Journey back Inside The Blanket Fort as we continue our deep dive into poetry in celebration of National Poetry Month with a look at Writing the Self-Elegy: The Past is Not Disappearing Ink, edited by Kara Dorris.
This book explores the poetic form of self-elegy, which centers loss instead of focusing on death, like a traditional elegy would. Within the lyrical frame of a self-elegy, multiple selves can coexist, along with multiple timelines, each possible path stemming from one small choice that both creates new selves and negates potential selves. Kara Dorris has assembled work from twenty-eight poets, including poems, essays embodying the spirit of this honest and intimate genre, and writing prompts intended to help you, the reader, explore your own other selves and pen your own self-elegies.
We asked contributor Kevin Prufer to read one of his poems from the anthology for us.