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David Biespiel

David Biespiel is a poet, literary critic, memoirist, and contributing writer at American Poetry Review, New Republic, New York Times, Poetry, Politico, The Rumpus, and Slate, among other publications. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Education of a Young Poet, which was selected a Best Books for Writers by Poets & Writers, A Long High Whistle, which received the 2016 Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction, and The Book of Men and Women, which was chosen for Best Books of the Year by the Poetry Foundation and received the 2011 Oregon Book Award for Poetry.

Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Jul 21, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Cornerstones of American Poetry

The only way I can put it is, no American poet I have ever met regardless of disposition or poetics has disliked Frank Stanford’s poems.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Jun 9, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Shadow Must Be Paid

A poet lives through the writing of poems inside his or her animal or sexual sides as a way to honor that aspect of our humanity.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

May 26, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Midnight in the Century

…today’s poetry apologists for the Iraq war just keep repeating their intelligence error odes. Wouldn’t it be better, however, if they would address the horror of the failed effort in Iraq?
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

May 12, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Brief Inner Happiness

Writing requires sustained attention to what figures, disfigures, and refigures our imaginations and includes a vision that takes every experience into account.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Apr 28, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poem as Whistling Father

Isn’t it worth wondering, then, where does a poem take you after it calls you in, calls you from your life into your creative psyche?
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Apr 1, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: A Defense of Conceptual Poetry

My friends, I’m deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak before the most important poetic body in the world, the Internet.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Mar 17, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The New Poem

Every once in a while over a period of a few weeks or more I compile some objectives for poetry in the form of a list, something I call one-sentence lectures.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Mar 3, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Mask and Dance

Anyone writing a poem knows that you first open yourself and then a poem builds from what you yield. As a poet, you are the carrier of life.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Feb 17, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: A Scream of Consciousness

Poetry is an art spoken, as if sung, in relation to other human beings.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Feb 3, 2015

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Why Jihadists Love Postmodern Poetry

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire returns with a powerful take on fascism and violence and postmodernism.
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Sep 9, 2014

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poet’s Journey: Conclusion

As a poet, you seek to blend your imagination with what you are both witnessing and imagining: “The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person.”
Poetry, Rumpus Original

David Biespiel

Aug 26, 2014

David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poet’s Journey: Chapter 11

Becoming a poet means to think about delight and distress with equal poise. Becoming a poet means to embrace the child of your imagination where resentment is understood.