Free verse has reigned supreme in poetry for more than a century. It’s difficult for my contemporary mind to experience a formal, more traditional poem (the kind written for at least 3,000 years) as either “that’s how they used to write poems” or “this is going to be a humorous poem.” Rhyming poems seem to lend themselves to humor (think limericks), irony, or even popular songs.
Yet I know full well that contemporary formalist poetry lives and flourishes; it’s even considered something of a movement. Simply read Dana Gioia, Mark Jarman, Brad Leithauser, or Mary Jo Salter, to mention only a few formalist poets. And Losing Streak, the new poetry collection by Paul Willis, falls comfortably into that category of formalism.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Emily Dickinson was no recluse – Claire Lowdon at The Spectator.
Robert Frost’s accidental late start – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.
Watching My Children Play in a Graveyard – poem by Shaun Duncan at Society of Classical Poets.
Rain on Us (A Sunday Psalm) – Jerry Barret at Gerald the Writer.
Three Poets Painting with Agnes Martin’s Brush – Heidi Seaborn at The Adroit Journal.
At Six Months – poem by Pia Purpura at Every Day Poems.
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