Anyone interested in how language calls to language, and heart to heart,
will find these pages irresistible. --The Philadelphia Inquirer
In this quirky, resonant, and necessary book, generously edited by
Stephen Berg, a wide range of American poets at all stages of their
writing lives offer their poems and choose their precursors, meditating
with great humility and insight on the dual mysteries of influence and
mastery, on the reading that fosters writing, on the shimmering nobility
of poetry itself. --Edward Hirsch, Author of How to Read a Poem
Twenty-eight distinguished contemporary American poets provide a
multifaceted view of the creative process. Each poet has contributed a
poem and chosen several poems by other poets that have influenced it. In
an essay, each poet then describes how those influences have led to a
sense of poetic mastery.
The Contributors:
- A.R. Ammons
- L.S. Asekoff
- Stephanie Brown
- Hayden Carruth
- Gillian Conoley
- Amy Gerstler
- Judith Hall
- Hunt Hawkins
- Jane Hirshfield
- Claudia Keelan
- Yusef Komunyakaa
- Lisa Lewis
- Dana Levin
- Laurence Lieberman
- Thomas Lux
- Jane Mead
- Jack Myers
- Donald Revell
- Len Roberts
- Michael Ryan
- Ira Sadoff
- Hugh Seidman
- Jennifer Snyder Gerald Stern
- Lucien Stryk
- Karen Volkman
- Ted Weiss
- Joe Wenderoth
[A]n intimate and diverse look at the interactive processes of reading
and writing: at its best, a compelling revelation of the ways in which
the lifeblood of the poetic tradition seeps into the veins of the maker
and is remade by this process in as much as it molds it.--Rain Taxi
My Business is Circumference will intrigue apprentice poets, teachers,
and readers fascinated by writers creatively exploring their own
material and philosophical foundations.--Foreword Magazine
The collection's abundance should last you several seasons at the very
least.--The Jewish Exponent
The younger poets male and female steal the show here; while many skirt
the topic of mastery with respect to their own work, they are passionate
about their influences, which range from Sei Shonagon to Walt Whitman to
Sharon Olds.--Library Journal
The poems selected are a delight. Placed with the work of the moderns
they are sometimes a surprise. The juxtaposition invites the reader to
puzzle out what the connection is between the two. It is a veritable
Rorschach text touching on subtle and sometimes mysterious associations.
The poets are generous in their description of their creative processes
and revisit their first contact with the poems that inspired them, go on
to share with us what touched them, what techniques influenced them and
what they struggled with...With the encouragement of the editor, the
poets in this book have generously offered to us their insight and art.
For this they deserve a place of honor on our book shelves.--Small
Press Review
