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An interview is presented with American-raised author Kazim Ali, who has written books such as "Sky Ward," "Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities," and "The Fortieth Day." Ali discusses poet Emily Dickinson, syllables and vowels in his poems, and his writing process, as well as his poems such as "Museum of Flight" and poets' depiction of identity.

An interview is presented with poet Annie Wright, wife of poet James Wright. Wright discusses her late husband's humor, his dissertation on author Charles Dickens, and her overprotective mother in law, as well as dysfunctional relationships in the Wright family. James Wright's poems such as "Voices Between Waking and Sleeping in the Mountains," themes of secrecy in his poetry, and his drinking problem are also mentioned.

The article discusses the American poet Anne Sexton, and presents the author's reflections on the social and generational significance of Sexton's work and the similarities between Sexton and her mother. Poems including "Menstruation at Forty," "The Double Image" and "The Furies" are also touched on.

An interview with poet and writer Wayne Koestenbaum is presented. He addresses references to sexual acts in his poetry, focusing on purportedly perverse acts. He asserts that there is a connection between the approaches of homosexual poets such as himself and the transgression of the boundaries of language. Also discussed are the poet Frank O'Hara, the artist Andy Warhol, and the writer Gertrude Stein.

An interview with U.S. poet Annie Finch, particularly noting the theme of culture and spirituality in her poems is presented. When asked about her poem "Samhain," Finch discusses her relationship with her grandmother. Finch addresses her attitudes toward paganism, multivocal conversations with other poets, and her style and form.

The article focuses on the poetry of the poet Elizabeth Bishop and also provides brief historical overview of her literary writings. The publication of the book "Geography III," in the year 1976 placed Elizabeth on a significant position in the world of canon writing and among all the other poets she is the most beloved poet as reported by the article.

The article explores the feelings and thoughts of several poems which includes "Psalm" by Carol Ann Davis, "Sarah-Of Fragments and Lines" by Julie Carr and "Slamming Open the Door" by Sheeder Bonanno. It also presents information on a literary canon written by Jahan Ramazani on the poetry of mourning and grief written by several American women poets.

The article offers criticism of several of American poet Kenneth Patchen's poems, including "We Must Be Slow," "The Dimensions of the Morning," and "Instruction for Angels." His political and anti-war views and their effects on his poetry are discussed. The effect of a back injury on Patchen's life and poetry is also evaluated.

The article discusses the book "The Essential Etheridge Knight" by Aracelis Girmay. Girmay, a young and gifted poet, prefaced the reading of her own poems with a short poem by Etheridge Knight called "Genesis."

An interview with the poet Kwame Dawes is presented. Topics include the influence of Dawes' early life in Ghana and Jamaica on his poetry, his literary influences including poets T. S. Eliot, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Derek Walcott, and the doubts experienced by writers. His thoughts on teaching and his involvement with HIV/AIDS activism are also discussed.

An essay discusses the life and writings of American poet Robert Bly. Topics include information on Bly's association with deep image poetry and details on how he used surrealism in his writings. Various passages from Bly's poems are presented including "The Great Society," "Hatred of Men with Black Hair" and "Melancholia."

An interview with U.S. poet Robert Bly and his wife, Ruth Bly is presented. When Robert is asked about his different roles as poet, leader of the men's movement, and government critic, he extols the values of troublemaking and irreverence. When asked about believing in God, Robert discusses the role of divinity in the world. Other topics include dreaming, self-deprecation, and studying Sufism.

Presents an interview with the poet John Ashbery. He discusses how he has maintained his voice over the course of his career he says that he uses a variety of voices. Ashbery also comments on the language of his poems, humor in poetry, and the meaning of his poems.

Presents an interview with U.S. poet Bob Hicok. When asked about the difference between reading and writing lives, he discusses songwriting and his affinity for other poets such as Pablo Neruda. When asked about the relationship of form and structure to content in a poem, he discusses the Modernist perspective in poetry. Other topics include the performative aspects of poetry, mental states, and violence in poetry.

Presents an interview with poet Donald Hall. When asked about his earliest memories as a poet, he discusses discovering the author Edgar Allen Poe. When asked about his memories of poet Geoffrey Hill, he discusses his experiences with Hill at Oxford University. Other topics include poets Robert Frost and Ezra Pound, the death of Hall's wife, and advice for young poets.

Presents an excerpt from the book "A Journey with Two Maps: Becoming a Woman Poet," by Eavan Boland.

An essay is presented on writing poetry. It describes poetry as a calling rather than a career, and focuses on walking as a metaphorical means to examine the process of writing poetry. The author draws parallels between the processes of wandering, reading, and writing, and reflects on his childhood attraction to poetry.

Presents an interview with poet Galway Kinnell. When asked about writing about children, he discusses the joys of parenthood and being away from his family while traveling. When asked about editing poet Walt Whitman, he discusses the impact of Whitman's own revisions and his genius. Other topics include teaching literature in Iran, the influence of poet Emily Dickinson, and words that have fallen out of common usage.

Presents an interview with poet Ruth Stone. Stone comments on how important music is to her poetry, particularly her parents' interest in music and the poems that she has written about them. Stone also discusses her poem "Where I Came From" and her own sense of independence. Stone discusses her nonfiction writing and her feminism as displayed in the poem "Being a Woman" and "Being Human."

This article appears in the book "Aspects of Robinson: Homage to Weldon Kees," which is edited by Christopher Buckley and Christopher Howell. In the article the author discusses the contents of several poems which were featured in books written by author and poet Weldon Kees, including Kees' book "The Last Man."

Presents an interview with African American poet Lucille Clifton. Emphasis is given to the role of her family and the treatment of relationships in her poetry. Other topics discussed include witnesses in literature, the death of family members, women in poetry, writing children's books, and writing processes.

Presents an interview with the U.S. poet Maxine Kumin, discussing her artistic output and her personal background. Questions include discussion of her use of farm animals as a major theme in her writings, her focus on anti-patriarchal themes, and her self-confidence and occasionally abrasive tone in composition.

Presents an interview with poet Jack Gilbert. Topics discussed include human presence and pressure in his poems, why he thinks that contemporary poets are increasingly utilizing a more abstract style, and examples of poems and books of poems that have changed his life and influenced his work.

An essay is presented on the poetry of Greek playwright Sophokles. The author reflects on the legacy of Sophocles as a tragedian, and provides an historical overview of his life and career. The author suggests that his odes, when translated as poetry, reveal a sense of play with language. Other topics include characters in the plays "Antigone" and "Oidipous Tyrannos," Greek concepts of divinity, and Greek lyric poetry.

Presents an interview with Robert Kelly, originator of the "Deep Image" poetry concept and professor of writing and literature at Bard College in New York. Kelly discusses his belief that poetry must be connected to the world by the poet and the reader. He discusses how a significant loss of body weight affected his outlook and self-perception. Also discussed is the role of women in his poems, his book "Kill the Messenger," and his poem "Man Sleeping."

In this article the author reflects on the relationship of poetry and history. According to the him, while poetry is able to create its own history, it simultaneously exists within a moment of history, and is therefore never fully able to transcend its cultural context. He claims that women and minority poets in particular are affected by history because of their social situation, and proceeds to analyze selected poems by such authors as Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath.

This article discusses poetry and abstract thought. The use of words, pronunciations and definitions in language are discussed. Also discussed is the work of late poet Paul Valéry, the author of the article, who was a member of the 19th-century poetic school of Symbolism. One of the author's poems in the article is titled "Le Cimetière marin."

This article discusses the work and poems of the late poet Czeslaw Milosz. Milosz's poems in the article include "Eyes," "Advantage," and "Non Adaptation." Also discussed is Milosz's book "Second Space," which was published with Milosz was in his early 90s.

Presents the author's conversation with Russian poet Ilya Kutik, one of the founders of the Russian poetic movement called "Meta-realism." The different relationship of the poet to poetry in Russia and America is an overarching theme of the discussion, exemplified by Kutik's thoughts on the poet Virgil. Kutik also discusses the meaning of "Meta-realism," which believes that all realities that each human possesses can be connected to one reality by and in metaphor.

This essay comes from the manuscript "So Much Depends: Poetry and Environmental Urgency," by John Felstiner. The essay discusses the correspondence between Dickinson and author Thomas Wentworth Higginson and examines the syllables of several of Dickinson's poems, including "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" and "Zero at the Bone."

This article discusses the relationship between the poets Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. While it has been widely acknowledged that the two women were friends, there has been little research as to how they influenced each other's work. Upon Plath's death in 1963, Sexton wrote the poem "Wanting to Die" in honor of her friend. Sexton also commented in personal letters of her time teaching in Boston, Massachusetts with Plath. Both women committed suicide.

This article focuses on Olena Kalytiak Davis and her poetry. Her work removes Freudian mistakes, instant messaging-type talk and archaic diction. Furthermore, her approach to intimate writing is considered intriguing but also artful. Techniques in poetry writing used by Davis are mentioned. Her poems deflate a stock criticism of postmodern poetry that representational poems have heart, while postmodern poems are all head.

This article reviews the works of poet Ruth Stone and describes her influence on the author as a teacher at the Indiana University. The author described the poetry of Stone as musical, autobiographical and compassionate. The poet writings are acts on the ultimate vagueness of death, loss, mourning and breaks through with us to a truer state. The prosody of Stone should not be underestimated on the basis of an apparent simplicity in rhythms, rhymes and repetition. The author discussed some poems by Stone, including "Love's Relative," "Behind the Facade," and "Rocks Rising."

This article focuses on the phenomenon of cynicism in poetry. The author describes cynicism as a lack of passion toward experience in general combined with a self-mocking distrust of the possibilities of art itself. The author believes that young poets are not promoting any new philosophical assertions and that there is never a sense that intensification of language might convey some sort of transcendental revelation. Poems that address cynicism by Jane Mead and Mark Halliday are discussed.

This article discusses several experimental poets' work and literary style. The themes of Anne Waldman's prose poems is provided. The dramatic premise of her poem "Stereo" is discussed. An overview of the stylistic techniques adopted by Lyn Hejinian in the poem "My Life" is presented. The use of the prose poem form in Claudia Rankine's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely" is characterized.

This article presents information on representation in poetry. Representational poetry offers the pleasure of suspension of disbelief and re-created characters and events. Representation in lyric poetry relies on the desire of a reader to identify the speaker with the poet. The article also focuses on experimental poets who use avant-garde techniques without neglecting the use of representation.

This article features American poet Elizabeth Bishop. In her first six years after college, Bishop had literary correspondence with well-known poets, including Robert Lowell, who was instrumental in her appointment to the Library of Congress Consultancy in Poetry from 1949 through 1950. She received the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets in 1964 and was a Chancellor from 1966 to 1979.

The article discusses the poet Louis Zukofsky, with particular focus given to his involvement in Communist politics, his use of poetic form and embrace of free verse, and his relationship with the poet Ezra Pound. The influence of poets such as Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, on Zukofsky is also commented on.

Interviews American poet Liam Rector. Views on language poetry; Influences to his fictional mode of writing poems; Comment regarding the impact of writing programs on American literature.

Profiles American poets Weldon Kees and Frank O'Hara. Causes of their death; Several poems written by both poets; Similarities between Kees and O'Hara.

Interviews African American poet Quincy Troupe on his life and works. Family background; Views on racism in literature; Opinion on literature written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Offers a look into the life and works of American poet Louise Bogan. Family background; Details of significant events in Bogan's life that influenced her poetry; Subjects of Bogan's fictions; Overview of her writing style.

Interviews poet Henri Cole. Description of the poems of Cole in his book "Middle Earth"; Background of Cole; Awards received; Explanation on the change in his views about poetry and writing poems.

Presents the text of e-mail correspondence between poets Claudia Keelan and Alice Notley that occurred from September 2002 to December 2003. Background of the poets; Information on the poems written by the poets; Their views about poetry and their writing talents.

Focuses on poet Gregory Orr. Quality of Orr's career as a poet; Background on Orr's personal lyric; Information on his books "The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems," Poetry as Survival" and "The Blessing: A Memoir."

Describes the works and the poetic style of three poets. Robert Pinsky; Robert Hass; Louise Glück.

Interviews poet Carl Rakosi on his career in poetry. Background in poetry writing; Effect of music on his composition of poems; Origin of the term objectivist, which describes his work.

Interviews poet Marvin Bell. Significance of his book "Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000"; Views on work revisions; Collection of poems that Bell consider as his best work.

Criticizes the works of several poets. Description of Ron Padgett's poem "Great Balls of Fire"; Analysis of the poem "When the Sun Tries to Go On," by Kenneth Koch; Poems of Frank O'Hara that are among the best known work of the New York School.

Features poet Edward Dorn. Educational background; Style and focus of his poetry works; Selection of his works.