The Lives of the Poems and Three Talks

Inaugurate's a new and what will be ongoing series of published lectures, the Bagley Wright Lectures.Beautifully captures the romance of a life among poetry and books-a personal account of literary life.An intimate account not only of a Wave editor's compositional process but the various ways he thinks about, approaches, and lives with poetry.Innovates on the genre of the lecture, written in a unique "echolocating" style that eschews direct analysis for a more conversational and, at times, lyric approach to understanding poetry and poetics. The Lives of the Poems is especially innovative in offering variations of the same talk that, through repetition and adjustment, make for a highly interesting and very effective reading experience. Very approachable-Beckman has a warm and earnest personality, different from but as singular as someone like Mary Ruefle.Brings together a wide range poets and writers, from classic Japanese haiku poets to Ralph Waldo Emerson to contemporary American poets.