Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere
I did not even know whether the perfume was my reason for being in there or whether it had become an excuse, the mask behind the mask, because if… More
Leaving the Atocha Station
Insofar as I was interested in the arts, I was interested in the disconnect between my experience of actual artworks and the claims made on their behalf; the closest… More
A Tuareg Leaves Timbuktu
The first thing you must do / when word of the rebel army’s advance / reaches your mud-brick home / is surrender your hope / to see the Great… More
A Singular Woman
To describe Dunham as a white woman from Kansas is about as illuminating as describing her son as a politician who likes golf. Intentionally or not, the label obscures… More
“My Grave” and “Ripeness”
Every day I watch my grave in the yard / included in the price of the house, / with a board over the hole, / with a tombstone of… More
Four Last Songs
I’d forgotten to pay attention for years / To a song I heard for the first time // At the end of a recent memorial, / An actual song… More
Richard Blanco: “To fulfill an ideal of home”
And although home may never be more than a myth just out of reach, an invisible city just outside my window, or a place between the lines of my… More
Richard Blanco, Inaugural Poet
President Obama has selected poet Richard Blanco to read the inaugural poem in Washington DC on January 21st. Good editorial work, POTUS! Read two poems from Blanco's Directions to… More
What Follows Us Now Must Soon Enough Be Carried
I can’t drink beers at 3 p.m. very often / or anytime soon live in San Francisco / because I am trying to be a decent middle-class father, /… More
Vocation & Dear Mid-Afternoon Nap
some, like the moses / of israel, have a rod and god’s warrant, / and still can hardly get started. / others, / like the moses of her people,… More
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