Ginsberg and the Beats Highlight from issue 35 American Zen: a personal appreciation by writer Acarasiddhi (Tony Press) who grew up in 1950s California.
Category Archives: Poetry
T. S. Eliot – Ends and beginnings
I don’t normally share newspaper items, but on the eve of the final chapter of Brexit I found this post about T. S. Eliot poignant… T. S Eliot in The Guardian
Auden for now?
What would that great poet of political engagement in the twentieth century have made of the current state of the world? Would it have brought out the ambivalently committed English socialist of the earlier years, or the Christian humanitarian Auden of maturity? Would he have understood that modern right wing populism is not quite theContinue reading “Auden for now?”
Black Mountain Blues
Optic Nerve is a Blakean project based in South London. Largely self-funded they are producing fascinating videos about poetry and contemporary music. Especially the black mountain poets and the Objectivist poets of 20th century America. And from Britain material on Elaine Feinstein – her ‘Song of Power’. I also highly recommend the interview with ‘theContinue reading “Black Mountain Blues”
Longing for the swifts
High summer approaches. For me this time of year is very much associated with that most aetherial of birds, the swift. I’m waiting eagerly for them to arrive. Remembering sitting in the garden at peace on summer afternoons; looking upwards into depth upon depth of blue, where the screaming swifts are seen looping through theContinue reading “Longing for the swifts”
New post: a major essay on ambivalent faith and doubt in the poetry of Geoffrey Hill
‘Unction and Slaughter’ Faith and Doubt in the poetry of Geoffrey Hill by Ratnagarbha (Ambrose Gilson) READ FULL POST
Geoffrey Hill on Larkin
Geoffrey Hill’s valedictory lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry is powerful final plea to maintain standards in literature. His hectoring, pungently oratorical style has to be heard to be believed. He is irreplaceable. Listen to it here: Oxford lecture
New Collection from Buddhist Poet
The Solitude of Small Doors, Ananda (Stephen Parr) Wolf at the Door, Bristol 2015, £11.52, pb, 250 pp (To order go to Lulu.com and search for Stephen Parr Reviewed by Ratnagarbha Ananda’s major new collection, The Solitude of Small Doors has a distilled reflectiveness about it. We get the feeling that this is the fruit of aContinue reading “New Collection from Buddhist Poet”
The new Gnosticism
A Fascinating article by Henry Gould about a new group of American poets who call themselves the New gnostics. It appeared in Coldfront magazine in May 2014. The New Gnosticism
Petrarch, Sonnets in translation
Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), commonly written in English as Petrarch, was one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero‘s letters is often credited with initiating the 14th-century Renaissance. His love sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. They were all written to expressContinue reading “Petrarch, Sonnets in translation”
Urthona – Buddhism & art 