the Kalliope: a consideration of contemporary American poetry.
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“02.03.16,” by Laynie Browne
I don’t feel entirely qualified to make some grand statement about how Laynie Browne approaches books (like does she always write her books as a project, or are the three books I have read coincidentally project books); however, I can register with some confidence that when one of Browne’s books steps into its project, the…
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“As You Came from the Holy Land,” by John Ashbery
I’ve been thinking about the role of temporality in poetry. How time might appear in a poem. And the surprising ways that time might be made to matter. Its conspicuousness. To my mind, it always feels natural to think of time in, say, a Frank O’Hara poem. Lunch Poems even by its title, signaling a…
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Rejecting Immersion Through Multiple Voices
I have been writing an essay about Hsiung’s book, To Love an Artist, and I would like to include reference to Roland Barthes’s definition of literature.
About this site
For many years, I’ve kept a database about poetry books, prizes, teaching positions, and literary journals. I’ve called it Kalliope, because that’s the Greek muse of epic poetry. And, well, I like thinking of the epic scope of American poetry!
And while all that data is still alive and well, I’m changing it so it’s private now. In its place, a blog! Where I’d like to relate some of my personal thoughts about poems, poetry books, literary journals, poetry criticism. Visual art. For a few years I was writing book reviews, which I loved. And then I didn’t love, because reviewing poetry books gets little respect. And every few years there’s going to be someone writing about how dumb book reviews are. Then that person’s friend will probably write something about how poetry is dying.
Consider this site an idiosyncratic aside to those conversations. I am a poet. My wife is a poet. And we are raising a daughter who has assured us she will never be a poet. I like conversations about poetry, and this site is my small contribution to those conversations.