My poetic billet-doux to Jeff Bezos!
I’m not alone in being horrified by American oligarchs, justifying their most self-serving behavior as if it were ultimately a benefit to the public good. We all cheered, years ago, when Jeff Bezos made a ‘white knight’ purchase of the Washington Post to help save honest journalism. We are all crying out in pain now to see how he has capitulated to expediency and profit margins, turning journalism and truth into just another bargaining chip.
So this statement in an interview he gave to CNBC this week was especially troubling. Profit=relevance?! I’m not quite sure that history bears that out (I’m looking at you Siddhartha Gautama and Mr. Alighieri!) But then he casually decided to disparage all contemporary poets as talentless or just lazy — and I thought a poet ought to respond (and in formal verse, no less, so Mr. B. might know I was, you know, actually ‘trying.’)
Take a look — it went up almost instantly on the New Verse News site:
https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2026/05/profit-and-loss-statement-for-mr-b.html
Gaithersburg Book Festival
I was delighted to be invited to read from GRIEF’S APOSTROPHE at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland—a one-day extravaganza drawing 20,000 visitors to hear fiction, non-fiction, children’s and YA authors, along with poets. I shared a podium with poets kelly bradley and Kristin Ferragut (who led a discussion afterward about the role of poetry in grief and recovery). Such a beautifully organized festival. Serena Agusto-Cox was the guiding light behind all the poetry events. A marvelous experience!
Grief’s Apostrophe
In this heartbreakingly beautiful book, Steven Ratiner constructs a seamless fabric of grief, weaving threads of memory, keen observation of the natural world, variations on religious tradition,and an active awareness of language… Steven Ratiner has been championing other poets for many years. This gorgeous collection of his own fine work is long overdue.
—Martha Collins author of Casualty Reports (University of Pittsburgh Press)
The Red Letters
In ancient Rome, feast days were indicated on the calendar by red letters. To my mind, all poetry and art serves as a reminder that every day we wake together beneath the sun is a red-letter day.
