For the Time Being: The Bootstrap Book of Poetic Journals

Poetry. FOR THE TIME BEING brings together for the first time twenty-nine writers from three continents whose work explores and interrogates the genre of the poetic journal. Tracing its roots back to Sei Shonagon and Matsuo Basho through Thoreau's journals and into the work of the New American poets, the poetic journal remains a vibrant and adaptive genre that continues delight. Ever alert to the minutiae of daily lived experience, as well as to the linguistic twists and turns poems are likely to take when writing is oriented towards improvisation and discovery, these pieces enlarge our appreciation of the world in all its Whitmanic scope and splendor. Also included in this volume are an informative introduction outlining the history and characteristics of the genre, essays and interviews on favorite ancestors and aspects of the craft, and a piece dedicated to how to teach the poetic journal in the classroom. A valuable resource for poets, teachers, and scholars alike, this anthology collects under one roof an eclectic grouping of poets whose various attentions enliven our works and days.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977997537
• ISBN13: 9780977997534
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Bootstrap Productions
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Must for writers and teachers

I return to this book again and again as a writer and a teacher. As a writer, it keeps me nimble in terms of my own journal habit. As a teacher, I really appreciate the pedagogical angle that Doherty and Morgan weave in at different times. I also use the different examples of journals for my students as a way of opening up possibilities for their own poetic journals that they keep in my class. Finally, it is so well written, both in the journal examples that they include and in Doherty and Morgan's own texts. It's a brilliant blending of utility and theory.