Welcome to a blog on Moore’s poetry. Please comment and join the conversation. –Pat Willis
A New Column
Moore Poet-Scholars
It has been a tradition at conferences on Marianne Moore to feature poets who acknowledge an affinity with her and her work. Jeredith Merrin is one of them who has just published a new book, Owling, winner of the Grayson Books Chapbook Award for 2016. It is her fourth collection of poetry. I asked her to begin this series with some remarks about her work’s connection to Moore’s:
.Moore is inimitable. But my new chapbook , OWLING, is indebted to Moore’s both outward- and inward-looking poetry
To write it, I took Moore-like notes on individual species of owls (19 different species); and in some lyrics I do use quotations. Also, as Moore readers will note, I use syllabics when the occasion seems to call for them. I never knew where an individual species would take me (in subject matter or in form), so a pleasure of composing this little parliament of owls was that I was surprised each time—which I hope means that the reader will find these poems surprising. They move from natural history to Marilyn Monroe, to Alzheimer’s, to The National Book Award, to Blue Whales, to. . . .
A poet-friend who e-mailed just today called my owl poems “capaciously swervy” (a phrase which might describe “Peter” or “An Octopus”)!
I thought OWLING might be of particular interest to those who are teaching Moore poems and to those who are interested in the study of Literature and Environment (I’m a member of ASLE).
Jeredith can be reached at merrin.1@osu.edu and she is available for readings and classes. OWLING: www.Graysonbooks.com. There is an author page at https://www.amazon.com/Owling-Jeredith-Merrin/dp/0996280979.
Marianne Moore: Poetry 