Downloading the Poetic Self

Book excerpt: This volume presents an autobiography of one writer’s existence in poetry, the tracks left by a clumsy bear taming himself in public; it is also a forum in which to act out and discover oneself. It will serve to light fires, the can-do drive others can surpass, finding in themselves language as daring as their lives, and more daring than the author’s. It endeavours to allow every reader of this text to leave it feeling better, more able to do things by him- or herself, and more convinced that poetry is essential to a good life. The text itself is the eighth title in the 10-volume series Inside Selfhood and History.