theKalliope

Tag: #PoeticsofBody

  • “Amanuensis,” by Danika Stegeman

    In my recent goodreads review of Anthony Madrid’s Whatever’s Forbidden the Wise, I wrote about that moment in poetry workshops where someone comments that the poem could be read as the writer’s ars poetica. And depending on the mood, it can feel like, yeah, thank you for that reasonably dull comment. Or it could be…

  • “Split the Lark,” by Angelo Mao

    There could be an argument that Angelo Mao’s poem, “Split the Lark,” is just a play on nothing. The openly ironic game where a poem toys with nothing. It pretends nothing is nothing, and when it shows that to be true, then it turns the poem to ask why are there all these ways to…

  • “When is the comet coming…?” by Rushing Pittman

    I’m not sure how familiar people are with that Stephen Crane poem (In the Desert) where the poet meets this creature in the desert. And it’s holding its heart “in his hands.” And it’s eating it. “It’s bitter.” The creature tells the poet. But bitterness isn’t the tone Crane is going for. This moment is…

  • “Poisonwell Diaries: Psalms of the Ossuary,” by Shanta Lee

    Accretion is a helpful term reading a poem like Lee’s Poisonwell Diaries: Psalms of the Ossuary. Just to keep track of Lee’s body in this poem—it’s everywhere. Her body is being told what it is by someone who may or may not have a vested interest in understanding who she is. But their proximity to…