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Time and the Poem | The Poetry Foundation

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Having just been at George Mason University where I gave a craft talk, a reading, and a talk about publishing, I offer the following: “Craft” is not a word I use very much when I speak to myself about poetry. I don’t consider that I am crafting something, but rather that I am listening to something, allowing something, or at times, searching for something. Of course I do craft, but very differently than I was taught to when I was in school. I don’t think about making “strong lines,” I don’t think of crating a sense of inevitability or closure in the poem. I don’t think of taking out “excess.” Rather, I think more as a dancer thinks about choreography. I think about density and lightness. I think about opening space up, or crowding it. Sometimes I consider moving more firmly forward, or stopping, or pausing. And I think about time. Christina Battle, a video and film artist I have worked with, told me that she considers her work to be the “making of time.” It takes a lot of time, she onc

This post is written on an Amtrak train careening from DC to NY. Having just been at George Mason University where I gave a craft talk, a reading, and a talk about publishing, I offer the following: “Craft” is not a word I use very much when I speak to myself about poetry. I don’t consider that I am crafting something, but rather that I am listening to something, allowing something, or at times, searching for something. Of course I do craft, but very differently than I was taught to when I was in school. I don’t think about making “strong lines,” I don’t think of crating a sense of inevitabili

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