Hacking Through Thickets of Meaning

An Interview with Peter Spear

I owe the phrase “thickets of meaning” to the poet and critic Joan Retallack, who used it in reference to the experimental, language-centered poetry she writes. Poets like Joan consider language on the subatomic level, as though they were called on to invent it anew from its first materials. The audacity of their enterprise fills me with awe and shame …