This Art: Poems about PoetryMichael Wiegers The centuries have changed little in this art, Why poetry? What is poetry and why do people write it and read it? Why, as Dana Levin has written, "this urge to making a scrapbook of stars"? Every poet, by accident or design, has responded to "Why poetry" by writing a poem about poetry (an ars poetica). Whether these poems focus on the personal, political, or philosophical, each recognizes that our world is more complicated than a direct statement. As Marvin Bell has written, "Writing is all and everything." This anthology of poems about the art and life of poetry--which draws widely from Copper Canyon's 30-year backlist of poetry books--proves him right. Poets write out of love and longing: Lord, let me live / long enough to dare /a love poem --Cyrus Cassells Poets confront suffering: since we will always have a suffering world, we must also always have a song.--David Budbill And poets write in order to live fully: We all stumble into ourselves /like this, fitting our fingers to the shape of letters,/ while the page gallops out of our reach--Rebecca Seiferle Only poetry lasts.--Ho Xuan Huong Michael Wiegers is the Managing Editor at Copper Canyon Press. CONTRIBUTORS Included: [box] |
From inside the book
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... mouth . The reader must put water and beer in the mouth , and music in the ears , and fan the air for aromas to enter the nostrils . The reader must take these lost heads to heart . The reader must see with the eyes of a skull , comb ...
... mouth , telling his horse how terrible life is because his five - year - old son died yesterday , and not one passenger would listen , pulling the nag's ear down to his mouth , whispering deep into it his unbearable story . STEPHEN BERG ...
... mouth anachrist of the bewildered touch of extreme hands Empty of shit the race is on empty of eyes made of wood with indifference don't you straighten it don't pretend your mouth is not on fire that stupidity bursts the needle ...