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Poetry Is Not A Project (2010)

by Dorothea Lasky(Favorite Author)

4.54 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Ugly Duckling Presse

review 1: Much of this resonated with me, as I've never described my poetry as part of a project, and it has always felt like a stigma to not have one. (Maybe now that will not be the case?) Up until a couple years ago, when I stopped caring about how to describe my poems and what others might think of that description (also when I started to understand them, and what I wanted to do with them, better), I used to feel somewhat ashamed not to have a project. One colleague asked me what my poems were about. I said, I don't know. Me? Nothing in particular? He replied, Well they have to be about something! In a way, he's right, and I think my poems are about something, but also I was like, whatever! Who cares how we label them? Let's just read them!All of which is to say that I welcome t... morehe argument that Lasky makes here, which is essentially that the word "project" limits what poems do and how they can be heard. "Naming your intentions is great for some things, but not for poetry. Projects are bad for poetry," she writes. "Being able to talk about the process of your work as a poet can sometimes breed its mediocrity -- to be that detached." There's a lightness to the tone here -- the concluding idea is that poetry is a party -- that works both with and against the impact of what's being said. And it must be said that this pamphlet is a beauty to hold, a pleasure to rub fingertips over its cover.
review 2: This little book makes an argument about poetry that is fun to read and discuss in drawing rooms. It says like okay basically when you do a poem you just have to DO IT, you know, but not as if you were doing a science project. I think it's a risky position because a lot of people do do poems like science and well those are okay. Still I am glad someone is taking a position on poetry and I hope to see more. And this book is so handsome too, letterpressed and with cool drawings of kids. less

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