Danny Rivera

Our cat is, rather improbably, 21 years old today. He’s getting all the treats and attention today.

Which one? Gummo?

Poets 🤝 Sports Guys

Thank you, again, for publishing my poem!

Liberation Song by Danny Rivera   In these first after-hours, while waiting for you beneath an olive tree and lifting veils from our creased faces, the repeated shelling signals the opening of another day: here is ...

Stone Circle #ThrowbackThursday poem : "Liberation Song" by Danny Rivera (@snareshot.bsky.social) #TBT

stonecirclereview.com/liberation-s...

If you’re horrified by ICE’s actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere, now would be a good time to contact your senators. Tell them not to fund ICE and DHS (this measure already passed the House).

If you don’t know who they are, use the following locator:

www.senate.gov/senators/sen...

This image is presented without commentary.

The new SpongeBob movie, while hardly pure cinema, is nonetheless big, dumb fun, with plenty of visual gags for the adults and, for some reason, features the Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia.” Perfect for the kids in your life and entertaining (enough) for the big kid in you, too.

OF THE EMPIRE We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

I want to like this record—I really, really do—but I find Cameron Winter’s vocals a bit much. The album cover’s great, though!

Because a teacher’s work never ends—even during holiday breaks—I’m working on lesson plans while listening to Tangerine Dream and Panda Bear. (I’ll achieve a work-life balance when…I’m dead.)

The term “essential” to describe records is overused, but it absolutely applies to Elliott Smith’s “Either/Or,” a standout in a deep, rich catalogue.

My Favorite Records of 2025:

5. Haram - “Why Does Paradise Begin in Hell”
4. Scowl - “Are We All Angels”
3. Glare - “Sunset Funeral”
2. They Are Gutting a Body of Water - “LOTTO”
1. Bad Bunny - “Debi Tirar Más Fotos”

Surprised that Bad Bunny made my #1 this year, but that record is undeniable.

It is astonishing that the New York Times, the “paper of record,” refuses to call this situation what it is: an episode of a bigot losing his mind during a *racist* tirade.

Nobody's Fault but Mine (Remaster) YouTube video by Led Zeppelin - Topic

Drummers, especially of the rock variety, fall into two camps: those who play in service of the song; and those who play to be heard, to satisfy their own egos.

John Bonham, while wildly inventive—using his kit like a melodic instrument—falls into the former group.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=la-z...

Image of the cover of Vincenzo Latronico’s book, “Perfection.”

Your Word of the Day is “vibratile,” adjective: (of cilia, flagella, or other small appendage) - capable of, or characterized by, oscillatory motion.

As read in Vincenzo Latronico’s “Perfection” (New York Review Books).

Folks, it’s time we made a change. Can you chip in $5 to my campaign today? The future of postmodern American poetry is in your hands.

dannyrivera.co

Picture of a pitbull with a grey coat, wearing a blue t-shirt.

Spent the last month fostering the sweetest dog, a pitbull named Bonita Applebum, after the song by Tribe Called Quest. Today, her new parents traveled from Boston to pick her up, and she’s on her way to her new home. We’ll miss her personality, but are glad that she found her forever family.

A poem by Hayden Carruth, “The Cardinal” (part of a longer poem), from a collection called SCRAMBLED EGGS & WHISKEY (Copper Canyon, 1996).

Last call for entries! The Monica Taylor Poetry Prize closes at the end of September, so don't miss your chance to be part of this beloved competition.

💚$300 first prize + publication in the December issue of takahē
💚$150 runner up

www.takahe.org.nz/submit/

New York! I’ll be reading with Emily Skillings and John Yau at Anton Kern Gallery in Manhattan next Friday, 9/26/25. Please RSVP at conaltura.us/blogs/news/a...

Hope to see you there!

CC: @finishinglinepress.bsky.social

Picture of the marquis at the Nitehawk movie theater, listing the names of three films to be shown in 35mm.

What movie shall we watch in 35mm? (My pick is “They Live,” though I’d be fine with “Trolls 2.”)

Anyhow, I’m thinking of the awful events that took place in New York, and elsewhere, 24 years ago today, of the victims whose lives were taken, and of a world—a certain version of it, anyway—that no longer exists.

Living in the United States requires accepting that a) no safe spaces exist (if they ever did); and b) one may be shot to death anywhere, at any place, for any reason.

Music For Writers - YouTube

Listening to Steve Gunn’s “Music for Writers” because it is exactly the kind of moody, meditative music I need to, you know, get some writing done.

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

An oil painting, on canvas, depicting a colorful vase of flowers.

Jan Davidszoon de Heem, “Vase of Flowers,” oil on canvas, circa 1660.

Crosby Stills & Nash - Helplessly Hoping YouTube video by Beeracuda

I wish I’d discovered this song as a young person, and not in my late 40s: “Helplessly Hoping,” by Crosby, Stills, & Nash.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=_tw7...

I wish I had this kind of luck. 😞

CATS AND THE OCCULT