Poem Talk #66

  Head over to Jacket 2 to hear a new Poem Talk on W.B. Yeats’ (in)famous “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. As part (qtd from J2) Taije Silverman, Max McKenna, and John Timpane joined Al Continue reading →

Frost Poetics

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense…It is the abstract vitality of our speech. It Continue reading →

(Next) Next Year or I Fly My Rounds, Tempestuous (Again)

I was recently fortunate enough to enjoy a group discussion concerning Lorine Niedecker’s “calendar poems” (properly titled “Next Year or I Fly My Rounds Tempestuous”), a piece found by Jenny Continue reading →

Moore Poetics

One writes because one has a burning desire to objectify what it is indispensable to one’s happiness to express…(93) My own revisions are usually the result of impatience with unkempt Continue reading →

Baraka on Norton

  If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Amiri Baraka’s response to Angels of Ascent, Norton’s new anthology of contemporary African American poetry over at poetry. Below is Continue reading →

MacDiarmid Poetics

The program for poetry I advocate is in Walt Whitman’s words: to conform with and build on the concrete realities and theories of the universe furnished by science, and henceforth Continue reading →

The Poet’s Ear: K. Silem Mohammad

Now looking back at the non-event that was NPM, it seems safe to say that Harriet managed the difficult task of doing some pretty cool things without entering “poem on Continue reading →

Levertov Poetics

“In organic poetry the metric movement, the measure, is the direct expression of the movement of perception. And the sounds, acting together with the measure, are a kind of extended Continue reading →

THE GENESIS OF BOOKS, NO. TWO—The Citizenry of the Books of Tomaž Šalamun

A book of poems is a civic affair. Among other civic rehearsals and performances, a book of poems establishes the bounds of a free country-life, while proclaiming the citizenship of Continue reading →

Hope Poetics

The purely imitative view of art, which dominated Europe to the end of the eighteenth century, has gone, but the arts seem to have lost purpose, direction, and coherence with Continue reading →

Vanessa Place: I is not a Subject (full)

I’ve gathered Vanessa Place’s full “I is not a Subject” address below. It can still be found in Place’s original posts for Harriet (complete with a deluxe store of accompanying Continue reading →

Atwood Poetics

“I don’t want to know how I write poetry. Poetry is dangerous: talking too much about it, like naming your gods, brings bad luck. I believe that most poets will Continue reading →