8 Memoirs by Poets that Flex the Untapped Potential of the Genre

Photo by David Klein on Unsplash The poet’s journey from writing verse to lyric essays to memoir is now a veritable pipeline, with more and more poets turning away from lines and stanzas to incorporate poetic techniques into prose. Poetry can often be rooted in memory already, using imagery and figurative language to explore the history of the self—or a “speaker” who “resembles” the self. Embracing memoir wholesale means removing the mask of the assumed persona in a poem’s speaker. The poet steps forward and says “This is who I am.” But as poets, these gestures are not always direct and straightforward. Poet memoirs have the capacity to deconstruct the new genre, to hybridize narrative and lyricism, and employ conceits, extended metaphor, and innovative forms to convey their stories. I am a participant in this pipeline. My earliest poems did plumb the depths of memory for subjects and gestures, but over time I moved away from writing plainly about the self. My first book The First Risk employed persona all over the place, but by the time my third book, Instructions between Takeoff and Landing arrived, my lived experience was again my subject. Perhaps it’s no surprise that my next book, Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres reveals my life as its subject—at least partially. As a poet, I reserve the right to lyricize any space I enter. In this case, it’s to hybridize traditional memoir storytelling in each chapter with a discussion of a single film whose themes, plot, or symbols resonate with my story. Here are 8 poet memoirs that, like hermit crabs, occupy memoir storytelling with poetic sensibilities. Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz Ortiz dutifully documents her dreams upon waking, and Bruja is the fruit of this labor—a memoir of Ortiz’s subconscious dream life. Populated with the family and friends of her waking life, set against familiar locations, each entry hinges upon the acausal chain of events that roots our dreams. There’s an old joke about how boring it is to hear someone recount their dreams, but Ortiz’s book is gripping from the […]

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