Category Archives: poetry essay

Dream Song Strategy 29: Henry’s Heart

Posted on February 8, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

There are two readings of Song 29 by Berryman, that I know of. Here is one: It appears to be one of the most shared of the Songs, and that intrigues me. In its first two stanzas it hammers home … Continue reading →

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Dream Song Strategy 22: Henry Pussy-cat

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

When I first read The Dream Songs this was one that stood out. It is loud and bold and ultra-modern, and yet enigmatic. Today it still retains those qualities for me. So many artists and writers come and go from … Continue reading →

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Dream Song Strategy 5: His thought made pockets

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

The second part of The Dream Songs begins with four quotations. The third of them is attributed to Keats addressing Shelley and includes the phrase, “I am pickt up and sorted to a pip.” The odd musicality of the phrase … Continue reading →

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Dream Song Strategies

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

Over the coming few weeks I will be sharing my love of John Berryman’s The Dream Songs, a book I have been dipping into from the time I was a teenager, one of the first and most impactful books of … Continue reading →

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R. P. Blackmur Postscript

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Just as a matter of completion and conclusion (one can hope!) I must make a note of some language in William James’ Pragmatism that may ground, once and for all, the wayward phrase that I had found so troublesome for … Continue reading →

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“The Red Wheelbarrow” in the Style of ChatGPT

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Do you pretend to know more than you do to elicit my ignorance? My red wheel barrow is too full of Socratic irony to get yours into it Our cries in the yard just tears in rain the dead fact … Continue reading →

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Agamben on Twilight

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Mark Kerstetter

Twilight As the weight of day bears down and night’s promise advances, memory and loss in equal shares emerge in a standoff. Will and fancy, knowledge and flight become unlikely workmates and vision pushes focus against the last flakes of silver backing … Continue reading →

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Do poets have a role to play in the free will/determinism debate?

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Mark Kerstetter

  Apart from what may be going on in classrooms, genuine debate looks like it has been on its way out for some time. However, if videos like this are any indication a debate between free will and determinism actually … Continue reading →

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Reading Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in Possibility”

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Mark Kerstetter

1862 was a prolific year for Emily Dickinson. She compiled 227 poems that year, more than in any other single year, with the exception of ’63 (295) and ’65 (229). One of the poems she saved that year was, “I … Continue reading →

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Henry’s Fate

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Mark Kerstetter

Today I’m going to read a few Dream Songs by John Berryman from among the forty-five included in the book Henry’s Fate. The poems of Henry’s Fate were selected by Berryman’s biographer, John Haffenden, and the book was published in … Continue reading →

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