The Self Unstable by Elisa Gabbert
Brian Pera reviews Elisa Gabbert’s The Self Unstable today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Posts Tagged: poetry
The Saddest Poem Ever Written
A lot of poems are sad, but over at The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone thinks he’s found the saddest: “Spring and Fall” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Ripatrazone explores Hopkins’s poem, and while doing so, gives his thoughts on what good poetry can do:
...moreI think the best poetry is a form of interrogation of self.
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Emily Abendroth
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Emily Abendroth about prison work, political poetry, and research in creative writing in her book ]exclosures[ from Ahsahta Press.
...moreLoving Poems But Not Poetry Books
...moreAlthough Americans’ love for poetry has yet to reach the wild heights of Abu Dhabi’s hit reality show Million’s Poet where 70 million global viewers watched dueling versifiers vie for a $1.3 million cash prize, Americans are actively involved in reading it—particularly outside the traditional literary arenas of bookstores and libraries.
140 Keystrokes
It’s hard to go a day without the question, does poetry matter? crop up somewhere, and if you’re in the mood for a longread, David Lehman has written an excellent essay on anxiety about poetry, in an Internet age.
...moreDoes Poetry Matter?
Yesterday’s New York Times posed this question to poetry superstars Tracy K. Smith, Martin Espada, William Logan, Paul Muldoon, Sandra Beasley, Patrick Rosal, and our own David Biespiel. Whether by “educat[ing] the senses,” combatting irony, or “ritualiz[ing] human life,” suffice it to say, the answer is Yes.
...moreThe Poetry of Power Tools
Dan Piepenbring writes at the Paris Review about the universe inside industrial-supply catalogs, which offer a different kind of poetry to readers:
...moreAnd so I often reach for it in pursuit of a kind of materialist awe. It makes for a reading experience more engaging, imaginative, and informative than almost anything that passes as literature.
The Public Face of Poetry
Carol Muske-Dukes, a former poet laureate of California, discusses the role poetry plays in modern life at the Paris Review. She considers whether people think poetry is relevant or accessible, as well as how we approach it differently today than we have in the past:
...moreThe reality is that we live in an age that works against poetry.
Word of the Day: Nubivagant
(adj.) wandering through or amongst the clouds; moving through air; from the Latin nubes (“cloud”) and vagant (“wandering”), c. 1656.
...moreI wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poet’s Journey: Chapter 8
When you trust the wisdom from the art of poetry as a guide to writing your new poems, you put your writing in service of something larger than your own ambitions and impulses.
...moreAre You There God? It’s Me, Poetry
Fire Break by George Albon
Benjamin Landry reviews George Albon’s Fire Break today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Bilateral Asymmetry by Don Riggs
Lois Bassen reviews Bilateral Asymmetry by Don Riggs today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Whittling a New Face in the Dark by DJ Dolack
Allyson Paty reviews DJ Dolack’s Whittling a New Face in the Dark today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Its Day Being Gone by Rose McLarney
Richard Joines reviews Rose McLarney’s Its Day Being Gone today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Poetry of Witness The Tradition in English, 1500-2001 by Carolyn Forche and Duncan Wu
Sean Singer reviews Poetry of Witness The Tradition in English, 1500-2001 by Carolyn Forche and Duncan Wu today in Rumpus Poetry.
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poet’s Journey: Chapter 7
When you do not allow yourself to follow your impulses, it’s not that you are eluding or destroying those impulses. Instead, you’re converting what was potentially necessary to your imagination into something darker, less stable, and more insidious.
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Second Childhood by Fanny Howe
Cynthia Cruz reviews Fanny Howe’s Second Childhood today in Rumpus Poetry.
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the meatgirl whatever by Kristin Hatch
Colette Speer reviews Kristin Hatch’s the meatgirl whatever today in Rumpus Poetry.
...moreFor Sale: Wallace Stevens Home
The distinct quietness of Wallace Stevens’s life—modernist, insurance salesman, writer of The Emperor of Ice Cream—is almost as famous as his poetry. Now! His 1920s Colonial home is for sale in Hartford, CT. If you’re looking for a spacious new house to raise a family in, or have a vested interest in historical preservation, maybe you should buy it.
...moreI’m Emily Dickinson! Who Are You?
For her “The Poems (We Think) We Know” column at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Alexandra Socarides writes about Emily Dickinson’s celebrated “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,” debunking its commonly held interpretation:
...moreThere is a seemingly stark private/public dichotomy laid out by the poem’s two stanza structure.
Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
Eric Dean Wilson reviews Najwan Darwish’s Nothing More to Lose today in Rumpus Poetry.
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The Last Book I Loved: Maggie Nelson’s Bluets
15. Bluets becomes a space for desire (thwarted), for mystery, for obscurity and unattainability. To explore the space where these intersect in Nelson is the project of the book.
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El Dorado by Peter Campion
Tova Gannana reviews Peter Campion’s El Dorado today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Reading Dante by Prue Shaw and The Divine Comedy Translated by Clive James
Barbara Berman reviews Prue Shaw’s Reading Dante From Here to Eternity and Clive James’s translation of The Divine Comedy today in Rumpus Poetry.
...morePoetry’s Dirty Secret
The dirty secret of poetry is that it is loved by some, loathed by many, and bought by almost no one.
Is poetry still valuable? William Logan thinks so, and tells us why in an essay in last weekend’s New York Times’s Sunday Review.
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Darkened Rooms of Summer by Jared Carter
James Crews reviews Jared Carter’s Darkened Rooms of Summer today in Rumpus Poetry.
...moreThe Beyoncé of Poetry
...moreShe won the Pulitzer in 1923, but when newspapers recounted her public readings, they more often focused on her outfits than her writing. Her glamorous and occasionally scandalous life made her a celebrity, but her celebrity (along with other trends in literary criticism) led to charges of intellectual shallowness and political dilettantism.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poet’s Journey: Chapter 6
As a poet you are called to be absorbed and aroused and enchanted and intoxicated and beguiled. You embrace occasions that leave you seduced and transfixed, overpowered and enraptured.
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Interrobang by Jessica Piazza
Melissa-Leigh Gore reviews Jessica Piazza’s Interrobang today in Rumpus Poetry.
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