So to Speak

Terrance Hayes has won the National Book Award for Poetry (Lighthead, 2010) and was a finalist on two other occasions. He also won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014. His poetry shows how much he loves language and art. His poems tell us new things about art and poetic form by manipulating and playing with language. Phrases begin in a direction that you think is familiar and then, whoa!, that word is really a contranym or a homophone, and your idea of meaning falls apart, but, then, whoa! again, and another meaning (or the original meaning!) comes clear. The level of genius and craft in these poems is astounding.

The poems I appreciated the most were often the ones talking about a painting or another piece of art, such as "DIY Sestina: What show more Does the Piece Remind You Of?" and "DIY Sestina: What Would You Ask the Artist?" Other poems that I liked were: "American Sonnett Starring Octavia Butler II," "Capra Aegagrus Hircus," "Continuity," and "Another Great Ravager of Crops Was the Boll Weevil." I now have a list of visual and musical artists whose works I need to find based on Hayes' references and portrayals. show less