Many years ago, the first thing I wrote that I would consider a “How a Poem Moves” essay was on one of Karen Solie’s poems from Modern and Normal. It was posted on the Lemon Hound website, managed by the intrepid Sina Queyras. I was still finding my way in the form of a short essay, and I’m pretty glad the thing has disappeared from the internet.

Hello, good readers! I hope that those of you who fast for Yom Kippur had an easy one yesterday, and that you feel all spiritually cleansed and fresh and renewed and ready to take on the complications of living again. Happy 5787! I'm working on a new essay that I'm pretty excited about. I hope to have it ready and posted in a week or so, in time for Sukkot. More soon!

We require heroism of our entertainers. We want them sacrificing themselves to a certain ultimate degree of input. No...

I always wanted the How a Poem Moves project to be one that lots of people joined in on. For a time, I even dangled it as a goal for my students — "If your essay is good enough, I'll publish it on my blog." That's how we got Sana Mohtadi's essay on Kaveh Akbar's "Rat King." But there haven't been a lot of opportunities for me to publish others here.

Hello, patient HPM readers! A special treat is coming your way! Poet Rahat Kurt (whose ghazal was the subject of one of my first HPM essays) reached out recently with an essay she was working on about two poems by Louise Glück. Rahat’s engagement with the poems travels through her own study of Persianate poetry and Sufi spirituality, and she’s got some terrific insight into what makes Glück’s work special.

'We're going to turn to Holy Blossom history ... and tap into that wisdom and that courage about how to face the future with hope'

Consultation collecting feedback on the future of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport

Poet’s sixth collection explores the destruction of the natural world, with a perspective shaped by her upbringing in rural Canada

Adam Sol   It takes seven gallons of oil to make a tire, which means it’s pointless to beg you to love me like you used to. I am wearing thin, like an old tire haha, when the road gets cold I …

Dobby Gibson and I were at Indiana University together in the mid-90s, earning our MFAs, but I don’t think I’ve seen him in person since. Still, we’ve kept rough track of each other on social media…

It’s time to say it plainly. America’s leadership has switched sides in the war. The American people have not, and they should speak up. In the past several weeks, the U.S. leadership has demonstrate...