The first line of this poem is a reference to W. S. Merwin's preface to his "Second Four Books of Poems," in which he writes that he "relinquished punctuation," because he had begun to feel that "it stapled the poems to the page." For Merwin, punctuation makes poetry overly rational. I am often (though not always) drawn to such relinquishing as well. Though it risks disorientation, letting go of the organizing principle of punctuation makes poetry both more and less rational for me. No matter how drifty things get, I have to be absolutely sure of what I'm saying, at least eventually, and think a lot about the penumbra of meaning each word casts, and how each one shadows and leads into the next.
Matthew Zapruder on "Thoughts on Punctuation" |
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Jesse Nathan Interviews Poet Elizabeth Metzger
"When what looks imperfect also looks balanced to me, I trust it. The unevenness of form speaks to the humility of being human. What is vulnerability, what is an injury or wound, but something either missing or extra: a scab, a bump, a lump, a bruise, a cut, a fracture? The poem is as awkward as a body in this way, but the ghost of what it should be is often suggested."
via MCSWEENEY'S |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Melissa Kwasny on "Sleeping with the Cedars"
"Most of us are frightened of the future and grief stricken at what humans have done to the earth. As I see it, one of the unique tasks of poets, especially at this time, is to be in imaginative relation with the Earth. And to use language as a tool toward that effort. To have an imaginative—as opposed to an abstract or intellectual—relationship with the earth is to be in attendance to what Denise Levertov called 'other forms of life that want to live.'" |
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Write with Poetry Daily This April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, we'll share popular writing prompts from our "What Sparks Poetry" essay series each morning. Write along with us!
Write a poem that describes any kind of argument. It can be prose or in lines, real, imagined, or a bit of both. You can describe the whole argument or particular aspects of it. The main thing that should happen is, you should end up in a different place from where you began. In this piece of writing, you’re not mounting an argument—it’s not an essay for the debate team—you’re exploring the components of the argument. Feel free to change your mind. Arda Collins |
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