LUCILLE CLIFTON shapeshifter poems by Lucille Clifton 1 the legend is whisperedin the women’s tenthow the moon when she risesfullfollows some men into themselvesand changes them therethe season is shortbut dreadful shapeshiftersthey wear strange handsthey walk through the housesat night their daughtersdo not know them 2 who is there to protect herfrom the hands of […]
Nothing to say except that this chestnut, among Vonnegut’s hit singles, is more relevant by the minute: HARRISON BERGERON by Kurt Vonnegut (1961) THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was […]
My new book, Gold Star Road, is now available from Barrow Street Press (www.barrowstreet.org), from Amazon, or from Small Press Distribution (www.spdbooks.org). Here are two poems from Gold Star Road, followed by links to others from the book that appear elsewhere on the web, and jacket blurbs from poets Molly Peacock, Linda McCarriston, Afaa Michael […]
I have wanted for some time to bring the attention of my students and colleagues to the well-documented fact that powerful political forces use the wealth at their disposal to shape our aesthetics. The trouble is that when one begins to speak at a forum or in a classroom about this, especially when you say […]
After the recent suicides of poets Sarah Hannah and Liam Rector, I post this poem, by Brazil’s Carlos Drummond de Andrade, with some urgency. And deep sadness. DON’T KILL YOURSELF Carlos Drummond de Andrade Carlos, keep calm, loveis what you’re seeing now:today a kiss, tomorrow no kiss,day after tomorrow’s Sundayand nobody knows what will happenMonday. […]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES BALDWIN
“Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we […]
All depends on the skin. All depends on the skin you’re living in. All depends on the skin. Sekou Sundiata: 1948 — 2007 July 21, 2007 — NEW YORK Sekou Sundiata, a poet and performance artist whose work explored slavery, subjugation, and the tension between personal and national identity, especially as they inform the black […]
RICHARD HOFFMAN 
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