We recommend Ashbery’s “Hard Times”
Today i want to mention and recommend just one poem we read this week—John Ashbery’s “Hard Times.” Ashbery is not really—or not often directly, anyway—a political poet. But “Hard Times” gives you a sense...
Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“ModPo”) Blog
Welcome to week 7 on the New York School (plus *news* of new poems & videos)
Today (Sunday, October 20) we begin week 7 of ModPo 2019. This week we will be reading and discussing the New York School poets. In the main ModPo syllabus we encounter Frank O’Hara, Barbara...
ModPo update for Friday of week 6 (2019): 1) read a poem today; 2) City Lights; 3) meet-ups this weekend; 4) Beats in general
It’s Friday of week 6 of ModPo 2019! Perfect day for taking a break from work or play or childcare or your workout to read a poem. How about Bob Kaufman’s “Jail Poems” HERE....
ModPo webcast NOON on October 16
Tomorrow (Wednesday, October 16) at NOON (Philly time) we will be coming to you live from our beloved Kelly Writers House. The amazing poet Doug Kearney will be joining us! HERE is your link...
video: discussion of Kerouac’s “Old Angel Midnight”
There’s a new section of week 6 in ModPoPLUS—on the Beats. These materials pertain to Jack Kerouac’s experimental prose-poem, “Old Angel Midnight.” Recently the ModPo TAs reunited to talk about section 4 of this...
ModPo in Boston, October 2019
The ModPo team just returned from a four-day trip to Boston. We hosted our weekly live webcast at MIT on October 10—thanks for Nick Montfort, the poet (see week 9 of ModPoPLUS) and critic/theorist...
ModPo week 6 – here come the Beats
It’s week 6 of ModPo 2019! Time for the Beat poets! The main week 6 syllabus features the writings of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Anne Waldman, Bob Kaufman, Amiri Baraka, Robert Creeley, and Jayne...
ModPo update for October 9, 2019: 1) webcast, 2) NYC, 3) Seattle/Vancouver?; 4) discussions to join; 5) essays
Here are a few updates for today, Wednesday of ModPo 2019 week 5: WEBCAST. Tomorrow’s webcast will begin at 7 PM Boston time. Click HERE to join us at the time of the webcast....
2-minute video clip on “A Supermarket in California”
During a September 2019 webcast, we talked for 2 minutes further about Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California.” See below for new links to ModPoPLUS, and here is that video: PART THIRTEEN: ALLEN GINSBERG 13.1...
New video: on Stevens’s “The Plot against the Giant” (with Charles Altieri)
Al traveled recently to Los Angeles to participate in a conference on Wallace Stevens. There he met Charles Altieri, eminent critic of modern U.S. poetry. They talked for 7 minutes about Wallace Stevens’s poem...
