Sally Keith – Writing Circles (January 2025)

“I said I don’t want to be crazy about the circle,” writes poet Courtney Bush in her new collection I Love Information. Sacred symbol, shape of an eye, the earth, the sun, a wheel, an egg, a golf ball, a clown’s nose, a kneecap, a dime, on and on and on. The premise of the circle is that the beginning already contains the end; the repeated challenge of the blank pages is interrupting silence with words. “Around every circle,” writes Emerson, “another circle can be drawn.” I am curious about the usefulness of reading and writing circles. How does circularity inform the way language moves. By way of example, I have poems by Natalie Diaz, Tarfia Faizullah, John Keene and Jane Huffman.