I take great pleasure in pursuing spectacular poems. And given how much poetry is being published at this point, this is not not an easy task. So much good work is being published! So aside from looking for work by the poets I admire, I look for editors with great taste. Or magazines and presses who consistently rely on editors with great taste.
These are some of the poems I’ve found that are spectacular! Or I think they are, at least.
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“Beauty, Gaze Unaverted,” by Anna Sandy-Elrod
I’m not really sure if “new lyric” is even a thing anymore. Like in 2013 I found out in 2008 people were trying to get a handle on that satisfying middle ground between lyric poem and personal essay, and I thought, this is where I want to be. I want to read poems that are…
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“Study of Two Figures (Pasiphäe / Sado),” by Monica Youn
What draws me into Monica Youn’s poem, “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphäe / Sado),” is the variety of “containers” fashioned in the poem. A container formed by the concept of race. A literal container each story’s main character has to fit themselves inside of. The poem itself as a container that juxtaposes two stories—stories that…
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“Narcissus,” by Jay Deshpand
Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what Jay Deshpande means in his poem, “Narcissus” (found in Iterant 10), when he’s explaining to the reader, “that field goes moon / and winsome.” Something about a field under the moon, something so calm, appealing. Like maybe an investigation into desire as impulse, and the nature of that impulse,…