Craft: Five Things that Prevent People from Writing Better Poems

Herbert, Bidart, "Fur," Hull, "Dirt," Celan

Confronting experience from an intimate distance, or a participatory coldness, the poet moves through two worlds. One world is reality, the touchable, material world; the other world is invisible, hidden, withheld, desire. The responsibility of the poet is to find the language that can show the pinholes in the black velvet dividing the two: to invite th…