Pre-occupations Book

Though this is a collection of essays, and most of them leaning very heavily into a personal narrative where Hass describes his relationship with a poet's work, I felt there was a larger argument at work in the book. It seems to me form is an organic structure for Hass, and it grows out of a poet's experiences and his identity. This doesn't mean that he surrenders himself to some touch-feely version of how a poem ought to be, Hass is as strict in his analysis of sonics, and rhythms, and meter. It does mean that these elements take on a character unique to a really good poet.