In this collection of five lectures delivered for the Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry, Cedar Sigo traces the literary and cultural influences that form his poetic voice. Through criticism, poetic analysis, and personal narrative, Sigo discusses his relationship to poetry through the works of writers such as Diane di Prima, Barbara Guest, Joanne Kyger, and Audre Lorde. “Poetry is never simply a set of words living alone upon the page. It exists as a perennial light in the mind, a tool of recognition that we must press into the hands of others,” Sigo writes in the opening piece “Reality Is No Obstacle: A Poetics of Participation.” In this intimate and intellectually stimulating collection, Sigo writes from the intersections of his identity as a queer Suquamish poet to chart new possibilities for what is understood as poetic craft in the western world.
