Description
Contemporary poetry offers an astonishing range of poets and poetics. We will sample that richness by exploring three books: American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, by Terrance Hayes (seventy sonnets that expand our appreciation for what can happen in fourteen lines); The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, by Kay Ryan (whose signature skinny, gnomic verse can bring to mind Emily Dickinson); and The Government Lake, by James Tate (the final book of wild prose poems by a master of that genre who died in 2015). We will focus on reading poems aloud, sharing what they say to us and about the poet, and consider each poet’s strategies and achievement. Our four meetings will allow room for you to choose poems for our discussion. If you are a fan of contemporary poetry and these poets, or you just want to discover new poetry, come join us.
Kenny Likis is an aspiring poet and retired teacher. He lives in Cambridge.
