I am pleased to release my latest offering: The Subcutaneous Art: A Collection of Short Essays on Poetry
“Poetry. I, too, dislike it.” Marianne Moore wrote that a century ago and it still lives, ubiquitous on T-shirts and coffee mugs. But it’s not really about liking or disliking poetry. Here’s the full quote:
Like it or not, the hallmark of a good poem is that it won’t leave us alone. Such a poem realizes a moment when the push of external reality is balanced, with the fineness of a gold-dealer’s scales, by the interior reality of the poet pushing back. As Moore proved throughout her long life, poetry can be a consuming engagement that won’t let go and won’t go away.
The essays in The Subcutaneous Art come out of my own lifelong engagement with poetry, one that won’t let go and has never gone away. Within its pages, I explore enduring questions:
- What makes a poem a poem?
- Is there a difference between poetry and verse?
- How do sound and sense combine to create meaning?
- What is the role of form, and what does metaphor achieve?
- Can a poet be wrong — on the facts, on politics, on everything — and the poem still be right?
Like any of us, poets follow the instinct to go where they are most alive. They are like expert skiers: Their large describing curves converting mountainside to speed, they explode from powder, dangle in miles of icy air. They seek with all the passions of an avalanche to redress imbalances. They write in the faith that the world never tires of — indeed has an unlimited appetite for — the real thing.
I hope this collection offers new insights into poetry and deepens your own engagement with it. I’m offering it for free when you sign up for my free newsletter.