The Blog

Of all poetry’s qualities, “voice” is perhaps the most celebrated and the most elusive. It’s a quality that is best measured by its effects: its directness or obscurity, its atmosphere and mood, and the sense of company it imparts through the creation of shared space. The Iowa Review is pleased to celebrate another National Poetry Month through our online feature. Each day in April, TIR will present a poet whose work not only speaks to personal concerns, but collectively to us and each other.

Here's the list of this year's poets:

Jennifer Soong’s Near, At is a book that precisely tracks the consciousness as attention trails off, distracted by the blurring of perceptions, or caught up in stray wisps of emotion. Soong’s poems show that new possibilities open up lyrically, politically, and personally when the mind is allowed to become diffuse, loosening its grip on the here and the now. If we have to choose between keeping track of the thoughts that give rise to our emotions and keeping track of the mind as it resists that awareness, Soong’s collection shows there is much to be gained from making the latter choice.