There are a lot of people named Brian Spears out there, and a few of them are more famous than I am. That's not a high bar to clear, mind you--I'm a poet, for starters, and even the best known poets in the US are barely recognized at literary conferences. I don't even have a … Continue reading Me. Not me.
What’s the lesson here?
The anthology I use in my Interpretation of Poetry classes divides poems up by form and by theme. Since it's an introductory class, I tend to work with thematic similarities more than formal ones--sophomores, I've discovered, aren't as entranced with the sonnet the way I can be, but they can get into a group of … Continue reading What’s the lesson here?
Dismal Rock by Davis McCombs
In the end notes of his second book, Dismal Rock, Davis McCombs gives credit for the form of his opening sequence, titled "Tobacco Mosaic," to a sequence written by Les Murray. But I'd say there's another influence at play in the sound of those poems. His use of jargon and local description reminds me a … Continue reading Dismal Rock by Davis McCombs
Wendell Berry
Berry's on my mind because I just taught his poem "Enriching the Earth" to my second-year poetry students this week, and was dismayed (though not at all surprised) at how little they knew of the world they inhabit. We live in the industrial age of food, where an ever smaller number of people grow the … Continue reading Wendell Berry
What I’m Reading
I am woefully ignorant for a contemporary poet about the history of 20th century poetry. Part of that has to do with my graduate school, which focused on the New Critics and the Southern Agrarians when it focused on the 20th century at all, and I was far more interested in Dante in translation and … Continue reading What I’m Reading
Summer reading list
Yeah, I know--it feels like summer outside down here in south Florida, but we're still weeks and weeks away from it. Nonetheless, I have to provide our book purchasing system a list of texts for my class this summer. I've been given a terrific opportunity this summer--a 4000 level Modern Poetry class. It's only six … Continue reading Summer reading list
Sex in Poetry
I'm always amused by how younger generations are convinced that the poetry of the past was stolid and conservative, that the people of 400 years ago certainly would never have mentioned sex, and if it did, with only the mildest euphemisms. One of my first-day-of-class activities every semester is to give my students a handout … Continue reading Sex in Poetry
What happens with a writing exercise gone wrong
So I'm rooting though piles of old files (figuratively--I was searching through folders that somehow got moved onto this computer) and I come across this gem of a poem. It was written as part of a challenge in my second semester Form and Theory class. We had to write a poem about a subject we … Continue reading What happens with a writing exercise gone wrong
"Problems with Hurricanes"
Anyone who lives in a hurricane area knows the dangers from wind and rain, but Victor Hernandez Cruz points to the real dangers. The campesino who speaks in his poem says "it's the mangoes, avocados / Green plaintains and bananas / Flying into town like projectiles" that are the real danger, because there's more than … Continue reading "Problems with Hurricanes"
An interesting new journal
I am ambivalent, at best, about my graduate school experience. Fayetteville, Arkansas isn't the hippest place in the world to spend four years, after all. But Amy turned me onto a new project that some of the grad students there have put together. It's called Linebreak, and it's a format I haven't seen before. They … Continue reading An interesting new journal
Another Poem to Love 