Burn and Dodge

WINNER OF THE 2007 DONALD HALL PRIZE IN POETRY

Selected by Bob Hicok

Burn and Dodge is part serious/part serious play and opens with a frank and occasionally antic exploration of contemporary vices, such as Guilt, Envy, and Regret. Some poems \u201cdodge\u201d such preoccupations by playing with a nonce form called sonnet/ghazal. The collection contains a sequence of poems called \u201cCurrent Events,\u201d based on newspaper stories. that is also a playful meditation on the nature of the interrogative pronouns (Who, What, Where, When … ) as well as another series of homophonic sonnets called \u201cClare-Hewn,\u201d which are aural \u201ctranslations\u201d of John Clare.