William Doreski lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire. His most recent collection of poetry is Waiting for the Angel (2009). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell's Shifting Colors. His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals, including Massachusetts Review, Notre Dame Review, The Alembic, New England Quarterly, Harvard Review, Modern Philology, Antioch Review, Natural Bridge.
ars poetica
Poetry is a way of negotiating the distance between the self and the world. We live inside our heads, but we deal with the world out there-the world of other people, of nature, and so on. The proper language of poetry is direct and plainspoken, but the perceptions it embodies may be complex. Poems must be multifarious, many-voiced, and draw on all areas of experience, including intellectual, emotional, and sensuous perceptions. Poetry may not reconcile the irreconcilable, but it at least must acknowledge the incongruity of our daily lives. Form is a way of shaping the tool to fit the situation, no more. Rhythm acknowledges the sensuality of language. Metaphor accommodates the correspondences all around us. The completed poem, like a neolith, scratches at the surface of the psyche. Sometimes it leaves no marks, sometimes it leaves deep gouges.
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