s epic novel at the Independence Seaport Museum on Penn’s Landing.… Read More
“Poet in the Pit: Slayer, Heavy Metal, and the Limits of Poetry” By Ernest Hilbert
Last year I wound up with a broken rib after spending an hour in a mosh pit at a Slayer concert. It took place on asphalt, at night, in torrential rain, ideal… Read More
Launch Reading for the Best American Poetry 2018
Ernest Hilbert and other contributors will read their poetry for the Best American Poetry 2018 Launch, Thursday, September 20th, 7PM at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, NY 10011. This edition… Read More
Read Daniel Nester’s New Essay “All My Friends”
Daniel Nester’s new essay “All My Friends” returns us to those confusing, sometimes sad and embarrassing years of early adulthood, when we “laugh at the absurdity of the adulthoods we were about to… Read More
Brian Brodeur’s Poem “Juárez, 2008” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine
Brian Brodeur’s unsettling poem “Juárez, 2008” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine. To visit and read it, simply follow the instructions below. Step one: Download the… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Bids Farewell to Poet Donald Hall
My farewell to American poet Donald Hall appears in the Notes & Comments section at the end of the most recent issue of The New Criterion.… Read More
“Black Woman” by Erica Dawson
“When Rap Spoke Straight to God is utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger.” - Jennifer Egan… Read More
Top Five Rules of Time Travel
It’s coming. Soon. Eventually. Already. I’m taking about time travel. Scientific advancement is coming at a faster and faster rate. We’ve got driverless cars in our roads and a driverless car in… Read More
“Walking Away” by C. Day Lewis
"I am absolutely sure Cecil's poetry is underrated. He persists in the mind. I only rattle on the ears." - John Betjeman, shortly after succeeding Day-Lewis as Poet Laureate. … Read More