Gregory Pardlo Q&A discusses the dramatic tension of form and content
Gregory Pardlo, a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in poetry, talks about the dramatic tension between form and content in his poems.
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She Liked the Moving Things Best
Molly didn’t sleep the night she borrowed Master Fink’s eye. She knelt by the flat rock near her hold hole, her belongings all around, and sent the glass eye clacking toward the marbles, bumping the dice, wobbling, for hours, the same direction the little blue ball rolled. Molly couldn’t help but be a little […]
Dinah in the Box
Dinah spent twenty hours with her face by the breathing hole, her body curled like a nursing child’s, wondering what order of thanks she would offer the man who opened her crate. She had a particular trick that worked on Jennings when she needed him to understand she meant to please, but […]
America, the Hallelujah
According to thy word. Affliction is a stormy deep. Again the day returns. And there is, _____, a rest. Angels roll the rock. Another day is past. Another six days work. Another year. As the heart with eager. Behold a stranger. Brightest and best of bright. Brother, thou art gone. Call me away. Flung to […]
I am the Real Jesse James
It took four men with big heavy hands to hold the horse down. The horse kicked its stomach, collapsed like an ironing board and rolled over, pinning the legs of the men beneath it. One man sat on its neck while the other administered the needle — Bute and Demerol in the night paddock. The […]
The Animal Groom
Striped woods, stirred berries and spatula collapsing into forehead light — this was my contemplation interrupted by the bear. The bear, bouldering into my cabin as I stirred dried berries at the stove. Standing on my hind legs stirring when the bear entered, a wall of fur, standing on his hind legs. I was married […]
Rabid Dog
After she had swallowed him completely (taste of soap-chalk, ammonia, her mouth smelling like water, like a dog’s mouth), she forgot the vows and how she got there — the stranger’s kohl eyes leading her to the broom closet and his hands festooned with rings. After all, her husband was a stray dog– in the […]
Sarah Messer Q&A with some advice to young poets
Sarah Messer, author of Red House (Viking, 2004) and Bandit Letters (New Issues, 2001), with some advice to young poets.