How a Poem Moves

A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry

Adam Sol

• Verlag: ECW Press
• Jahr: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781773053172
• Thema: Letteratura
• Thema: Critica letteraria nella poesia

A collection of playfully elucidating essays to help reluctant poetry readers become well-versed in verse

Developed from Adam Sol's popular blog, How a Poem Moves is a collection of 35 short essays that walks readers through an array of contemporary poems. Sol is a dynamic teacher, and in these essays, he has captured the humor and engaging intelligence for which he is known in the classroom. With a breezy style, Sol delivers essays that are perfect for a quick read or to be grouped together as a curriculum.

Though How a Poem Moves is not a textbook, it demonstrates poetry's range and pleasures through encounters with individual poems that span traditions, techniques, and ambitions. This illuminating book is for readers who are afraid they "don't get" poetry but who believe that, with a welcoming guide, they might conquer their fear and cultivate a new appreciation.

How a Poem Moves

A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry

Adam Sol

Contents

Introduction

How a Poem Puts Skin on a Mystery

Philip Levine, “Making Light of It”

How a Poem Shapes Memory

Deborah Digges, “Stealing Lilacs in the Cemetery”

How a Poem Articulates a Feeling

C.K. Williams, “Love: Beginnings”

How a Poem Crystalizes an Image

Yusef Komunyakaa, “Yellowjackets”

How a Poem Makes Meaning with Music

Elise Partridge, “Domestic Interior: Child Watching Mother”

How a Poem Snapshots a Moment of Drama

Tiphanie Yanique, “My brother comes to me”

How a Poem Seduces Us with Outlandishness

Diane Seuss, “Free beer”

How a Poem Cooks Up Dark Insight

Philip Metres, “Recipe from the Abbasid”

How a Poem Pushes Us Away and Beckons Us Closer

Marilyn Dumont, “How to Make Pemmican”

How a Poem Wrestles with Its Inheritance

Rahat Kurd: “Ghazal: In the Persian”

How a Poem Lives Between Languages

Natalia Toledo, translated by Clare Sullivan, “Flower That Drops Its Petals”

How a Poem Invites Us to Praise

Ross Gay, “Ode to Drinking Water from My Hands”

How a Poem Answers Some Questions but Not Others

Amber McMillan, “The Light I’ve Seen in Your Hair I Have Found in My Own Hands”

How a Poem Clarifies Its Blur

Jeff Latosik, “Aubade Photoshop”

How a Poem Changes As We Read

Ali Blythe, “Shattered”

How a Poem Will (Not) Save Us

Raoul Fernandes, “Life with Tigers”

How a Poem Loves a Misunderstanding

Richard Siken, “Dots Everywhere”

How a Poem Mistrusts Its Idols

Cassidy McFadzean, “You Be the Skipper, I’ll Be the Sea”

How a Poem Doesn’t Dish

Damian Rogers, “Ode to a Rolling Blackout”

How a Poem Impersonates a Tomato

Oliver Bendorf, “Queer Facts about Vegetables”

How a Poem Seeks New Models

Shannon Maguire, “[The most visible ants are]”

How a Poem Makes Itself Out of Unusual Materials

Madhur Anand, “Especially in a Time”

How a Poem Chooses the Apocalypse Behind Curtain #3

Jennifer L. Knox, “The New Let’s Make a Deal”

How a Poem Assembles a Smashed Record for Posterity

George Murray, from “#DaydreamBereaver”

How a Poem Tries to Connect Us, Despite the Obstacles

Donna Stonecipher’s “Model City [4]”

How a Poem Welcomes Us to the Neighbourhood

Bren Simmers, “[Night of nesting dolls]”

How a Poem Evokes Wonder

Sarah Holland-Batt, “Botany”

How a Poem Reaches f...