Poetry and the body go together. Hand and hand. Brain and brain. Skin to skin.
And poetry is a body of imagined things. A doll. A strange doll. This is what I am pondering on before I hit the hay tonight: poetry is a stamp and a maker of history, as with all writing. The form poetic verse takes is more like that of a body than prose, however, as the lines are often defined and linked together by enjambment (bones or glue).
2011 was a year of many changes for me-- a rollover from 2010. Everything rolled on and on into a whole year: I worked in four different cities, lived in three different houses, picked things up, put things down, misplaced myself, and found myself again.
Not much stayed the same for me in 2011, and with things so rapidly changing, I didn't dedicate myself to many full length collections of poetry (or to reading full novels for that matter). My attention span fractured into many small pieces, but I did pick up literary goodness here and there, and where and when my brain would allow. However, making a best of list isn't something that I can rightfully do this year.
I feel guilty about that, but on the upside, I have some awesome friends in poetry who run an awesome vlog, and I'd like to share their best of videos here.
Jess was my neighbor in Pittsburgh, and we attended Chatham University's MFA program together. She is an amazing, hilarious woman, and soul sister in verse. I trust her taste in poetry more than I trust my own taste in shoes. I haven't read any of the books on her list, but I plan to, and so should everyone else out there who has a brain.
I also met Carolyne at Chatham. We attended a summer program together, and I will never forget how I immediately wanted to be her friend (she had on pink and leopard print). Her taste and love for Pittsburgh is impeccable, and I cannot wait to read her book! One of the books she mentions, "Border Theory," is also written by a Chatham alum, Stephanie Wielkopolan. I used Stephanie's thesis as a guideline for my own. What I know of her poetry: the words are of place and brash truth. I look forward to reading more of this book.
Thanks Jess and Carolyne for your voices, opinion, and being who you are!
