The State of American Poetry
If you liked David Biepsiel’s State of American Poetry address, here’s a nice counterpart by Natasha Trethewey at the Virginia Quarterly Review. “Despair about the place of poetry in American…
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David Biespiel
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The State of American Poetry Address
Poets, Poetesses, and Unacknowledged Legislators of Mankind: I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of Poetry. I use the word “unprecedented,” because at no previous time has…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: 10 Things Successful Poets Do
Over on Lifehack, there’s one of those smarmy little lists to help you better yourself called 10 Things Positive People Don’t Do. Enjoy. Reading it got me thinking. What are 10 things…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: A New Poetry Emerges from Iran
If war is a defeat for poetry, what is diplomacy? Like poetry, diplomacy involves craft and discretion, finesse and poise, skill and subtlety. It requires canniness, deliberation, presence of mind,…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Moderate Giftedness
Last week I misquoted W. H. Auden in this space. I could confirm the correct quote for you if only I could find my Collected edition of Auden’s poems. That…
“Every Narrative Voice Is a Fiction”
Some years ago I attended a [Margaret Atwood] reading….She introduced the story she read by saying that it was not autobiographical. Then she read her story about a woman who…
The Missouri Review Showing us Love!
The Missouri Review recently posted a quote on their Tumblr from our essay, “David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Cynicism Of Mark Edmundson, Or Poetry Is Still Not Dead:” I exaggerate. I oversimplify. I…
National Poetry Month Day 3: “To Biespiel From United Flight 1037” by David Biespiel
To Biespiel From United Flight 1037 — Greensboro to Atlanta Dear Brother — I used to think of death all the time, And then for a time I didn’t, or…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Revising Poetry Just Got Easier
Revision, as classically understood, generally relates to the poet’s understanding while composing a poem, via kneading language, via discovering insight. More and more though I find that sort of revision…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Poetry and the Newtown Massacre
Last week I had intended to take a quick Christmastime breather from writing Poetry Wire until the beginning of next year. Then on Friday came the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.…
Poetic Lives Online: Links by Brian Spears
Tara Betts found herself attacked by a particularly ignorant political blogger named Debbie Schlussel over her class at UrbanWordNYC. Betts’s response is elegant, measured, and powerful, everything the attack was…