Kent Shaw
@kentdshaw.bsky.social
Second book: Too Numerous (UMass Press, 2019). CW Prof (Wheaton College in MA). US Navy veteran.
"I’ve heard him described as a political poet. Capable of seeing what political structures are borne out of people living in a city, living in northern climates. Arranged according to these political structures."
from my review of George Oppen's This In Which:
www.thekalliope.org/review-this-...
from my review of George Oppen's This In Which:
www.thekalliope.org/review-this-...
REVIEW: This In Which (New Directions, 1965) | Notion
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www.thekalliope.org
January 29, 2026 at 5:24 PM
"I’ve heard him described as a political poet. Capable of seeing what political structures are borne out of people living in a city, living in northern climates. Arranged according to these political structures."
from my review of George Oppen's This In Which:
www.thekalliope.org/review-this-...
from my review of George Oppen's This In Which:
www.thekalliope.org/review-this-...
"How does the cheerleader fit alongside the considerate math teacher fit alongside the aging woman whose private life feels distant from the feminine life she’d occupied."
from my review of Laura Read's But She Is Also Jane
www.thekalliope.org/review-but-s...
from my review of Laura Read's But She Is Also Jane
www.thekalliope.org/review-but-s...
REVIEW: But She Is Also Jane (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023) | Notion
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www.thekalliope.org
January 28, 2026 at 3:36 AM
"How does the cheerleader fit alongside the considerate math teacher fit alongside the aging woman whose private life feels distant from the feminine life she’d occupied."
from my review of Laura Read's But She Is Also Jane
www.thekalliope.org/review-but-s...
from my review of Laura Read's But She Is Also Jane
www.thekalliope.org/review-but-s...
"But where Smith lays out order, with boxes boxing one another in, Webb’s garden, or her house lays out the bewildering heaven she occupies in her grief."
from my micro-REVIEW of Lindsey Webb's Plat:
www.thekalliope.org/micro-review...
from my micro-REVIEW of Lindsey Webb's Plat:
www.thekalliope.org/micro-review...
micro-REVIEW: Plat (Archway Editions, 2024) | Notion
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January 21, 2026 at 11:07 PM
"But where Smith lays out order, with boxes boxing one another in, Webb’s garden, or her house lays out the bewildering heaven she occupies in her grief."
from my micro-REVIEW of Lindsey Webb's Plat:
www.thekalliope.org/micro-review...
from my micro-REVIEW of Lindsey Webb's Plat:
www.thekalliope.org/micro-review...
Ryan Taylor has captured the poetry existing in the between space of "masculinity" and "Americanism" in his poem "American Planet." I've written an enthusiastic consideration of that space at the link.
www.thekalliope.org/Not-just-a-p...
www.thekalliope.org/Not-just-a-p...
Not just a postcard! | Notion
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www.thekalliope.org
January 13, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Ryan Taylor has captured the poetry existing in the between space of "masculinity" and "Americanism" in his poem "American Planet." I've written an enthusiastic consideration of that space at the link.
www.thekalliope.org/Not-just-a-p...
www.thekalliope.org/Not-just-a-p...
"Some might say the key to enjoying a Natalie Shapero poem is knowing how to laugh."
from my review of Natalie Shapero's Stay Dead
www.thekalliope.org/review-stay-...
from my review of Natalie Shapero's Stay Dead
www.thekalliope.org/review-stay-...
REVIEW: Stay Dead (Copper Canyon, 2025) | Notion
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January 11, 2026 at 4:48 PM
"Some might say the key to enjoying a Natalie Shapero poem is knowing how to laugh."
from my review of Natalie Shapero's Stay Dead
www.thekalliope.org/review-stay-...
from my review of Natalie Shapero's Stay Dead
www.thekalliope.org/review-stay-...
"Her genre is not the instruction manual. More like what do you feel like immediately after you’ve read a set of instructions."
from my recent review of Valerie Hsiung's The Naif:
www.thekalliope.org/review-the-n...
from my recent review of Valerie Hsiung's The Naif:
www.thekalliope.org/review-the-n...
micro-REVIEW: The Naif (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2024)
A microreview of Valerie Hsiung's collection, The Naif.
www.thekalliope.org
January 9, 2026 at 3:14 PM
"Her genre is not the instruction manual. More like what do you feel like immediately after you’ve read a set of instructions."
from my recent review of Valerie Hsiung's The Naif:
www.thekalliope.org/review-the-n...
from my recent review of Valerie Hsiung's The Naif:
www.thekalliope.org/review-the-n...
"Koestenbaum is really into reality, and art is reality or runway or state of mind or perspective or a bunch of lewd acts that puts the randy in a name like “Randy.” Include the quotations."
from my goodreads review of Wayne Koestenbaum's Stubble Archipelago
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Wayne Koestenbaum's Stubble Archipelago
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Stubble Archipelago
4/5: OK. I got it now. Or maybe I get it. I don’t know whether to read Wayne Koestenbaum in the present tense or the past. Like walking down the street must be a present tense activity, but you can on...
www.goodreads.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM
"Koestenbaum is really into reality, and art is reality or runway or state of mind or perspective or a bunch of lewd acts that puts the randy in a name like “Randy.” Include the quotations."
from my goodreads review of Wayne Koestenbaum's Stubble Archipelago
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Wayne Koestenbaum's Stubble Archipelago
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"His poems belong to whatever space is carved when the world, or the place you’re from, or the dominant culture, sets a fire, and everywhere you look, it rings around your existence."
from my goodreads review of Isaac Pickell's It's not over once you figure it out
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Isaac Pickell's It's not over once you figure it out
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of It's not over once you figure it out
5/5: I’m always at the mercy of that William Wordsworth poem, “The World Is Too Much With Us.” Like the title alone serves as refrain for all my discontents, or feelings in general, or just navigating...
www.goodreads.com
November 13, 2025 at 3:48 PM
"His poems belong to whatever space is carved when the world, or the place you’re from, or the dominant culture, sets a fire, and everywhere you look, it rings around your existence."
from my goodreads review of Isaac Pickell's It's not over once you figure it out
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Isaac Pickell's It's not over once you figure it out
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"In essence, the poems fashion the self as a delicate formation. Someone who’s in process, in transition to a new outlook on life, with a new self to do that looking."
from my goodreads review of Shelley Wong's As She Appears
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Shelley Wong's As She Appears
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of As She Appears
4/5: There is a focus of self in Shelley Wong’s As She Appears. Like a self can be constructed in sentimental ways. A sensuality to independence. It’s common to note how pleasurable it is to learn who...
www.goodreads.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:14 PM
"In essence, the poems fashion the self as a delicate formation. Someone who’s in process, in transition to a new outlook on life, with a new self to do that looking."
from my goodreads review of Shelley Wong's As She Appears
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Shelley Wong's As She Appears
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"Nordgren’s book is hard for me to describe. Maybe it’s writing that got caught in costume. Dressed as a period piece for a fashion magazine."
from my goodreads review of Sarah Rose Nordgren's Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer's Journal
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Sarah Rose Nordgren's Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer's Journal
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Feathers
5/5: Nordgren’s book is hard for me to describe. Maybe it’s writing that got caught in costume. Dressed as a period piece for a fashion magazine. Maybe it’s an occasional notebook for inscribing obser...
www.goodreads.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:50 PM
"Nordgren’s book is hard for me to describe. Maybe it’s writing that got caught in costume. Dressed as a period piece for a fashion magazine."
from my goodreads review of Sarah Rose Nordgren's Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer's Journal
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Sarah Rose Nordgren's Feathers: A Bird-Hat Wearer's Journal
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"It’s like Ashbery wants you to combine a lava lamp with a villanelle. First, a line with an imaginative twist on a present circumstance, and by the next line it’s morphed into a different shape."
from my goodreads review of Hotel Lautréamont, by John Ashbery
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Hotel Lautréamont, by John Ashbery
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Hotel Lautréamont
4/5: I don’t think it had occurred to me why I should read Ashbery through Wallace Stevens before this book. Like poetic history is clear that the two are connected, and I could see the sense to it. B...
www.goodreads.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
"It’s like Ashbery wants you to combine a lava lamp with a villanelle. First, a line with an imaginative twist on a present circumstance, and by the next line it’s morphed into a different shape."
from my goodreads review of Hotel Lautréamont, by John Ashbery
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Hotel Lautréamont, by John Ashbery
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"The relationship between irony and wonder often feels uneven to me. Irony is so tall, incisive, and imposing on a sentence or a poem"
from my goodreads review of Rosmarie Waldrop's The Nick of Time
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Rosmarie Waldrop's The Nick of Time
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of The Nick of Time
5/5: The relationship between irony and wonder often feels uneven to me. Irony is so tall, incisive, and imposing on a sentence or a poem. Yes, I appreciate what irony can bring to a moment. But often...
www.goodreads.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"The relationship between irony and wonder often feels uneven to me. Irony is so tall, incisive, and imposing on a sentence or a poem"
from my goodreads review of Rosmarie Waldrop's The Nick of Time
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Rosmarie Waldrop's The Nick of Time
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"In Zhou’s book, the triangulation is more sustained. Which allows for especially evocative commentary on who she perceives herself to be, and who she is now after the different pressures that come with adulthood."
from my goodreads review of Amelia Zhou's Repose
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Amelia Zhou's Repose
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Repose
5/5: How is the self formed? And should this self-actualization be staged as a form-ing process or a formationed reality? These, to me, are the underlying questions of Amelia Zhou’s book. Like how poe...
www.goodreads.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:32 PM
"In Zhou’s book, the triangulation is more sustained. Which allows for especially evocative commentary on who she perceives herself to be, and who she is now after the different pressures that come with adulthood."
from my goodreads review of Amelia Zhou's Repose
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Amelia Zhou's Repose
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"In here, doing-ness revolves mainly around the temporality or shapeliness of an impression. What it takes to experience a moment, while many other moments inflect upon your experience of that moment."
from my goodreads review of Bill Carty's We Sailed on the Lake
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Bill Carty's We Sailed on the Lake
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of We Sailed on the Lake
5/5: There is a shape to the poetic impressions in Bill Carty’s We Sailed on the Lake. A shape like a lake, I suppose. If you think of “shape” as what a lake looks like when you’re watching the mist h...
www.goodreads.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
"In here, doing-ness revolves mainly around the temporality or shapeliness of an impression. What it takes to experience a moment, while many other moments inflect upon your experience of that moment."
from my goodreads review of Bill Carty's We Sailed on the Lake
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Bill Carty's We Sailed on the Lake
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
If you like clowns of all sorts, Sreshtha Sen's poem, "Exceprt from Crown Clown[ed]" (originally in Action, Spectacle) is for you. I was definitely feeling it, so I wrote a close read.
thekalliope.org/excerpt-from...
thekalliope.org/excerpt-from...
"Excerpt from Clown Crown[ed]," by Sreshtha Sen - theKalliope
A close reading of Sreshtha Sen's poem, "Excerpt from Crown Clown[ed]." Published originally in Action, Spectacle.
thekalliope.org
September 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
If you like clowns of all sorts, Sreshtha Sen's poem, "Exceprt from Crown Clown[ed]" (originally in Action, Spectacle) is for you. I was definitely feeling it, so I wrote a close read.
thekalliope.org/excerpt-from...
thekalliope.org/excerpt-from...
"One of the challenges to life is knowing how to treat the mundane like it’s meaningless. Which is why I would say Ashbery is resigned to letting LOTS just be his life."
from my book review of John Ashbery's Can You Hear, Bird
thekalliope.org/lets-expansi...
from my book review of John Ashbery's Can You Hear, Bird
thekalliope.org/lets-expansi...
Let's expansive the mundane! - theKalliope
A book review of John Ashbery's book Can You Hear, Bird.
thekalliope.org
September 15, 2025 at 1:53 PM
"One of the challenges to life is knowing how to treat the mundane like it’s meaningless. Which is why I would say Ashbery is resigned to letting LOTS just be his life."
from my book review of John Ashbery's Can You Hear, Bird
thekalliope.org/lets-expansi...
from my book review of John Ashbery's Can You Hear, Bird
thekalliope.org/lets-expansi...
"Is the poet's childhood authentic in the way she has learned authenticity from outside sources? From friends or even acquaintances she remembers meeting once, which she describes in “A Lunch Date.”"
from my goodreads review of Jennifer Chang's An Authentic Life
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Jennifer Chang's An Authentic Life
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of An Authentic Life
5/5: What I have often admired in Chang’s work is this central lyric concern. Or a fountain of lyric thinking that starts, say, with a juxtaposition between “ocean” and “anonymity.” That generates a l...
www.goodreads.com
September 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
"Is the poet's childhood authentic in the way she has learned authenticity from outside sources? From friends or even acquaintances she remembers meeting once, which she describes in “A Lunch Date.”"
from my goodreads review of Jennifer Chang's An Authentic Life
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Jennifer Chang's An Authentic Life
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"Bolsover’s book is like the sharp inquisitive stance Anne Carson maintains about Greek mythology, but lay that inquisition on this bed of striking red petals.
from my goodreads review of Tessa Bolsover's Crane
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Tessa Bolsover's Crane
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Crane
5/5: The argument for poetry or lyric sensibility can require many words, sometimes arranged so the wording feels less like words, or maybe it feels more like words. Poetry can be wordy. Lyric prose c...
www.goodreads.com
September 1, 2025 at 2:06 PM
"Bolsover’s book is like the sharp inquisitive stance Anne Carson maintains about Greek mythology, but lay that inquisition on this bed of striking red petals.
from my goodreads review of Tessa Bolsover's Crane
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Tessa Bolsover's Crane
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"With pringle, though, it’s the membrane between self and outside the self. The social pressures that come when an individual thinks, I might be belonging to a ‘we’ right now.”
from my goodreads review of kathryn l. pringle's Obscenity for the Advancement of Poetry
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of kathryn l. pringle's Obscenity for the Advancement of Poetry
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of obscenity for the advancement of poetry
4/5: There will always be a struggle and a contradiction when you’re trying to understand a self, especially your own self. Because while you might center on what makes yourself a self viewing itself,...
www.goodreads.com
August 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
"With pringle, though, it’s the membrane between self and outside the self. The social pressures that come when an individual thinks, I might be belonging to a ‘we’ right now.”
from my goodreads review of kathryn l. pringle's Obscenity for the Advancement of Poetry
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of kathryn l. pringle's Obscenity for the Advancement of Poetry
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"The book is concerned with darkness, coupled with the perspective clouded by how familiar the poet is with this darkness."
from my goodreads review of John Sibley Williams's Skin Memory
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of John Sibley Williams's Skin Memory
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Skin Memory
4/5: There’s a structure to the present. Or there’s a significance felt in the present moment that can feel like poetry, and for John Sibley Williams’s book, feeling poetry implies there is a poetic s...
www.goodreads.com
August 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
"The book is concerned with darkness, coupled with the perspective clouded by how familiar the poet is with this darkness."
from my goodreads review of John Sibley Williams's Skin Memory
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of John Sibley Williams's Skin Memory
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"I am bought in to the book’s overarching concept, its keen interest in cybernetics and AI. Its inquiry into human experience. How much of being human involves occupying the natural world?"
from my goodreads review of Olga Ravn's The Employees
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Olga Ravn's The Employees
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of The Employees
4/5: Books with subjects and definite intentions on saying something about the subject can be difficult for me to read. Like On Walden Pond Henry David Thoreau: Walden Henry Thoreau, difficult to read...
www.goodreads.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"I am bought in to the book’s overarching concept, its keen interest in cybernetics and AI. Its inquiry into human experience. How much of being human involves occupying the natural world?"
from my goodreads review of Olga Ravn's The Employees
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Olga Ravn's The Employees
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
"Xanax Cowboy is as much an extended monologue of mistaken identity as they are a WTF is this identity I’m being mistaken for. And, yes, there is outrage compelling the poems forward."
from my goodreads review of Hannah Green's Xanax Cowboy
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Hannah Green's Xanax Cowboy
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Xanax Cowboy
5/5: Hannah Green is such a poser. Or Xanax Cowboy is. Or the “Hannah Green” who’s made this character to explain her life as a young adult. Whatever term you think fits when a poet invents a persona,...
www.goodreads.com
August 6, 2025 at 2:06 PM
"Xanax Cowboy is as much an extended monologue of mistaken identity as they are a WTF is this identity I’m being mistaken for. And, yes, there is outrage compelling the poems forward."
from my goodreads review of Hannah Green's Xanax Cowboy
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Hannah Green's Xanax Cowboy
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I think T. S. Eliot's "First Voice" vs "Second Voice" can provide an interesting angle for reading Rodney Gomez's poem, "Genealogy" (found originally at The Boiler). Or that's what I'm talking about here:
thekalliope.org/genealogy-by...
thekalliope.org/genealogy-by...
"Genealogy," by Rodney Gomez - theKalliope
A close reading of Rodney Gomez's poem, "Genealogy," originally published in The Boiler
thekalliope.org
August 5, 2025 at 10:31 PM
I think T. S. Eliot's "First Voice" vs "Second Voice" can provide an interesting angle for reading Rodney Gomez's poem, "Genealogy" (found originally at The Boiler). Or that's what I'm talking about here:
thekalliope.org/genealogy-by...
thekalliope.org/genealogy-by...
"Willis’s book privileges the frayed edges of historical record. It's like visiting an archive, and you’ve been sifting through materials for the whole day, and now it’s everywhere on the table."
from my goodreads review of Elizabeth Willis's Liontaming in America
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Elizabeth Willis's Liontaming in America
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Kent's review of Liontaming in America
5/5: After reading Willis’s book, I’m personally convinced an official start to human history can be located by those who are persistent enough. Everyone knows what it is. Just look behind you, like a...
www.goodreads.com
August 2, 2025 at 6:13 PM
"Willis’s book privileges the frayed edges of historical record. It's like visiting an archive, and you’ve been sifting through materials for the whole day, and now it’s everywhere on the table."
from my goodreads review of Elizabeth Willis's Liontaming in America
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
from my goodreads review of Elizabeth Willis's Liontaming in America
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I feel like I also could have said Abigail Chabitnoy's "Hawking Rabbit Feet in the Age of Disbelief" uses an organic form to uncover its argument. I said this instead.
thekalliope.org/hawking-rabb...
thekalliope.org/hawking-rabb...
"Hawking Rabbit Feet in the Age of Disbelief," by Abigail Chabitnoy - theKalliope
A close reading of Abigail Chabitnoy's poem, "Hawking Rabbit Feet in the Age of Disbelief." Originally found in Summer 2023 Action, Spectacle
thekalliope.org
July 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
I feel like I also could have said Abigail Chabitnoy's "Hawking Rabbit Feet in the Age of Disbelief" uses an organic form to uncover its argument. I said this instead.
thekalliope.org/hawking-rabb...
thekalliope.org/hawking-rabb...