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On Poetry

Essays on reading poetry, and the state of poetry today.

  • Words On Writing
    by Alex Boyd - 29 November 2004
    Any kind of writing (especially poetry) is built on details. Noticing details provides the basic building blocks, not just for the connections that can form the thread of the piece but the most startling moments and images.
  • The Lyric Temper
    by Jared Carter - 29 November 2004
    We are speaking… of the lyric temper in poetry, and of the manner in which the poem is its abode—just as the moth or butterfly, as it seeks to gather up the pollen, finds its momentary resting place in the flower… Even the purest lyric voice is, by its very nature, transitory and perishable…
  • The Morning After
    by Alex Good - 1 May 2001
    Assesses the current state of poetry, its past, and future on the “Morning After” National Poetry Month.
  • Against National Poetry Month As Such
    by Charles Bernstein - April 1999
    Through its “safe poetry” free verse distribution program, the American Academy of Poetry’s major initiative for National Poetry Month is to give away millions of generic “poetry books” to random folks throughout the country. This program is intended to promote safe reading experiences and is based on ARF’s founding principle that safe poetry is the best prophylactic against aesthetic experience…
  • After Free Verse: The New Non-Linear Poetries
    by Marjorie Perloff - 1998
    The history of free verse in English remains to be written: when it is, it will be clear that the dominant example has been, not that of Ezra Pound, whose ideographic page has only recently become a model for poets, but that of William Carlos Williams…

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