Part I: The poets chosen for this week are among the leading poets of contemporary American literature; however, there are many others. Locate and read four poems by a Postmodern American author of your choice from the included list below. How do you see this author as fitting into post-modernism? Be sure to connect with the poems you selected. Doing some biographical research may also be helpful. Be sure to share the link(s) to the poems you read.

Here is the list:

Charles Olson
John Cage
Robert Duncan Lawrence Ferlinghetti Barbra Guest

Jackson Mac Low Philip Whalen Denise Levertov James Schuyler Kenneth Koch Jack Spicer Frank O'Hara Allen Ginsberg Robert Creeley Paul Blackburn John Ashbery Larry Einger Kenward Elmslie Ed Dorn

Gregory Snyder
Keith Waldrop
Michal McClure
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) Ted Berrigan

Diane di Prima Clayton Eshleman Ronald Johnson Gustaf Sobin Rosemarie Waldrop Kathleen Fraser Susan Howe Caroline Knox

Bill Berkson
Clark Coolidge
Ed Roberson Fanny Howe
Lyn Hejinian
Joan Retallack Ron Padgett
Ann Lauterback Michael Palmer Marjorie Welish Norma Cole Bernadette Mayer Alice Notley

Anne Waldman

Part II: One contemporary trend in poetry is known loosely as the "confessional mode," in which the poet's own life becomes an important element of the subject of his or her poetry. The three assigned poets clearly work in the confessional vein to some extent. How do they keep their poems from being merely about themselves? Use the poem That Country" written by Eileen Myles,

Part III. You probably know John Grisham better from his novels than from his journalistic essays. In what ways does his magazine essay, included in our text, seem "fictional" to you--not necessarily fictional in the sense of things being made up, but rather in terms of style or writing technique?