Tag Archives: empathy

Clinton F. Larson on Poetic Craft: The Value of Making Excursions into Experience

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Karl Keller, poet, professor, and critic, once called Clinton F. Larson “the first Mormon poet” (ref). Rather, that’s what the editor of Dialogue says Keller argues in his review of Larson’s The Lord of Experience (see the reference link at the end of my first sentence). To be exact, though: Keller opens his review with this claim: “I think that… Read more »

Seeing through the Other’s “I”: Robert Rees’ “Blind Tears”

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Poet Highlight: Robert A. Rees, “Blind Tears” In “Blind Tears” Robert A. Rees becomes a mother in Cambodia. Speaking from her “I,” he strives to put on this fictive woman’s skin, to walk in her shoes, to see the world through her eyes and thus to connect with her and her world in a very personal way. This effort requires… Read more »

Rhetorics of Grace in Sunni Wilkinson’s “Acrobats”

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Anthology Poet Highlight 34/82: Sunni Brown Wilkinson, “Acrobats” (scroll down) “Acrobats” explores rhetorics of grace. It contrasts the simple and scripted made-for-TV “piety”—an easily imitated and consumed brand commodified and encouraged by the (early morning? early afternoon?) televangelist—with the speaker’s own halting attempts to “awaken [her] faith” to something beyond play-acting, beyond miming the preacher “in front of the mirror.” The… Read more »

Jonathon Penny’s “Confession, after battle”: A Soldier’s Litany

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Anthology Poet Highlight 29/82: Jonathon Penny, “Confession, after battle“ At first glance, “Confession” seems a simplistic poem: the poet repeats the same structure for four, essentially five, stanzas, changing only a word per stanzaic turn. The structure is thus something of a template— I’m sorry that I killed your ______ I did not know he was your ______ I only… Read more »