Essays

The Beige Notes

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2020/04/the-beige-notes My poetry is open to everything. Sort of. I write so you can see there is a world outside the page/screen. Breaking my own rules and habits is how I work. Like rippling waves: the music that irrigates the writing of a poem. The ferment of each poet seems to be a contentious subject. …

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Arc & Handle

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2017/04/arc-handle The poem is not the route to anything. It is the route. Endless. So a poem has to be written whether by word or by silence. And I want to be released from the obligations of definition. Somehow a poem must have its way with the poet or else it will grow bored with …

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So Even While

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2016/03/so-even-while To be a poet in capitalistic America is a rebellious act. When it comes to manifestos, I change the subject. Does the poem care whether you have expectations or not? Today I didn’t invent my reader. My reader invented me. Functioning, charging, exploring every crevice of a poem’s musicality and barraging its camouflage with …

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Turn it Loose

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2016/03/turn-it-loose What else but a poem in a state of tension. A crack in a poem. Lines seen through doorways, sidewalks, arches, lips. A hint of the poet’s viewpoint. His or her choices may not resolve the mystery of the words looking back at us. Pre-determined meaning and method are not what the poem I …

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