☀ What Sparks Poetry: Rowan Ricardo Phillips on "Paradise Lost"

Today's Headline: Nineteenth Century Soirées Fueled Valentine Hype

February 17, 2025 What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems.In our new series, Drafts, we invite poets to explore the writing and rewriting of poems, and their many lives before (and even after) publication. Each Monday's delivery brings you a poem and an excerpt from the essay. Paradise Lost Rowan Ricardo Phillips I start with sorrow, Then feign joy In the rhythm method. I do dark things lightly And light things darkly. Opening my front door, I find the world in flames, Our tree frozen into rictus, And the front door gone. But then I listen For that color, that verb, That mineral, that metal, And after, the electric Data of tattooed angels Dancing on air. Hadn’t it all Been something else Before? Something Else somewhere Else to someone Else before? Could Be. Could be. But the trick, You see, is to say That this has never Been done before, That it simply sprung up From some uninhabited Space: this epic of epics, This American song. from the book SILVER / Farrar, Straus and Giroux READ ABOUT TODAY'S POEM Share Tweet Forward What Sparks Poetry: Rowan Ricardo Phillips on Drafts "Each stage of the poem’s evolution reshaped its engagement with inherited forms. The invocation, the sound patterns, even the omission of forbidden—each choice was informed by an ongoing dialogue with Milton’s legacy. Yet through this recursive process, the poem became its own. The recursive act of writing allowed me to rework Milton’s themes of creation and rebellion through a contemporary lens, tracing a poetic lineage that spans from the epic tradition to the fractured rhythms of modern music." READ THIS WEEK'S ISSUE Nineteenth Century Soirées Fueled Valentine Hype University of Missouri Professor John Evelev's reasearch into the artistic gatherings of poet Anne Charlotte Lynch has uncovered the impetus for Valentine verse. "It was her annual Valentine’s Day parties—which became legendary for attracting the brightest creative minds—that captivated the public’s imagination, sparking a frenzy for poetic messaging." viaUNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI READ ALL TODAY'S HEADLINES donate View in browser You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poems.com. If you would like to unsubscribe please click here. © 2025 Poetry Daily, Poetry Daily, MS 3E4, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030 Design by the Binding Agency

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