Villainy

As Atlanta writer Collin Kelley shows, you never know what you might find in a poem. In this instance, a treasured comic book (whose cover I also recalled fondly) that makes other connections. Here's the link to the original publication of "Secret Origins of the Super-Villains" at the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Prayer

Prayer.
No. You did not pray for things.

Prayers,
like Franklin's key on a kite,
attracted the lightning,
burned at your mind and soul.

— Robert Stone, "Bay of Souls"

Decisions

"Tell him yes,"
she said.

"Even if you are
dying of fear,

even if you
are sorry later,

because whatever you do,
you will be sorry

all the rest of your life
if you say no."

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Love in the Time of Cholera"
(translated by Edith Grossman)

Apocalypse

The landscape had
a kind of clear
daylight darkness
about it that struck
her as apocalyptic.

— Stephen King, "Desperation"

National Poetry Month 2011

Ah, it's National Poetry Month. To kick it off, I present an excerpt from what is likely one of the most well-known contemporary pieces. Here is a touching poem from Lisa Simpson:
I had a cat named Snowball ...
She died!
She died!
Mom said she was sleeping ...
She lied!
She lied!

Cool-looking authors No. 8

Karen Russell, author of novel "Swamplandia" and short-story collection "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves"
(Photo by Michael Lionstar)

Spiggitz

"I am a poet first and a cat second." Spiggitz indeed has the feline soul of a poet.

Twitter

Billy Collins even writes good Twitter-poetry. New York Times reports on the challenges of poetry in 140 characters or less.

River

He was steady,
she told me,
like a rock.

I was only a child
but I wanted
to say a man
is not a rock.

I myself would
have preferred
a man who was
like a river,
changing
and quick,
always
a surprise.

— Alice Hoffman, "The Red Garden"

Cool-looking authors No. 7

Tea Obreht, author of "The Tiger's Wife"
(Photo by Beowulf Sheehan)