Coffee Bruise Thursday | The Rains of Babylon | Song
A song for the times—simple chords & words. The Rains of Babylon | Bruised Coffee Thursday | Meta/ Phor(e) /Play
W/rites and Rhapsodies
Adeena Karasick and Michael Dickel will host an exciting tour of Israel that will hit highlights but also delve into the unusual. Throughout, the tour will inspire, prompt, encourage you to write with workshops, performances, and lots of deep language play.
Winter window—a poem with art
Winter window Outside the opportune window one pink head survives above geranium leaves blowing in the winter wind, covered with cold rain dropped from dimmed desire. The basil released its hope in the face of the war— forces of December and January— mere stalks rising above the window box, darkly silhouetted, […]
War Surrounds Us
“Michael Dickel’s new book is an explosive tour de force. From Breaking News to all that shivers beneath the surface, it takes us on a visceral ride as the rockets are falling through screaming surfaces, tunnels cease fires and death tolls; rocketing all night through missiles, mortars, sensors, sirens, […]
Middle-Class Middle-Aged Male Blues
Another Cup of Coffee Before I Shower It’s nine in the morning and I’ve been going for hours. The ground shook in Nepal, the riots in Baltimore— the preachers praise the winners then they blame the sinners, but all I think about is another cup of coffee before […]
A Poem from Jerusalem
As the War Continues i That war in the little southwest strip, its violence drowns out all sounds— words drain of meaning and become white spaces against blood-red paper. The numbers rise up, a large pile of bodies reaching toward the sun to ignite and burn, a pyre […]
Up against the wall,
Up against the wall, …sits odd statuary, sullen sadness created by hand from nothing more or less than general failures that anyone might turn away from on some given day: A house taken by bankers who would not settle for anything less from two buyers, work taken by […]
Flash Fiction—Independence Day
Number four on the fourth, Flash Fiction Month continues. This is another longer one. What do you think, readers, is this a complete “story,” with closure? A beginning, middle, and end? Or what does it take to be “complete”? Comment below, please. Independence Day (July 4) She didn’t […]
IAWE Book Reading 07/07 at 7
Reading I will have the honor of participating in a reading in Tel Aviv with Lois Michal Unger and Karen Alkalay-Gut on 7 July 2013 at 7 pm. The reading is sponsored by the Israel Association of Writers in English (IAWE) to honor books published in the last […]
Two poems from Midwest / Mid-East
Two poems from Midwest / Mid-East Enjoy. These are two poems, pp.23-24, from my book, Midwest / Mid-East. The image in the background is the book cover, of course. The books is currently on sale for 60% off. Click on one of the images to find out more. […]
Herod: The Man Who Had To Be King
A Book Review Herod: The Man Who Had To Be King gives life to the complexity and drama of the Middle East—two-thousand years ago—while at the same time providing historical and cultural insights into the continuing struggles of today. Yehuda Shulewitz provides dynamic characters who feel like real […]
Ephemeral poetry
A few fleeting thoughts on ephemerality, technologies, and poetry Sometimes poets obtain a sort of immortality. Anonymous has written so many poems over the centuries, for instance. Okay, that’s not the best of examples. However, you probably know what I mean. How long ago did Sappho live? Shakespeare? […]
poetics on Robert Duncan’s birthday
Originally: 18 September, 2005, response to a 16 September, 2005, post by Gary Lundy on Tribe. Poet, Professor, and Gay Activist Louie Crew posted on his Facebook status that Robert Duncan was born today (7 January) in 1919 (see Louie Crew’s post and its links to more information […]
Four poems on Sound Cloud
An Australian online radio station Phoenix FM DJ, James WF Roberts, read four of my poems 16 November 2012 (around 9:15 am Eastern US Time): Dissonance, Salvation, Peace requires…, and In Jerusalem. Interesting, emotional, Australian-accented reading that gives the poems a power I didn’t previously know they had. Listen […]
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