Articles written by Jim Benz

Writing a "mock sestina," Duhamel deviates from the norm while musing on poetry, war, celebrity, and perceptions of public persona.

Apr 16, 2010 - Jim Benz

Poetry just isn't what it used to be. But then again, as a living practice of art and literature, should it be?

Apr 11, 2010 - Jim Benz

With the advent of Internet publication, innovative poetics have entered a new age of wide distribution at low cost. Jacket Magazine is at its forefront

Apr 8, 2010 - Jim Benz

Kim Addonizio presents a vivid portrayal of "everywoman" in a brilliantly sketched urban setting. But a question remains: who is the speaker addressing?

Apr 1, 2010 - Jim Benz

Too often haiku is mischaracterized as a poetry form whose rules consist only of three lines written in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. The reality is more complex.

Mar 29, 2010 - Jim Benz

Creating a masterful poetic movement through the American mythos, Atwood skewers "manifest destiny" by embodying the voice of the Other, the discarded "I am."

Mar 25, 2010 - Jim Benz

Using grammatical metaphors to playfully bounce a poem's content off the structure of its language, Kenneth Koch works silliness against simplicity for poetic effect.

Mar 19, 2010 - Jim Benz

First published in 1950, this seminal essay is a must-read for contemporary poets who seek effective ways to create dynamic, free verse poetry.

Feb 5, 2010 - Jim Benz

By rendering the specific meanings of "A"-9 ambiguous, Zukofsky uses verbal dichotomies to instigate sincere perception on the part of his readers.

Jan 21, 2010 - Jim Benz

In "Never at the Horse at Two," Milan Richter addresses contemporary events by crafting a love poem in the context of a politically charged era and locale.

Jan 8, 2010 - Jim Benz

"So many constellations ..." begins with cosmological imagery that explores the uncertainty and ultimate unknowability between human subjects.

Jan 6, 2010 - Jim Benz

Beginning with a lonely birdcall, Rainer Maria Rilke's "Apprehension" enacts a prophetic sense of anxiety in the changing world of early 20th-century Europe.

Jan 5, 2010 - Jim Benz

Charles Baudelaire and Walt Whitman expound on the theme of urban crowds in their respective poems, "Crowds" and "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry".

Jan 4, 2010 - Jim Benz

Employing the concepts of Marx, Spinoza, and Cavalcanti, Zukofsky puts their language and structures into play as a means of enacting the problematic of his own poetics.

Dec 17, 2009 - Jim Benz

"A" is Zukofsky's "poem of a lifetime": 800 pages, in 24 movements, written over 50 years. Its 9th movement is a brilliant recreation of the human mind in dynamic motion.

Dec 9, 2009 - Jim Benz

Beginning with words as perceptible objects, Zukofsky's poetry generates a sense of dynamism and interactivity that moves beyond poetic description and authorial intent.

Nov 21, 2009 - Jim Benz

Louis Zukofsky used every aspect of the written word to create multi-faceted poems which replicate the dynamics of worldly, human experience.

Nov 19, 2009 - Jim Benz

Auden brilliantly demonstrates the application of 'speaker's voice' as an effective device for complicating a poem's semantic content with nuance and ironic complexity.

Nov 5, 2009 - Jim Benz