Joe Schuster
@joewriter.bsky.social
Author of the Might Have Been and stories in Iowa Review, Kenyon Review and Missouri Review, among other work.
Such a stunning poem. The world is mad, as we know, but as long as artists continue creating their work, there is hope.
poets.org/poem/del-par...
poets.org/poem/del-par...
Del Parto
I don’t know what carried me here / to Monterchi, perched above mountain bulges
poets.org
October 17, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Such a stunning poem. The world is mad, as we know, but as long as artists continue creating their work, there is hope.
poets.org/poem/del-par...
poets.org/poem/del-par...
Pleased to see my story “Blizzard — Grover, Missouri, Christmas 1893” in the new issue of South 85. www.south85journal.com/blizzard-gro...
October 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Pleased to see my story “Blizzard — Grover, Missouri, Christmas 1893” in the new issue of South 85. www.south85journal.com/blizzard-gro...
You live a decent length you get an appreciation for the individuality of creation. … Everybody carries a world.
— Niall Williams, This is Happiness
— Niall Williams, This is Happiness
October 2, 2025 at 11:02 PM
You live a decent length you get an appreciation for the individuality of creation. … Everybody carries a world.
— Niall Williams, This is Happiness
— Niall Williams, This is Happiness
Just read this in the current issue of THE SUN. I will be carrying this with me all day.
www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592...
www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592...
Shift
An elderly man prepares broccoli with slivered almonds and lemon juice, his hands shaky. An elderly woman snores and dreams in her cane rocker, Brahms crescendoing on the radio, Wheel of Fortune muted...
www.thesunmagazine.org
April 30, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Just read this in the current issue of THE SUN. I will be carrying this with me all day.
www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592...
www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/592...
Each day for the last month, I’ve been reading a poem and the essay about it in Edward Hirsch’s The Heart of American Poetry. Today, sadly, I read the last…though the book will stay with me as it has (with no exaggeration) changed my life. Today’s poem seems apt. www.best-poems.net/joy-harjo/ra...
Rabbit Is Up to Tricks poem - Joy Harjo
In a world long before this one, there was enough for everyone, Until somebody got out of line. We heard it was Rabbit, fooling around with clay and the wind. Everybody was tired of his tricks and no ...
www.best-poems.net
April 20, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Each day for the last month, I’ve been reading a poem and the essay about it in Edward Hirsch’s The Heart of American Poetry. Today, sadly, I read the last…though the book will stay with me as it has (with no exaggeration) changed my life. Today’s poem seems apt. www.best-poems.net/joy-harjo/ra...
National Poetry Month…today’s reading in Edward Hirsch’s The Heart of American Poetry:
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50974/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50974/...
won’t you celebrate with me
i made it up here on this bridge between between / starshine and clay Compare to John Keats’s “betwixt damnation and impassion’d clay” in “On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again.” starshine and ...
www.poetryfoundation.org
April 16, 2025 at 12:45 PM
National Poetry Month…today’s reading in Edward Hirsch’s The Heart of American Poetry:
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50974/...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50974/...
Another stunning piece of work for National Poetry Month: sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2021/10/...
On Philip Levine’s “To Cipriano, in the Wind”
Where did your words go, Cipriano spoken to me 38 years ago in the back of Peerless Cleaners, where raised on a little wooden platform you bowed to the hissing press and under the glaring bulb the …
sites.lsa.umich.edu
April 13, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Another stunning piece of work for National Poetry Month: sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2021/10/...
“‘On and on into the gathering darkness – is there no remedy for this?’ (John) Ashbury asked in Three Poems. There is not. We are always on the brink of destruction. But attention can be paid, art created.”
—Edward Hirsch, on John Ashbury’s “Soonest Mended,” in The Heart of American Poetry
—Edward Hirsch, on John Ashbury’s “Soonest Mended,” in The Heart of American Poetry
April 11, 2025 at 1:57 PM
“‘On and on into the gathering darkness – is there no remedy for this?’ (John) Ashbury asked in Three Poems. There is not. We are always on the brink of destruction. But attention can be paid, art created.”
—Edward Hirsch, on John Ashbury’s “Soonest Mended,” in The Heart of American Poetry
—Edward Hirsch, on John Ashbury’s “Soonest Mended,” in The Heart of American Poetry
I’ve been reading Edward Hirsch’s godsend of a book, The Heart of American Poetry, at the rate of one poem/essay a day. Today’s poem broke my heart and, as always, Hirsch’s essay about it broke my heart a bit more. Happy National Poetry Month to all of us. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42657/...
The Day Lady Died
It is 12:20 in New York a Friday three days after Bastille day, yes it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner and I d...
www.poetryfoundation.org
April 2, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I’ve been reading Edward Hirsch’s godsend of a book, The Heart of American Poetry, at the rate of one poem/essay a day. Today’s poem broke my heart and, as always, Hirsch’s essay about it broke my heart a bit more. Happy National Poetry Month to all of us. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42657/...
Windows on the World, by Frederic Beigbeder
#FridayReads
#FridayReads
March 28, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Windows on the World, by Frederic Beigbeder
#FridayReads
#FridayReads
“We’re in this together, and by in I mean under.
Make America over again. Teach it to pray.
And by pray, I mean listen. There is always less to say.”
—from “September 15, 2020,” by John Okrent, from his crown of sonnets written during the pandemic, “This Costly Season”
Make America over again. Teach it to pray.
And by pray, I mean listen. There is always less to say.”
—from “September 15, 2020,” by John Okrent, from his crown of sonnets written during the pandemic, “This Costly Season”
March 26, 2025 at 12:40 PM
“We’re in this together, and by in I mean under.
Make America over again. Teach it to pray.
And by pray, I mean listen. There is always less to say.”
—from “September 15, 2020,” by John Okrent, from his crown of sonnets written during the pandemic, “This Costly Season”
Make America over again. Teach it to pray.
And by pray, I mean listen. There is always less to say.”
—from “September 15, 2020,” by John Okrent, from his crown of sonnets written during the pandemic, “This Costly Season”
A marvelous poem by Matthew Olzmann, on poem-a-day. poets.org/poem/olympus...
Olympus
I was a cobbler in the house of the Gods.
poets.org
March 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
A marvelous poem by Matthew Olzmann, on poem-a-day. poets.org/poem/olympus...
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry….Is there any other way?”
—Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Heart of American Poetry, by Edward Hirsch
—Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Heart of American Poetry, by Edward Hirsch
March 4, 2025 at 12:50 AM
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry….Is there any other way?”
—Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Heart of American Poetry, by Edward Hirsch
—Emily Dickinson, quoted in The Heart of American Poetry, by Edward Hirsch
“We are made of breathing
and breathing ends. But we are also made of dust, which doesn’t.
The air is warm tonight, and barely there, like a memory of being
touched. Life isn’t fair — it’s beautiful.”
….from April 30, 2020, in This Costly Season, by John Okrent
and breathing ends. But we are also made of dust, which doesn’t.
The air is warm tonight, and barely there, like a memory of being
touched. Life isn’t fair — it’s beautiful.”
….from April 30, 2020, in This Costly Season, by John Okrent
February 25, 2025 at 1:36 AM
“We are made of breathing
and breathing ends. But we are also made of dust, which doesn’t.
The air is warm tonight, and barely there, like a memory of being
touched. Life isn’t fair — it’s beautiful.”
….from April 30, 2020, in This Costly Season, by John Okrent
and breathing ends. But we are also made of dust, which doesn’t.
The air is warm tonight, and barely there, like a memory of being
touched. Life isn’t fair — it’s beautiful.”
….from April 30, 2020, in This Costly Season, by John Okrent
“…her joy consisted, in the main, of a satisfaction of pure instincts and a deep sense of gratitude to those who made her life what it was.” — George Gissing, The Nether World
February 18, 2025 at 12:07 AM
“…her joy consisted, in the main, of a satisfaction of pure instincts and a deep sense of gratitude to those who made her life what it was.” — George Gissing, The Nether World
“Miraculous, how we seem to get the art we need, when we need it.” — James Parker, “Ode to the Right Art at the Right Time,” in GET ME THROUGH THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES
February 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
“Miraculous, how we seem to get the art we need, when we need it.” — James Parker, “Ode to the Right Art at the Right Time,” in GET ME THROUGH THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES
"If only we had pity on one another, all the worst things we suffer from in this world would be at an end. It’s because men’s hearts are hard that life is so full of misery. If we could only learn to be kind and gentle and forgiving — never mind anything else." — The Nether World, George Gissing
February 11, 2025 at 1:15 AM
"If only we had pity on one another, all the worst things we suffer from in this world would be at an end. It’s because men’s hearts are hard that life is so full of misery. If we could only learn to be kind and gentle and forgiving — never mind anything else." — The Nether World, George Gissing
"Emma replied distractedly, looking at his seedy clothes, his shaggy hair, the green cast of his white skin, his deep black eyes, in which all the feelings were disheveled, tattered, and held together only by the merest faith that change had to come.” #SundaySentence
February 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
"Emma replied distractedly, looking at his seedy clothes, his shaggy hair, the green cast of his white skin, his deep black eyes, in which all the feelings were disheveled, tattered, and held together only by the merest faith that change had to come.” #SundaySentence
“Today I’m beginning to think that joy, in the face of everything, is the big secret—that we have a calling, each of us in our own lives, to locate and magnify our hidden or not-so-hidden happiness.”— from James Parker’s “Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes”
January 29, 2025 at 11:25 PM
“Today I’m beginning to think that joy, in the face of everything, is the big secret—that we have a calling, each of us in our own lives, to locate and magnify our hidden or not-so-hidden happiness.”— from James Parker’s “Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes”
As another in my attempts to counter madness by celebrating great writing: today on Bloom, “Cantilever” by Terry Price (@storyteller7.bsky.social)
bloomsite.wordpress.com/2025/01/28/b...
bloomsite.wordpress.com/2025/01/28/b...
Bloom Creative Writing: “Cantilever” by Terry Price
“When people find out there’s no happy-ever-after. What then? Really? They buy into the fairy tale, find out the truth and begin to look for an escape. But there isn’t one, is there?”
bloomsite.wordpress.com
January 28, 2025 at 4:37 PM
As another in my attempts to counter madness by celebrating great writing: today on Bloom, “Cantilever” by Terry Price (@storyteller7.bsky.social)
bloomsite.wordpress.com/2025/01/28/b...
bloomsite.wordpress.com/2025/01/28/b...
“...praying that you will not lie here in the lone darkness... waiting & dragging through the time. Let me draw the curtains, & light the candles, & make things more comfortable about you. The church-clocks will strike the hours just the same & the night will pass away just the same.”
Bleak House
January 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
“...praying that you will not lie here in the lone darkness... waiting & dragging through the time. Let me draw the curtains, & light the candles, & make things more comfortable about you. The church-clocks will strike the hours just the same & the night will pass away just the same.”
Bleak House
In keeping with my plan to fill my life (and feed) with good things: Margot Livesey’s story “The Letter Writer” in the latest issue of Colorado Review is a marvel.
January 19, 2025 at 1:32 AM
In keeping with my plan to fill my life (and feed) with good things: Margot Livesey’s story “The Letter Writer” in the latest issue of Colorado Review is a marvel.
This is one of the most telling things T**** has ever said. He was talking about his conversation with Barack Obama at the funeral for Jimmy Carter…”We met backstage, as you know, before we went on.” “Backstage.” “Before we went on.“ At a funeral? In a church?
January 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This is one of the most telling things T**** has ever said. He was talking about his conversation with Barack Obama at the funeral for Jimmy Carter…”We met backstage, as you know, before we went on.” “Backstage.” “Before we went on.“ At a funeral? In a church?