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Articles by Ben Sears
POETS Day! Nancy Cunard
Illustration by Rene Sears The work week’s nearly finished, at least technically; barely a few hours left. Truth is it was over the moment you went to lunch. What are you accomplishing? You’re not getting anything done between now and quitting time. Cut out and stop pretending. Make it a POETS Day and Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse.
POETS Day! Sappho
Illustration by Rene Sears of the most famous rendering of Sappho that is almost certainly not of Sappho You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Make it POETS Day and Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. *** I read that 5th century BC Athenian book sellers probably sold supplementary Sappho material. My first thought was that they weren’t book sellers yet.
The AI Writing Jig
On September 30, The New York Times published an opinion by Joe Cruz, chair of the philosophy department and the cognitive science program at Williams College, entitled “I’m a College Professor. Writing Isn’t as Important as We Think.” He deploys Socrates, which is always a good rhetorical tactic. Socrates worried that by writing, we were outsourcing our thinking. There may be something to that. I had a revelatory read — or listen, as it was an audio book — a year or so ago.
Heartland Film Festival 2026: The Peril at Pincer Point, Genevieve’s Garden, In Spite of Ourselves
The Peril at Pincer Point Writer-director duo Noah Stratton-Twine and Jake Kuhn have a clear affection for low-grade horror shlock from the 40s and 50s, and The Peril at Pincer Point does its best to evoke those films’ aesthetics. The square aspect ratio and sepia color grading (courtesy of cinematographer Murray Zev Cohen) certainly shares the same look as films like The Black Scorpion or The Lighthouse, but its story is more visceral and languidly paced than a genuine creature feature.
Heartland Film Festival: In Waves Review
In Waves Director: Phuong Mai Nguyen Writer: Samuel Doux, Fanny Burdino Starring: Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu, Rio Vega, Lyna Khoudri, Paul Kircher, Birane Ba, Gauthier Battoue Animated film adaptations of graphic novels and manga present a unique challenge. Yes, the heavy work of the animation style and story structure has already been tackled, but it can be too easy for a filmmaker to lean on the source material.
POETS Day! Edward de Vere, 17th Earle of Oxford, Probably not Shakespeare
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Make it POETS Day and Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday.
Heartland Film Festival 2026: Seized, School for Defectors, I Got Bombed at Harvey’s
You might remember when, in 2023, a small county newspaper in Kansas was raided by the police. The story made national news, and looked on the surface to be a symbol of the crumbling strength of the First Amendment. The raid is the backbone of Seized, but director Sharon Liese uses the opportunity to explore the bickering and back-stabbing around the Marion County Record and around the small town.
POETS Day! Edward de Vere, 17th Earle of Oxford, Probably not Shakespeare
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Make it POETS Day and Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday.
Heartland Film Festival 2026: Interview with God I Want You Writer/Director/Actor Zac Cooper
God I Want You Below is my conversation with Zac Cooper, the writer, director, and star of God I Want You, ahead of its Midwest Premiere at the Heartland Film Festival. We discuss his own history with religion and how it evolved during the making of the film, his working relationship with actor Jesse Epstein, and his love of romantic comedies. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Ben Sears: Do you remember the impetus of where God I Want You started?
POETS Day! Oscar Wilde
You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Mark Twain delivered this devastating comeback at a cocktail party when… or maybe it was Noel Coward. I can’t remember. It was one of those clever people back when memorable mots were bon and got traded around. If it was Churchill who said it, he would have been talking to Lady Astor.
POETS Day! Oscar Wilde
Assemblage by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Mark Twain delivered this devastating comeback at a cocktail party when… or maybe it was Noel Coward. I can’t remember. It was one of those clever people back when memorable mots were bon and got traded around.
POETS Day! “Little Gidding” the Fourth of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets
Illustration by Rene Sears “Poets do not rightly achieve their renown for saying anything new, however, or for saying anything that any reasonable thoughtful, feeling person should not already know by the time he or she has reached some measure of advanced adulthood.
POETS Day! “Little Gidding” the Fourth of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets
Illustration by Rene Sears “Poets do not rightly achieve their renown for saying anything new, however, or for saying anything that any reasonable thoughtful, feeling person should not already know by the time he or she has reached some measure of advanced adulthood.
POETS Day! William Barnes
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** When last we saw the name Coventry Patmore in this space, he was getting inappropriate with a married and unreceptive Alice Meynell. There’s a of Alice’s mister, Wilfrid Meynell (rhymes with “fennel”), taken circa 1916, putting Wilfrid circa sixty-four years old.
POETS Day! William Barnes
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** When last we saw the name Coventry Patmore in this space, he was getting inappropriate with a married and unreceptive Alice Meynell. There’s a of Alice’s mister, Wilfrid Meynell (rhymes with “fennel”), taken circa 1916, putting Wilfrid circa sixty-four years old.
The History of Concrete Review
The History of Concrete Director: John Wilson Who cares about concrete? Who even notices the stuff, in spite of its ubiquity? Those that were smart enough to watch John Wilson’s stellar HBO show will know that these questions, and many more, will come up throughout the runtime of The History of Concrete, but they’re really just set-ups for his keen observations on humanity.
2027 Oscar Predictions
The 99th Academy Awards will be presented on March 14, 2027. Here are our ranked predictions for who will be nominated and which films will win. Check back in, as the list will be updated often. Best PictureBest Director 1. The Odyssey 2. Wild Horse Nine 3. La Bola Negra 4. Digger 5. All of a Sudden 6. The Debut 7. Fjord 8. Project Hail Mary 9. Behemoth! 10. Dune Part Three 1. Christopher Nolan, “The Odyssey” 2. Los Javis, “La Bola Negra” 3. Martin McDonagh, “Wild Horse Nine” 4. Alejandro G. Inarritu, “Digger” 5.
POETS Day! Poet-pourri
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** I read a lot of poetry that I like but don’t write about.
POETS Day! Poet-pourri
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** I read a lot of poetry that I like but don’t write about.
POETS Day! The Scoundrel, Sir John Suckling
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** This week I turned cartwheels in the surf. I exuberated. One passer-by was heard to exclaim, “By Goodness! He’s filled with beans.” Another called upon me to have decency and quiet the ruckus. What catalyst, you ask, set off such an uncharacteristic reaction?
POETS Day! The Scoundrel Sir John Suckling
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Take a POETS Day. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** This week I turned cartwheels in the surf. I exuberated. One passer-by was heard to exclaim, “By Goodness! He’s filled with beans.” Another called upon me to have decency and quiet the ruckus. What catalyst, you ask, set off such an uncharacteristic reaction?
POETS Day! The Surprising Alice Meynell
Sketch of Alice Meynell by John Singer Sargent set on gel sheet made by Rene Sears I found Alice Meynell in Yeats’s Oxford Book of Modern Verse. The Oxford verse series indexes by poem number, rather than page. So if you look in the back for Meynell’s “I am the Way,” you find it referenced as number 32, meaning the thirty-second poem in the volume rather than, as you’d expect from a lifetime of index use, that it is on page 32.
POETS Day! The Surprising Alice Meynell
Sketch of Alice Meynell by John Singer Sargent set on gel sheet made by Rene Sears I found Alice Meynell in Yeats’s Oxford Book of Modern Verse. The Oxford verse series indexes by poem number, rather than page. So if you look in the back for Meynell’s “I am the Way,” you find it referenced as number 32, meaning the thirty-second poem in the volume rather than, as you’d expect from a lifetime of index use, that it is on page 32.
Buddy Review
Buddy Director: Casper Kelly Writer: Casper Kelly, Jamie King Starring: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt, Clint Howard, Eric Bauza What if the cuddly, loveable plush mascot of your kids’ favorite daytime TV show was actually a controlling, murderous sociopath?
POETS Day! WH Auden’s “Musée de Beaux Arts”
A copy by an unknown artist of Bruegel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. *** I’ve never heard of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I’ve read about him. Until earlier this week I knew he was a Dutch painter of repute, but little more. But I’ve only read about him; never heard his name spoken, so I’ve no idea how his name is pronounced.
POETS Day! WH Auden’s “Musée de Beaux Arts”
A copy by an unknown artist of Bruegel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. *** I’ve never heard of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I’ve read about him. Until earlier this week I knew he was a Dutch painter of repute, but little more. But I’ve only read about him; never heard his name spoken, so I’ve no idea how his name is pronounced.
Happy Valley: Don’t Say Good Luck
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi chi’intrate.How did it come to this? At the height of his power in Hollywood in 1999, Adam Sandler founded his own production company as a way to continue making the movies he enjoys. Over the years, his films have slowly morphed into a pariah on the landscape of big-budget studio comedies, becoming thinly veiled excuses for lavish vacations. But do they truly represent the nadir in the career of one of comedy’s once-brightest stars?
POETS Day! Elinor Wylie
Illustration by Rene Sears You‚Äôre still at work? What do you think you‚Äôre getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow‚Äôs Saturday. *** Elinor Waylie, n√©e Hoyt, was born in Sommerville, New Jersey. My experience with New Jersey folks tells me that she would have described herself as ‚ÄúFrom off Exit 17.‚ÄĚ It‚Äôs possible she was closer to Exit 13 or, if you use I-78 instead of I-287, maybe Exit 29.
POETS Day! Elinor Wylie
Illustration by Rene Sears You’re still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. *** Elinor Waylie, née Hoyt, was born in Sommerville, New Jersey. My experience with New Jersey folks tells me that she would have described herself as “From off Exit 17.” It’s possible she was closer to Exit 13 or, if you use I-78 instead of I-287, maybe Exit 29.
POETS Day! William Morris
From the Kelmscott Chaucer, designed by William Morris and Illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones You still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Before JRR Tolkien’s Gandalf, there was William Morris’s King Gandolf. Before Tolkien wrote about the horse Shadowfax, Morris wrote about the horse Silverfax.
POETS Day! William Morris
From the Kelmscott Chaucer, designed by William Morris and Illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones You still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Before JRR Tolkien’s Gandalf, there was William Morris’s King Gandolf. Before Tolkien wrote about the horse Shadowfax, Morris wrote about the horse Silverfax.
The Dink Review
The Dink Director: Josh Greenbaum Writer: Sean Clements Starring: Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Ben Stiller, Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, Chris Parnell, Aaron Chen, Andy Roddick Given that it’s become one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, it was only inevitable for pickleball to be the subject of a sports comedy.
POETS Day! Leonora Speyer
Illustration by Rene Sears You still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** There’s a photograph of Leonora Speyer where she looks to be in her early twenties. She was born to some wealth. I can’t tell if her her family was idly comfortable or extravagantly rich.
POETS Day! Leonora Speyer
Illustration by Rene Sears You still at work? What do you think you’re getting done between now and quitting time? Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** There’s a photograph of Leonora Speyer where she looks to be in her early twenties. She was born to some wealth. I can’t tell if her her family was idly comfortable or extravagantly rich.
POETS Day! Edwin Arlington Robinson
Illustration by Rene Sears Why are you still at work? Youâre not getting anything done between now and quitting time. Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrowâs Saturday. First, a little verse.
POETS Day! Edwin Arlington Robinson
Illustration by Rene Sears Why are you still at work? You’re not getting anything done between now and quitting time. Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse.
Thoughts on a Red Card
Alexander Rodchenko, Pure Red Color, 1921, (cropped) I’ve seen a flurry of tweets suggesting we’re on the precipice of sporting autocracy because no red card awarded in the World Cup had ever been overturned before yesterday. That’s not quite true. For starters, the upsetting violation of norms they’re referring to, the ruling on USMNT striker Folarin Balogun’s red from last Friday’s game against Bosnia Herzegovina, didn’t happen quite the way it’s being bandied as having done.
Nit Picks, Pedantic, Precedence, and the Balogun Red Card
President Donald Trump, flanked by Vice President JD Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, announces that the FIFA World Cup 2025 draw will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center, Friday, August 22, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok) I’ve seen a flurry of tweets suggesting we’re on the precipice of sporting autocracy because no red card awarded in the World Cup had ever been overturned before yesterday. That’s not quite true.
POETS Day! Hendecasyllabics
Illustration by Rene Sears Happy 250. I donât guess many need POETS Day encouragement, but Piss Off Early, Tomorrowâs the Semiquincentennial. How blessed are we as a nation that this falls on a weekend? They pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor. *** Thomas Campion (1567-1620) tried to squish English poetry into Hellenic meter. He wasnât alone. Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney eyed the same goal. The latter two gave it up for iambic pentameter.
POETS Day! Hendecasyllabics
Illustration by Rene Sears Happy 250. I don’t guess many need POETS Day encouragement, but Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s the Semiquincentennial. How blessed are we as a nation that this falls on a weekend? They pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor. *** Thomas Campion (1567-1620) tried to squish English poetry into Hellenic meter. He wasn’t alone. Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney eyed the same goal. The latter two gave it up for iambic pentameter.
New Zealand pacer ruled out of upcoming West Indies ODIs
New Zealand have suffered an injury setback ahead of their ODI series against the West Indies, with fast bowler Ben Sears ruled out due to an ankle injury. Sears had been managing ongoing discomfort in his ankle since the four-day Test against Ireland in May, with the issue worsening during the final day of the third Test against England at Trent Bridge. As a precaution, New Zealand have opted to send the pacer home for further assessment and treatment.
Why ‘Soccer’ Is British, Not American – And Why Americans Should Keep Using It
Americans get a lot of flak for calling the World Cup game soccer. Jabs come for a variety of reasons. A nearly forgotten charge implied arrogance: how dare we abrogate the name “football” for our domestic favorite when there are so many other games—rugby, Australian Rules, soccer, Gaelic—under the umbrella. That one never landed. We call ourselves Americans at Mexican and Canadian expense so we aren’t about to get the vapors over a ball game.
POETS Day! Sir Philip Sidney Didn’t Get the Girl
Illustration by Rene Sears Welcome once again to POETS Day, where we usher in Henry Ford’s greatest creation – the weekend – a few hours ahead of schedule by embracing the ethos of the day: Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. Life’s too short for work, and nobody’s gonna notice if you hoof it mid-afternoon.
POETS Day! Poems from Wallace Stevens’s Harmonium
Illustration by Rene Sears TGIF is POETS for those without initiative. Make it happen. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Wallace Stevens started late. His first poetry collection held an impressive, by debut poetry collection standards, eighty five titles, but when the book, Harmonium, was published in 1923, its author was in his early forties. He’d had time to backlog.
POETS Day! Poems from Wallace Stevens’s Harmonium
Illustration by Rene Sears TGIF is POETS for those without initiative. Make it happen. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Wallace Stevens started late. His first poetry collection held an impressive, by debut poetry collection standards, eighty five titles, but when the book, Harmonium, was published in 1923, its author was in his early forties. He’d had time to backlog.
POETS Day! The Present in TS Eliot’s “The Dry Salvages”
Illustration by Rene Sears of The Dry Salvages rock formation off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts where TS Eliot spent his boyhood summers. Welcome once again to POETS Day, where we usher in Henry Ford’s greatest creation – the weekend – a few hours ahead of schedule by embracing the ethos of the day: Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. Life’s too short for work, and nobody’s gonna notice if you hoof it mid-afternoon.
Gentrified Camp Mountain Lake Red-Eye Gravy
Will was a ready-made friend assembled off-site and brought in as a palliative by my parents. Mom and Dad made us move. There was no consultation. The new house wasn’t that far from the old neighborhood from their perspective, but they had a Buick. I knew the distance by a twelve-year-old’s bicycle reckoning. My old friends were a crow’s fly mile away now but there were obstacles. Cahaba Road’s ups and downs, Montclair’s traffic, and a well perimetered country club enforced isolation.
Young Shadow & The Watchdogs
In the days of MSPaint, I gravitated towards the spraypaint tool. Throwing up pixels in a scatter plot, so that the longer you held down, the closer you would get to a solid color, felt more forgiving of the twitches a mouse would register. I see a similar shading on the edges of Ben Sears’ figures. This is one of the reasons I see his art and think of Aardman Animations, as these marks feel like the faint trace of a fingerprint in a figure made of clay.
POETS Day! Poems from Minna and Myself by Maxwell Bodenheim
Illustration by Rene Sears The work week’s nearly over; barely a few hours left. What are you doing? You’re not getting anything done between now and quitting time. Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Maxwell Bodenheim didn’t end well. There’s a sense in here and there bios that he was doing just fine, a near toast of a borough, and then things went south. That’s not quite right. He started south. Somewhere in between, he made a name of himself.
POETS Day! Ezra Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
The work week’s nearly finito; barely a few hours left. What are you doing? You’re not getting anything done between now and quitting time. Cut out and stop pretending. Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. First, a little verse. *** Ezra Pound was a very good poet but not a master versifier. I think he knew that. “Major Poet” is a term reserved for the greats who define their time and turn swaths of contemporaries into satellites. Yeats is a Major Poet, as is Eliot.
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