In trying to sum up what our aesthetic at Live Nude Poems will
be, we are drawn to the idea and function of poetry. In our opinion, we’ve always believed that
poetry must serve a purpose – to enlighten, to explain and by doing so, bring a
greater understanding of self. We have a
job to do as poets, even if only to better know our own humanity. We're certainly not here to argue what art is or
why we write. We write because we have
to, and the work is unique to each of us.
Knowing that, we would like to showcase poetry that breathes and
presents moments in time, work that helps us understand you, tells a story,
changes the reader--if only for a second.
Probably everyone knows this poem and this book very well. Kinnell isn't exactly invisible in the poetry world. I loved this poem and this book from the very first time I read it, while I sat on the floor in the old Emerson College at 150 Beacon Street. I've loved kids from a time well before I had any of my own, and I could put myself in this narrator's perspective so easily it was as if I'd suddenly slid from my own life and become a real poet. ;-) I hadn't really read anything that used linebreaks so seemingly haphazard, but powerfully --I got a charge as I read it-- or a voice that seemed so assured of its right to the sentiments expressed. Irony is the rule of the day for many poets, and I don't necessarily cotton to it all the time so Kinnell is a balm for me; I can go back and read BoN and remember how it lit me up the first time and have energy to go back the page with. I'm sort of over his poems now, but the feeling comes back just a little every ti...
Thanks for doing good work. Looking forward.
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