So, an obvious question for a topical blog like Unstressed is how closely to adhere to the topic. My favorite topical blogs are those that stray widely and often, using the chosen subject as a window through which to view the rest of the world. The topic, then, serves as a shared interest that provides a path to the writer’s other interests. 

What say you, Dear Reader? Do you prefer a diet of pure poetry in your poetry blogs? Or is the various & sundry fair game?

• The Playmobil Security Checkpoint introduces 4-7 year-olds to metal detectors, body cavity searches, and crippling paranoia. Don’t miss the product reviews at the bottom of the page. (via Jemima)
• Photographically, I have a thing with glimpses and half-seeings lately. The Web is an endless source of ekphrastic inspiration, yet none of my clicking and writing has produced one decent poem about a photograph. (And this despite a long-standing interest in photography.) Something about the ekphrastic poem eludes me, or is it something about photographs in general? Perhaps the panel on Ekphrasis at this year’s AWP will help.
• Mankind builds multi-million dollar radio telescopes to listen intently into the farthest reaches of space, only to hear the universe screaming incoherently. (via BB)
• Looters have irradiated sections of the arctic by stripping the shielding from nuclear lighthouses abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yes, nuclear lighthouses. (via Warren)
• This song by Tim Minchin nicely sums up some of my favorite arguments against common examples of magical thinking. Also, I’m pretty sure the tune is borrowed from “Accidental Babies” by Damien Rice. (via McHuff)
• The most moving photograph I took in 2008. Odd that it was taken on my least capable camera.