Monster

Preface -- Distortion in the contemporary lyric and prose poem -- Distortion and disjunction in contemporary American poetry -- Distortion within poetry, nature, culture, and media -- Poetry, reality, & place in a placeless world of global communication -- Toward a wilderness of the artificial -- Concept, hyperbole, and truth as forms of abstraction in poetry -- The poem as concept -- Three notions of truth in poetry -- Distortion, transition, and memorability in poetry -- Raising poetry to a higher power -- Poetry & memorability -- Temporal distortion & originality in poetry -- Poetry & originality: "have you been there before?"--Origin, presence, and time in the poetry of W.S. Merwin -- Jorie Graham: kite's body and beyond -- A romp through Ruefleland: Mary Ruefle's Selected poems & Madness, rack, and honey: collected lectures -- Myth and archetype as forms of abstraction -- Orpheus, Parzival, and Bartleby: ways of abstraction in poetry