The Best American Poetry

Love / Hate [by Terence Winch]

Ed. note: I had just about exhausted every crime series available on Netflix when Terence Winch [pictured here with a friend at La Maison blanche] wrote to suggest that I check out Love/Hate, an Irish crime drama series broadcast on RTÉ Television. The show is irresistible, and I was especially drawn to Darren, a central character played by the compelling young actor Robert Sheehan. Just the other day, this poem appeared in my in-box. I love it! Thank you T.P. Winch for letting me share it here. He is pictured on the left talking to a friend at the Maison Blanche. -- sdh

Love/Hate

                        for stacey harwood

I will be upstairs in just a minute,

I promise you. But first I must

compose a long, complex symphony

dedicated to Duke Ellington, which

I have pieced together from riffs

and bits off old tinny 78s, scratched

with skips but full of musical

notes, like A, G, and E.

If I could get out of this chair,

I would. And I would ascend

then to the Throne of the

Angelic Mobsters of RTE

who are right this very moment

murdering each other on those

dark Dublin streets. It would be

a laugh and a half times two.

But I can’t get up. I am not

able to keep my promises.

The serenity prayer is a cruel

joke. Baudelaire was an alcoholic

and so’s your mother, and

that's a fact, revealed in the third

act, which I can’t stay around for.

Sorry, sorry. My bad. I’m sorry.

from the archive; first posted January 13, 2014

Leah Umansky: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________________________________

In My Next Life, I Want to Be an Ad Man

 

I want to be donned in somehow. Donned in everything. Donned in

the forgotten and the ecclesiastics of sex. Drape me in the charged. Drape me

in the raptured. Drape me in meaning and keep it private. I want two

lives: one in the city and one in the country. Two women: a blonde and a

redhead. Drape me in wealth. Drape me in booze. Don me in diamonds

and fur. Drape a secretary, here, and then, there.

 

[Executive is the word that comes to the lips

and they smile for you, sister.]

 

Don me in designer suits. Don me in a new age. Don me in what’s coming.

Drape the future round my shoulders.  Drape the next life across my lap.

Drape me in the madness.  Don me in the twoness of passion. Don me in

pieces of last, of force; pieces of shaken and possible then drape me

in manhood.   Drape me in machinery and steel. Don me in utterly and plush

utterings and, [do I sound like I’m stuttering?] Make me look good; the

world is dangerous.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leah Umansky is the author of three books of poems, most recently Of Tyrant, forthcoming from The Word Works in 2024. She is currently working on a hybrid-memoir called Delicate Machine, an exploration of womanhood, hope, and heart in the face of grief and a global pandemic. She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in such places as The New York Times, Poetry, The Bennington Review, and Guesthouse. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                                                      Don Draper, collage by Borbay

 

"Mad Men": The 4:20 Express [by David Lehman]

Think of tonight's episode, the best of the 5th season so far, as the Four Twenty Edition of Mad Men with a bummed out Peggy playing hooky smoking a joint with some horny stranger in a dark movie theater watching "Born Free" (I think that's what it was). . .

Roger Sterling goes on an acid trip with his wife, Jane, who, it turns out, speaks Yiddish when she is high (Roger thinks it's German). No sooner has Roger announced that LSD ("your product, Mr. Leary") is "boring" than he opens a vodka bottle and hears mighty Russian chorale music. You can hear it every time the bottle is uncapped -- and as long as the bottle remains uncapped. The cigarette in Roger's mouth shrinks. In the mirror he sees himself with half his hair gray, the other half black, as in a magazine ad, and Don Draper appears over his shoulder and tells him everything will turn out okay now go back to your wife and he does and she says things like "How can a few numbers contain all of time?"

In the cab Bert Cooper's face appears on the five-dollar bill.  And her epiphany is that he doesn't like her. And his epiphany is that it's going to be easier to get out of this marriage than he thought. "It'll be expensive," she tells him, but he doesn't care, he's free, it's gonna be a great day. . .

And Ginsberg, who needs no drugs to establish his extraterrestrial bona fides, finds a witty way to tell Peggy he was born in a concentration camp.

And Peggy is smoking more and drinking more Canadian Club and she resembles no one more than Don when she tells off the guy from Heinz who rejects her "Home is where the Heinz is" campaign, though it's, well, awesome ("the fire is primal. . .and it's the beans that brought them together on the cold night at the end of the summer") and she gets taken off the account and that is why she is bummed out enough to go to the movies and get high and fall asleep in Don's office and later she gets a weird brusque phone call from Don, "Did you get any calls? Has anyone called you?" which makes no sense until we go over the same stretch of time from the point of view of Mr. Draper himself, who is driving to a HoJo Motor Lodge with Megan (in beautiful orange-striped sweater that goes perfectly with the decor) where they have a blowout fight which ends when he loses his temper and bolts. "Don't you dare pull away. I'm talking to you," she says helplessly as he pulls out and drives off without her. Cooling off, he goes back and looks everywhere for her including the ladies' room. (She took the bus back, furious.) No pot, no acid, but a sleepless Don smoking cigarettes in a period sedan and having odd flashbacks to composite car trips is enough of a high to end on. A brilliant episode. 1966! -- DL

from the archive; first posted April 22, 2012

Bob Dylan to Host Reality TV: America's Next Top Bard [by Stacey Harwood]

Fox network announced today that it will headline its lineup of fall programming with "America's Next Top Bard."

In the pilot, contestants are asked to memorize and recite a soliloquy from Hamlet, to write a bad sonnet on a quotation to be disclosed from Susan Sontag's literary essays, and to take part in the "Instant Haiku" round. Veteran poetry impresario Bob Holman, poet Amanda Gorman, BAP series editor David Lehman, and writer Margo Jefferson will join host Bob Dylan as judges.

Forthcoming episodes will focus on competitors representing elite colleges, corporations, and television networks. The celebrity competitors in the pilot are Kate Mara, Josh Charles, and Elisabeth Moss, pictured at top left. Moss, a Los Angeles native, will turn forty on July 24 of this year, making her a Leo with Cancer rising and a water dog in Chinese astrology.

Julie Angstrom, a spokeswoman for the network, said that Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016, says that ever since he feels an obligation to  American poetry. He said he memorized Frost's poems as a young man in Minnesota and recommended him without reservation.  "But I never liked Ezra Pound. In fact I never read him."

Ms. Angstrom explained that the thematic unity of the pilot derives from T. S. Eliot's characterization of April as "the cruelest month."

"That's as much as I can say right now," said Angstrom.

Subsequent episodes will follow the format similar to other "America's Top" reality programs: a large pool of aspiring poets will be winnowed down over the course of a season to one standout winning bard. Participants will be matched with poetry mentors who will advise them on developing a "voice," adhering to poetic forms while inventing new ones, writing a convincing bio note, and applying makeup for an author's photo. The winning prizes will include publication in The New Yorker "Page Turner" blog, an off-site reading at an upcoming AWP conference, and lunch with an esteemed poet of the winner's choice.

Judges will come from the ranks of former guest editors of The Best American Poetry. Rumors have circulated that Bill and Hillary Clinton (pictured at left, sharing a laugh with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger) will be reunited with former White House guests Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, and Robert Hass to judge the crucial fifth elimination episode. Wesleyan graduate Matthew Weiner, creater of the popular Mad Men series, who recently disclosed in a Paris Review interview that from ninth grade on he "wrote poetry compulsively," is likely to anchor at least one episode as a judge.

Watch this space for more details as they come. Click here for the official press release.

In the pilot, contestants are asked to memorize and recite a soliloquy from Hamlet, to write a bad sonnet on a quotation to be disclosed from Susan Sontag's literary essays, and to take part in the "Instant Haiku" round. Veteran poetry impresario Bob Holman, poet Amanda Gorman, BAP series editor David Lehman, and writer Margo Jefferson will join host Bob Dylan as judges.

Forthcoming episodes will focus on competitors representing elite colleges, corporations, and television networks. The celebrity competitors in the pilot are Kate Mara, Josh Charles, and Elisabeth Moss, pictured at top left. Moss, a Los Angeles native, will turn forty on July 24 of this year, making her a Leo with Cancer rising and a water dog in Chinese astrology.

Julie Angstrom, a spokeswoman for the network, said that Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2016, says that ever since he feels an obligation to  American poetry. He said he memorized Frost's poems as a young man in Minnesota and recommended him without reservation.  "But I never liked Ezra Pound. In fact I never read him."

Ms. Angstrom explained that the thematic unity of the pilot derives from T. S. Eliot's characterization of April as "the cruelest month."

"That's as much as I can say right now," said Angstrom.

Subsequent episodes will follow the format similar to other "America's Top" reality programs: a large pool of aspiring poets will be winnowed down over the course of a season to one standout winning bard. Participants will be matched with poetry mentors who will advise them on developing a "voice," adhering to poetic forms while inventing new ones, writing a convincing bio note, and applying makeup for an author's photo. The winning prizes will include publication in The New Yorker "Page Turner" blog, an off-site reading at an upcoming AWP conference, and lunch with an esteemed poet of the winner's choice.

Judges will come from the ranks of former guest editors of The Best American Poetry. Rumors have circulated that Bill and Hillary Clinton (pictured at left, sharing a laugh with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger) will be reunited with former White House guests Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, and Robert Hass to judge the crucial fifth elimination episode. Wesleyan graduate Matthew Weiner, creater of the popular Mad Men series, who recently disclosed in a Paris Review interview that from ninth grade on he "wrote poetry compulsively," is likely to anchor at least one episode as a judge.

Watch this space for more details as they come. Click here for the official press release.

"Jew You" in 2002 and today [by David Lehman]

Back in 2002, I wrote "Jew You." It appears in my book When a Woman Loves a Man (2005), and though it is not my favorite of the poems I wrote that spring, it does have one line that I continue to  like:

<<
Dear Jews: We liked you better as victims.
>>

I thought of it today when reading Jason Zinoman's article "Is It Funny for the Jews?" in the New York Times (Feb. 17, 2022), in which, considering such phenomena as the tendency to cast non-Jewish actors to play Jews in TV shows, he raises the possibility that what we are witnessing in the resurgence of anti-Semitism today is a reversion to the mean. And by "resurgence of anti-Semitism," I do not mean casting decisions but the appearance of swastikas on synagogue walls, murderous attacks in Jewish houses of worship, and hostility to Jews on campus, particularly those suspected of siding with Israel. (Click here for the Ha'Aaretz article about the "fuck Jews" graffiti on the outside of Miriam, a resturant on 74th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in NYC.) Here are a couple of thought-provoking paragraphs from Zinoman's piece: 

<<<<
. . .one reason some Jews don’t make a bigger fuss about discrimination, one reason they feel comfortable laughing at it, is that they — we — feel safe. It’s easier to laugh at antisemitism when it happens in an unthreatening place. The feeling is: There are worse problems in the world.

In her acclaimed book “People Love Dead Jews,” Dara Horn takes fierce aim at this blasé attitude, at the downplaying and rationalizations that Jewish Americans make, whether it’s the strained lengths intellectuals go to to argue that Shakespeare transcended bigotry in his portrayal of Shylock or to take comfort in the story of Anne Frank’s faith in the goodness of people (before bad people killed her).

Horn’s bracing argument is that there is a cost to denial, that the rise of antisemitic incidents and hate crimes against Jews — including the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh — is directly tied to the fading of the stigma of bigotry against Jews. Hatred of Jews is not unusual, she argues; it’s the years after the Holocaust when that was socially unacceptable that were the anomaly. “Historically speaking, the decades in which my parents and I had grown up simply hadn’t been normal,” writes Horn. Now, she writes, normal is back."

>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/arts/television/comedy-jewish-identity.html

The Assignment [by Walter Carey]

“The only virtue in life is survival,” Sanders said with his typical swagger and thick irony. “There is nothing heroic about the ‘survival of the fittest,’ a blasphemous notion and not a democratic one. Business is business. Television killed not only the radio but the movies, too. The movies had already taken care of Broadway. Messages with multiple syllables went obsolete. All that and the downsizing too had already gone down. Only one commodity retained its inflation-proof value."

And now? Now he was making a big bet on cloud computing. “As alternating current was to the rise of electricity, so fiber optic technology spelled out the death of the p.c.”  He smiled arrogantly. “Can you make a story out of that?”

The job was to write up the story in a one-line poem of one hundred words or less with lots of pictures, actors, women crying, men going out of business, a brutal election campaign going down to the wire, a scenario no stranger than reality but better-looking and happy-seeming as the faces in the ads for Miss Subways in the 1950s. You hung at the straps at seven in the morning, closed your eyes, married your secretary and kept her in fur from Fred Leighton with an occasional bracelet from Harry Winston. A man accompanying a woman to such a place was a hero. 

But now we do not have heroes. We do not have secretaries, let alone marry them. We have assistants and we have business associates and some of them are making big bets on Bitcoin or on disruptive technologies while I toil on my one-line poem of one hundred words or less to advertise a fake reality.

November 2011

Ed. note: Walter Carey is at work on a cultural history of the 1960s.

Do you know who composed the theme of Perry Mason?

It was Fred Steiner, who died at age 88, at his home in the town of Ajijic in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

but let's not overlook, Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote the music for Patton and did some of the incidental music for many episodes of Perry Mason,

and while we're at it, let's saluter another Jerry, Jerry Fielding, who wrote the music of The Wild Bunch.

The Real Reason Linda Reagan [Amy Carlson] Left "Blue Bloods" After 7 Seasons [by Walter Carey]

Ed. note: One of our most popular posts was written for the BAP blog by Walter Carey on October 13, 2017 preceded by this note: <<  Walter Carey writes: "David Huntley, my source for this story, is the pseudonym of an executive at CBS who asked that he or she not be named.  -- WC." For an update ("Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?) click here. And here for the latest on Erin's love life  >>>

For seven seasons, Linda Reagan as portrayed by the actress Amy Carlson was a stalwart figure in the hit series Blue Bloods. She plays the wife of hot-headed Danny Reagan, mother to their two boys, daughter in law of police commish Frank Reagan, sister in-law of Erin, brother-in-law of Jamie, aunt of the Columbia undergrad who used to go to Catholic school, granddaughter-in-law of grandpa, and a normal human being, who works as a nurse, lives in Staten Island, demands to be respected by her husband, and concludes phone conversations with him with this exchange:

"Love you."
"Love you more."
"Love you most."

Several theories have been making the rounds regarding Linda's sudden departure from the program. In episode one of season eight it is explained that she died in a helicopter crash transporting a patient. To those who believe that this is what happened to Amy Carlson, my source is happy to report that she is very much alive. There is also no truth to the rumor that she got sick -- "totally" -- with husband Danny always going off the rails and blowing his stack. That was actually something that endeared him to her, Linda admitted tearfully after one of their quarrels., according to Megin Draper, a close friend. 

It was really very simple, the actress confided, nursing a glass of Jameson's on the rocks as she negotiated her farewell package. It was "time to move on."

The network executive who bears a resemblance to Ned Beatty gave her a skeptical look.

"It really is time to move on," repeated the Knox College alumna, who graduated cum laude, made her TV debut as Josie Watts on Another World in 1993, and currently resides in Chinatown with her kids and her partner. But she winked and touched her nose like Robert de Niro in Good Fellas so her interlocutor knew there had to be more to it. The pro bono work she has done on Frenchkiss Records has never interfered with her work on Blue Bloods, and while her significant other plays bass guitar for the Seth Meyers show on another network, that has never raised any red flags let alone hackles in legal.

"Does the real reason have to do with Frank Reagan's political ambitions?" she was asked. "Warmer," she said. "But if you print it, Danny will kill you." Therefore my source has adopted a pseudonym and will employ the subjunctive to describe what the smart money is saying, which is this:

Frank Reagan, as played by Tom Selleck, has the distinction of wearing nearly the same tie on every episode of Blue Bloods. Each is a rep (or regimental) tie featuring a red field with diagonal stripes usually containing white, blue, or a combination of the two. I happen to own two such ties myself, purchased at Brooks Brothers, and from a study commissioned by the triumvirate of Rogers Peet, Hart Schaffner and Carlo Marx it has been ascertained that for a municipal leader, this is the tie of choice, inspiring trust and confidence in the populace.

The consistent use of ties of this order has long led Reaganites to suspect that Frank has political ambitions. The speculation, fueled by dissatisfaction with the de Blasio regime in New York coupled with the gag-me-with-a-spoon shenanigans in DC, has resulted in a "draft Frank" movement. Linda Reagan is said to have taken a position on the net-yet-official campaign. One of her pet ideas: a series of TV commercials featuring endorsements of Reagan by various Franks -- such as Frank Sinatra, Frank O'Hara, Frank Hogan, Frank Costello, Frankie Machine, Frank Malzone, Fenway Franks. Frank Bullitt in his 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT 2+2 Fastback, Francis Ford Coppola, Pope Francis, St. Francis of Assisi, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Francine York, and Connie Francis. 

But this is all speculation, and the rocky relationship between the police chief and the mayor is nothing new. Still, the fact that Frank Reagan polls higher than the mayor in all five boroughs, with an almost unheard of 90% favorable rating in Staten Island, may affect Frank's decision, and if Linda Reagan has anything to say about it, it's a go. -- WC

from the archive; first posted October 13, 2017

For seven seasons, Linda Reagan as portrayed by the actress Amy Carlson was a stalwart figure in the hit series Blue Bloods. She plays the wife of hot-headed Danny Reagan, mother to their two boys, daughter in law of police commish Frank Reagan, sister in-law of Erin, brother-in-law of Jamie, aunt of the Columbia undergrad who used to go to Catholic school, granddaughter-in-law of grandpa, and a normal human being, who works as a nurse, lives in Staten Island, demands to be respected by her husband, and concludes phone conversations with him with this exchange:

"Love you."
"Love you more."
"Love you most."

Several theories have been making the rounds regarding Linda's sudden departure from the program. In episode one of season eight it is explained that she died in a helicopter crash transporting a patient. To those who believe that this is what happened to Amy Carlson, my source is happy to report that she is very much alive. There is also no truth to the rumor that she got sick -- "totally" -- with husband Danny always going off the rails and blowing his stack. That was actually something that endeared him to her, Linda admitted tearfully after one of their quarrels., according to Megin Draper, a close friend. 

It was really very simple, the actress confided, nursing a glass of Jameson's on the rocks as she negotiated her farewell package. It was "time to move on."

The network executive who bears a resemblance to Ned Beatty gave her a skeptical look.

"It really is time to move on," repeated the Knox College alumna, who graduated cum laude, made her TV debut as Josie Watts on Another World in 1993, and currently resides in Chinatown with her kids and her partner. But she winked and touched her nose like Robert de Niro in Good Fellas so her interlocutor knew there had to be more to it. The pro bono work she has done on Frenchkiss Records has never interfered with her work on Blue Bloods, and while her significant other plays bass guitar for the Seth Meyers show on another network, that has never raised any red flags let alone hackles in legal.

"Does the real reason have to do with Frank Reagan's political ambitions?" she was asked. "Warmer," she said. "But if you print it, Danny will kill you." Therefore my source has adopted a pseudonym and will employ the subjunctive to describe what the smart money is saying, which is this:

Frank Reagan, as played by Tom Selleck, has the distinction of wearing nearly the same tie on every episode of Blue Bloods. Each is a rep (or regimental) tie featuring a red field with diagonal stripes usually containing white, blue, or a combination of the two. I happen to own two such ties myself, purchased at Brooks Brothers, and from a study commissioned by the triumvirate of Rogers Peet, Hart Schaffner and Carlo Marx it has been ascertained that for a municipal leader, this is the tie of choice, inspiring trust and confidence in the populace.

The consistent use of ties of this order has long led Reaganites to suspect that Frank has political ambitions. The speculation, fueled by dissatisfaction with the de Blasio regime in New York coupled with the gag-me-with-a-spoon shenanigans in DC, has resulted in a "draft Frank" movement. Linda Reagan is said to have taken a position on the net-yet-official campaign. One of her pet ideas: a series of TV commercials featuring endorsements of Reagan by various Franks -- such as Frank Sinatra, Frank O'Hara, Frank Hogan, Frank Costello, Frankie Machine, Frank Malzone, Fenway Franks. Frank Bullitt in his 1968 Ford Mustang 390 GT 2+2 Fastback, Francis Ford Coppola, Pope Francis, St. Francis of Assisi, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Francine York, and Connie Francis. 

But this is all speculation, and the rocky relationship between the police chief and the mayor is nothing new. Still, the fact that Frank Reagan polls higher than the mayor in all five boroughs, with an almost unheard of 90% favorable rating in Staten Island, may affect Frank's decision, and if Linda Reagan has anything to say about it, it's a go. -- WC

from the archive; first posted October 13, 2017

The Perry Mason Screen Tests [for Jim Cummins]

On George Gershwin's Birthday (9/26): Dean & Ella Sing a 'Swonderful Medley

The first four minutes are all Gershwin.

Joey Bishop Hosts the Tonight Show (4/10/65)

 

 

From the Archives: Lydia Davis on TV [by David Lehman]

From the Archives: January 29, 2013

           On July 15, 2012, we reported in this space that Lauren Ambrose of Six Feet Under fame would play the part of Dr. Susan Wheeler in a two-night miniseries based on Robin Cook's 1977 novel, Coma. (Genevieve Bujold starred in the 1978 movie.) That show aired last fall. Now we learn that a character named Lydia Davis [pictured left in Paris 1973]  plays a vital role in the pilot episode of Revenge, a successful series now in its second season, about a girl who grows up to avenge her wrongfully disgraced father. The Hamptons are the locale and pretty much everyone is evil, vain, treacherous, and bitchy except for the men who are evil, vain, clueless, and unfaithful as the day is long. There is a hierarchy in this evil queendom, and the queen bee here is Victoria Grayson (played by Madeleine Stowe). The avenger was once named Amanda Clarke; now she is Emily Thorne (played by Emily VanCamp). Stacey said, "imagine what Barbara Stanwyck would do with either of these parts." Joe pointed out that the show is basically "The Count of Monte Cristo" meets summer in the Hamptons.

Lydia Davis is Victoria Grayson's best friend, as rich as she is blonde. It was Lydia Davis who gave a Van Gogh to her friend as a token of her esteem, But Lydia Davis [pictured right] is about to be excommunicated from the golden realm for having been caught fucking Victoria Grayson's husband! Who had a fake heart attack! Which was arranged by Emily Thorne! And you the viewer are left wondering about the exact relation between the character of Lydia Davis and the texts created by the author Lydia Davis even as you applaud this new fashion of naming the characters in TV series after contemporary poets. -- DL

Over the Moon and Back Again [by Heidi Seaborn]

In an MFA workshop last summer, an acclaimed poet declared that the moon was over, that it had been over used and needed to be relegated to the poetry graveyard with ravens and heart. Just like that. Done. The MFAs took note. No more moons.

But I’m not yet ready to yield the moon. Instead I find myself now obsessed with it, guarding it from extinction. Like Diana, I hunt for moon references. Pounce on moon sightings. I keep an eye on the moon when it rises at night, as it lingers in the sky by day. I wane as it wanes, I am filled by its fullness. When a Super Moon blasts a hole in the night sky, I can’t look away, letting its spotlight hold me, entranced. I’m not alone. Google the recent Super Blood Wolf Moon and you’ll find over 55 million results. For one moon, on one night.

When the moon eclipsed the sun a couple of years ago, the world looked up in wonder. The poets wrote. It’s cultural. Remember moon pies and Michael Jackson performing The Moonwalk? It’s historical. Remember Neil Armstrong’s real walk on the moon? Or just watch First Man and pretend you were alive then.

In fact, the moon stars in nearly 1,000 movies according to IMDb. We croon to the moon, whether we are music fans of Oscar Peterson, Neil Young or Pink Floyd. Amazon lists over 20,000 albums and 60,000 books with moon in their titles. On poets.org, there are 107 pages of moon references. The poet Lillo Way has a prize-winning chapbook Dubious Moon [Slapering Hol Press] that is nothing but moon poems. Here’s one from Way’s book that captures the sensuality of the moon, its powerful draw:

Frame the Moon

Furred out, cased, paned and trimmed,
the opening of a window.

From my position here on the floor
in supine half-spinal twist,

my quarter-revolving eye catches
a perfectly sliced-in-half moon centered

in the upper right corner of the upper
left pane of a window blued by a sky

somewhere between baby-boy daytime
and electric-transvestite midnight –

the perfect globe cleavered by
a celestial butcher-boy –

the first half of hope, not the last,
depending, I suppose, on your viewing point,

mine being spine suppliant to floor,
floor kissing earth and holding the kiss,

earth sucking me hard, the half-moon
mullioned and muntined,

one four-millionth of a light-year away,
beaming me up and off from here –

half an inkling that, when the bones wave
their white phalanges of surrender

to whatever pulls us down – some unthing,
some weightless, scentless, tasteless,

wan thing, draws me up into a moon’s
glowy, showy, half-assed bliss.

 

The moon rules the tides of our oceans, of women’s bodies. It may orbit our earth, but we are in its powerful cosmic sway. Even Brenda Shaughnessy’s poem “I’m Over the Moon” [Human Dark with Sugar, Copper Canyon Press] where the moon is dismissed as: “A kind of ancient/date-rape drug” and “It’s like having a bad boyfriend in a good band./Better off alone” acknowledges it is the lover we can’t ever truly leave. Maybe we are destined to howl at the moon in our poems, to shoot past cliché to discover the ancient and constant inspiration of our one and only moon.

Uncle Milty and the Merry Texico Men (February 2, 1953)

 

 

Will Erin Reagan Date Again? [by Walter Carey]

Editor's Note: It has been nearly a year since the producers of Blue Bloods, CBS's Friday night hit show, decided to kill Linda Reagan in a helicopter accident off-screen. The series centers on the Reagan family, who live on Staten Island, say grace before meals, and manage to be attractive and socially up to speed while observing traditional family values. Three of the gents work for the New York Police Department (son Jamie is a beat cop, son Danny's a detective, and papa Frank is the department's commissioner); daughter Erin, played by Bridget Moynahan, is an assistant DA, so the whole Law and Order chain of command is included, and at the dinner table we also find Frank's dad, who was commissioner in his time, and his three great grand--kids, two boys and a girl who goes to Columbia.

Linda Reagan's departure did not go unnoticed and was hotly debated, as our intrepid reporter, Walter Carey, observed here in his must-read column of October 13, 2017, "The Real Reason Linda (Amy Carlson) Left Blue Bloods After 7 Seasons." We have asked Walter for periodic updates and in January he filed "Linda Reagan Update: Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?"). In March, Walter brief us on the behind-the-scenes chatter on the program and in the CBS executive washroom, and we reprint his findings here augmented by neew insights contributed by veteran TV exec Max Shumacher.  -- DL

<<<
 Now that Jamie has decided to make it official with his beat partner Eddie, a nickname that is supposed to be an improvement on Edie as a diminutive for unfashionable Edith, and the nuptials will bring a new blonde female Reagan to the table, one who is short enough to make Jamie look like Alan Ladd on a soapbx, the two questions on everyone's mind are: "Will Erin Date Again?" and "What do you make of the fact that of the remaining adults at the table the three men are widowers and the woman is divorced, which brings up another question: how can Erin be both divorced and a good Catholic, which she is (she wanted Nikki to go to Villanova, remember?"

Given the enmity between the Reagan clan and Jack Boyle, Erin's ex, a tall, smug, good-looking criminal defense attorney, it's hard to imagine that they'll bring him back. Erin's dating life has been spotty. There was the gallery dealer who turned out to be an art thief. There was the boss she kissed and regretted it for ethical reasons. There was also the time she nearly got raped. My sources tell me that she may be ready to date again if only because enough time has passed and the producers are desperate to get the Linda Reagan story behind them.

The problem: as long as she remains single, Erin is an exemplary role model for single mothers and professional women. On top of everything else, she owns a gun and, in Frank's opinion, is a better shot than either of her brothers, which is amazing because Jamie never misses.To add romance to her life would risk weakening the single mom angle. On the other hand, the female demographic has expressed itself on a two-to-one basis favoring a dating relationship, even if it does not have a happy outcome.  

The wild card is Erin's daughter, now a Columbia junior, "As long as Nikki Reagan remains an undergraduate, our hands are tied," shrugged Max Shumache. The irony is not lost on the actress who plays Nikki. Should she hook up with a guy while her mother remains celibate? There is a possibility that the cardinal and the police commissioner will discuss the hypothesis the next time they play chess. Nikki does not smoke pot even though the other girls in the dormitory do but the temptation to sin is great. She is now twenty-two years old and one of the best college debaters in the nation. Erin is proud of her and their amiable relationship is unique in the annals of mother-daughter relationships (see Mildred Pierce, preferably the Joan Crawford version.

For our Israeli readers, consider this insight into Erin Reagan's mind:
משנת 2010 מככבת בסדרת הטלוויזיה "שוטרים בדם" המשודרת ברשת CBS. בסדרה היא מגלמת את דמותה של התובעת ארין, בת למשפחת שוטרים אירית-אמריקאית

http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2018/01/linda-reagan-update-did-she-jump-or-was-she-pushed-by-walter-carey.html

http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2017/10/the-real-reason-linda-amy-carlson-left-blue-bloods-after-7-seasons-by-walter-carey.html

Linda Reagan Update: Janko Joins the Reagans' Dinner Table [by Walter Carey]

It looks like Officer Janko and Jameson (Jamie) Reagan are going to couple off and remain partners in crime prevention as well as man and wife. 

The writers went to a lot of trouble to make this happen. They contrived a way to get Janko to dash out of a coffee joint to save her partner's life in a beautiful illustration of Delmore Schwartz's poem "The Beautiful American Word Sure."

She even called the Commissioner "Dad." That sealed the deal.

So Linda's chances of making a comeback from the dead, at very high odds to begin with, are now even more of a long shot.

Danny is pretty much condemned to be single and visit the grave site. Erin (Brigid Moynihan) is too good for her ex. Nicky is too young. Frank is too proud. The old man is bait for gold-digging homicide queens.

Janko's short stature and very youthful feminine looks have provoked  a range of reactions from fans of the show from "beautiful" to "unreal." Some viewers had hoped that the bullets meant for Jamie had entered Eddy, though everyone felt guilty about that thought.

It is a safe prediction that we are likely to see more of Erin Reagan in weeks to come. Her old husband remains interested. But no way do they reconcile. Who is man enough to deserve her?

Rumors that Tom Brady will make a guest appearance are an April Fool's joke at Erin's expense. Lorraine Bracco was more convincing in "Good Fellas" (as Henry's Jewish wife) and "The Sopranos" (as a shrink) than as the mayor. It's a safe bet that Frank will continue to have lovely older female antagonists. But will Baker join the Tweedledums in Frank's office? Hers is the voice of reason. We can also expect to see a lot more of beat cop Jack Hammer, who is about six inches taller than Jamie, and has royal American parentage. He is currently attending Harvard Law School. 

Say a prayer at Linda Reagan's grave. -- Walter Carey

Tom Selleck to Run for Governor of NY [by Walter Carey]

 

The Hollywood press was stunned to learn last night that Tom Selleck, who plays police commish Frank Reagan in CBS's hit drama "Blue Bloods," will be running in the Republican primary to earn the nomination to oppose Governor Andrew Cuomo in the election in November.

It is no secret that Selleck's success as Frank Reagan has translated brilliantly on the commercial front. It's Tom's voice you hear in various commercials, including one that asks you "what's team effort worth" and another that sells folks on reverse mortgages. Selleck's political ambitions have been bruited about since last August, when Linda Reagan's sudden elimination from the series caused a flurry of speculation including the possibility that she was involved in an effort to draft Frank Reagan to run for mayor of New York City, a  move that would have been widely applauded by the cops and firemen whom Mayor De Blasio has offended.

Nevertheless Frank's decision surprised even old Reagan hands such as Abigail Baker and Garrett Moore. The turning point in Frank's thinking came about as a direct result of Cynthia Nixon's recent announcement that she will challenge Governor Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic party nomination. The former "Sex and the City" star is widely presumed to be a surrogate for De Blasi in his ongoing feud with Mr Cuomo..

Ms. Nixon, no relation to Richard  Nixon, quipped that if only someone named Kennedy would run for the Republican nomination, there could be a replay of the 1960 presidential election with roles reversed.

According to the Nixon campaign, the effort  to normalize the porn industry by depicting call girls as "sex workers" and feminist heroines has been jeopardized by Stormy Daniels as opposed to Bree Daniels as played by Jane Fonda in Klute, which is credited for giving a certain prestige to the oldest profession.at the time when Richard Nixon was in office.

Just as Cynthia Nixon's very name evokes the image of the thirty-seventh president, Frank Reagan's moniker brings to mind the feel good era of Ronald Reagan. This is the argument that won over Selleck. Garrett Moore wonders whether a run for Albany is a smart move for his boss, though he adds, unconvincingly, "I could be wrong."

None of this fazes Selleck, who reports with a characteristic sigh that when he received a call from the Cuomo campaign from someone saying he was calling "for Andrew," Tom told the caller to please wait half a minute. Then, when he returned to the phone, he said, "Sorry, Andrew's not here."

Continue reading . . . 

Erin & Linda Reagan Update(s): Will Erin Date Again? [by Walter Carey]

Editor's note: Walter Carey writes: "David Huntley, my source for this story, is the pseudonym of an executive at CBS who asked that he or she not be named.  -- WC." See our earlier dispatch of October 13, 2017. 

Erin Reagan Boyle has stayed out of the limelight during the controversy surrounding Linda Reagan's departure from the show. Brigid Moynihan, who remains the most beautiful brunette on television, has unwittingly created a dilemma for her producers. Should they match her up with an eligible male? Should she be dating? Is the possibility of her reconciling with Boyle realistic?

The problem: as long as she remains single, Erin is an exemplary role model for single mothers and professional women. To add romance to er life would be to risk this identification. On the other hand, the female demographic has expressed itself on a tw-to-one basis favoring a dating relationship, even if it does not have a happy outcome.

The wild card is Erin's daughter, now a Columbia junior, "As long as Nicky Reagan remains an undergraduate, our hands are tied," shrugged Shumacher. The irony is not lost on the actress who plays Nicky. Should she hook up with a guy while her mother remains celibate? There is a possibility that the cardinal and the police commissioner will discuss the hypothesis the next time they play chess. Nicky does not smoke pot even though the other girls in the dormitory do but the temptation to sin is great. She is now twenty-two years old and one of the best college debaters in the nation. Erin is proud of her and their exemplary relationship so unique in the annals of mother-daughter relationships.

For our Israeli readers, consider this insight into Erin Reagan's mind:
משנת 2010 מככבת בסדרת הטלוויזיה "שוטרים בדם" המשודרת ברשת CBS. בסדרה היא מגלמת את דמותה של התובעת ארין, בת למשפחת שוטרים אירית-אמריקאית.

It has now been nearly a year since Linda Reagan''s demise on Blue Bloods, and the question that has haunted fans of the show" refuses to die. Did she jump or was she pushed? 

This remains topic number one on the set.

Those who believe Linda jumped are in the minority. "It is not in her character," said Maria Baez, Danny's partner. Maria is not related to the folksinger Joan Baez but she respects her work. Jamie Reagan shrugged and deflected questions about whether he would accept a promotion that would take him off the beat. Erin Reagan Boyle, true to her Libra nature, was non-committal but glad the conversation did not turn to her love life. Frank Reagan, wearing his signature Brooks Brothers red, white, and blue rep tie, sighed.

"The contracts of contract players are up for review each season, and that's the simple fact," Max Shumacher said. When asked point-blank if the decision to eliminate Linda Reagan from the plot was the consequence of a salary dispute with Amy Carlson, the actress who portrayed Danny Reagan's wife in the hit TV series, he would neither deny nor confirm the allegation. In October, Carlson broke her public silence to say that she didn't think her departure from the show was handled well but that it had been "an honor to be part of a superb ensemble cast" and that Danny has been very sweet about it. "He really has a gentle side, which he tries to keep under wraps," she said.

What most concerns Linda and her fans is the way the plot accommodated her sudden elimination from it and the Sunday night family dinners for which the show is famous. "It was like an execution," Felicity Unger said. Ms. Unger, vice president of the Television Psychology Association, said she spoke for other psychologists who felt that fans of the Friday night procedural need "a way to grieve, to move through it."

Linda Reagan's demise occurs off-screen, between seasons of the long-running program. It is a particularly brutal death -- she dies in a helicopter crash. "She was doing her job," the police psychologist counsels Danny, who refuses to be consoled. "She died the way she would have wanted to die -- in the line of duty, same as you." But the unsettling feeling persists that a helicopter crash represented a certain producer's hostility to Linda and the long-repressed wish to "off the bitch." -- W. C.

Those who believe Linda jumped are in the minority. "It is not in her character," said Maria Baez, Danny's partner. Maria is not related to the folksinger Joan Baez but she respects her work. Jamie Reagan shrugged and deflected questions about whether he would accept a promotion that would take him off the beat. Erin Reagan Boyle, true to her Libra nature, was non-committal but glad the conversation did not turn to her love life. Frank Reagan, wearing his signature Brooks Brothers red, white, and blue rep tie, sighed.

"The contracts of contract players are up for review each season, and that's the simple fact," Max Shumacher said. When asked point-blank if the decision to eliminate Linda Reagan from the plot was the consequence of a salary dispute with Amy Carlson, the actress who portrayed Danny Reagan's wife in the hit TV series, he would neither deny nor confirm the allegation. In October, Carlson broke her public silence to say that she didn't think her departure from the show was handled well but that it had been "an honor to be part of a superb ensemble cast" and that Danny has been very sweet about it. "He really has a gentle side, which he tries to keep under wraps," she said.

What most concerns Linda and her fans is the way the plot accommodated her sudden elimination from it and the Sunday night family dinners for which the show is famous. "It was like an execution," Felicity Unger said. Ms. Unger, vice president of the Television Psychology Association, said she spoke for other psychologists who felt that fans of the Friday night procedural need "a way to grieve, to move through it."

Linda Reagan's demise occurs off-screen, between seasons of the long-running program. It is a particularly brutal death -- she dies in a helicopter crash. "She was doing her job," the police psychologist counsels Danny, who refuses to be consoled. "She died the way she would have wanted to die -- in the line of duty, same as you." But the unsettling feeling persists that a helicopter crash represented a certain producer's hostility to Linda and the long-repressed wish to "off the bitch." -- W. C.

Groucho's Last Stand!

The one and only. . ."They're tearing down part of your old neighborhood." "That's not coincidental," says Julius (Groucho) Marx,, who lived on 93rd Street and went to PS 86 in NYC.

"Ladies and gentlemen, where were you on September 5, 1969?" -- Dick Cavett

 

Linda Reagan Update: Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? [by Walter Carey]

Editor's note: Walter Carey writes: "David Huntley, my source for this story, is the pseudonym of an executive at CBS who asked that he or she not be named.  -- WC." See our earlier dispatch of October 13, 2017. 

It has now been nearly half a year since Linda Reagan''s demise, and the question that has haunted fans of "Blue Bloods" refuses to die, let alone get answered. Did she jump or was she pushed?

"The contracts of contract players are up for review each season, and that's the simple fact," Max Shumacher said. When asked point-blank if the decision to eliminate Linda Reagan from the plot was the consequence of a salary dispute with Amy Carlson, the actress who portrayed Danny Reagan's wife in the hit TV series, he would neither deny nor confirm the allegation. In October, Carlson broke her public silence to say that she didn't think her departure from the show was handled well but that it had been "an honor to be part of a superb ensemble cast" and that Danny has been very sweet about it. "He really has a gentle side, which he tries to keep under wraps," she said.

What most concerns Linda and her fans is the way the plot accommodated her sudden elimination from it and the Sunday night family dinners for which the show is famous. "It was like an execution," Felicity Unger said. Ms. Unger, vice president of the Television Psychology Association, said she spoke for other psychologists who felt that fans of the Friday night procedural need "a way to grieve, to move through it."

Linda Reagan's demise occurs off-screen, between seasons of the long-running program. It is a particularly brutal death -- she dies in a helicopter crash. "She was doing her job," the police psychologist counsels Danny, who refuses to be consoled. "She died the way she would have wanted to die -- in the line of duty, same as you." But the unsettling feeling persists that a helicopter crash represented a certain producer's hostility to Linda and the long-repressed wish to "off the bitch." -- W. C.

The two funniest words in the language: Groucho Marx. As the gang roasts Johnny Carson.

Groucho proves that, as Alan King says, he " makes Don Rickles look like the flying nun."

Groucho: "I went to Nebraska to talk to Johnny's mother. I am happy to report that she remembers Johnny. She doesn't remember his father. Then I looked up Johnny's high school teacher. She doesn't remember Johnny. But she does remember his father. .  ."