somewhere in the margins

Awake, it’s trickier business, this saying
so deliberately what we can only hope means anything.
Especially when we’re at it this late, weighing words
until they somehow seem to matter, until
we look at them again in the next day’s excruciating light
and realize mostly we stayed up all night for not nearly enough.

[…]

          And you wherever you are,
with your own frantic pages of notes to get back to,
another night drunk down to the cold bottom of the cup,
imagining an even better poem somewhere in the margins
of the best you can do right now,
you know how that one goes.

—David Clewell, from “This Book Belongs to Susan Someone,” Blessings in Disguise (Viking Penguin, 1991, The National Poetry Series)

[I've been away from St. Louis for 35 years, but David was a poet I was close to in my last few years there.]

from everything

I took wild honey from the plants,
I took salt from the waters, I took light from the sky.
Listen, my brothers, I took poetry from everything.

—Jorge de Lima, opening lines of “The Distribution of Poetry, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Ecco, 2010), edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris.

new into old

[André] Chénier also experimented from early youth in didactic and philosophic verse, and when he commenced his Hermès in 1783 his ambition was to condense the Encyclopédie of Diderot into a poem somewhat after the manner of Lucretius. This poem was to treat of man’s position in the Universe, first in an isolated state, and then in society. It remains fragmentary, and though some of the fragments are fine, its attempt at scientific exposition approximates too closely to the manner of Erasmus Darwin to suit a modern ear. Another fragment called L’Invention sums Chénier’s Ars Poetica in the verse “Sur des pensers nouveaux, faisons des vers antiques.” ["From new thoughts, let us make antique verses"]

[1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chénier, André de]

rickety answer

Poetry—
but what is poetry anyway?
More than one rickety answer
has tumbled since that question first was raised.
But I just keep on not knowing, and I cling to that
like a redemptive handrail.

—Wislawa Szymborska, from "Some Like Poetry," translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh.

improve the blank page

Young Poets

Write as you will
In whatever style you like
Too much blood has run under the bridge
To go on believing
That only one road is right.

In poetry everything is permitted.

With only this condition of course,
You have to improve the blank page.

—Nicanor Parra, Poems and Antipoems (New Directions, 1966), trans. by Miller Williams.

the fruit

The Fruit

This is how I want the poem to be:
trembling with light, coarse with earth,
murmuring with waters and with wind.

—Eugénio de Andrade, 28 Portuguese Poets (Dedalus Press, Dublin, 2015), translated by Richard Zenith and Alexis Levtin.

Os Frutos

Assim eu queria o poema:
frementa de luz, áspero de terra,
rumoroso de águas e de vento.

secondary source

They often quoted his ars poetica but could hardly recall his poems. [Thinking of Archibald MacLeish]

relative scale

Each poet but a small part of the art.

Ars Poetica Library (work in progress)

A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H.Abrams, Literary Reference, Holt Rinehart Winston 1988 * Selected Writing of Guillaume Apollinaire, Guillaume Apollinaire (R. Shattuck, trans.), Poetry Essays, New Directions 1971 * The Poetics, Aristotle, Poetry Essays, Various Editions * Essays Literary & Critical by Matthew Arnold, Matthew Arnold, Poetry Essays, JM Dent & Son 1906 * Poetic Rhythm: An Introduction, Derek Attridge, Formalism, Metrics, Cambridge U. Press 1996 * The Dyer's Hand, W.H. Auden, Poetry Essays, Vintage 1989 * Forewords & Afterwords, W.H. Auden, Poetry Essays, Vintage 1989 * Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, Erich Auerbach, Literary Criticism, Doubleday Anchor Books 1957 * The Poetics of Reverie, Gaston Bachelard, Philosophy/Aesthetics, Beacon Press 1971 * The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard (Maria Jolas, trans.), Philosophy/Aesthetics, Beacon Press 1969 * Onward: Contemporary Poetry & Poetics, Peter Baker ed., Poetry Essays, Peter Lang Publishing 1996 * An Owen Barfield Reader, Owen Barfield, Poetry Criticism, Wesleyan U. Press 1999 * The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters, Tony Barnstone & Chou Ping, trans., Poetry Essays, Shambhala 1996 * The Making of the Auden Canon , Jos. Warren Beach, Poetry Criticism, Russell & Russell 1971 * Illuminations, Walter Benjamin, Literary Criticism, Schoken Books 1978 * Reflections, Walter Benjamin (Peter Demetz, ed.), Literary Criticism, Schoken Books 1978 * Content's Dream, Charles Bernstein, Poetry Essays, Sun & Moon 1986 * A Poetics, Charles Bernstein, Poetry Essays, Harvard U. Press 1992 * Anxiety of Influence (2nd edition), Harold Bloom, Literary Criticism, Oxford U. Press 1987 * Leaping Poetry, Robert Bly, Poetry Essay & Anthology * News of the Universe, Robert Bly, Poetry Essays & Anthology, Sierra Club Books 1980 * A Poet's Alphabet: Reflections on the Literary Art & Vocation, Louise Bogan (Robt. Phelps & Ruth Limmer, eds.), Poetry Essays, McGraw Hill 1970 * Object Lessons, Eavan Boland, Poetry Essays, Norton 1995 * The Act and the Place of Poetry, Yves Bonnefoy, Poetry Essays, U. of Chicago Press 1989 * Borges Selected Non-Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges, Poetry & Writing, Penguin 2000 * Borges On Writing, Jorge Luis Borges (di Giovanni, Macshane, Halpern, interviewers), Interviews, Ecco Press 1972 * In the Blue Pharmacy: Essays on Poetry and Other Transformations, Marianne Boruch,Poetry Essays, Trinity U. Press 2005 * Yeats at Work, Curtis Bradford, ed., Poetry Manuscript Analysis, Southern Illinois Univ. Press 1965 * The Well-Wrought Urn, Cleanth Brooks, Poetry Criticism, Harvest Books 1956 * The Main of Light: On the Concept of Poetry, Justus Buchler, Philosophy, Oxford 1974 * The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action, Kenneth Burke, Essays: Poetry, Philosophy, Vintage 1941 * A Phlosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Edmund Burke (J. T. Boulton, ed.), Philosophy/Aesthetics, U. of Notre Dame Press 1968 * Selected Essays & Reviews, Hayden Carruth, Poetry Essays, Copper Canyon 1996 * Language and Myth, Ernst Cassirer, Philosophy, Dover 1953 * How Does A Poem Mean, John Ciardi, Poetry Essays, Houghton Mifflin 1959 * Biographia Literaria, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Literary Essays, Various Editions The Language of Criticism & the Structure of Poetry, R.S. Crane, Literary Criticism, U. of Toronto 1953* Selected Writing of Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, editor, Poetry Essays, New Directions 1966 * Poetry & Literature: An Introduction to Its Criticism and History, Benedetto Croce (Giovanni Gullace, trans.), Literary Criticism, S. Illinois U. Press 1981 * The Problem of Style, J.V. Cunningham, Literary Essays, Fawcett Publications 1966 * Poetry As Persuasion, Carl Dennis, Poetry Essays, U. of Georgia Press 2001Poetry in our Time, Babette Deutsch, Poetry Criticism, Columbia U. Press 1952 * Art as Experience, John Dewey, Philosophy, Perigree Books 1980 * Sorties, James Dickey, Poetry Essays, LSU Press 1971 * Walking Light, Stephen Dunn, Poetry Essays, Boa Editions 2001 * The Use of Poetry & the Use of Criticism, T.S. Eliot, Poetry Criticism, Faber & Faber 1933 * The Modern Tradition, Richard Ellman & Chas. Fieldelson, Jr., eds., Literary, Cultural & Art Essays,Oxford 1965 * Complete Essays & Other Writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poetry Essays & Philosophy, Modern Library 1950 * Seven Types of Ambiguity, William Empson, Poetry Criticism, New Directions 1966 * Expansive Poetry: Essays on the New Narrative and New Formalism, Frederick Feirstein, ed., Poetry Essays, Story Line Press 1989 * The Ghost of Meter: Culture & Prosody in American Free Verse, Annie Finch, Formalism/Metrics, U. of Michigan Press 2000 * An Exaltation of Forms, Annie Finch & Katherine Varnes, eds., Formalism/Metrics, U. of Michigan Press 2002 * Romantic Criticism 1800-1850, R.A. Foakes, ed., Poetry Essays. Arnold Publishers 1968 * A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetics Stuart Friebert, David Walker & David Young, eds., Poetry Essays, Oberlin College Press 1997 * Robert Frost on Writing, Robert Frost (Elaine Barry, editor), Poetry Essays, Rutgers 1973 * Selected Prose of Robert Frost, Robert Frost (H. Cox & E.C. Lathem, eds.), Collier Books 1968 * Feeling As A Foreign Language: The Good Strangeness of Poetry, Alice Fulton, Poetry Essays, Graywolf Press 1999 * Poetic Meter & Poetic Form (revised edition), Paul Fussell, Formalism/Metrics, Random House 1979 * The Poet's Work: 29 Masters of the 20th Century Poetry on the Origin and Practice of Their Art, Reginald Gibbons, ed., Poetry Essays, Houghton Mifflin 1979 * Twentieth-Century American Poetics: Poets on the Art of Poetry, Dana Gioia, David Mason & Meg Schoerke, eds., Poetics, McGraw Hill 2003 * Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry & American Culture, Dana Gioia, Poetry Essays, Graywolf Press 1992 * Proofs & Theories, Louise Glück,Poetry Essays. Ecco Press 1994 * The Collected Works: Essays on Art & Literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (John Gearey, editor), Essays: Art & Poetry, Princeton U. Press 1986 * The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, Robert Graves, Poetry Essay, Farrar Straus Giroux 1966 * Oxford Addresses on Poetry, Robert Graves, Poetry Essays, Doubleday 1962 * The Sighted Singer: Two Works on Poetry for Readers and Writers, Allen R. Grossman (Mark Halliday, interviewer), Poetics, Johns Hopkins U. Press 1991 * Of Manywhere-at-Once, Bob Grumman, Poetry Essays * New Expansive Poetry, R.S. Gwynn, ed., Poetry Essays, Story Line Press 1995 * Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry, 1970-76, Donald Hall, Poetry Essays, U. of Michigan Press 1978 * Poetry & Ambition, Donald Hall, Poetry Essays, U. of Michigan Press 1988 * Twentieth Century Pleasures, Robert Hass, Poetry Essays, Ecco Press 1984 * Robert Hayden: Collected Prose, Robert Hayden (F. Glaysher, ed.; foreword by Wm. Meredith), Literary Essays, U. of Michigan Press 1984 * Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-78, Seamus Heaney, Poetry Essays, Farrar Straus Giroux 1980 * The Redress of Poetry. Seamus Heaney, Poetry Essays, Farrar Straus Giroux 1995 * Poetry, Language, Thought, Martin Heidegger (trans. by Albert Hofstadter), Philosophy, Harper Colophon Books 1975 * Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry, W.N. Herbert & Matthew Hollis, eds., Poetry Essays, Bloodaxe Books 2000 * Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Jane Hirshfield, Poetry Essays, HarperCollins 1997 * Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form, Philip Hobsbaum, Formalism/ Metrics, Routledge 1999 * Essentials Of Literary Criticism, Philip Hobsbaum, Poetry Criticism, 1983 * Tradition and Experiment in English Poetry, Philip Hobsbaum. Poetry Criticism 1979 * Rhyme's Reason, John Hollander, Formalism/Metrics, Yale U. Press 1981 * My Emily Dickinson, Susan Howe, Poetry Criticism, North Atlantic Books 1985 * Donald Justice in Conversation, Philip Hoy, interviewer, Interviews * The Triggering Town, Richard Hugo, Poetry Essays, Norton 1979 * Speculations: Essays on Humanism & Philsophy of Art, T.E. Hulme, Philosophy Essays, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1987 * The Auden Generation, Samuel Hynes, Poetry Criticism, Princeton U. Press 1982 * The Failure of Poetry, The Promise of Language, Laura (Riding) Jackson (John Nolan, ed.), Poetry Essays, U. of Michigan 2007 * The Instant of Knowing, Josephine Jacobsen, Poetry Essay, Library of Congress (pamphlet) * The Reaper Essays, Mark Jarman & Robert McDowell, Poetry Essays, Story Line Press 1996 * Kipling, Auden & Company: Essays & Reviews 1935-1964, Randall Jarrell, Poetry Essays & Reviews, Farrar Straus Giroux 1980 * Poetry and The Age, Randall Jarrell, Poetry Essays & Reviews. Vintage 1959 * The Complete Perfectionist: A Poetics of Work, Juan Ramon Jiménez (Christopher Maurer, trans. & ed.), Poetry Aphorisms, Doubleday 1997 * Donald Justice Reader, Donald Justice, Poetry Essays, University Press of New England 2003 * The Pound Era, Hugh Kenner, Poetry Criticism, U. of California 1971 * The Romantic Image, Frank Kermode, Literary Criticism, Vintage 1964 * The Poetry of Criticism: Horace Epistles II and Ars Poetica, Rpss S. Kirkpatrick, Poetry Criticism, U. of Alberta Press 1990 * Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry 1800-1950, Melissa Kwasny, ed., Poetry Essays, Wesleyan U. Press 2004 * Feeling and Form, Susanne K.Langer, Philosophy/Aesthetics , Chas. Scribners 1953 * Paul Valéry: An Anthology, James Lawler, editor, Art & Literary Essays, Routledge 1977 * Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays, L.T. Lemon & M.J. Reis, trans., Literary Criticism, U. of Nebraska Press 1965 * Light Up the Cave, Denise Levertov, Poetry New Directions New & Selected Essays, Denise Levertov, Poetry Essays, New Directions 1992 * Stone Cottage: Pound, Yeats & Modernism, James Logenbach, Poetry Criticism, Oxford 1998 * On the Sublime, Loginius, Aesthetics, Various Editions * In Search of Duende, Federico Garcia Lorca (N. T. DiGiovanni & C. Maurer, trans.), Essays, New Directions 1999 * Poetry & Experience, Archibald MacLeish, Poetry Essays, Houghton Mifflin 1960 * Creative Intuition in Art & Poetry, Jacques Maritain, Poetry & Art Essays, Pantheon 1953 * Versification: A Short Introduction, James McAuley, Formalism/Metrics. Michigan State U. Press 1966 * Worlds into Words: Understanding Modern Poems, Diane Middlebrook, Poetry Criticism, Norton 1980 * The Witness of Poetry, Czeslaw Milosz, Poetry Essays, Harvard U. Press 1983 * Selected Essays of Eugenio Montale, Eugenio Montale (Jonathan Galassi, trans.), Poetry Essays, Ecco 1982 * Predilections: literary essays, Marianne Moore, Poetry Essays, Viking Press 1955 * The Bedford Glossary of Critical & Literary Terms, Ross Murfin & Supryia M. Ray, Literary Reference, Bedford 1997 * Basic Writings of Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy/Aesthetics, Modern Library 2000 * Rules for the Dance: Handbook for Writing & Reading Metrical Verse, Mary Oliver, Formalism/Metrics, Mariner Books 1998 * A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver, Poetry Reference, Harvest Books 1994 * The Other Voice, Octavio Paz, Poetry Essays, Harvest Books 1992 * The Bow & the Lyre, Octavio Paz, U. of Texas Press 1973 * Poetics of Inderterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage, Majorie Perloff, Poetry Criticism, Princeton U. Press 1981 * The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide, Robert Pinsky, Formalism/Metrics, Farrar Straus Giroux 1998 * Poetry And The World, Robert Pinsky, Poetry Criticism, Ecco Press 1988 * Selected Prose: 1909-1965, Ezra Pound, Literary Essays, New Directions * ABC of Reading, Ezra Pound, Poetry Essays, New Directions 1934 * Guide to Kulchur, Ezra Pound, Poetry Essays, New Directions Literary Essays Ezra Pound, Poetry Essays, New Directions * The Imagist Poem, William Pratt, ed., Poetry Criticism, Dutton * The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics (3rd Edition), Alex Preminger, ed., Poetry Reference, Princeton U. Press 1993 * Like a Writer, Francine Prose, Writing Essays * Disjunctive Poetics: From Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Susan Howe, Peter Quatermain, Poetry Criticism, Cambridge 1992 * Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau, Writing Essay in Versions of Single Story, New Directions 1981 * Assays, Kenneth Rexroth, Poetry & Literary Essays, New Directions 1961 * American Poetry in the Twentieth Century, Kenneth Rexroth, Poetry Essays, Continuum Book 1973 * Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose, 1979-1986, Adrienne Rich, Poetry Essays, Norton 1986 * On Lies, Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966-1978, Adrienne Rich, Poetry Essays, Norton 1979 * What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics, Adrienne Rich, Poetry Essays, Norton 1993 * Practical Criticism, I. A. Richards, Literary Criticism, Harvest Books 1956 * Letters on Cezanne, Rainer Maria Rilke (ed. Clara Rilke; trans. by Joel Agee), Art Essays, Fromme International 1985 * Where Silence Reigns: Selected Prose, Rainer Maria Rilke (G. Craig Houston, trans.), Poetry Essays, New Directions 1978 * Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke (M. D. Herter, trans.), Poetry Essays, Norton 1934 * Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke 1943-1963, Theodore Roethke (David Wagoner, ed.), Poet's Journal, Doubleday 1972 * On the Poet and His Craft: Selected Prose, Theodore Roethke (Ralph J. Mills, ed.), Poetry Essays, U. of Washington Press 1965 * The Dream of the Marsh Wren, Patiann Rogers, Poetry Essays, Milkweed Editions 1999 * The Modern Poetic Sequence, M.L.Rosenthal & Sally M. Gall, U. of Oxford Press 1983 * The Life of Poetry, Muriel Rukeyser, Poetry Essays, Paris Press 1996The World of Poetry: Poets & Critics on the Art & Function of Poetry, Clive Sansom, ed., Poetry Quotes, Phoenix House 1959 * Naïve & Sentimental Poetry - On the Sublime, Friedrich von Schiller, Philosophy, Poetry, Aesthetics, Frederick Ungar Publishing 1966 * Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Friedrich Schlegel (trans. by Behler & Struc), Poetics, Penn. St. Univ. Press 1968 * John Dryden on Dramatic Poetry and other critical essays, George Watson, ed., Poetry Essays, J.M. Dent & Sons 1962 * Lives of the Poets, Michael Schmidt, Poetry Bios and Commentary, Vintage 2000 * Schopenhauer: Essays & Aphorisms, Arthur Schopenhauer (RJ Hollingdale, trans.), Philosophy Penguin 1970 * A Poet's Journal: Days of 1945-1951, George Seferis, Poet's Journal, Belknap (Harvard U. Press) 1974 * Prose Keys to Modern Poetry, Karl Shapiro, ed., Poetry Essays, U. of Nebraska Press 1962 * A Defence of Poetry, Sir Philip Sidney, Poetry Essay, Various Editions Leopardi and the Theory of Poetry, G. Singh, Literary Criticism. U. of Kentucky Press 1964 * A Poet's Notebook, Edith Sitwell, Poetry Quotes, Macmillan & Co. 1944 * De/Compositions, W.S. Snodgrass, Poetry Praxis, Graywolf Press 2001 * The Making of a Poem, Stephen Spender, Poetry Essays, Norton 1962 * House That Jack Built: Cthe Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer, Jack Spicer (ed. Peter Gizzi), Poetry Essays, Wesleyan U. Press 1998 * Where The Angels Come Toward Us, David St. John, Poetry Essays, White Pine Press 1995 * Appreciation: Painting, Poetry and Prose, Leo Stein, Art Essays, Random House 1947 * Writing the Australian Crawl, William Stafford, Poetry Essays, U. of Michigan Press 1978 * Missing Measures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt Against Meter, Timonthy Steele, Poetry Essays, U. of Arkansas Press 1990 * How Writing is Written: Volume II of the Previously Uncollected Writings, Gertrude Stein (Robert Bartlett Haas, ed.), Essays, Black Sparrow Press 1974 * The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality & the Imagination, Wallace Stevens, Poetry Essays, Vintage 1951 * Sur Plusiers Beaux Sujects: Wallace Stevens' Commonplace Books, Wallace Stevens (Milton Bates, ed.), Poet's Commonplace Book, Stanford U. Press 1989 * Poetry and the Fate of the Senses, Susan Stewart, Poetry Essays, University of Chicago Press 2002 * Theories & Documents of Contemporary Art: A Source Book of Artist's Writings, Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz, eds., Art Essays U. of California 1996 * The Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Poetry, and Calligraphy, Michael Sullivan, Poetry & Art, George Braziller 1999 * The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics (3rd Edition), Lewis Turco, Formalism/Metrics, U. of New England Press 2000 * 45 Contemporary Poems: The Creative Process, Albeta Turner, Poetry Praxis, Longman 1985 * Lives of the Poets: The Story of One Thousand Years of English & American Poetry, Louis Untermeyer, Short Biographical Essays, Replica Books 1999 * Introduction to Poetry: Commentaries on Thirty Poems, Mark Van Doren, Poetry Essays, Hill & Wang 1968 * Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari (E. L. Seeley, trans.), Artist Biographies, Noonday 1957 * Soul Says, Helen Vendler, Literary Criticism, Harvard U. Press 1995 * Words Chosen Out of Desire, Helen Vendler, Literary Criticism, U. of Tenn. Press 1984 * Telling It Slant: Avant Garde Poetics in the 1990s, Mark Wallace, Poetry Essays, U. of Alabama Press 2001 * Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, Eliot Weinberger & Octavio Paz, editors, Poetry Essay, Moyer Bell 1987 * Concepts of Criticism, René Wellek, Literary Criticism, Yale U. Press 1963 * The Embodiment of Knowledge, William Carlos William, Poetry Essays, New Directions 1974 * Selected Essays of William Carlos. Williams William Carlos, Poetry Essays, New Directions 1969 * In Defense of Reason, Yvor Winters, Poetry Essays, U. of Denver Press 1937 * The Japanese Haiku, Kenneth Yasuda, Poetry Criticism, Chas. E. Tuttle 1957 * Essays & Introductions, W. B. Yeats, Literary Essays,Collier Books 1961 * A Defence of Ardor, Adam Zagajewski (Clare Cavanaugh, trans.), Poetry and Art Essays, Farrar Straus Giroux 2004 * Multum in Parvo: an essay in poetic imagination, Carl Zigrosser, Poetry Essays, George Braziller 1965 * Lyrical Philosophy, Jan Zwicky, Poetry, Philosophy, U. of Toronto Press 1992 * Wisdom & Metaphor, Jan Zwicky, Poetry, Philosophy, Gaspereau Press 2003