Connubial Because with alarming accuracy sheโd been identifying patterns I was unaware ofโthis tic, that tendency, like the way I've mastered the language of intimacy in order to conceal how I feltโ I knew I was in danger of being terribly understood.
Stephen DunnWhat feeling feels like over time. An attempt to screw up what feeling feels like over time. Heartbreak and a high C.... The often welcome melodic lie.... The soul's undersong. The orchestration of randomness, a flirtation with the boundaries of silence and space.... a reminder that the self wants to disappear, be taken away from itself and returned.
Stephen DunnI don't let a poem go into the world unless I feel that I've transformed the experience in some way. Even poems I've written in the past that appear very personal often are fictions of the personal, which nevertheless reveal concerns of mine. I've always thought of my first-person speaker as an amalgam of selves, maybe of other people's experiences as well.
Stephen Dunn