Swati Rana

Swati Rana is a poet and professor. She studied with Lyn Hejinian at UC Berkeley and now teaches in the English department at UC Santa Barbara. Find her at swatirana.com.

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There's dance yet

Recently in Jacket2

Visualizing the future tense

Orchid Tierney

Reviews Editor Orchid Tierney returns with capsule reviews of It’s Not Over Once You Figure It Out by Isaac Pickell, Border Wisdom by Ahmad Almallah, and Tung by Robyn Maree Pickens.

It’s Not Over Once You Figure It Out, Isaac Pickell (Black Ocean, 2023)

Basil King has shared with us at Jacket2 several of his remarkable new Tablets. We are delighted to present Tablet #3 — the paired poem and panel. The visual was made with chalk, charcoal, and soft moulding paste on prepared birch panel. Its dimensions are 30 x 22”. King's plan is to finish this series, at least for now, as nine poems and panels. The images of the panels, produced by Martha King with her phone, are meant to be part of this preview of the work. Those interested in knowing more, or seeing more (and finer reproductions), of the project, are invited to reach out directly: Bazink3@gmail.com. For now, we present the visual tablet above, and the verse tablet below.

A tide of voices (PoemTalk #196)

Hart Crane, "The Harbor Dawn"

PoemTalk

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Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué and Jonathan Dick joined Al Filreis to discuss Hart Crane’s “The Harbor Dawn.” It's the third poem-section of The Bridge, Crane’s 15-canto poem. Crane began composing The Bridge in 1923 and it was published by Black Sun Press in 1930. We don’t alas have a recording of Crane reading this poem; nor do any recordings of Crane survive. But PennSound’s Hart Crane author page includes two of Crane’s poems as performed by Tennessee Williams! So before our discussion began, we listened to Williams's transatlantic/southern American inflection.

May 21, 2024