STEPHENSON, Ann
The poles

Ann Stephenson is surely talking "on the reg" to O'Hara's “Meditations in an Emergency” which her long poem The Poles sent me running to, excitedly making some connection in the way they both take a matter of fact tone against social death and other threats. But at this late Capitalism date, our narrator is a more menaced guide - a civic poet who warns “terrible things come to those who don’t listen.” The Poles is the epitome of a poem that susses out and then follows the graph of the mind moving. There are no bum lines. In fact, one could teach a master class on line breaks with this poem. Each pause creates suspension followed by a burst of multiple meanings, which, is one of the most generous acts of the poet and this poet’s craft. To any reader following the call to attention, this gesture expands life outside the structure of a bubble. 
–Stacy Szymaszek

Published by Tent Editions, 2017
Design by Jennifer Smith
Poetry