The Sharpener: two year anniversary

I started The Sharpener two years ago, November 20, 2020, with the goal of improving thinking about poetry and improving thinking by reading poetry.

Poetry is absolutely necessary as a mode of thought and expression at this moment in the 21st century. Poetry can teach us how to deal with ambiguity and metamorphosis. Adam Zagajewski said: “Poetry should have a conscious relationship to the field of thinking, which is the field of contradiction.” The best poems give clarity to this relationship.

Poems confront what her called the “cruelty of thinking,” a suffering of loss that comes from choices we make. Understanding how to put our deepest selves through the sieve of language and reaching others is poetry’s goal.

I’ve posted every day except Sunday, plus a craft essay about some kind of writing problem every Saturday. This totals 626 daily posts and 104 Saturday essays. The newsletter has grown to 953 subscribers and 232 paid subscribers.

I designed The Sharpener to be a third space outside the caretakers of the social media system and the MFA system. I wanted to curate and share overlooked, under appreciated, and forgotten poems and poets.

The Sharpener is part of a group of ventures I run from my web site with these goals in mind: editorial services, guided poetry reading groups, Zoom consults for private tutoring, and teaching, particularly my Jewish Poetry Workshop which happens over Zoom on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Paid subscribers receive a weekly essay on a writing problem (such as shame, imposter syndrome, revision, format, sincerity) or a craft issue (such as short poems, voice, avoidance), or a deep dive into an underrated poet (Rosemary Tonks, Russell Atkins, Lorine Niedecker). These subscribers also support my work to produce the daily free posts, and to further poetry across barriers. The Sharpener works because of your support and I am grateful.

If you read this newsletter and value it, consider going to the paid version.

If you are unemployed or under-employed, just email and I’ll give you a free subscription, no questions asked. If you’d like to underwrite one of those subscriptions, you can donate one here.

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And you can always reach me at sean.singer@gmail.com.

—Sean