Author Archives: Tyler

Situating Sonosophy: De/Constructing Alex Caldiero’s Poetarium

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Back in April, I presented some of my recent research on Alex Caldiero’s performance poetics at the annual conference for the Association for Mormon Letters. Since then I’ve been thick in the middle of preparing for, then taking (and passing!), my comprehensive exams for my doctoral degree. Now it’s time to dig into that dissertation, which is on Alex’s work…. 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 »

Lance Larsen’s Laurels

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On Monday, May 1 Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert named Lance Larsen—award-winning poet, professor, and Fire in the Pasture contributor—Utah’s new Poet Laureate. A role initiated in 1997, the “Poet Laureate is a Governor-appointed advocate for literature and the arts throughout the state” (see here). I’m gathering some more articulate thoughts on Lance’s well-deserved appointment (to be posted next week),… Read more »

Fire in the Pasture Recognized by the Association for Mormon Letters

At the Association for Mormon Letters Annual Conference held this past Saturday, I received the organization’s poetry award for 2011 for my work in editing Fire in the Pasture. Huzzah! Validation, right? But seriously, I’m flattered at the recognition. I also acknowledge that the book wouldn’t be what it is without the poets who generously let me sample their work… Read more »

Giving the Beauty of Holiness a Tongue (Part Two)

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Giving the Beauty of Holiness a Tongue: A Review Essay on Adam’s Dream: Poems for a Latter Day by Doug Talley (Part Two) (Read Part One here) III. Adam’s Dream is divided into four sections: “Land within Arm’s Reach,” “Temples Framed by Hand,” “Voices from Another Room,” and “Flowers of a Kiss.” Each section contains eighteen poems and is framed… Read more »

Giving the Beauty of Holiness a Tongue (Part One)

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Giving the Beauty of Holiness a Tongue: A Review Essay on Adam’s Dream: Poems for a Latter Day by Doug Talley (Part One)* I. During the fourth month of my wife’s first pregnancy, she started spotting. Startled by her yell from the bathroom where she’d been getting ready for work, I ran from the kitchen and met her halfway down… Read more »

Claire Åkebrand: October is Plush, but Only Fleetingly So

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Anthology Poet Highlight 42/82: Claire Åkebrand, “October Plush” (scroll down) Like the violet at its center, the texture of Claire’s “October Plush” is lush, but only fleetingly so. The poet runs her words like fingers over the flower’s petals, pausing in her passing by to notice the beauty of the transient subject at her feet. For although the violet can’t… Read more »

21st Century Mormon Lyricisms

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I originally read this essay, in which I officially announced the publication of Fire in the Pasture, at the 2011 conference of the Association for Mormon Letters, held March 26, 2011. I read and commented on several poems in part II of the essay, but I’m not transcribing those readings here; if you’d like to hear them, you can listen… Read more »

Is There Deep Play in Heaven? Or, Rest Well, Brother Swenson, Rest Well

Anthology Poet Highlight 41/82: Paul Swenson, “Negative Space” [audio: http://fireinthepasture.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Swenson_Negative-Space.mp3] (My reading of “Negative Space”) On the afternoon of the first resurrection, I want to sit on my sister May’s bench and read her new poems. So, maybe, if you’re still around when I go under, I wonder—could you burn me, turn me into ash, and slip me in [the… Read more »