In an intimate interview, the prolific American poet discusses process, politics, and his acclaimed new collection, Beautiful Country.

Scott Hightower (Paved Paradise, John Kelly, 2009) The first television program put into re-runs was “The Lone Ranger.” -a Snapple bottle top A frame. Two keyboards, a bass, a dulcimer, and five guitars set the stage for “Dagmar Onassis.” Kiss. Kiss. What? Has it been sixteen years? What does it matter that the roses upstage on the grand piano are red? If you have been asked to wear the dream, what difference does it matter if...

Leonore Wilson That which goes into the mouth and is eaten is mortal, perishable, transformed   like knowledge, the way a subject takes within himself something important, alien, that which is hard   made soft, deliquesces, and this thing becomes him, doesn’t it, isn’t this what Dali wanted us to see,   to understand in the teaspoon, the prolongation of its handle and the shallow bowl which contained   the little watch, or the...

Terra Brigando Recently, you have been everywhere. I carry your journals as weathered talismans, a sign of misguidance – the way you stole my voice when I was five and I learned that mountains shed such long shadows in rooms that don’t face the sun. I thought I saw you, the other day, walking down West St. It was you, gaunt face, faded baseball cap, hooked nose. Only you disappeared up some unknown gravel driveway and walked into some...

Michelle Askin Those memories go to my brother’s eyes: kidney red from drugs. My mother rubbing them with a dishrag, praying to the saint of addiction. Then on our row house lawn he swung clubs with an Asian woman, who one midnight said, you teach me golf. My mother worried: the husband might mind. He would watch from the doorway. His cigar smoke moving like stories: a school bombing in a Saigon village— blood from flesh and orchard...

Lois Beebe Hayna He says swallows circled over them. She remembers no sound of wings. Only of water harsh with autumn. Sometimes now birds–cries shrill through dream–converse and she wakes awed by a strange sense of flight, just as he says he must have imagined the swallows. He speaks of an apple tree bee-loud with blossom. She insists the tree stood bare, the harvest long past. Yet, in odd moments she catches the scent of flowering. He...

Sincere. Honest. Hilarious.

Boston comedian Bill Burr sits down to discuss church, age, and Howard Cosell.

The songwriter discusses the composition of Paper Boats.

The Wisconsin songwriter plays three tracks from her latest release, Paper Boats.

Karen Swenson’s newest title, A Pilgrim into Silence, is divided into four sections. Each of the sections explores the life journey of an urban American woman—a woman of a generation and a class perhaps tinged with theatrical qualities of pomp and circumstance; a lady propelled by notions of religion and reason...