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...dominant styles of poetry—encompassing the long rhythmic lines of Allen Ginsberg and the short, understated verse of current Poet Laureate Kay Ryan. Amid this prevalence of fluidity in poetic style, “Mean Free Path,” Ben Lerner’s third book of poetry, stands out in its reactionary innovation. “Mean Free Path” is an experiment aiming for the reconstruction, not dismantlement, of poetic forms. Lerner’s book invents a new form as recognizable and systematic as the old ones...
...beginning of his poetic career, Lerner has experimented with form and structure. His first collection, “The Lichtenberg Figures,” is entirely composed of sonnets, while his second, “Angle of Yaw,” which was announced finalist for the 2006 National Book Award, is made up of prose poems. Having explored these two extremes, Lerner is now searching for something in between—a form that includes the structure of sonnet and the freedom of prose...
...result of this search is his new collection, “Mean Free Path.” The book is comprised of intimate verse narratives, addressed to a certain “Ari,” who seems to be the narrator’s confidant, or perhaps a lover. The narrator touches on thoughts about everyday life and discusses beauty, love and literature as if he were lying in bed beside Ari, chatting before sleep, almost whispering...
...form, along with the content, renders the book a single, prolonged conversation. At first glance, “Mean Free Path” appears to be a collection of short, untitled poems. But here, the absence of titles is significant; the obscured distinction between poems is strengthened by Lerner’s intentional thematic repetition. That is, thoughts that were mentioned at the beginning of the book are repeated throughout the book over and over again—often in the same exact words; somewhat as if Lerner were attempting a modernized sestina...
Young has previously written on the Civil Rights Movement and is currently working on a book project called “Afterburn: Race and Culture After 9/11...