Matthew Olzmann – Start Here (July 2023)

What should a poem’s opening lines attempt to accomplish? How does the beginning support the end? How do we shape and control expectations? How does the title direct the reader’s attention? What is the point of a title anyway? Matthew Olzmann is guided by these questions and more in his explorations of beginnings in poems by Jane Mead, Taha Muhammad Ali, Louise Gluck, and Dunya Mikhail, and others.