Structures and histories of the shape of ‘Drafts’
Here, I thought I’d offer an essayistic narrative — by asking how and why Drafts was shaped as it was. What information could I give as a poet by exploring my primary moments of choice and understanding from the 25-year experience of writing one contemporary long poem?
Originally delivered as one of two Plenary lectures for the conference The Modernist Long Poem and Its Discontents, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, September 20, 2024.