What Will Suffice: Contemporary American Poets on the Art of Poetry

by Christopher Buckley (Editor), Christopher Merrill (Introduction)

Overview

A poem is a moral and mythic construct. Each decision the writer makes concerning the subject matter, form, diction, and tone reveals something about his or her vision of the world. Nowhere is that vision more on display than in an ars poetica, which is where a poet takes stock, writing down his or her articles of faith. An ars poetica is also a barometer for the cultural climate of one's times, and what the "readings" contained in this book suggest about post-Cold War America is that there are countless ways to interpret and transform our experiences. In the new world order the theater has changed yet again: the rise of ethnic conflict, neofascism, nationalism, and religious fundamentalism; the depletion of the earth's resources and devastation of innumberable ecosystems; continuing economic problems in both the developed and developing parts of the world; overpoplulation, the spread of AIDS and other communicable diseases;—these are dangers everyone faces. And poets are finding, in small ways and large, what will suffice for the next act.
—Christopher Merrill

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780879056926
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	08/31/1995
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Christopher Merrill pf Potland, Oregon, is a judge for the annual Peregrine Smith Poetry contest. He also edited Forgotten Language.

Read an Excerpt

Redwing Blackbirds by Fred Dings

This morning they came like the dying reclaiming their old lives, delirious with joy right on the seam of spring,
streaming in by the tattered thousands like black leaves blowing back onto the trees.

But the homeless know what's expected by now,
and whent he farmer fired into their body,
they rose all around me like trembling black wound gaping red at the shoulders,
a river of pain draining into the sky.

Tonight, as I look at the cold sky and its flock of blue-white scars,
I can't yet turn from Orion's red star whose trembling red light has travelled for years to die now into any eyes that will hold it.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction
(Followed by Lists of Poems)