We're happy to present an expanded version of a feature that originated in 1950 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the PSA and was recently revived as a corner of our exhibit, "Portraits of Poets, 1910-2010" at the National Arts Club this past January and as a feature on our website. This expanded installment more accurately reflects the dynamism and diversity of the exhibit as a whole, and we hope you enjoy it. MORE

In no particular order:

Tales of Topographic Oceans by Yes.

I know it's not 1974 anymore so you can't listen to this in Ken's dorm room that had a parachute on the ceiling so it was like getting high in a cloud but this is an absolute hightide of prog-rock, marvelous musicianship, complex arrangements, wild mood swings, plethoras of melodies. MORE

How did I come to write this poem? Well the oddest thing started me off.

A friend told me that when she was in Chennai in the summer she had trouble with her computer. It wouldn't work. So she got a tech guy in,  and guess what—there were insects in her keyboard. I had never heard of such a thing before but later, asking around I did hear similar stories from others. In any case what my friend told me stayed in my head. MORE

These are poems of immediacy, that's what I meant, but they're also poems concerned with a human self and its history, which in this case seems to be a cuisinart of languages and places. Now, confusion and immediacy have a chicken-and-egg quality, and the particular way that Goetz's poems stretch a line from past experience to present consciousness is very much part of their force: "the reluctance to participate / in the shared experience of different views / where the self is forgotten, where words / are mere convoys in getting somewhere / but no." (from "4") MORE

At first the poem "The Cup" came in response to an assignment I gave myself:  try for 14 lines and a single domestic image.  Obviously I didn't make it!  But focusing on the cup let me channel the narrative drive of the poem.  Originally it was only about how the cup smashed, the pieces of the event all squashed into 14 lines. MORE

On behalf of the entire Board of Governors of the Poetry Society of America I want to express our deep sorrow upon the loss of one of the nation's most gifted poets, Lucille Clifton, who passed away on February 13th at the age of 73. This April Lucille was to have been the recipient of the PSA's Centennial Frost Medal. MORE

Appearing now in Los Angeles - newest additions to Poetry In Motion® MORE

New York Magazine recently listed the top 35 reasons to love NYC, and our name landed at #21! Check out the article to see just how passionate about poetry we are, and consider making a donation to show YOUR support of poetry. Help keep our programs (and poems!) in motion! MORE