The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics

The Moves: Common Maneuvers in Contemporary Poetry

27 The Moves: Common Maneuvers in Contemporary Poetry Elisa Gabbert poetry is kind of like chess—there are an infinite number of possible games, but each game tends to be made up of certain recognizable moves. Experienced chess players know the classic openings and the classic defenses, along with their sexy names (the Catalan System, the Two Knights Defense, the Queen’s Gambit Declined). In chess, familiarity, and proficiency, with established moves is not a weakness but a strength—even a given. The longer one lives as a “practicing poet,” the easier it becomes to recognize techniques, devices, and strategies as patterns—as common, abstracted moves. You can see this as a cynical or overly analytical way of reading, but it feels inevitable, as one both reads and writes more poetry, to become aware of the seams, to realize not everything is original and born of pure inspiration. At this stage of poethood, some of the innocence and awe of reading are gone, but with this process comes greater understanding. It can be valuable to know your own moves—your go-to tricks and turns and images—as a defense against overusing or misusing them, against writing formulaic poetry. As a reader, it’s valuable to know a 28 The Moves / Elisa Gabbert The Monkey and the Wrench particular poet’s signature moves, as well as what moves are popular in a given cohort or school, and over a given time period, in order to speak convincingly and compellingly about style and trends. But moves aren’t just something to be identified and then avoided. There’s no chess—and no dancing—without moves. If each of a poet’s poems were unlike the others in every way, there would be no reason to prefer some poets to others; one could only have favorite poems, not favorite poets. A move is just a small element of a poet’s larger style, and having a few distinctive moves, or maneuvers that can be isolated and imitated, is a mark of having a strong and recognizable voice. What follows is a list of common moves I have identified in contemporary poetry. Lest this exercise seem condescending, let it be known that I am guilty of committing a great many of these moves, but choose examples from my peers, heroes, and enemies rather than my own work where possible. Exposed Revision 'PS
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'BDFw At least embarrassment is not an imitation. It’s intimacy for beginners, the orgasm no one cares to fake. I almost admire it. I almost wrote despise. Exposed Revision is the poetry equivalent of a play that breaks the fourth wall. In this maneuver, the poet reveals a backtracking, a change of mind or a change of heart, and documents the change, as though via Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature, rather than concealing it. As such the reader becomes aware of the author quaauthor, or the speaker as a facet of the author; the process of writing and rewriting is foregrounded rather than disguised. A popular variation of this move is revision by way of the phrase “I mean,” as in “Confession” by Suzanne Wise: I can only imagine how hard it must be for you to believe me. I mean, to hold blame. I mean, to be you. The Moves / Elisa Gabbert 29 Essays into Contemporary Poetics In order to succeed, Exposed Revision should revise an idea rather than merely alter the wording. In an advanced example (“Little Happier” by Justin Marks), the idea in question appears in the first stanza: All that whiteness was still before me, a field of snow on which not one foot seemed to have left a print. Around the field, cold and rickety trees, their shadows hovering as if they were not shadows but shade, independent of what cast their image on the ground. It was as if there were no tree...whiteness without end, but touched with such shading as needed to keep things interesting. This idea is not revised until the final line, some thirty lines later: “how naïve I was to say, / whiteness without end.” The X of Y Construction TheXofYConstructionhasbeeninuseforcenturies,anditspopularitypersiststothisday .Thissyntacticalconstructionhastheeffectofmaking any two-word phrase seem automatically more poetic: Witness “light box” versus “box of light,” “time slot” versus “slot of time,” “pink grapefruit” versus “grapefruit of pink.” Because it is so easy to apply and so effective, it is easy to overuse...