In mist on country roads from Maringouin I went to a meeting at Southern University in Baton Rouge, an interesting place I do not go often enough, and that is black and so gives relief from white fatigue. I had stopped on the way to get my yard sign that says JOHN BEL EDWARDS, GOVERNOR … More La Louisiane

I think most poets of a high calibre work in this way to some degree or other—typically hearing first lines of poems simply come into their head, sometimes even as heard voices, successively followed by a flow of words, lines, and passages that come as naturally as leaves to a tree, and are imbued with … More On sound in poetry

The question we need to ask ourselves at this moment is what further provocations we require to justify digging in our heels. To put the question more pointedly: Are we willing to wait until the next presidential election, or for some interim congressional conversion experience, knowing that if we do wait, hundreds of our sons … More César Vallejo is getting famous

Tu aliento es como la mejor mañana fresca de olor de aves y de mar un velamen cruza veloz la foresta interdicta de tu aliento donde los pájaros se columpian picoteando estrellas mientras un galope tendido de gacelas transtorna las flores y las convierte en piedras de luna y el silencio recorre la escala de … More El humo se disipa

The “state-sanctioned or extralegal production and exploitation of group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death,” as Gilmore defines racism, has often intensified alongside the institutionalization of past social movements. I would like to get to the bottom of this. Axé.

There are large screen televisions everywhere and they report incessantly on the mass shooting of the day. I am reminded of the constant war reporting in 1984. By electronic mail on the home front, we are warned daily about a black man with an automatic pistol who has attempted an armed robbery at the edge … More The news in Oceania

The student said the school mascot was wimpy. “It is not a local symbol, and it is not even an animal, it is just a piece of fruit. What can a piece of fruit intimidate? Nothing.” The university spends money on such things, he went on, “but not on education.” The new sculpture in the … More Vignette