alive like that

Model for a poem: A late summer field full of weeds and wildflowers, visited by butterflies and birds.

high perch

Model for a line of poetry: First, imagine a high perch, and then arrange some songbirds along its length.

against the stream

Poet, don’t go with the flow. Think of the stones in a stream, the way they impede and change the direction of the water. Make that a model for revision.

things carried along

Model for a poem: The wind along the street catches up leaves, bits of paper and other debris.

stand in

These days it may be worth it to hire a model for your author photo.

what happens underground

Model for a poem: rabbit warren.

book of forms

All the world, things immense and small, things static and moving, are possible models for the poem.

fireworks

Perhaps the model of a good MFA program would be a kind of revolving hub, centered around a workshop set spinning with its aesthetic energy, generating critical friction, throwing off sparks—those MFA graduates who start their own creative fires across the cultural landscape.

confident strut

Poet, stride the line like a model walks a runway.

paradox of the one-off

When a work is sui generis it becomes less useful as a model to latter poets. It’s too tight a box, leaving no elbow room for the followers, marking as merely derivative all their attempts to creatively employ its attributes.