Last week, Ian Segal, of the poetry department, exchanged e-mails with Barbara Ras, whose poem "Washing the Elephant" recently appeared in the magazine. Ras's new collection, "The Last Skin," will be ...

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1869) was a New England poet and comic wit — of the kind much invited to be an after-dinner speaker. James Thomas Fields remains the model of such figures in that era (and so ...

Inspired by a Rumi poem based on the parable of “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” Javaherbin offers a lively take on a classic story about the folly of a limited perspective. When a merchant named ...

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, illus. by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy, Clarion, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-618-90349-8 Elephants are the revered subject of Zimmer's lovingly crafted works. In one, a jubilant ...

The morning of the first day of kindergarten Lining up by last name (of course I’m last) I feel sick (I cut my own hair the night before) My mom kneels down and comforts me Telling me I am confident, ...