Might Stain Your Shirt

Might Stain Your Shirt

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POETS Day! CS Lewis and Roy Campbell Agree to Disagree
In Tolkien’s telling, Lewis got snippy and accusative and Campbell laughed and brushed off criticisms.
 • Ben Sears
Spaghetti al Lent with Tomatoes and Smoked Trout
For those not in communion with Rome, this Spaghetti al Lent is a wonderful dish despite the penitential nod.
 • Ben Sears
POETS Day! Ford Madox Ford’s “In the Little Old Market-Place”
It’s a place of exchange. He has his achievements. She has her charms and skills. But around them nothing’s happening. There’s no interaction.
 • Ben Sears
POETS Day! D.H. Lawrence
In “Poetry of the Present,” Lawrence extols free verse, especially as practiced by Walt Whitman. But I think he goes too far.
 • Ben Sears
POETS DAY! James Dickey
A meta tale where a character breaks from narrative, chooses the wild, and stirs something primal in the teller. It’s all there, and told simply.
 • Ben Sears

February 2026

POETS Day! Lies, Damn Lies
Melodic, exotic, and factory preset to slip into a line of iambic. I flogged it to death. It became my ersatz ersatz.
 • Ben Sears
POETS Day! A Boy’s Life
There was a time before I discovered girls and beer when I ranged a similar landscape. It’s not long till he moves on as well.
 • Ben Sears
POETS Day! John Millington Synge
W.B. Yeats liked it. Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory when she’s not at home, did not. A riot broke out in the theater on the second night.
 • Ben Sears
POETS Day! Dickinson and Hopkins as a Control Group
Impenetrability has its allure, but Dickinson wasn’t trying to invoke mystique. Her reader was herself, privy to all she knew.
 • Ben Sears
This Essay Is Not a Novel, and I'm Okay with That
So, why do so many people indent lines awkwardly to call their work poetry? Why do they insist on the designation?
 • Ben Sears

January 2026

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