“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” I was already an old man when I was born. Small with a curved back, he dragged his leg when walking the streets of Copenhagen. “Little Kierkegaard,” they called him. Some meant it kindly. The more one suffers the more one acquires a sense […]| Dana Gioia
It’s time to admit I’m irresponsible. I lack ambition. I get nothing done. I spend the morning walking up the fire road. I know every tree along the ridge. Reaching the end, I turn around. There’s no point to my pilgrimage except the coming and the going. Then I sit and listen […]| Dana Gioia
Most of what happens happens beyond words. The lexicon of lip and fingertip defies translation into common speech. I recognize the musk of your dark hair. It always thrills me, though I can’t describe it. My finger on your thigh does not touch skin— it touches your skin warming to my touch. You are a […]| Dana Gioia
Two performances of the World Premiere of Sung with Words, a jazz song cycle by Helen Sung to the poems of Dana Gioia. NEW YORK Thursday, December 17 Jazz Gallery – 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm 1160 Broadway, 5th Floor (near 27th Street) Tickets: www.jazzgallery.org (tickets go on sale November 16) 212-242-1063 BOSTON Friday, December 18 Scullers […]| Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia’s new essay “Poetry as Enchantment” is featured in The Dark Horse’s 20th Anniversary Issue.| Dana Gioia
Librettist Dana Gioia and composer Lori Laitman interviewed by Susan Dormady Eisenberg.| Dana Gioia
| Dana Gioia
The Sewanee Review is proud to announce that Dana Gioia is the recipient of the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry. Dana Gioia, known for his poetry, criticism and arts advocacy, holds the newly created Judge Widney Chair in Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. Read more at Sewanee Today.| Dana Gioia
I am the Angel with the Broken Wing, The one large statue in this quiet room. The staff finds me too fierce, and so they shut Faith’s ardor in this air-conditioned tomb. The docents praise my elegant design Above the chatter of the gallery. Perhaps I am a masterpiece of sorts— The perfect emblem of […]| Dana Gioia
Pity the beautiful,| Dana Gioia