I was becoming awed by the wide horizon of the speech that arose out of an individual life lived in a single era and generation. I was becoming attracted to the writer’s creativity.
And this is how poetry derives its power, its agency, by the ways it can direct the eye. But the poet has a different toolkit from a visual artist. The world of a poem builds incrementally: it grows, it accretes.
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club is finishing up this month’s book, Reginald Dwayne Betts’s incredible Bastards of the Reagan Era, and getting ready for our online chat with the author (my favorite part…
In Episode 13 of The Rumpus Late Nite Poetry Show, Rick Barot discusses his newest collection, Chord, tone in poetry, and the selfies Bishop might've posted.
Speaking of emotion, which you shouldn’t, saying the word “emotional” out loud is the oral equivalent of running your tampon up a flagpole in the middle of a law firm.
For some, poetry can seem out of reach. It’s like a different language. I don’t understand poetry very well, and I have to re-read everything several times before I even…
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Thorpe Moeckel about his new book Arcadia Road, the challenge of writing long poems, raising twins, and camo thongs.