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...