inquire

A crossing point for ideas, words, images, and energies

Source

Hayden Bergman, writing in The Literary Review about Martin Ott’s Lessons in Camouflage (C&R Press, 2018):

 

“… all books are wells to dip into for a drink, or maybe for a bucketful. Ultimately, however, they’re not the source of the good that’s to be got here. That comes from other people…”

 

 

Process

Diego Báez, in The Rumpus, reviewing Laurie Ann Guerrero’s A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlan Libre Press, 2015):

 

“… it’s one thing to grieve for a lost love. It’s another to do so publicly. And it’s another endeavor entirely to process loss and love through art for an audience.”

 

 

Organic

Clara B. Jones, in i am not a silent poet, reviewing Arisa White’s You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened (Augury Books, 2016):

 

“Contrary to most male writers, most female writers, especially feminist authors, have boldly chosen to address comfort; personal narratives and personal relationships; egalitarian associations rather than ones based on power differentials; emotions and feelings; language as authentic communication rather than abstraction and symbolism; and, a holistic and an organic view of the world.”

 

 

Mindspace

Trevor Payne, writing in The Literary Review about Rita Bullwinkel’s Belly Up (A Strange Object, 2018):

 

“…nothing replaces the energy transfer that occurs when one body touches another. Otherwise we risk getting trapped in our mindspace, where things can get rather strange in a hurry.”

 

Kaleidoscope

Cynthia Cruz, author of How the End Begins (Four Way Books, 2016), interviewed on the Poetry Society of America website:

 

“America is a kaleidoscope of cultures, influences, voices, etc. We are a hybrid nation so when I think about what is American about American poetry, I think of this.”

 

 

Uncertainty

Charlotte Matthews, interviewed by Nin Andrews in Best American Poetry, about Matthews’ book Whistle What Can’t Be Said (Unicorn Press, 2017):

 

“I feel as if living in a state of pretty much constant uncertainty is, in a way, dwelling among the mysteries of the earth.”

 

 

Mishearing

Eduardo C. Corral, interviewed by Yezmin Villareal in BOMB, about Corral’s book Slow Lightning (Yale Univ. Press, 2012):

 

“As poets, we wrestle with language on the page but we also play with it. I’m always mishearing things in conversations on the subway and it always makes me smile. It always comes when I’m drafting something humorous or tenuous. Black humor is never really like chuckle laughter—it’s a wetted down kind of humor.”

 

 

Posing

Maureen N. McLane, in the Chicago Tribune, writing about Loren Goodman’s book Famous Americans (Yale Univ. Press, 2003):

 

“Most contemporary lyrics look like other contemporary lyrics, 50 or so well-shaped lines that take us through something posing as ‘experience.’”

 

 

Simultaneously

Oscar Bermeo, in The Latin American Review of Books, reviewing Luis Humberto Valadez’s book what i’m on (Univ. of Arizona Press, 2009):

 

“… the poet’s dilemma [is] simultaneously looking back on a life lived and moving forward with that life.”

 

 

Units

Lia Purpura, interviewed by Kathleen Blackburn in The Journal, about Purpura’s book Rough Likeness (Sarabande Books, 2011):

 

“Both the poetic line and the prose sentence are musical units. Musical units of thought.”