Category Archives: Poetic Analysis

Meet The New Face Of Free Verse

I’m going to do something I said I don’t do and have only done once before. It’s not often and as a general rule, I don’t publish my poetry on this blog or elsewhere until it has found a home in a journal or publication somewhere. I’m making an exception here, the reason of which [...]

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Poets, Poems, And Critics

The Poetry Archive has published its 100th CD of poetry.
Oh, those The New Yorker covers.
Recordings of Robert Creeley.
I’ve never heard anyone say Ayn Rand was the reason they decided to become a poet.
Harold Bloom’s “Song of Myself”.
Bill Hayward’s Bob Dylan.
Tea with Dante.

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Watch Out, Man, Don't Trip Over That Post-Avant!

I’ve been amused over the months reading Ron Silliman’s ideas on post-avant poetry and what he calls the School of Quietude. I’ve been a bit confused mostly, wondering what he meant by them for I had never heard anyone else talk about them. But since I’ve been in and out of the poetry world for [...]

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Hey, Poets, Come Get Some Comment Luv

This is the 300th post for the World Class Poetry Blog and to commemorate this historic event I’ve made a few administrative changes that I hope will be welcome improvements. For starters, I’ve changed my tag line. You’ll notice that the header of this blog now says, under the blog title, “Intelligent Commentary On 21st [...]

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Poetry's Harshest Critic Retracts A Comment

Sometimes I’m a bit harsh. At times, too harsh. Such was the case last week when I said that Brian Turner’s book of poems Here, Bullet was more telling than showing. Since then, I have read through the book twice more and each time I see different nuances of his experience that before I hadn’t [...]

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The 7th Appeal Of Poetic Voice (And Notes On The Spiritual)

Thanks to Jim Murdoch for asking the question about the ’spiritual’ on my post on the 6 appeals of poetic voice a few days ago. I have a few words to say about that, but first I’d like to mention a 7th appeal of voice to add to the previous 6. I don’t know why [...]

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Why Does Bradley Lastname Write Like That?

I just recently posted a new book review at World Class Poetry. As you’ll see, I have a mixed reaction to Bradley Lastname’s brand of Dada verse. Some of it is quite good, actually, for word play. And if you know anything about me, I like word play almost as much as I like foreplay. [...]

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Billy The Blogging Poet Is Quitting

Found in the margins – what musicians read.
Is Billy bowing out?
Relief from the pain of war.
John Updike on American Art.
Poetry for the joy of God.
Out of the mouths of babes.
$4 per gallon gasoline and a poem on a train.
Debauchery rules.
On the state of writing careers.
A rich bitch a la carte.
Should writers be marketers?

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Is Barack Obama A Poet?

No matter what else he may be, Barack Obama is no poet.
Diane Lockward recommends these Letters to the World.
It pays to be the world’s worst poet.
On writing German haiku.
Jilly Dybka publishes Trouble and Honey.
Poetry publishing basics for beginners.
A scrap of paper wins the contest.
Defending criticism.
Should poets write poems about poems?

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Mark Jarman's Religious Sonnets: Why I'm Not Impressed

I have been meaning to purchase a copy of Mark Jarman’s new book of prose poems titled Epistles. It was my desire to bloviate, I think, but I put it off. I was hoping to share one of the poems on this blog this month in honor of religious poetry, but I have still not [...]

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