Nonfiction
A Defense of Train Wrecks: Lyric Narrative Poetry and the Legacy of Confessionalism
After the train wreck of broken-prose confessionalism, there seems to be a general heightened emphasis upon technique, an understanding that, for the best poets, technique is coextensive with feeling, and that many of the elements associated with traditional technique must … Continue reading
On Association
It is an acknowledged truth that the dominant mode in contemporary poetry is the associative. A cursory glance through the nation’s top journals, or at its most prestigious first-book prizes or its most celebrated contemporary anthologies— at those points, that … Continue reading
Things that Fall from the Sky
Rocks From a freeway overpass in Central Pennsylvania, four teenage boys fling rocks at traffic passing beneath them along Route 80. One misses hitting anything but the highway. One nearly the size of a bowling ball bounces off the cab … Continue reading