The Politics of Poetic Form

Book excerpt: The Politics of Poetic Form: Poetry and Public Policy is a series of essays from a discussion that occurred at the New School for Social Research in New York. The discussion mines the relationship between poetic composition and political expression. Poetry's relationship to public policy typically has a questionable margin of relation. Not only does this volume posit that poetry is a dynamic medium for the consideration of political ideas, it focuses on the ideological weight specific formal innovations bring to poetry. Some of the contributors include Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Tina Darragh, Alan Davies, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Susan Howe, P Inman, Jackson Mac Low, Nathaniel Mackey, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Jerome Rothenberg, Ron Silliman, James Sherry and Diane Ward.