Emmanuel Moses A Mutual Rêverie
NM: Good Morning Emmanuel. Your beautiful poems have emboldened me to suggest that we transcend this sensually impoverished cyberspace and meet this morning on my pond dock for a version of My Dinner with Andre; perhaps Coffee with Emmanuel and Nancy? The aroma of coffee—or is it espresso, for you? —hovers the dark elixir of fallen, damp leaves and
Dick Allen: Of Mountains, and Bird’s Nest Soup, and Charles Lindberg
Of Mountains, and Bird’s Nest Soup, and Charles Lindberg Someplace in my life, in the back of my mind where there’s a small kitchen, I began to notice similarities between names of Chinese paintings and names on Chinese menus. Here are some of these actual names: Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains Seafood with Bird’s Nest Loquats
Christopher Buckley: The Half-life of Revolution—Particle Physics, History, Baseball and Baby-Boomers.
NM: Chris, I can’t tell you what a kick of pleasure, as well as a kick in the gut, this boomer is getting out of The Half-life of Revolution—Particle Physics, History, Baseball and Baby-Boomers. The upshot, so unabashedly bleak, is somehow redeemed by your unique perspective, wit and craft. Against Carl Sagan’s mellifluous lullaby “We are made of
Marc Vincenz: SIBYLLINE
NM: Marc, I’m amazed by the prodigious imagination, intelligence and skill that permeates so much of SIBYLLINE. The narrative arc of this poem spans the emergence of the Italian Renaissance out of the darkness of the medieval era: the Black Death to the Baroque period, which marked its end—O, the arcs & the swirls. You’ve impressively managed a dual
Adam Tavel: Catafalque
NM: Your poems in this selection are in traditional or variations of traditional form, as are many of your poems in your recent book Plash & Levitation, the 2014 winner of the Permafrost Prize Series Award from the University of Alaska Press. AT: All of the poems here are from my new manuscript, Catafalque, which is almost entirely comprised of
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke: A Folio of Indigenous Poets
What luck the incoming U.S. Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, recently reminded us that “the audience is half of the poem.” In this timely folio, Craig Santos Perez, Jamie Natonabah, b: william bearhart, Alice Rose Crow~Maar’aq, Trevino Brings Plenty, Sara Marie Ortiz, Crisosto Apache, Collestipher D. Chatto, LeAnne Howe, Linda Rodriguez, and Rain Prud’homme-Cranford Goméz and Duane Niatum bring a
David Clewell BETWEEN THE SIXTIES AND THE SAUCERS
As both our schedules had been whipped into a froth by a wicked spring semester’s tail end, and as poet David Clewell’s window of internet access was limited, rather than the volley of e-mails typical of my Special Feature interviews, we had an “old skool” real-time phone conversation! And I’m so happy we did, as otherwise I would have missed
Carol Moldaw: Dew Point
Dew Point Because of the nipple crust riming a girl’s breakthrough poem, I google Quetiapine. From one student I learn what robotripping is; from another, the names of clouds: diamond dust, sundog, fallstreak halo. At dew point, vapors collect, condense, become visible, classifiable: cap and banner, cloud-bow, fog bow, crepuscular ray— yet
On Philip Levine
A few weeks ago, a thought occurred to me, regarding how, one last time, to wave good-bye to the great Philip Levine, the so-called “Poet of Work.” (For more on that moniker, please see Christopher Buckley’s wonderful essay introducing Phillip’s poem “Belief” in this Issue’s Editor’s Note; you won’t be disappointed.) So I emailed some Plume contributors. My query
Nin Andrews: The Continuing Adventures of “O”
Mitchell: Hey Nin! I’m getting a serious kick out of this feature. How did you come (no, we will not stoop to such low lying pun-plum) upon this idea for this particular installment in the continuing adventures of O? Andrews: As you might know, the first book I ever wrote was The Book of Orgasms. Ever
Luljeta LLeshanaku: Homelands
Nancy Mitchell: Hi Ani and Luljeta! What a great treat to chat with you both about these amazing poems. Thank you! Ani Gjika: Thank you and Daniel for the opportunity! NM: I’m wondering, Luljeta, as you write poetry in other languages do you write in English as well? If so, was there a particular aesthetic objective in having
Daniel Bourne and Tadeusz Dziewanowski: Reading Between the Lands
Reading Between the Lands: An Introduction to a Poetry Road Trip Through Northern Poland As an “author’s photo,” I offer a description of myself standing on the edge of a sandy road in the little village of Sasek Mały, in the middle of the Mazurian Lake District, a region similar to northern Minnesota or Wisconsin, with a little
