Date of Award

12-2009

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Advisor

Jennifer Moxley

Second Committee Member

Steven Evans

Third Committee Member

Tony Brinkley

Abstract

Pushing at the Real is a collection of poems that I wrote while I was a graduate student at the University of Maine from 2007 though 2009. During that time, I was primarily interested in exploring, through poetry, my relationship with the material world and the mark of the passage of time on places and objects. Two long series anchor the collection: The Boston Diary and Spindrift, both of which are experimental works representing chronicles of recorded thoughts and perceptions related to Boston and Maine. The collection also contains the Blazes with Being a Star, a sequence of poems about a woman whose home is taken by imminent domain. The introductory poem, Before Blue, is about the joy I experienced at the University of Maine while discovering the tradition of experimental poetry and learning the language to participate within that tradition.

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