2003 was a tumultuous year in and for the United States, with the aftermath of 9/11 still fresh in the nation’s mind, and wars overseas just starting to brew. In times of tragedy and discourse such as this, poets are often called upon to catalog the widespread feelings that everyday people don’t always know how…
Mr. Wagner’s stellar poem, On Being Asked to Discuss Poetic Theory, featured in the 2003 edition of BAP, philosophical-izes the idea of poetic theory, and what it means to poets and readers. Wagner never clearly answers the question the title poses, but he gives a clear, strong perspective on how, and just why he writes…
Michael S. Collins’s poem, Six Sketches: When A Soul Breaks, highlights the sudden downfalls of six different “personas” in a numbered, paragraphical way. First published in the 2002 twenty-fifth volume of the writing magazine Callalo, Collins’s poem has transcended the idea of what it means to be broken. Putting the word in extremely literal but also abstract terms, this…