Catching up with recent poetry publications is always a lesson in contingency. Some poets – in the cases of John Wilkinson and Peter Gizzi – have published again since September, outdating the books closest to my chair. Some books only came to my attention once summer was already over. There are many poets that I simply haven’t got to. And yet there might be a mercy in these accidents: reading somewhat haphazardly allows one to draw up a bad map of the contemporary landscape, one which can be built upon in the months to come. Of the many symbols that might appear in the legend of that map, a poem's proximity to or distance from provinces of the poetic repertoire which might be thought of as traditional (such as fixed form, metre, and rhyme) has been a constant point of reference.Junior Research Fellowship at Peterhouse, Cambridg
