Modus Operandi: Poetry Worth Reading

Sitting with John over coffee one day, chatting about blogs, their merits and advantages, we started talking about doing something with poetry. At the time I'd recently finished a review, one about a book that I loved, but the review kept coming back with the admonition, "Cut more." The result, which understandably fit better into traditional print media, was that I had to cut many quoted lines of poetry from the review. As a former editor, I completely understood the motivation to make it smaller, more efficient, and more pithily objective, so I did. Paper is expensive.

But the process also started us thinking about creating a venue for talking about poetry that we like without the limitations (and, truth be told, the institutional advantages). We wanted a space to quote freely and write more casually about work we are reading and perhaps teaching, work that influences or challenges our own writing. We want to start a conversation about good poetry rather than simply pass judgment.

To that end, this. Look forward to appreciations, conversations, defenses, and other peregrinations regarding all things poetical.