Tag Archives: Love in the City of Grudges

Carol Zaloom Gets a Website

(Carol Zaloom has done a wonderful cover illustration for The Pocket Guide to Woodstock, as she did for Walking Woodstock: Journeys into the Wild Heart of America’s Most Famous Small Town. And who is Carol Zaloom? Read on!) Has the … Continue reading

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Two Train Wrecks—Hayden Carruth’s and My Own

I suppose that no subject is new if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of poetry, but I don’t, so I was tickled to find this poem by Hayden Carruth that linked us in an unusual way. Who knew others had … Continue reading

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Three Poems About Cabins

Poem of the Forgotten I came to this place a young man green and lonely. Well quit of the world, I framed a house of moss and timber, called it a home, and sat in the warm evenings singing to … Continue reading

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Two Fish—Elizabeth Bishop’s and My Mother’s

In my early twenties, when my ambition to become a writer was still nine parts yearning to one part writing, I came under the sway of John Updike’s great gift for describing things in painterly detail. For years, I believed … Continue reading

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The Hoboken School of Poetry

Here’s a classic tale from the dawn of Hoboken’s gentrification. In the early 1970s, Sada Fretz, a book critic at Kirkus Reviews, had tired of commuting on “the weary Erie railroad with its un-air-conditioned cars and unexplained long stops,” as … Continue reading

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Nothing Triggers Memories like Music: A Hoboken Poem

Peter Aaron writes such solid music profiles for Chronogram. His account of Tommy Stinson, who began playing bass for the Replacements before he finished junior high school, sent me back to Hoboken in the 1980s, when their albums owned my … Continue reading

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“What Is It About Christmas?” A Survivor’s Tale

Each year adds a new twist to the family holidays. Here’s a poem from Love in the City of Grudges. What Is It About Christmas? That I choose Please Kill Me from eight unwrapped books to waste the afternoon on … Continue reading

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Love in the City of Grudges, Reviewed by Bruce Weber

(Here’s Bruce Weber’s review from the Winter 2011/2012 issue of Home Planet News. Thanks, Bruce!) Will Nixon’s second book of poetry, Love in the City of Grudges, returns to the fertile, dysfunctional family territory of his first collection My Late … Continue reading

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From Jackass Hill to Rattlesnake Hill with George Drew

While enjoying George Drew’s new book, The View From Jackass Hill, I was impressed by the fact that so many of his poems addressed others, primarily poets but also his car mechanic as well. George writes about friendship, unlike many … Continue reading

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“Read Local”: My Holiday Appeal

Among the nicest gifts I received this year were two heartfelt appraisals of my poetry books by Marc Schuster of Small Press Reviews. Many critics love to show off their smarts, but not so many share their real feelings as … Continue reading

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